Paid social for trades: small budgets behind proven posts

What the service is

It is the planning, setup and management of Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns (both run through Meta's ad tools) for trades businesses. In some cases we test TikTok or YouTube placements too. The campaigns use your own job footage, are aimed at your service area by postal code or radius, and are judged by enquiries your office can trace.

Who it's for

Paid social suits trades where the customer plans ahead and compares options:

• roofing and siding replacement
• kitchen, bathroom and basement renovation
• landscaping, patios, decks and fences
• windows and doors
• painting, especially exterior work booked before the season
• flooring and finishing carpentry

For truly urgent trades, such as an emergency plumber or locksmith, search ads and a strong Google Business Profile usually come first. Paid social can still help them with recruiting or with maintenance offers, but it rarely produces the 11 p.m. emergency call.

What's included

• Account setup or clean-up, with you as the owner of the ad account and the page
• Audience planning by postal code, radius or town, with exclusions for areas you don't serve
• Ad creative from your library, built from before-and-after sets and short video
• Clear calls to action that lead to a call, a text or a message, never to an unnecessary form
• Offer wording checked against Canadian rules on misleading advertising and drip pricing
• Weekly monitoring and a monthly plain-language report

A worked example of the budget maths

Suppose a landscaping company's average patio job is worth $9,000 and it wins about one in four quotes. Each quote visit costs the owner roughly two hours.

• To win one extra patio a month, they need four extra quotes.
• If one in three social enquiries turns into a quote visit, they need about 12 social enquiries a month.
• If the campaign produces an enquiry for every $40 of spend, the monthly budget is around $480.
• One extra $9,000 job against $480 in ad spend looks good, but only if the gross margin and the owner's quoting time are counted too.

Those numbers are illustrative. Your enquiry cost could be higher or lower, and we'll only know after a few weeks of testing. What matters is doing the arithmetic before spending, and checking it every month.

Timeline

• Week 1: account and page access sorted, audiences planned, creative chosen.
• Week 2: first campaigns launched at a small test budget.
• Weeks 3–6: weak ads switched off, strong ones given more budget.
• Month 3: decision on whether paid social deserves a permanent place in your mix.

How we measure results

• Cost per enquiry, counting calls, texts and messages that mention the ad or arrive during the campaign
• Quote rate and win rate on those enquiries, from your own records
• Reach and frequency in your service area, to check the right people are seeing it often enough
• Comments and messages, read by a person, because tone matters as much as volume

We don't count likes as results, and we don't promise a cost per lead before testing.

Mistakes to avoid

• Boosting posts at random. The "Boost" button is easy, but it often targets people far outside your area.
• Advertising a price that leaves out mandatory fees. The Competition Bureau's drip pricing guidance is clear that this is misleading.
• Overclaiming "green" benefits. Environmental claims about products or upgrades must be backed up; see the Bureau's environmental claims page.
• Using footage without consent. An ad is wider publication than a post, so check your consent wording covers advertising.
• Ignoring comments on ads. Public questions left unanswered under a paid post cost you credibility.

Ready to see whether paid social fits your trade? Check pricing, read our results from HVAC work, then call, text or email with your average job value and service area.