Today, most plumbers are bombarded with sales calls and cold emails from marketing professionals seeking their business.

In an era of mass communication, artificial intelligence, and constant social media consumption, understanding what your plumbing company needs from its marketing services is becoming increasingly challenging.

With this in mind, local plumbers must consider marketing statistics before making any decisions or investments in a marketing service or agency.

Marketing Statistics for Plumbers (Blog Cover)

As the founder and CEO of Plumbing Webmasters – a digital marketing agency for plumbers, I’ve been working on campaigns for over ten years.

Throughout that time, I’ve been collecting internal data on campaigns while constantly adapting to algorithmic and technological advancements.

Check out some of the most applicable marketing statistics for plumbers below:

Local Marketing Statistics for Plumbers

Local marketing is essential for plumbers who serve homeowners within a defined service area.

Because nearly half of all searches are for local businesses or services like plumbers, appearing on Google’s Local Map 3-Pack, organic results, and AI Overviews for plumbing-related queries are crucial.

1) 42% of local queries result in map pack clicks
2) 70% of mobile searches for local businesses result in map pack clicks
3 Local 3-Pack listings receive a 44% CTR
3) 28% of local searches result in a transaction
5) 46% of Google searches are for local businesses or services (like plumbers)

Mobile Marketing Statistics for Plumbers

Most online searchers today use a mobile device that calls for local plumbers to appeal to them in that manner.

One way to achieve this is to prioritize a website design for mobile devices with easily clickable calls-to-action and simple navigation.

6) 51% of consumers have discovered a new business or product through mobile searches
7) In the United States, more searches are made on mobile devices than on desktop computers
8) 65% of mobile users look for the most relevant information, regardless of the source
9) 48% of consumers conduct their mobile research via a search engine
10) 30% of mobile searches are related to location
11) 87% of smartphone users use search engines at least once per day

Organic Marketing Statistics for Plumbers

Despite its decrease in popularity, organic SEO remains an essential part of a plumbing marketing campaign.

Despite the rise of social media and AI platforms and the emphasis on paid advertising, most traffic still comes through organic clicks.

12) SEO drives 300% more traffic than social media
13) 92% of searches containing “plumbing” and the city name yield Yelp results in the top 5
14) 50% of searches are either four words or more
15) 69.1% of Google clicks go to the top 5 organic results
16) 75% of search users never make it to the second page of results
17) The first organic result has a 37.7% higher click-through rate than the first ad result
18) 70.5% of American Google clicks go to organic results

Marketing Industry Statistics

Understanding what’s happening inside the marketing industry can help plumbers make informed decisions about what they are being told or “sold.”

For example, only 30% of plumbers are satisfied with their current SEO provider due to various factors, including a deteriorating public sentiment toward marketing agencies.

Furthermore, the emergence of ChatGPT and other AI platforms has inserted “FOMO,” or fear of missing out, into the collective psyche of plumbing contractors.

19) 70% of plumbers are unhappy with their SEO provider
20) Google has maintained a nearly 92% search engine market share
21) The SEO industry’s value is estimated at $77.6 billion.
22) The broader digital marketing and advertising industry is expected to reach $786.2 billion by 2026

Website Marketing Statistics

Plumbing companies have continued to invest in websites, sometimes at their peril.

For example, a simple website without optimization is better than nothing, but it won’t lead to new customers in the near term.

Similarly, over-optimizing your website or flooding it with mass-produced content like thin blog posts can harm your marketing efforts.

23) Nearly a quarter of all small business websites lack H1 tags
24) 96.55% of website pages don’t get any traffic
25) About 252,000 new websites are launched every day
26) 94% of users consider user-friendly navigation their top website priority

Google Marketing Statistics

Google remains the “big show” of plumbing marketing despite emerging rivals like ChatGPT, Bing, and Meta.

Google has adopted AI into its search landscape with AI Overviews, which should help it maintain its market share in the coming months.

Despite some negative press, most people still use Google to find local plumbing companies.

27) Google is responsible for nearly 64% of all website traffic
28) Google changes its algorithm an average of 6 times per day
29) Google processes about 99,000 search queries per second
30) The average user conducts 3.5 Google searches per day

AI Marketing Statistics

The most disruptive technology advancement to modern marketing is artificial intelligence (AI).

Large language models have powered tools like ChatGPT to capture the public attention and sentiment, prompting existing powerhouses like Google to fast-track its own LLM and AI models.

As a result, AI Ovierviews now appear on Google search results to compete with ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI platforms.

31) Google rolled out AI Overviews in May 2024
32) AI Overviews appear for an estimated 15% of searches
33) Less than 30% of small businesses use AI in their marketing strategy
34) The global AI market is estimated to reach $738.80 billion by 2030

Sources

How Marketing Statistics Impact Plumbing Companies

Marketing statistics help plumbers avoid false sales tactics and misinformation, resulting in better and more successful investments.

As for broader takeaways from these statistics, plumbers can notice that mobile search directly correlates with local business conversions.

Therefore, plumbers should have a functional mobile website to compete with online customers.

Plumbing companies must account for emerging marketing trends like AI, and partnering with the right digital marketing agency can help them face these challenges.