Topic
Paid Ads
Meta and Google ads for trades: what actually converts, what homeowner targeting removal changed, and why campaigns stop working.
26 articles · browse the full archive
Lead GenerationAre Vehicle Wraps Worth It? The Honest Math
Wrap shops promise 62 customers a year from one van. The math does not hold. What a wrap really buys you, and the 5 tests that decide it.
16 min
Lead GenerationIs Direct Mail Worth It for Home Services? 5 Tests
Cost per booked job from mail runs $62 to $400, and only two numbers move it. The arithmetic that decides direct mail before you spend a dollar.
17 min
GrowthWhy Did My Google Ads Stop Working? 4 Causes
Ads that die overnight fail in four different ways, and the fix for each one is opposite. Compare your click drop to your lead drop and you know which you have.
17 min
Lead GenerationBest Time to Advertise Garage Door: Two Calendars
Garage door search CPL fell 27% from January to April 2026 while LSA CPL rose 28%. Your two paid channels have opposite calendars. Here is how to spend.
16 min
GrowthBest Time of Year to Advertise Pest Control: Q1
Rollins books 21.9% of revenue in Q1 and 27.3% in Q3. Demand swings 1.25x across the year. Clicks swing far harder. Buy the cheap quarter.
16 min
Lead GenerationGarage Door Facebook Ads: Target Doors, Not Owners
Only 66% of US homes have a garage, and Meta killed the homeowner filter on 15 January 2026. Here is the targeting map that replaces it for garage door.
16 min
Lead GenerationGarage Door Meta Ads That Work: The 7% Rule
Meta garage door leads cost $25 to $45 against $173 on Google. Here is the booked rate Meta has to hit to beat that, and the two jobs it can do.
16 min
Lead GenerationPest Control Meta Ads That Actually Work: Buy Q1
Meta CPMs run 10 to 25% below average in Q1 and 15 to 40% above in Q4. Pest control spends backwards. Here is the corrected buy, with operator numbers.
16 min
GrowthBest Time to Advertise Solar (Not Spring)
Homeowners working with installers surged 205% in late 2025, borrowing 2026 demand. Why the old solar ad calendar describes a market that already pre-bought.
7 min
Lead GenerationBest Time to Advertise Electrical (May, Not July)
Electrical is the flattest trade measured: 20-34% swing on routine searches. The two windows worth concentrating spend on are May and December, not July.
16 min
Lead GenerationBest Time of Year to Advertise Landscaping
Advertise landscaping before each service window, not by a generic calendar. Use frost, turf, search, and capacity triggers to time every campaign.
13 min
Lead GenerationBest Time to Advertise Plumbing: The 0.16% Trap
Frozen pipe searches are 0.16% of plumbing demand, and two years of data put the peak in a different month each year. What to spend against instead.
15 min
Lead GenerationBest Time to Advertise Restoration: Oct and Feb
NOAA's 47-year disaster record shows restoration storm exposure running 11x higher in May than November. Buy attention in October and February.
16 min
Lead GenerationElectrical Meta Ads That Actually Work (3 Jobs)
Electrical is the one trade where Meta is not the cheap channel. Search leads cost $39. Meta leads cost $45 to $110. Here is what Meta can still do.
16 min
Lead GenerationLandscaping Meta Ads That Work: The Route Rule
Landscaping Meta leads cost $58.56. A five-year contract is worth $3,300. The lead price was never the problem. The coordinates are. Here is the math.
17 min
Lead GenerationPlumbing Meta Ads That Actually Work (4 Rules)
The median plumbing shop can afford $68 per lead. Meta plumbing leads cost $34 to $58 and convert worse. Here is the ticket math that decides it.
17 min
Lead GenerationRestoration Meta Ads That Work: 5 in 100,000
Only 5 homes in 100,000 have a loss on a given day. That is why restoration Meta ads lose as emergency ads and win on rebuilds, referrals and hiring.
16 min
Lead GenerationSolar Meta Ads That Actually Work: 2026 Rebuild
65% of 2026 solar sales are leases or PPAs, which drops your Meta ads into a category that kills ZIP targeting. The rebuild, gate by gate.
16 min
Lead GenerationBest Time to Advertise Roofing: Winter, Not Spring
Roofing search volume swings only 20% across the year, but blended ad cost swings 30%. December and January buy the most urgent roofing buyers per dollar.
15 min
Lead GenerationBest Time to Advertise Security Alarm: January
Meta clicks cost $1.32 in November and $0.85 in January. Here is the security alarm ad calendar built on real demand triggers, not the summer burglary myth.
18 min
Lead GenerationRoofing Meta Ads That Actually Work in 2026
Roofing Meta ads run $40 to $80 per lead, but only about half are reachable. The math, the 2026 platform changes, and the build order that survives.
16 min
Lead GenerationSecurity Alarm Meta Ads That Actually Work
Only 5% of non-users want professional monitoring next year. That single number explains why alarm Meta ads fail, and where the 5% that work actually run.
17 min
Lead GenerationBest Time to Advertise HVAC (It Isn't July)
October is the busiest month in HVAC, not July. Which makes October one of the worst months to buy leads, and the reason most HVAC ad calendars are inverted.
11 min
Lead GenerationGoogle Local Services Ads for Contractors (2026)
$40 to $80 per lead against $149 for regular search, a 20-35% close rate, and only 19% of home service businesses use it. The economics and the catch.
12 min
Lead GenerationHVAC Facebook Ads: Homeowner Targeting Is Gone
Meta removed homeowner targeting for fair housing compliance, and on 15 January 2026 ad sets still using removed options stopped delivering. What replaces it.
12 min
Lead GenerationHVAC Meta Ads That Actually Work (2026 Data)
Nobody opens Instagram looking for a furnace. That single fact decides everything about how HVAC Meta ads have to be built, and why most of them fail.
11 min