Tradie advertising: what is worth your money and what is not

Every tradie gets sold advertising. Radio reps, directory listings, blokes promising page one of Google. Most of it is rubbish. Here is an honest look at what works, what sometimes works, and what to bin.

Google Ads. Works, if done right

When someone searches emergency plumber or deck builder near me, they are ready to book. Google Ads puts you at the top of that search today, not in three months. The catch. Clicks cost money and a bad campaign burns it fast. Start small, target your suburbs, and only pay for searches that match jobs you want.

Facebook and Instagram ads. Good for some trades

People are not searching for a tradie on Facebook, but they are looking at photos. Visual trades do well here. Landscapers, painters, deck builders, renovators. Show off a great before and after to people in your area and the enquiries come. Less useful for emergency work like plumbing or electrical.

Ute signage and job signs. Cheap and underrated

Your ute sits in traffic and outside jobs all day. Good signage turns that into free advertising. A sign on the fence while you work tells the whole street who did the reno. For the money, nothing beats it.

Letterbox flyers. Sometimes

Hit the streets around a job you just finished, with a photo of that job. That works. Blanket dropping 10,000 generic flyers across a suburb mostly feeds the recycling bin.

What to avoid

• Paying for directory listings that nobody reads.
• Anyone who guarantees page one of Google.
• Long contracts with no proof of results.
• Boosting random Facebook posts with no plan.

How much should you spend?

Start with a few hundred a month on one channel, not five. Give it a fair go, usually two to three months, and track where every job came from. If you cannot tell what the ads brought in, you are guessing.

Barry runs Google and Meta ads for tradies with fixed monthly pricing and no lock in. You see exactly what came in and what it cost.

Keep reading