contractor advertising ideas

Contractor Advertising Ideas – Top Strategies To Follow

By: Frank DePino | March 15, 2024

As a contractor, a great deal of your business will be repeat customers or word of mouth. And while that is terrific for your bottom line, this doesn’t mean you should overlook other methods of marketing yourself. You always want new business in the pipeline to keep your company growing.

To keep an active line of growth, you will need to implement both digital and commercial marketing strategies for your contracting business.

Here are some of the best contractor advertising ideas to grow your business:

  1. Make an investment in social media marketing and advertising
  2. Invest in advertising on Google
  3. Make sure you are listed in all professional directories
  4. Don’t overlook traditional advertising strategies
  5. Take the time to participate in community events

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Make The Investment In Social Media Marketing And Advertising

Social media plays a large part in a person’s daily life and is one the best contractor advertising ideas if you want to increase the visibility and awareness of your company. 

Not only do you need to have active accounts on the networks that mean the most to your business, but you also need to have an advertising strategy on these networks as well.  

The most popular social networks are Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. While not as large in terms of the number of users, LinkedIn is an excellent network for digital advertising purposes since it offers multiple options for advertising and is professional by nature.

Here are some things you need to know about advertising on the major social platforms.  

Facebook

While a business can get a great deal of organic exposure on Facebook, the algorithm for the platform changes so quickly you can’t rely on this exposure alone. When you use their advertising platform, you can rest assured that your ads are highly targeted and your advertising dollars are well spent. 

Ads can be in any of the following formats:

  • Pictures
  • Videos
  • carousel style ads
  • slideshow style ads

There are multiple other forms that ads can take on Facebook. You can also design your just for use in Facebook stories and Facebook Messenger. 

To set up your Facebook Ads campaign, make sure you have claimed your business page and logged into your Ads Manager. When you use the Ads Manager tool, you can set the goals for your campaign and the audience you want to target.

 This information helps Facebook get your ad campaign in front of the viewers you want. You can also pick if you want your ads on mobile, web browsers, placed in the newsfeed, etc. 

The great thing about using Facebook ads for your company is that this platform has such a large reach and millions of daily users that will fit your key customer demographics. Ad campaigns on Facebook are also quite affordable, so they won’t consume a large part of your marketing budget.

Mediaboom shows how to use Instagram as a source of online advertising

Instagram

Instagram is the most used social media platform behind Facebook. In some age groups, it is the preferred platform over Facebook. And just like Facebook, the platform sees millions of visitors every day. Since Facebook bought the platform, it also has the same constantly changing algorithms, which makes counting on organic exposure dicey.  To ensure that your content and your ads get in front of your target audience, you will need to invest in paid advertising. 

Just like Facebook, advertising on Instagram will not break the budget. You can run daily campaigns with anywhere from a $5 budget to a monthly $50,000 budget. Many of the ad types will be the same as well, however video content is becoming quite popular. Stats show people on social networks watch as much as two hours of video content each day

The difference between the platforms is the addition of IGTV. Videos over one minute long are pushed automatically to IGTV. Another difference is the call to action buttons are more obvious on Instagram and the text offers more variety. 

Utilizing Instagram ads can be one of the best contractor advertising ideas to increase brand awareness and visibility.

YouTube

YouTube is a powerful social network, with visitors watching over one BILLION hours of video each day. Using the advertising prowess of this network is a savvy advertising strategy. There are six different forms of ads you can choose from for your YouTube ads:

  1. TrueView
  2. Non-skippable instream
  3. Bumper instream
  4. Sponsored card
  5. Overlay
  6. Display

YouTube uses Google Ads on their platform so you would use that platform to help you set up and schedule your ads on YouTube. 

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LinkedIn

The advertising potential of LinkedIn has always been highly undervalued. Because the network was built for professionals to interact, people don’t think about using this network as a place to advertise. But it makes perfect sense, because the entire premise of the network is promotion. A business can make a lasting impression on future customers in addition to making positive contributions to their field just by using the LinkedIn platform.

Advertising on LinkedIn is a bit different than advertising on other networks. A brand pays for Sponsored Content. This sponsored post is then filtered into the news feeds of your target audience. You can do single image ads, video ads, or a carousel ad. In addition to that primary format, a brand has a couple other ways to market on this network.

  • Message ads that let you send messages directly to prospects. This means you will have sponsored LinkedIn InMail content.
  • Dynamic spotlight ads, usually shown to users on the right side of the page. These ads generate additional recommended content based on profile information.
  • Promoted text ads/ pay-per-click ads

As with most platforms, brands run their ad campaigns through a campaign manager dashboard. Before launching their campaigns, the management tool helps you set your goals and your target market so LinkedIn knows where to market your ads.

Things To Keep In Mind With Social Media Advertising

Social media is a powerful tool. Any ad campaign launched by a business has the potential to see thousands of new customers. 

But a social media ad campaign won’t work as effectively without a strong presence on social media to back it up

Any channels a company uses should serve as an extension of the business. If you launch a Facebook ad campaign and have a sparsely used Facebook channel, that will have a negative impact on your ad campaign. Make sure that both of these things work hand in hand to strengthen your overall presence on the web.

A contractor is investing in Google ADS to get more customers

Invest In Advertising On Google

Google is the largest search platform in the world. Billions of people use the site and its services every day. Just like with many of the other platforms listed, this is a chance to gain exposure to hundreds of thousands of people who would not have seen your brand otherwise. A company that skips advertising on Google is missing out on an enormous amount of exposure.

Google Ads come in a couple different forms, each one helping advertisers target customers in a slightly different way. If you are using the Google Ads platform, you will provide information on your target guest and use this information to determine which ads will work best for your campaign. 

All Google Ads are charged as a pay-per-click method, which means advertisers only pay Google if someone clicks on the ad. Google Ad campaigns have, on average, a click through rate of 8%. In addition to the ad types listed below, Google also gives marketers the option to pick video ads that are shown on YouTube. You can also have your ads shown on apps or develop a shopping based ad (when applicable for your business).

Google Ads are given a quality score by the platform and a list of negative keywords you will want to avoid and not rank for. Make sure to use all this information and incorporate it into your ad campaign. You will also have a chance to bid on packs of search words to use. You will also want to consider using words that will make you rank high in local Google searches. 

Search Ads

Search ads are text based ads that appear under the search results on the Google search results page. 

Display Ads

These ads are image and picture based ads. They are showcased on pages that are part of the Google Display Network. 

Remarketing Ads

Remarketing is tool used to target people who have previously interacted with your website or other content online. Any ad campaigns that are used for remarketing purposes will be targeting people who have a connection to the company. Those are the only people who will see these ads.

Investing in Google Ads is one of the best contractor advertising ideas to increase see immediate increase in website traffic and sales for your company.

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Does your luxury website include any of these common mistakes? Learn the secrets to driving more traffic to your luxury website, generating more leads, and ultimately increasing sales.

Make Sure You Are Listed In All Professional Directories

Professionals like contractors need to make sure they are listed in as many places as possible. You want potential clients to be able to find you easily. If you don’t have your company listed in as many places as possible, you could be passing on potential business opportunities.

Outside of professional directories for contractors, there are many online sites that list professionals such as contractors and plumbers for the public to search through. To ensure that you are as visible as possible to prospective customers, make sure you keep up to date business listings on some of these sites as well:

  1. Angie’s List
  2. Toolbox
  3. Porch
  4. Pro Referral
  5. Houzz
  6. Home Advisor
  7. Thumbtack
  8. Servicewhale
  9. Homeflock
  10. Networkx

While most of these sites require some form of compensation in exchange for a business listing, the cost does not outweigh the benefit. Research each site and see which ones will offer the most impact to your business.

Example of how Mediaboom uses traditional advertising to support online advertising

Don’t Overlook Traditional Advertising Strategies

Digital marketing has taken over a large share of any company’s advertising budget. That is partly because digital efforts can produce such instant results and people spend such large parts of their day’s online or on social media.

But that doesn’t mean that traditional forms of advertising are extinct. 

These forms of marketing can still be an important way to get your message and your name out there. Not every customer for your brand is on social media, or they spend very little time on there. Incorporating traditional marketing as part of your contractor advertising ideas ensures sure you don’t overlook any potential customers.

Traditional media can also serve as a compliment or an extension of your digital campaigns. It is possible to find a way to have both forms of media work together.

Traditional forms of marketing would include:

  • Magazine ads
  • Radio ads
  • Television commercials
  • Newspaper ads
  • Yard signs at properties you have built

Direct mail pieces are also a form of traditional marketing outreach that companies don’t utilize often enough. 

You can use this style of marketing to engage with current customers and use this as a prospecting tool for new clients as well. Marketing companies can help you access the information of those who meet your demographic so you can send them your direct mail pieces.

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Take The Time To Participate In Community Events

While there are so many strategies that a marketer can create for a client to cover both the digital and print advertising worlds, there is still value in being involved in community events. In a business such as construction, people still like giving their business to someone within their own community. One of the primary ways your business can be active in your community and get visibility is through sponsorship. Sponsor clubs at the local school, sponsor a Little League team, anything of that nature that allows you visibility and place your logo on their materials is a win for your business. 

Other ways to showcase your business could be:

  • Having a float in a parade
  • Attending local meetings such as the Chamber of Commerce
  • Making donations to local charities
  • Be the primary sponsor for a local event like a marathon

Wrapping Up

Contractors will generate a significant amount of business through word of mouth and referrals. But no business can rely on this method alone. A smart company needs to be on the lookout for ways to grow their network and develop new potential business opportunities. Contractor advertising ideas will include digital methods as well as traditional methods of advertising. Both can help drive a crucial new stream of revenue to your business.  

Contact now Mediaboom to boost your contractor advertising.

By: Frank DePino

Frank DePino is Principal and Founder of Mediaboom. Since 2002, Frank has led Mediaboom’s award-winning staff of creative and technical professionals, building the most effective marketing and advertising solutions for its clients.

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