SEO is the long game. When you want the phone ringing now, targeted ads on Google, Meta and Yelp put you in front of customers ready to hire today, without overpaying for clicks.
Paid ads that pay for themselves.
- Google Local Ads. Show up the second someone searches for your service in your area.
- Meta Ads. Reach local homeowners on Facebook and Instagram before they even search.
- Yelp & Maps. Get in front of the high-intent customers using Yelp and Google Maps.
- Tight Targeting. Your towns, your services, your ideal job. No wasted spend on tire-kickers.
- Lower Cost Per Lead. We cut what is not working and double down on what is, so each lead costs less.
- Every Lead Tracked. See exactly what you spent and what came back, down to the call.
Skip the line to the top of the page.
SEO and reviews build the durable lead source, but they take a couple of months to kick in. Paid ads fill the gap. They put you at the very top of the search the moment a customer is looking, so you can turn the leads on when your calendar has a hole in it.
The trick is not spending more, it is spending smart. We aim tight at the jobs and towns you want, kill the ads that waste money, and retarget the people who already looked. Your cost per lead trends down while the calls keep coming.
Ads sit alongside the monthly programs and the ad spend stays your own money. Most contractors run them next to Get Found or Dominate so something is building underneath the paid clicks instead of stopping the day you turn them off.
When do paid ads make sense for a contractor?
Ads are the quickest way to get contractor leads from people who need the work done now. You aim them at the towns you serve and the jobs you want, switch them on, and people searching today can find you today.
They make the most sense when you have a gap to fill. Maybe you just started out and nobody knows your name yet. Maybe it's a slow stretch and the calendar has a hole in it. Maybe your SEO is still building and you need calls in the meantime. Or maybe you want more of one kind of job, the bigger ones that actually pay.
They don't make sense when you're already booked solid, when nobody is picking up the phone, or when there's nowhere decent to send people after they click. In those cases ads just burn money faster. We'll tell you that straight if it's where you're at.
Should a contractor run Google Ads or Facebook ads?
It depends on how people shop for your trade. Google is where people go when something is already broken or already planned. They type in what they need and the town they're in. Local Services ads and search ads put you at the top of that search, in front of someone who is ready to call.
Facebook ads for contractors work differently, and Instagram is the same story. Nobody on there is looking for a contractor. They're scrolling. Meta ads are good for work that sells on looks, like a finished patio or a new roof, for seasonal pushes, and for reaching people who already visited your site and didn't call.
Yelp still matters in some trades and some towns, so we use it where it pulls its weight and skip it where it doesn't. Most contractors end up with a mix. We set it up around your trade and your service area, not a template.
How do you decide which towns and jobs my ads go after?
We start with you, not the ad platform. Which towns do you actually want to drive to? Which jobs make you the most money, and which ones would you rather pass on? A guy who does septic and foundations doesn't want to pay for calls about shovelling a driveway.
Then we build the ads around those answers. Your service area gets drawn tight, so you're not paying for clicks from two hours away. The wording speaks to the jobs you want, so the people who call are the ones you can help.
After that it's steady trimming. Ads that bring in junk calls get cut. Searches that keep leading to good jobs get more of the budget. People who already looked at your site but didn't call get shown your ads again, so you're still in front of them when they're ready to book.
Why do most contractor ads waste money?
Three reasons come up again and again. The first is bad targeting. The ad shows up across the whole province when you only work three towns, or it pays for clicks from people looking for jobs, parts or how to do it themselves.
The second is no landing page. The ad sends people to a homepage that talks about everything, or worse, to a Facebook page. If the page doesn't match what they searched, they hit back and call the next guy. A proper page built for the job, with your number up top, makes a big difference. That's part of how we approach contractor websites too.
The third is the one nobody likes to hear. Nobody answers the phone. You're up a ladder or in an excavator, the call goes to voicemail, and that person moves on. You still paid for the click. Good ads with nobody on the other end is the most expensive mistake in this whole business.
What happens after someone clicks my ad?
This is where most of the money is won or lost, so we set it up before a single ad goes live. If you miss a call, the person gets a text back right away so they know you got it. Enquiries get booked instead of sitting in an inbox. Every lead lands in one place, so nothing gets lost between your phone, your email and your Facebook messages.
On Dominate, AI lead capture and auto booking are included, so people can get on your schedule even when you're on a job. On Market Leader, you get a 24/7 AI receptionist that answers by text and by voice.
Every lead is tracked right down to the call. You'll know which ad brought it in and what it was for. That's how we know which ads to keep and which ones to cut.
How do ads and SEO work together?
Ads stop the day you stop paying. SEO and reviews keep working, but they take a couple of months to kick in. So we run them side by side. Ads bring in calls while the slower stuff builds underneath.
That's why ads sit alongside our monthly programs instead of on their own. Get Found and Dominate build your local SEO, your Google Business Profile and your reviews, so over time more of your calls come in without paying for every click.
Once that's working, ads become a tap you can turn on and off. Calendar full, dial them back. Hole in the schedule, turn them up. You stop relying on them to stay busy.
What does lead generation for contractors cost?
There are two separate pieces, and you should always know which is which. The first is our fee. Get Found is $1,500 a month. Dominate is $2,500 a month. Market Leader is priced per market. No setup fee and no contracts.
The second is your ad budget. That's your own money, and it goes to Google, Meta or Yelp. It's separate from what you pay us, and you decide how much it is.
We won't promise you a cost per lead before we've looked at your trade and your towns. Anyone who quotes you one up front is guessing. What we will do is track every lead, cut the ads that aren't paying off, and show you where your money went.
How do I get started?
Start with a free audit. We'll look at where your calls come from now, how you show up on Google, and whether ads make sense for you right now. If they don't, we'll say so.
If you'd rather just talk it through, book a call or phone (902) 292-5699. RankWright is based in Halifax and works with contractors across Atlantic Canada. You'll be dealing with the owner, not a call centre.