Before you spend anything on ads, there are three cheaper things that are usually broken.
Written by Dmitrii Z., founder of Castells Media, Roseville, California.
First: answer what you already get
Most contractors we talk to are losing jobs they already paid for. A call comes in during a job, nobody picks up, and nobody calls back that evening. The customer called the next company on the list twenty minutes later.
Before spending a dollar on new traffic, count what happens to the calls you get now. Whoever calls you back first usually gets the job, and that has nothing to do with advertising.
Second: fix your Google profile
For local trades, the map results sit above everything else, and they are free. A profile with the right categories, real photos of your own work, your service area and recent reviews will bring calls without any ad budget.
Two things people skip: asking for reviews after every good job, and answering the reviews you already have, including the bad ones. A calm reply to a complaint reads better to the next customer than ten five star ratings with no text.
Third: give people somewhere to land
If your only presence is a Facebook page, every ad you run sends people to a place where they cannot see your prices, your service area, or a way to call you in one tap.
A site does not need to be big. It needs to say what you do, where you work, what it roughly costs, and give a phone number and a form. Anything past that is decoration.
Then, and only then, ads
Ads make an existing system busier. They do not create one. If calls go unanswered, if your profile is thin, if there is nowhere to send people, ads will simply make those problems more expensive.
Fix the three things above and a modest budget starts working. Skip them and no budget is enough.
Castells Media Inc, 1298 Antelope Creek Drive, Roseville, California