When to run paid ads for your handyman business will depend on many variables that we’ll cover below.
The quick answers are:
1) You’ve exhausted all organic options – which are ultimately more profitable forms of advertising.
2) You are a new business and need to combat the slow season
3) You are hiring a technician and need a bump in lead flow
4) You’re a well-established, growing handyman business and paid ads are naturally part of your marketing budget to continue expanding
organic marketing is tapped out
Organic marketing is simply “free” or relatively inexpensive marketing. Examples include: referrals, networking, SEO (ranking in Google), word of mouth, optimized website, Facebook group engagement, and more.
Overall, organic marketing is more profitable because the cost to acquire organic leads is significantly cheaper than paid ads. Ranking well in Google? You own that. Being referred like crazy within certain circles and neighborhoods? You own that. Mrs. Doris raves about you to her quilting group? You own that.
Organic marketing is, in most cases, not directly correlated with the amount of money you spend. It’s correlated with your reputation (reviews, referrals, “being known” in the community) and the time you spend developing organic lead channels like networking, or developing relationships with Real Estate offices.
Simply put – organic marketing is dictated by your reputation and time investments. Paid marketing is dictated by your money spent.
Slow season advertising
Seasonality is a real thing for businesses, especially home services. The traditional slow season starts in November, before Thanksgiving, and runs through January, February, or March. The length is largely dictated by weather (colder areas with lots of snow have longer slow seasons).
Basically, people are not keen on having contractors in their house because they’re:
- busy with the holiday season – traveling, family visiting, etc.,
- paying off credit card bills from typical increased expenses with the holidays,
- getting back into the swing of things as the new year starts,
- and the weather is cold, rainy and/or snowy.
This creates a natural slow-down where, if you don’t have much of a reputation and organic marketing that’s been working for the last 6-12 months, can create an empty schedule.
A good way to fill an empty schedule quickly is paid advertising. You should also be investing time into lower cost organic marketing that works fast, like building relationships with property managers.
You're hiring
I am personally an advocate of hiring out of profitability and abundance, so you aren’t taking a hit on your paycheck. In many markets, hiring your first employee or two can be done with 100% organic marketing.
However, in many cases, getting a bump in leads is a natural part of having additional labor.
Running paid ads to supplement your lead flow because of increased labor supply is a great case for smartly planned marketing.
Paid ads are part of growing businesses
At a point of any business, paid ads become a mainstay element of your marketing strategy.
Why? Because, at a point, your organic marketing is going to start hitting its limits.
The dips in referrals will need to be supplemented by increasing your paid ads budget. Your regular hiring will require a consistent flow of X number of calls/week, and converting at X% into jobs booked.
Also, as the Owner, you have limited hours to work. Unless you hire a full-time sales team member to go to additional networking events, make calls, etc. your time will become limited. You can “buy back” your time with paid ads.
You can see it becomes a numbers game! Know your numbers early (as an Owner/Operator) so you can maximize your profitability and grow confidently in the future.