Marketing for Trades & Construction Businesses
Fill your calendar with quality jobs in your service area, without paying a lead platform for every enquiry.
Why marketing is tough for tradies
You’re great at the work. The hard part is getting the right jobs to find you consistently, without spending your evenings on it.
Word of mouth has dried up
Referrals used to keep the diary full. Now even people who were recommended to you Google your business first, and if they can’t find you, they ring the next tradie.
Lead platforms take a cut
Paying sites like Builderscrack or NoCowboys for leads that three other tradies are also quoting on adds up fast. You’re renting customers instead of building your own pipeline.
Invisible in the Google map pack
When someone searches “electrician near me”, the three businesses on the map get most of the calls. A half-finished Google Business Profile with a handful of reviews won’t make the cut.
No time to post on social
You finish a great job, mean to take photos, and forget. Weeks go by with nothing posted, and your best work never gets seen by the next customer.
Marketing services built for trade businesses
Each channel is set up around one goal: more quote requests from the right suburbs, for the jobs you actually want.
Local SEO and Google Business Profile
We build out your Google Business Profile with the right categories, service areas, job photos and a steady flow of reviews, then create suburb and service pages so you rank for searches like “roofer Rolleston” or “bathroom renovation Christchurch”.
Local SEO services →Google Ads for trades
Search ads that show up when someone needs a plumber, builder or sparky right now. We target your service area, filter out DIY and job-seeker searches, and track every call and form so you know what each lead costs.
Google Ads services →Websites that win quote requests
Most tradie enquiries happen on a phone. We build and optimise sites around click-to-call, a short quote form, real project photos and clear service areas, then test landing pages to lift lead quality. It’s the same approach we used with Letton Kerb & Channel.
Website services →Social media, video and reviews
Our team comes on site to shoot photo and video of your crew and finished jobs, then turns it into social content and Meta ads. We also set up a simple process for asking every happy customer for a Google review.
Social media services →
Results for trade and construction businesses
Real numbers from clients in and around the building trades.
CBS Co-op: 73% more leads from trade business owners
CBS Co-op wanted more trade businesses to join as shareholders. We refined their messaging to speak to trade business owners, ran Meta and Google Ads with ongoing A/B testing, and built evergreen content for every stage of the decision.
Read the CBS Co-op case study →Letton Kerb & Channel: a 50-year-old business, modernised
After five decades of quality work, Letton’s online presence hadn’t kept up. We created project-based blog content optimised for search and AI answers, tested landing pages to improve lead quality, and filmed the team on site so their craftsmanship shows up online.
“We chose Digital Influence as our marketing partner because we like the way that they work! They have helped us with our social media, Google Ads, and our website, and we couldn’t recommend them anymore.”
Riley Letton · Letton Kerb & Channel
How we work with trade businesses
Four steps, so you know exactly what you’re getting before you spend a dollar on ads.
Audit
We review your Google Business Profile, website, reviews, ads and competitors in your service area, and show you where the missed jobs are.
Strategy
A plan built around the jobs you want more of, the suburbs you want to work in and a budget that fits your revenue.
Launch
We set up tracking for calls and forms first, then launch your SEO, ads, website changes and content.
Report
Plain-English reporting on calls, quote requests and cost per lead, not just clicks and impressions.
Trade marketing FAQs
How long does SEO take for a builder?
Most local trade businesses see early movement in the map pack within a few months, with stronger results building over six to twelve months.
Timing depends on your starting point, how competitive your trade is in your area and how many reviews you collect. Google Ads can bring in enquiries while SEO builds.
Is Google Ads worth it for plumbers?
Usually, yes. People searching “emergency plumber” need someone today, so the intent is high. It only pays off if calls are tracked and wasted searches are filtered out.
We set tight service-area targeting, exclude DIY and job-seeker searches, and track every call so you can compare your cost per job with what you pay lead platforms.
Should I stop paying for Builderscrack or NoCowboys?
Not straight away. Keep them while your own channels ramp up, then compare cost per won job.
Leads you generate yourself aren’t shared with competing tradies, and the reviews and rankings you build keep working after you stop paying.
Will ChatGPT or Google’s AI recommend my business?
No one can guarantee it, but you can make your business easier for AI tools to find, check and trust.
Clear pricing guidance, a strong review profile, detailed service pages, named experts and consistent business details across the web all help.
To see where you stand, take our free DIVE Scorecard. It comes with a complimentary 15-minute chat with Scott to talk through your results. If you want to go one step further, book a Deep Dive, where we go through your results in detail and give you a clear game plan.
Do I need a new website?
Not always. Often a few changes (click-to-call, a shorter quote form, real job photos) make the biggest difference.
We’ll tell you in the audit whether your current site can be improved or is holding you back.
Do you work with businesses outside Canterbury?
Yes, we work with businesses all across New Zealand.
Our team is based in Christchurch and we’ve worked with construction clients across the South Island. Strategy calls and reporting can happen over video, and we can travel for on-site photo and video shoots.
Book a free strategy chat!
What our partners say about working with us
Digital Influence online reviews
