As the founder and CEO of Plumbing Webmasters, I’ve worked with thousands of plumbing companies on LSA management.
I’ve found that LSA is the most profitable paid advertising investment for local plumbing companies.
What Are Plumbing Contractor Local Services Ads?
Local service ads are digital, paid ads that appear when someone does a local search for a particular type of service.
A perfect example of a search that would qualify for a local service ad would be something like Plumber in St. Petersburg, FL.
If you are a plumber in St. Petersburg with a live local service ad, your ad would appear to the searcher.
However, local service ads differ from standard PPC ads. Instead of paying every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay when the searcher calls your company.
This way, you can eliminate the need to pay for people who errantly click on your ad or don’t move further along the sales funnel. With local service ads, you only pay for warm leads.
Setting Up Local Service Ads for Plumbers
Setting up your Local Service Ads is a relatively straightforward process, especially if you already have a Google Ads account and a verified Google Business Profile.
If you do not currently have a Google Business Profile, read my article about GBP for plumbers.
Below, I’ll outline the steps to setting up your Local Service Ads account in 2025:
Step 1: Create a Google Ads Account
Plumbers who do not already have an existing Google Ads account must create one to run LSA campaigns. In addition, only plumbers with a verified Google Business Profile can run Local Service Ads.
Step 2: Complete LSA-Specific Verificaton
Plumbing contractors must submit their business license and insurance documents and pass a background check to qualify for Local Service Ads.
Make sure references to your business in your LSA submissions exactly match the corresponding information on your Google Business Profile; otherwise, you may not be approved.
Note: The verification approval process can take up to 4 weeks after submission.
Step 3: Set Up Your LSA Campaign
Under campaign type, select “Local Service Ads.
Enter your service area (be as precise as possible)
Set your campaign budget.
Choose plumbing services and subservices from the expanded list.
Step 4: Launch Your LSA Campaign
Double-check the accuracy of your ads.
Preview your ad.
Activate your campaign.
Remember that as of November 21, 2024, Google will only allow plumbers with verified Google Business Profiles to launch their LSA campaign.
Becoming Google Guaranteed
Once you pass through the LSA-specific verification process, including a background check, you will earn a Google Guaranteed badge on your LSA profile.
Google’s faith in your business is reflected in its reimbursement policy, which can amount to $2,000 for dissatisfied customers.
Earning a Google Guaranteed badge can also help build credibility beyond the LSA landscape and influence traditional organic Google MAps clicks.
Google LSA Tips for Plumbing Companies in 2025
Below, I will outline nine tips and techniques to help your plumbing company succeed with Google LSA:
1) Optimizе Your Google Business Profile
As of November 21, 2024, Google requires a verified Google Business Profile for any plumbing business running Local Service Ads.
Considering this, optimizing your company’s Google Business Profile is essential to maximizing LSA performance.
Add your services and service areas, update your business hours, and upload unique and high-quality photos of your staff and company.
A properly optimized Google Business Profile helps plumbers earn the Google Guaranteed badge, which increases LSA interaction.
Furthermore, customer reviews for LSAs are now managed through the Google Business Profile interface.
2) Request Google Reveiws
Every plumber running LSA should have at least 5 Google reviews, as ads may not show with less than that.
Customer reviews submitted on your Google Business Profile can be linked and displayed on your LSA account.
Automating Google review requests is a good practice for all your local marketing endeavors, as it helps build trust with local homeowners.
You can use a review request tool like DataPins to streamline this process and integrate it with your business website.
3) Optimize Your Budget
Plumbing companies can automatically optimize their budget by selecting “Maximize Leads” instead of “Max Per Lead.”
This selection allows Google’s algorithm to determine the optimal bid for the most plumbing leads.
If you decide to choose “Max Per Lead,” you will be prompted to manually set your own bid limit, which creates inefficiency in your budget.
The third option is “Target Cost Per Lead,” which allows plumbers to set “around the average” they want to spend for a lead.
4) Enable All Contact Features
Enable all contact features such as call buttons, message options, and direct booking to maximize performance.
Homeowners’ contact preferences vary by person, not by region or city so that you will have diverse preferences among your target customers.
As a result, restricting one of the contact methods risks losing some of your customers and lowering your response rate.
Consider using a tool like Calandy for your booking link, which you can integrate with your plumbing CRM software.
5) Quickly Respond to Leads
“Speed to lead” is a buzzphrase created by some arrogant people in the digital marketing industry; however, speed is objectively critical to lead conversion for plumbers.
This extends to local service ads (LSA), which perform 21x better when the plumber responds within five minutes of the inquiry.
You can use call tracking software and enable push notifications to alert your team of an incoming plumbing lead.
Response times also strengthen your ad ranking within the LSA platform, leading to more submissions.
6) Insert Local Keywords in Ad Copy
Local indicators help improve your ad’s performance, so include them in your ad copy.
Consider using a phrase like “emergency plumber in Tampa, FL” directly within your ad to attract more local homeowners.
Google acknowledges the relevance of your ads on the local level so that these terms will contribute to better viability.
Furthermore, it ensures your ad appears only in relevant searches and does not reach consumers it can’t service.
7) Optimize Response Rates
You might not think of “too many plumbing leads” as bad, but it can be with LSA if it impacts your response rates.
Failure to respond to leads because of overwhelming your resources can negatively impact your ad ranking.
As a result, it’s better to pause your Local Service Ads once you can no longer handle new prospects.
This measure will preserve your ad rating and allow you to pick up where you left off after expanding resources or finishing all your plumbing jobs.
8) Consistently Update Lead Status
Part of Google’s considerations in ranking your ads is how efficiently you manage leads.
For example, marking your plumbing leads as declined, booked, and completed signals to Google that you are engaged with the LSA platform.
If you consistently mark your leads, Google will boost your ad rating, and you will reach more consumers.
Conversely, your ad may be shown less often if you neglect your lead management.
9) Expand Your Job Types
To maximize ad performance, you must go beyond plumbing and plumbing services to subindustries like water heater repair and drain cleaning.
The more jobs you list on your LSA profile, the more prospects you’ll attract in your service area.
Restricting yourself to only broad service terms inspires your would-be customers to choose competitors with more specific and relevant ads.
As you add more jobs to your LSA profile, update your GBP to align with those changes.
Bonus Tip: Control Your LSA Assets
If you are working with an advertising agency or an in-house marketer, make sure you control your Local Service Ads account.
Getting locked out of your account can restrict your access to leads and result in overspending on ads.
Never give your account information to someone you don’t trust 100% with your business assets.
Final Thoughts on Local Services Ads for Plumbers
I’ve been assisting plumbers with paid advertising for more than 14 years, so I’ve seen firsthand the positive impact of Local Service Ads for plumbers.
Unlike Google Search Ads, which rely on a pay-per-click model and can quickly drain your budget, the LSA pay-per-lead model works efficiently and produces quality local leads.
In addition, LSA integrates with Google Business Profile, an essential component of your broader digital marketing strategy.
Your existing local SEO campaign encourages Google Reviews and GMB optimization, which helps the performance of your LSA campaigns and vice versa.
Consider launching your plumbing Local Service Ads campaign to start generating local leads.
Clarity is vital when considering how to grow your plumbing business in 2025. The ways your father’s plumbing company grew in the 1980s, such as community word-of-mouth and Yellow Pages listings, are no longer salient in today’s highly competitive and primarily digital landscape.
The modern plumber requires a mindset, approach, and resource allocation that matches the era.
I’m Nolen Walker – the founder and CEO of Plumbing Webmasters – a digital marketing agency for plumbers across the United States.
Over the past 14+ years, I’ve helped thousands of plumbers grow and expand their businesses using proven methods and cutting-edge innovations.
I’ve seen first-hand what it takes for plumbers to transform their companies into consistent growth and expansion.
Based on my experience and expertise, I’ll list 26 ways to grow and expand your plumbing business in 2025:
1) Build a Plumbing Brand
Branding is the fuel for plumbing business growth in 2025 and the factor that determines your standing across all digital platforms.
While plumbers generally think of branding as their business logo, color scheme, and slogan, its impact expands further in modern marketing.
For example, in search results, Google prioritizes well-known brands, and customers are likelier to purchase from a brand they recognize.
Here are some modern components of plumbing branding for business growth:
Color Scheme
Your plumbing brand’s color scheme matters more than you might imagine. More than 8 of 10 consumers consider color when making a purchase.
Red, blue, yellow, and black have tested well in research evaluating the impact of color on conversions, making these colors optional for your company color scheme.
Another color scheme factor is theme integration, which varies based on location or messaging.
Business Slogan
Brainstorming a memorable plumbing business slogan can expand your existing company into greater prosperity.
Studies show that slogans can increase brand recognition by up to 15%, which aligns with the branding considerations I mentioned earlier.
In addition, slogans can be used on your website, advertising, and other promotional materials.
Digital Branding
While logos, color schemes, and slogans fit into the traditional idea of branding, the digital component of this phenomenon now has a more significant effect.
For example, Google prioritizes brands in Google rankings, which are defined based on the company’s reviews, citations, backlinks, and E-E-A-T signals.
Furthermore, AI language models like OpenAi’s GPT use internet brand mentions to train their applications on which plumbing companies offer reputable services in specific areas.
2) Establish a Success Pattern
Don’t attempt to expand your plumbing company until you establish a consistent pattern of success with your existing model.
For example, do you serve the same range of clients per week for 90 consecutive days? Does your monthly revenue fall within a consistent range for six straight months?
Once you can establish patterns, you have the foundation for expansion and growth, which can be measured against these pivotal benchmarks.
If you attempt to grow your company before establishing such patterns, you won’t be able to measure growth correctly.
3) Strengthen Your Company Culture
Expanding your plumbing business is like going from the minor to the major leagues; your culture must reflect that.
If you have technicians showing up late, secretaries who couldn’t care less about your success, and ownership who lacks vision, you must change the culture.
Your culture should be rooted in accountability and vision, as any person within your organization who is content with the status quo can only hold you back.
Great team members want to be held accountable and want to succeed not just for themselves but for the entire company.
4) Define Customer Pain Points
Business growth requires an intimate grasp of your customer’s pain points so you can empathize with their needs and provide tailored solutions.
Pain points are the emotionally charged challenges your standard plumbing customer faces, such as sudden cold water, low water pressure, and issues that disrupt their daily routines.
Depending on your location and areas of expertise, your average customer pain points may vary from other plumbers.
The key is appropriately defining your customer pain points so you can tailor solutions and integrate them into your messaging.
5) Find Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
Expanding as Bob, the ordinary plumber, presents a litany of challenges and obstacles that stifle growth and conversion.
You need a unique value proposition or a UVP to differentiate your plumbing service from competitors.
You may specialize in plumbing disciplines like water heater repair or drain cleaning, allowing you to zero in on the unique problems within that sub-industry.
Alternatively, your owners may have a unique background story that helps them relate to customers in a specific location.
6) Mobilize Promotion With Truck Wraps
Much is made of paid advertising on Google, Facebook, and other platforms, but the truck wrap is a unique promotional tool that allows plumbers to expand their businesses.
Since truck wraps promote your business when you drive and park, they always reach the consumers you are targeting (people in your service area).
The evolution of truck wraps has made integrating them into your broader digital marketing strategy easier, with many now including QR codes that allow onlookers to access your website or landing page quickly.
At the bare minimum, plumbing truck wraps expand brand awareness, increasing conversion rates.
7) Focus on Customer Service
Customer service impacts the perception of your plumbing company regardless of your service quality.
Homeowners will hold grudges against plumbers and their staff who treat them with “perceived indifference” even if the plumbing services are objectively excellent.
Considering this, investing in customer service is part of expanding your company in 2025.
Hire friendly and personable people to onboard new customers and ensure your technicians provide the best possible customer experience during service calls.
8) Network With Local Businesses
Whether you went to JimBob’s hardware store as a tike or not, associating yourself with local mom-and-pop shops is a great way to earn more customers.
Consumers trust the community, which means your association with the locals’ favorite car mechanic and bakery is equally beneficial to your growth.
While local word-of-mouth remains beneficial for plumbing companies, expanding your network online through link-building and social media collaborations is even more salient today.
The best way to form these connections is to wear branded company shirts while shopping in your local service area.
9) Network With Real Estate Agents
In addition to networking with local businesses, try to build relationships with respected local realtors.
Real estate agents have access to a broad scope of properties throughout your area, which means many will require plumbing services.
Tapping into a realtor’s database of new homeowners is one of the most effective ways to earn consistent business quickly.
You can leverage these realtor associations to grow and expand the plumbing business in 2025.
10) Immerse Your Business in The Local Community
Aside from networking with businesses and realtors, immersing yourself in the local community is essential.
This can manifest as local sponsorship of Little League teams and the hosting of community events.
It can also be as simple as talking with the people at your local church and offering to help neighbors with laborious tasks.
When you become known as the go-to local plumbing contractor, your business can grow much faster.
11) Monitor and Enhance Reputation
As a plumbing company, your reputation precedes you when dealing with customers.
For example, a homeowner searches for your brand name on Google and finds 200 reviews for an aggregate rating of 4.7, increasing their confidence in your services.
Alternatively, the homeowner cannot find any reviews about your business and moves on to a more reputable competitor.
Using a reputation management tool like DataPins, plumbers can monitor and enhance their reputation while expanding their business.
12) Systemtize Business Processes
An overlooked factor in business expansion is the systematization of specific business processes.
For example, creating standard operating producers for invoice creation, job reporting, and inventory management ensures that your employees follow a defined protocol to deliver consistent results.
Some systems can be generated through software tools like digital scheduling apps that prevent issues such as the double booking of plumbing technicians.
While not every plumbing business task can be systemized, the ones that can help scale your business.
13) Invest in Technician Training
While homeowners may lack the expertise to differentiate qualified technicians from novices, investing in technician training will ultimately help your business grow.
Hosting plumbing workshops that introduce modern techniques and certifications helps keep your staff updated on best practices.
In addition, training should include soft skills, such as customer interactions and software adoption.
Your revenue and brand expansion will follow suit when your service quality improves at scale.
14) Prioritize Modern Plumbing Tools
Investing in new plumbing tools fosters more efficient services, which are, in turn, more appealing to consumers.
One example is hydrojetting, which requires expensive equipment but minimizes the disruption to your customer’s property.
Not only will customers appreciate your new plumbing tools, but so will your staff as it streamlines historically laborious plumbing tasks.
As a business owner, monitoring the latest plumbing tools and equipment helps you stay ahead of the curve.
15) Integrate Email Marketing
Email marketing effectively engages and informs consumers about your plumbing services as your company grows.
You might send monthly newsletters with up-to-date plumbing tips, seasonal maintenance reminders, and special discount codes.
Another way to leverage email in business expansion is to request customer reviews, enhancing your reputation and SEO.
If nothing else, email is a consistent reminder of your brand to your existing customers and anyone who subscribes to your list.
16) Launch a Referral Program
A plumber referral program can leverage existing customers into business advocates, which can help expand your business.
Of course, these customers will expect something in return for their referrals, such as service discounts and other rewards.
One example to consider is long-time plumbing customers getting a $50 discount on their next plumbing service per successful referral.
In addition to booking more new customers, referral programs also help your company build long-term brand loyalty.
17) Run Themed Promotions
Plumbing promotions with specific themes perform best when targeting new customers.
Consider winter, summer, holidays, and location-related themes, which will vary by your service area.
Build marketing materials such as social media posts and emails that leverage these themes to appeal to your audience.
In the increased social media usage age, themed promotions help your plumbing business stand out from competitors.
18) Strategically Run Paid Ads
Digital advertising should be part of your plumbing marketing strategy but only within the confines of a sustainable campaign.
I’ve witnessed many a plumber blow their growth projections from irresponsible ad spend, usually at the hands of a third-party agency.
Nevertheless, paid ads are highly effective when used correctly on platforms such as Google and Facebook Ads.
The key is using paid ads to enhance your other marketing efforts, such as SEO and reputation management.
19) Use Specialized Digital Marketing
Digital marketing always seems like a great idea until plumbers join the 70% of their peers dissatisfied with their provider.
The problem with digital marketing is that it paints too broad of a brush and includes agencies not attuned to plumbing marketing specifics.
When you account for all SERP features, up to 95% of organic traffic comes from long-tail plumbing keywords.
You need a specialized approach that targets these keywords in your service area.
20) Invest in Software
Software, whether CRMs or Local SEO tools, is essential for plumbing business expansion.
I recommend DataPins, the software I developed for plumbers to rank on Google and Google Maps using digital brand signals like E-E-A-T.
I also advise plumbers to integrate a reputable CRM into their business operations to streamline repeatable tasks.
With software solutions, plumbing companies can stay organized and efficient while scaling.
21) Implement Automation
Like software, automation helps plumbing companies reduce menial tasks that take up your valuable time.
You can invest your time into growth and expansion by automating specific tasks such as scheduling, invoicing, and follow-ups.
The key is to outline your current workflow and look for tools to help you automate them.
Sometimes, this will include what is known as a “tech stack,” a combination of digital tools that work within an overarching business process.
22) Study Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI will impact your plumbing business in 2025, and you can decide whether that impact will be positive or negative.
Research AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and CoPilot can help you understand how to integrate artificial intelligence into your 2025 business plan.
Will you use chatbots, predictive analysis, or AI-driven marketing campaigns?
However you decide to integrate AI into your plumbing company expansion, it will pay dividends if properly executed.
23) Reinvest in Your Business
Please don’t buy an F-350 with the fruits of your plumbing business growth because it will undermine continued expansion.
Instead, reinvest your profits into aspects of your plumbing business that need improvements, such as software and AI.
Other areas to invest money are equipment upgrades, talent scouting, hiring, and providing better employee pay so you can retain top talent.
Your marketing campaigns which include SEO and Google Maps can also benefit from continued investments.
24) Avoid In-House Marketing
One investment strategy you should avoid is hiring in-house plumbing marketers, as I’ve seen this decision backfire for countless business owners.
There is a misconception that you should transition from a marketing agency to an in-house marketing staff during the expansion process.
Your resources should remain with agencies with expertise rather than attempting to manage and oversee someone within your plumbing company’s organization.
An agency focused on plumbing marketing has the checks and balances required to deliver excellent results consistently.
25) Check-in With Employees
Neglecting your employees can lead to harbored resentment that undermines your expansion goals.
That’s why regularly checking in with your plumbing employees is essential to growing your business.
Schedule monthly one-on-one meetings with each employee in which you discuss their goals and ask for input about processes and company culture.
Empowering your team to be an active part of your business rather than just a “worker” will improve their work performance and increase their investment in your success.
26) Exit The Gig Economy
Plumbers serious about growing their business must flip the mental switch from contractor to company by exiting the gig economy for good.
No more buying plumbing leads from third-party providers or relying solely on paid ads to generate new customers.
I’ve worked with thousands of the most successful plumbing companies, and every single one of them has made this mental switch. I have never looked back.
The gig economy is now in the rearview mirror as you focus on building a sustainable plumbing business in 2025.
Ready to Grow Your Plumbing Business?
Growing your plumbing business in 2025 is attainable through proven expansion methods that align with our current era of technology, consumer behavior, and customer expectations.
It starts with building a legitimate plumbing brand that will trigger growth in every aspect of your business, from marketing to customer interactions.
From there, plumbers must define their customer’s common challenges (AKA pain points) to provide unique solutions that stand out from competitors.
While some growth strategies are scientific, others are artful, such as authentically immersing yourself in your local community through church, sports, and events.
As you build up local equity, you must demonstrate online with Local SEO, customer reviews, and specialized digital marketing services (like the ones my agency, Plumbing Webmasters, provides).
It would help if you also avoided the common pitfalls of overzealous business owners who waste their profits on luxuries and fail to reinvest in their business goals.
If you’d like to speak with me about my 14+ years of experience helping plumbing companies grow and expand their business, reach out today.
Email marketing for plumbers produces an average ROI of $40 for every dollar spent and an impressive return compared to other plumbing marketing strategies.
With careful segmentation, consistent scheduling, and regular testing, any plumber can craft a sophisticated (and productive) email campaign.
Considering how easy and cheap the marketing channel is, it’s a wonder that more businesses haven’t tried to enhance their plumbing marketing campaign through email.
Below, Plumbing Webmasters explores eleven easy ideas to power up your email marketing campaigns for more substantial lead generation.
If you’ve struggled to get your email list off the ground, these tips will help you a bunch.
Setting Plumbing Email Marketing Goals
Many plumbers neglect their email marketing campaigns because they lack defined goals and a vision for how they will contribute to their broader marketing strategy.
Below, we’ll outline how you can set goals related to your email marketing process:
Marketing Integration
Successful email campaigns align with broader marketing objectives such as lead generation, brand building, and website traffic.
At Plumbing Webmasters, we stress the importance of building a digital brand through multiple digital assets, including a website, Google Business Profile, and social media accounts.
Integrating your email marketing campaign with your other assets helps foster digital brand signals that strengthen every aspect of your marketing effort.
SMART Goals
We recommend defining your email marketing goals within the SMART goal parameters. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-sensitive.
Examples of SMART goals for email marketing are:
Increase open rates by 20% in 90 days
Increase website traffic by 30% in 180 days
Increase qualified weekly leads by 15% in 300 days
Each plumbing company’s goals will differ based on its budget, resources, and location, but every business can set objectives using the SMART parameters.
Develop a Plumbing Marketing Strategy with Email Campaigns
Plumbing email marketing works best as part of a broader campaign that includes SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, DataPins, and brand building.
The goal is to generate consistent plumbing leads for your local business without relying on paid advertising channels such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads or buying third-party leads.
Email marketing is one part of this equation but should not be used as a standalone marketing strategy. Consumers are less likely to trust emails from brands they don’t recognize.
When your brand is visible on organic search results and has accumulated positive reviews, people are likelier to open and engage with your emails.
Email Marketing Tips for Plumbers
Industry statistics showcase the upside of plumber email marketing when used in the proper context.
However, subpar email marketing campaigns can lower brand favorability and make homeowners unsubscribe or mark your emails as spam.
To achieve the best-case scenario and avoid the worst, follow these email marketing tips for plumbers:
1) Focus on Ideal Customers
Aimlessly blasting emails to a massive subscriber list is the fastest way to earn a negative reputation with your users.
To maximize open rates and increase deliverability, only send specific email campaigns to your ideal customers (for that campaign).
Segmented email campaigns reduce the number of emails sent in a single campaign and lower bounce rates, mitigating the risk of being marked as spam.
Examples of segmented customers would include:
Repeat Customers: Subscribers who’ve used your plumbing services multiple times are the most responsive to using them again.
First-time Homeowners: Subscribers who are first-time homeowners typically constitute specific types of plumbing services at particular points in the home ownership.
New Subscribers: New email subscribers are likely seeking more information about your company, including customer reviews and testimonials.
The more information you gather about your customers through a plumbing CRM, the more detailed you can segment them into your email list.
2) Optimize Subject Lines to Improve Open Rates
Homeowners receive over 100 daily emails from businesses, which means your subject line must stand out to earn an open.
The easiest way to optimize your subject line is to personalize it with a short code like (subscriber_name), automatically inserting the recipient’s name into the subject line.
While personalization is a good start, you need more to compel users to open your email. That’s why inserting emojis into your subject line is another way to draw engagement.
Even with emojis and personalization, your subject line must still showcase clear value for users to consider opening it.
You can expand on this value proposition in your preview text, which generally ranges from 50 to 80 characters.
3) Craft User-Friendly Email Copy and Formatting
After earning the open with a compelling subject line, the next step is to keep users engaged with your email.
To achieve this, you need easy-to-read content with user-friendly formatting. As consumers’ attention spans grow shorter, so does their tolerance for long, cumbersome emails.
Emails should be brief and concise and revolve around a single call-to-action (CTA), which has been shown to increase click-through rates by more than 370%.
Like your subject line, your email copy should also address the subscriber by first name to personalize the message.
If you’ve correctly segmented your list, this combination of copywriting tactics should drive high conversion rates.
4) Ensure Consistent Branding
Email users are pre-positioned to open, engage, and convert when they trust the brand sending the email.
The numbers back this up, with90% of consumers admitting to buying from trustworthy brands.
Building that trust requires a multi-channel branding effort that includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google Business Profile, and more.
Brand consistency relies on your company name, logo, color scheme, and website URL, which should not change (even slightly) across platforms.
Consistent branding will increase your open rates and conversions and strengthen other parts of your digital marketing strategy, especially your SEO rankings.
5) Clean Your Email List to Increase Delivery Rates
Plumbers who want to maximize delivery rates must commit to a clean and lean email list with engaged subscribers.
Cleaning email lists starts with removing disengaged subscribers and merging duplicates, both of which should be done at least once per month.
Cleaning your lists can improve your deliverability rate while saving resources and increasing engagement rates.
These measures combine to keep you out of spam folders and into your consumers’ inboxes.
6) Create a Mobile-First Email Experience
Just as modern visitors access plumbing websites through mobile devices like smartphones, the same can be said about emails.
Whether consumers use the Gmail app, Apple’s Mail app, or another mobile email application, they will read your promotional emails on their phones or tablets.
That’s why a mobile-first email experience with shorter subject lines (30 characters maximum) will perform best in 2025.
Concise emails perform better across all devices (who wants to read a novel about plumbing services?), but this is particularly true for mobile users.
In addition, ensure your CTA is mobile-optimized and easily clickable from a smartphone.
7) Utilize Email Campaign Automation
Email automation can streamline your professional strategy, saving time that would otherwise be spent running other aspects of your business.
By using an email marketing campaign automation, plumbers can:
Automatically send hundreds of emails in one click
Send emails a defined time of day or the day of the week
Send personalized emails based on the subscriber’s form information
Alter the subscriber’s following email based on their response
Doing this legwork upfront can turn your email marketing campaigns into a well-oiled machine that takes every new subscriber through a customized journey that results in consistent sales.
In addition to automatically engaging with new prospects, email automation can also be used to reactivate dormant subscribers or those who fell out of the sales funnel at some point.
8) Use Email to Request Reviews
One of the most overlooked use cases for plumber email marketing is generating reviews and testimonials.
Google Reviews are an SEO ranking factor for plumbers, and reviews across all credible platforms (Facebook, Yelp, Angi’ BBB, etc.) contribute to branding and conversion rates.
That’s why plumbing companies should utilize email marketing for review requests if nothing else.
Plumbers can use a tool like DataPins, which includes an email review request feature that helps increase your Google reviews.
9) Insert Customer Testimonial Videos into Emails
Your longest-tenured customers may be willing to record a video testimonial for your plumbing business.
If you can secure these videos, ask the client if you can include these in your marketing materials, including emails.
If you cannot get video testimonials, include text-based reviews from credible platforms like Google and Yelp, which also help with conversions.
Prospects are influenced by the experience of other customers they can relate to.
10) Abide by a Consistent Schedule
Most people check their emails between 9 AM and 2 PM, increasing open rates during this timeframe.
As a local plumbing company, all or most of your subscribers will be in the same timezone, which makes it easier to schedule emails within this window.
Determine how many emails you will send per week or month to specific lists (the number may vary by list segment) and set a time between 9 AM and 2 PM.
Don’t alter this schedule unless your performance analytics give you a reason to improve CTR or open rates.
By and large, customers value consistency with email scheduling.
11) Measure Email Campaign Performance
Email marketing software tools like Aweber and Mailchimp include analytics tracking, which measures your campaign performance.
This is a critical component of email marketing, as monitoring the effectiveness of various emails and campaigns is crucial to improving your messaging over time.
It’s critical to evaluate the following metrics:
Open Rate
Click-through Rate
Conversion Rate
Bounce Rate
If your numbers are lower than expected or drop suddenly, it’s time to improve some aspects of your email marketing process.
Just as you use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to measure website performance, you can use these metrics to measure your email campaign’s effectiveness.
Plumbing email marketing is essential to an effective digital marketing strategy in 2025.
Email campaigns have been shown to produce higher ROI than several other forms of business promotions, particularly PPC ads.
Still, it’s crucial to view email marketing within a broader marketing strategy that includes a multi-channel approach of SEO, DataPins, social media marketing, Google Business Profile optimization, and digital brand building.
Investing in plumbing marketing on each channel will increase your email open, engagement, and conversion rates.
Still, it’s essential to familiarize yourself with email marketing techniques that lead to better performance, such as setting SMART goals, optimizing subject lines, and maintaining brand consistency.
While favorable open rates are attainable, they are not guaranteed, especially given the number of business emails consumers receive daily.
Standing out in your prospect’s inbox requires a strategic approach that aligns with your plumbing brand.
When adequately executed, email marketing for plumbers can produce a substantial ROI.
Plumbing PPC is a marketing strategy that uses paid advertising to generate plumbing leads.
You are charged a fee each time a user clicks on your PPC ad, regardless of whether the user converts into a customer.
I’m Nolen Walker – the founder and CEO of Plumbing Webmasters – a digital marketing agency for plumbers.
Over the past 14+ years, I’ve helped local plumbing contractors optimize their pay-per-click campaigns to maximize conversions and minimize ad spend.
PPC advertising is an effective method to reach nearby prospects while showcasing your brand to online users.
Below, I’ll outline plumbing PPC best practices and how you can leverage paid advertising platforms to drive consistent plumbing leads in 2025.
What is Plumbing PPC Marketing?
Plumbing PPC marketing (pay-per-click advertising) involves displaying ads to local consumers on various platforms and paying a fee each time the ad is clicked.
The cost per click (CPC) varies by the advertising platform, location, and search query (e.g., “plumber near me”).
Google Ads is the platform most commonly associated with PPC for plumbers.
Understanding Plumbing PPC
PPC ads use an auction system that determines the cost per click, which ads are shown, and in what order.
For example, Google Ads allows plumbers to bid on keywords and set a maximum daily budget.
When consumers search for a plumbing-related query, Google Ads activates its auction system to select which ads display to that user and in what order.
Your max (maximum) bid is the most you will pay for a click.
Another factor Google Ads considers is Quality Score, which is based on the following criteria:
Expected CTR: Google’s estimate for the % of users who will click through your ad.
Ad Relevance: How closely your ad matches the user’s search query, including its intent.
Landing Page Experience: How useful and easy-to-use your landing page is for users who click through your ad, including its relevance to the ad it connects to.
These factors combine to form a quality score, which makes it easier for Google to rank the best ad in the top spot.
PPC is appealing to plumbers because it produces fast results in the form of plumbing leads.
Unlike organic search engine optimization, which can take months to yield results, PPC gives plumbing contractors instant gratification.
Of course, ad-driven leads come at a price, which is why PPC is best used as part of a broader plumbing marketing strategy.
PPC Ad Types for Plumbing Companies
Plumbing companies can choose from multiple types of PPC ads to promote their business and services to local consumers.
Below, I’ll list the most common PPC ad types for plumbers:
Search Ads
Search ads are the most common PPC ads for plumbers, appearing at the top of standard search engine results pages.
Google, Bing, and other search engines offer this ad type, and Google’s Search Network expands the ad’s placement onto additional search engines such as ask.com and lycos.com.
These text-based ads emulate an organic SEO result but appear at the very top of the SERP, above the traditional results.
While over 80% of people still click on the top organic results, the PPC search ads also receive substantial engagement.
Social Media Ads
Social media ads appear on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube and Linkedin.
Each platform offers multiple ad variations so plumbers can reach consumers in various areas of the app.
Meta advertising platform, which handles Instagram and Facebook Ads, is known for its AI-powered targeting algorithm, which allows plumbing companies to target local customers.
Additionally, social media ads can be retargeted using the Meta pixel.
Display Ads
Display ads appear across a display network of Google properties such as Google Search, Gmail, and YouTube.
Alternatively, advertisers can run display ads on other networks, including Meta Audience Network, Yahoo Advertising, Taboola, and AdMaven.
Like social media ads, display ads can retarget previous website visitors or those who’ve engaged with your social media content.
Note: Google Local Service Ads (LSA) are not pay-per-click but rather pay-per-lead, so they do not follow the PPC protocol.
CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions): CPM ads are best used for general brand awareness, are distributed on all relative platforms, and are charged a flat rate under 1,000 impressions. CPM is perfect for increasing awareness.
CPC (Cost Per Click): The most popular selection, this method charges only for clicks instead of views. CPC budgeting works well with sales and traffic increase goals.
CPV (Cost Per View): Used mainly to increase views and website traffic, CPV budgeted ads charge when the video content is viewed.
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): With this budgeting style, you only pay for goal completions. CPA-budgeted ads are great for increasing sales and appointments.
PPC Ads Examples for Plumbers
While reading about PPC ads is helpful to many prospective advertisers, seeing visual examples of ads can make an even more significant impact.
Below are some visual examples of plumber PPC ads:
Paid Search Ad Example
The following search ads example showcases a Google Ad for a local plumbing company:
Google Search ads are shown to users based on their relevance to the query, along with the ad’s quality score and bid amount.
YouTube Ad Example
The YouTube Ad example below is similar to a Google Search Ad but appears on the YouTube platform.
Because YouTube is a Google property, plumbing companies can leverage both entities under a single account.
Facebook Ad Example
The Facebook Ad example below showcases a specialized plumbing service for a defined audience.
The Instagram Ad example below showcases another plumbing service for Instagram users.
Instagram image ads perform best with high-quality visuals within the platform’s image resolution parameters of 1080×1080.
Benefits of PPC for Plumbers
PPC for plumbers presents a mixture of benefits and downsides, which can be navigated to your advantage by following the best practices for digital advertising.
On the one hand, PPC works faster than SEO and can deliver leads to plumbers immediately.
Conversely, plumbing PPC is costly and can quickly drain plumbing companies’ budgets, resulting in an unsustainable business model.
Some marketing agencies disseminate corporatized quotes, claiming that 55% of all plumbing leads come from paid ads.
However, that percentage is misleading because, in many cases, a plumber’s marketing strategy is not tailored for organic success.
With proper digital marketing, over 70% of your leads (at the bare minimum) will come from organic sources.
Below, I’ll outline the benefits of PPC for plumbing contractors:
Quick Results
PPC ads deliver results quickly, which appeals to a sustainable part of the plumbing industry.
Organic marketing campaigns such as SEO can take months to yield tangible results, frustrating plumbers whose mindset reflects that of a contractor rather than a company.
Targeted Clicks
PPC allows advertisers to target clicks from specific locations, which can help reduce wasted ad spending.
Since plumbing companies serve customers locally, promoting services only to those within a defined service area is generally a win-win for everyone.
Performance Feedback
Most PPC platforms are good at reporting ad campaign results and will quickly reveal when ads are underperforming.
Furthermore, PPC reporting yields valuable data that plumbers can leverage in other parts of their digital marketing campaigns.
Budget Control
PPC platforms allow advertisers to set a defined budget so plumbing companies won’t accidentally spend more on advertising than they intended.
This is a crucial component of paid advertising, allowing small businesses like plumbing companies to work within budget.
Downsides of PPC for Plumbers
While PPC works quickly and can help plumbers celebrate immediate lead generation, it can also spark a series of events that stifle long-term growth.
Below, I’ll outline the downsides of PPC for plumbers:
Consumer Trust
PPC ads are meant to emulate organic search results, but users have become more savvy over time, and fewer than ever trust an ad placement more than an organic result.
The user figures that if the plumber has to pay for the advertisement, they must not be a well-known business.
This effect can be partially mitigated if you also rank in the top organic positions, including Google’s Map 3-Pack.
Agency Manipulation
PPC campaigns are easy for plumbing marketers to manipulate with tactics like black-box billing, which hides the distribution of your marketing resources.
Often, agencies offer PPC advertising in a bundle with ad spend, management fees, SEO, and website design (usually glorified hosting).
From there, the marketer will chastise the plumbing business owner by saying, “It’s your fault you don’t get enough leads,” prompting them to spend even more on PPC ads instead of investing in a sustainable organic brand.
Low Barrier To Entry
Unlike organic results, which are engineered to display credible and trustworthy businesses, PPC ads are based mainly on money.
As a result, appearing in search ads (but not organic) can sully your brand’s reputation, labeling you as another “hack” plumber who couldn’t rank in the “real search results.”
Gaining this negative reputation can be hard to shake, especially as your budget is drained from PPC ads and not investing in a sustainable long-term brand.
Expected ROI for PPC Plumber Marketing
While PPC campaign results significantly vary based on factors like location, ad quality, and budget, some data reveals a general benchmark of what plumbers can expect.
Below, I’ll list some sample PPC metrics for a local plumber:
Average Cost Per Lead: $71.42
Average Conversion Rate: 9.5%
Click-Through-Rate: 3.79%
Cost-Per-Click: $7.56
While $71.42 may seem high to some local plumbing companies, it is far less than a standard print ad, which ranges from $750 to $175,000.
Of course, SEO can produce plumbing leads as low as $7 per lead when calculating leads based on a monthly SEO service plan.
PPC Ads Based on Plumbing Sub-Industry
Your plumbing company’s area of expertise will dictate your advertising campaign strategy. Depending on the range of services you provide, your targeting will be more or less restricted.
The goal is always to maximize conversion rates while minimizing the cost per click, which requires a deliberate and intentional strategy that aligns with your unique value proposition.
Below, I will outline PPC best practices by sub-industry:
PPC for Residential Plumbing
Residential plumbers target homeowners in a defined service area for a standard range of services, from toilet repair to sewer camera video inspection.
Most residential plumbers seek volume because their business model requires servicing several jobs during one business day.
The key targeting parameter for residential plumbing services is location, as service area businesses can’t waste money reaching customers they cannot logistically service.
PPC for Commercial Plumbing
Commercial plumbers have different targeting parameters because their ideal client is an organization or corporation rather than a homeowner.
Commercial jobs are “higher ticket,” so advertisers are willing to spend more to get jobs.
Considering this, a single conversion on a highly competitive commercial plumbing keyword is worth far more than it costs.
PPC for Sewer and Drain Repair
Plumbers specializing in sewer and drain repair, sometimes called rooters, will have a narrower keyword list.
Often, more restrictions on your ad campaign can lead to higher conversion rates as you introduce more “friction” to your ad reach.
The key component to highly targeted plumbing PPC campaigns is landing page relevance, which ensures customers understand you offer the precise service they seek.
PPC for Water Heater Repair
On Google Business Profile’s category list, water heater repair companies are defined as plumbers, which means PPC campaigns also fall under this umbrella.
Water heater PPC ads are one method to find homeowners who require water heater repair or replacement within a defined service area.
Like rooters, water heater repair companies are highly specialized, and their keywords are restricted to queries that include the term water heater, its popular brands, and variations.
Steps to a Succesful Plumber PPC Campaign
PPC’s reputation is mixed throughout the plumbing industry, mainly due to a discrepancy in campaign quality among plumbers.
Below, I’ll outline the steps that successful campaigns use to maximize their performance:
Step 1: Set Goals
PPC is aimless without predetermined goals and can result in overspending.
To set goals, determine if you want to grade performance by traffic, leads, or general brand awareness.
For example, a lead generation PPC ad might focus on 24/7 emergency plumbing services.
Step 2: Define Your Audience
The fastest way to waste ad resources is to target people you cannot logistically service.
Furthermore, targeting non-homers outside a target age group can also waste ad money.
As a local plumber, you should understand your service area and which zip codes you can efficiently send your trucks to.
Step 3: Research and Target Keywords
Use Google Keyword Planner to research terms based on relevance and user intent.
Long-tail keywords have a clear intent, especially those like “sewer camera video inspection fort worth tx.”
Basic head terms like “plumbing” are more hit or miss because the intent is unclear.
Step 4: Draft Your Ad Copy
Don’t use ChatGPT to generate your ad copy, or at least not without human oversight.
Focus on a compelling headline such as “24/7 Drain Repair – Book Today!” as it elicits urgency from users.
Another concept for ad copy is “pain points,” where you speak directly to a homeowner about common plumbing problems.
Step 5: Select Your Ad Visuals
Select unique and high-quality images or videos to include in your PPC advertisement.
Visuals won’t apply to Google Search Ads, but they do apply to Facebook and Instagram Ads, along with other PPC variations.
The before-and-after plumbing project visual is a proven effective inclusion in high-conversion PPC ads for plumbing companies.
Step 6: Set Your Budget
Your daily budget is paramount for optimizing your plumbing campaign and not overspending on clicks.
Set your daily budget to a number that aligns with your previously defined goals.
As you evaluate your ad’s performance, you may increase or decrease your budget to enhance ROI.
Step 7: Optimize Your Landing Page
Landing pages should reflect the sentiment of your ad copy and appeal to the users who click through.
For example, an ad focused on water heater repair can show a brand new Rannai tankless water heater working like a charm with your best plumber standing next to the finished job.
Another component of landing page optimization is an accessible call-to-action that makes it easy for homeowners to book a service quickly.
Step 8: Track Conversions
Use Google Analytics or Meta Insights to track PPC conversions as you run your ads.
Without conversion tracking, there’s no way to determine if your initial goals are completed.
Conversions may manifest as form fill-outs, opt-ins, or phone calls, all of which can be tracked on various platforms.
Step 9: Evaluate Ad Performance
Make sure you consistently monitor your ad performance, including its click-through-rate and cost-per-lead to
I’ve seen plumbers or their advertising agencies ignore the analytics, resulting in wasted ad spend and diminishing returns.
The most successful ad campaigns constantly adjust their PPC strategy to maximize ROI.
Regularly review campaign performance metrics like click-through rates (CTR), cost-per-lead (CPL), and conversion rates.
Adjust your targeting, ad copy, or budget based on these insights to continually improve results.
Best Practices for Plumbing PPC Ads
While every campaign differs because of resources, locations, and brand identities, advertisers should follow some best practices to maximize campaign performance.
Below, I’ll detail the best practices for plumbing PPC ads:
Use Compelling Calls-to-Action
To increase conversions, encourage users to act with CTAs such as “Call Now for Fast Service!” and surround them with time-limited phrases such as “Limited Slots Available.”
Target Locally
Use Geotargeting for hyperlocal targeting that serves your plumbing ad exclusively to homeowners within your service area.
For example, a Seattle-based plumber would define their radius within the Seattle Metropolitan area to restrict ad spend to that demographic.
Create Mobile-Friendly Ads
Most plumbing PPC ads are clicked via a mobile device, especially for residential plumbing services.
Considering this, crafting your ad for mobile users with mobile-friendly CTAs and mobile-optimized landing pages can increase your conversion rates.
Test and Refine Ads
Use A/B testing to compare ad headlines, formats, and images and their resonance with your target audience.
For example, test whether using the phrase “Same-Day” in front of your service offering improves performance. As you gather data, you can refine your ads.
Leverage Retargeting
Use Meta Pixels or Google Remarketing to reengage with prospects who visited your website but did not submit a contact form.
By serving “follow-up” ads to these previous visitors, you remind them of your service and reduce the cost per click compared to cold targeting.
Monitor Quality Score
Quality Score is Google’s grade for your ad based on its relevance, landing page, and projected click-through rate.
Achieving a favorable Quality Score lowers your cost per click and prioritizes your ad placement.
With this in mind, monitor your Quality Score and improve it when necessary to reduce costs.
Best PPC Tools for Plumbers
Software tools can help advertisers make data-driven decisions about their PPC campaigns that help maximize performance.
Below, I’ll list seven helpful PPC tools for plumbers:
1) Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is Google’s own PPC keyword research tool and provides metrics like cost-per-click and estimated search volume.
This tool helps plumbers target keywords closely related to their service offerings, including everything from water heater replacement to sewer camera video inspection.
2) Google Ads Editor
Google Ads Editor is another Google tool that helps advertisers edit keywords, ad groups, and maximum bids in bulk.
The bulk editing feature is key to reducing the time spent on your ad campaign while optimizing efficiency.
3) Facebook Ads Manager
Facebook Ads Manager helps Meta advertisers create, monitor, and optimize PPC campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.
This tool provides valuable data insights for plumbing advertisers, from targeting an audience based on interests and location to tracking campaign performance and monitoring analytics.
4) SEMrush
SEMRush is a powerful keyword research tool with PPC-specific features such as competitor analysis and pay-per-click optimization.
For example, users can evaluate the PPC strategy of their primary competitors and identify gaps in their campaigns.
5) Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the “old-reliable” tool in Google’s toolkit, and it has now been transferred to Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
Plumbers can use GA4 to track PPC conversion rates and monitor which ads drive the most traffic, engagement, and conversions.
6) Facebook Pixel
The Facebook Pixel empowers plumbing companies to gather data about website visitors, which can be retargeted through Meta PPC campaigns.
For example, users who navigate to your “Contact Us” page but exit the site can be reintroduced to your brand and service through Facebook Ads.
7) SpyFu
SpyFu is a well-respected PPC tool that helps plumbing companies study their competitors’ paid advertising strategies, including which keywords they target and the specifics of their ad copy.
Plumbers have traditionally used SpyFu to look for weaknesses or gaps in top competitors’ campaigns, allowing them to use data-driven insights to outperform their rivals.
Final Thoughts on Plumbing PPC Marketing Campaigns
I’ve been helping plumbers with PPC marketing for over 14 years and have seen almost everything in this industry.
Plumbers who succeed with PPC follow the steps outlined in this article and continually monitor the ad’s performance and efficacy.
I’ve witnessed far too many plumbing companies partner with PPC-first ad agencies, only to see their entire budget drained within 6 months, leading to their filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
I founded Plumbing Webmasters as more than a digital marketing agency; it is a community to help hard-working plumbers properly invest their marketing resources, which always includes organic SEO and brand building rather than only PPC.
PPC can work, but only when you choose the right platforms, such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads, and work with the right marketing specialists (like Plumbing Webmasters).
Keyword research and targeting are vital to plumbing PPC success, making tools like Keyword Planner and SEMRush essential to a competent PPC campaign.
Of course, each step depends on creating and optimizing a landing page that engages and converts users who click through your ad.
Plumbing PPC marketing is a valuable component of a border digital marketing strategy, including organic SEO, brand building, and data points.
Whether you are a first-time PPC user or a long-time plumber harmed by lousy campaigns, our strategic plumbing PPC approach can help you reach your goals.
Starting a plumbing business is an excellent investment in 2025, with the industry valued at $129.1 billion and continuing to grow.
That’s why the allure of becoming a self-employed business owner appeals to people who want to escape a grueling work schedule and an unpleasant boss.
However, starting a plumbing company requires more than job experience or being good with your hands.
As the founder and CEO of Plumbing Webmasters, a digital marketing agency for plumbers, I’ve worked with thousands of plumbing business owners over the past ten years.
Some of the traits these owners share are a dedication to business growth and a strong business foundation.
Based on my experience, I’ll outline 14 steps to starting a plumbing business in 2025.
1) Write a Business Plan
A business plan is the constitution of your plumbing company and sets the foundation for its future success.
Investors will only show interest in your company if you have a formidable business plan outlining your brand vision.
A plumbing business plan includes:
Cover Page
Executive Summary
Business Overview
Market Analysis
List of Services
Service Pricing
Marketing Plan
Financial Plan
2) Set Plumbing Business Goals
Successful companies set defined goals, and you should quickly identify your objectives for your plumbing business.
For example, consider your reasons for starting a plumbing company and your short and long-term vision for the brand.
Next, write down specific goals that can help you realize that vision. Use SMART goals, which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed.
Examples of business goals include:
Get 20 5-star Google Reviews within 3 months
Convert $90,000 in sales within 12 months
Hire at least three employees within 24 months
Deploy a second plumbing truck within 36 months
Writing down these goals makes them tangible, and setting a time limit makes them urgent.
3) Find a Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
As the long-time owner of a digital marketing agency, I can save you a ton of headaches by revealing this early on: the plumbers who make it have a unique value proposition (UVP).
A UVP differentiates your company from local competitors by niching down or specializing in a specific service type or category.
Examples of UVPs for a plumbing business include:
24/7 Emergency Plumbing
Community-Based Plumbing
Rooter and Drain Specialists
Water Heater Specialists
Eco-Friendly Plumbing
Cutting-Edge Plumbing Technology
Veteran-Owned Business
Black-Owned Business
Women-Owned Business
Whatever your UVP, be sure to include it in your marketing materials, such as flyers, truck wraps, Google Business Profile, and website.
4) Study Local Government Regulation
The fastest way to ensure the failure of your plumbing company is to ignore local government regulations and plumbing codes, which can cause your dream to shatter before it gets started.
Failure to comply with local regulations can result in fines and the suspension of your license.
This State Plumbing Codes list outlines which plumbing code institution each U.S. state has adopted.
State
Institution
Alabama
International Code Council (IPC)
Alaska
International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (UPC)
Arizona
International Code Council (IPC)
Arkansas
International Code Council (IPC)
California
International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (UPC)
Colorado
International Code Council (IPC)
Connecticut
International Code Council (IPC)
Delaware
International Code Council (IPC)
Florida
International Code Council (IPC)
Georgia
International Code Council (IPC)
Hawaii
Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC)
Idaho
Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC)
Illinois
Illinois Plumbing Code
Indiana
Indiana Plumbing Code; International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (UPC)
Iowa
International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (UPC); International Code Council (IPC)
Kansas
International Code Council (IPC)
Kentucky
Kentucky State Plumbing Code; National Plumbing Code Coordinating Committee
Louisiana
Louisiana State Plumbing Code
Maine
Maine Internal Plumbing Code
Maryland
International Code Council (IPC)
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Uniform State Plumbing Code
Michigan
International Code Council (IPC)
Minnesota
Minnesota Plumbing Code
Mississippi
International Code Council (IPC)
Missouri
International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (UPC)
Montana
International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (UPC)
Nebraska
International Code Council (IPC)
Nevada
International Code Council (IPC); International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (UPC)
New Hampshire
International Code Council (IPC)
New Jersey
National Standard Plumbing Code (NSPC)
New Mexico
New Mexico Plumbing Code; International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (UPC)
New York
International Code Council (IPC)
North Carolina
International Code Council (IPC)
North Dakota
International Code Council (IPC)
Ohio
International Code Council (IPC)
Oklahoma
International Code Council (IPC)
Oregon
Oregon Specialty Plumbing Code; International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (UPC)
Pennsylvania
International Code Council (IPC)
Rhode Island
International Code Council (IPC)
South Carolina
International Code Council (IPC)
South Dakota
International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (UPC)
Tennessee
International Code Council (IPC)
Texas
International Code Council (IPC)
Utah
International Code Council (IPC)
Vermont
International Code Council (IPC)
Virginia
International Code Council (IPC)
Washington
International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (UPC)
West Virginia
International Code Council (IPC)
Wisconsin
Wisconsin Statues, Comm 81-87, Plumbing Code
Wyoming
International Plumbing Code (IPC)
*Check directly with your local municipality to confirm your codes
5) Secure Financing
Startup companies without existing capital will need to secure financing to buy equipment, tools, insurance, and marketing services.
The following options can help finance new plumbing companies:
Friends or Family: Seek loans from family members or close friends.
Government Funding: Apply for funding programs at The Small Business Administration (SBA) for small business loans and investment capital.
Business Grants: Apply for grant programs by searching Grants.gov for up to applicable programs.
Banks: Apply for a small business loan or credit line from your bank.
Online Lenders: Explore online lenders like SmaratBiz, Fendera, LoanBuilder or OndDeck.
Credit Cards: Apply for a low-interest-rate credit card to ignite your cash flow and pay it off monthly.
After securing funding, open a business bank account to separate those funds from your personal finances. This will help you organize everything when filing taxes.
6) Register Your Plumbing Business
You must officially register your plumbing business with the local government before taking it to market. Doing so protects your personal assets from lawsuits aimed at your plumbing business.
Register as a Business Structure: You can register as a limited liability company (LLC), which is most common for local plumbing businesses, or as a sole proprietorship.
Apply for EIN: You must apply for an employer identification number (EIN) from the Internal Revenue Service to hire employees and adequately file taxes.
7) Get Your Plumbing License and Permits
Each local municipality has its own requirements for plumbing licensing and permits. Research your regional standards and contact the proper departments.
Usually, aspiring plumbers must demonstrate expertise by passing an exam, completing an apprenticeship, or completing a defined amount of work hours in an industry setting.
Additionally, individual plumbing jobs often require permits that ensure your service complies with safety standards and local building codes.
Ignoring licensing and permit requirements may lead to fines, service delays, and severe legal consequences.
Before starting a plumbing company, you can check out this guide to plumbing licenses to get a better idea of what is required in your state.
8) Set Up Accounting and Taxes
Your plumbing business will need a method for managing its finances through accounting and taxes. You can hire an accountant, invest in accounting software, or do both.
Various software tools, including some of the most popularCRMs for plumbers, help streamline accounting and tax preparation for plumbing companies.
However, most of these apps will require integration with separate accounting software, such as QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or FreshBooks
Proper financial and tax management is essential to a thriving business, so you should strongly reconsider skipping these duties during your startup phase.
9) Invest in Plumbing Equipment
Without the proper tools and equipment, your business cannot perform services, which will likely become your most significant upfront cost.
As a service area business (SAB) that travels to clients, you’ll need a plumbing truck to store your tools and equipment.
The cheap route to purchasing tools creates a shaky foundation for your plumbing company, as your service quality will be hampered and noticeable to clients.
Instead, look at these items as assets rather than liabilities, which can help you reach your previously defined business goals.
Here are some of the essential tools and equipment to purchase:
Plumbing Tools
Adjustable wrenches (crescents)
Pipe grips for secure handling
Pipe cutters for precise cutting
Hacksaws for manual cutting tasks
Cordless battery-powered toolset, including drills, impact drivers, saws, grinders, and screwdrivers
Plumbing Stock
Fittings, including elbows, tees, couplings, and adapters
Pipes, such as plastic and copper types
Inlet valves for controlling water flow
Various tap fittings and accessories
Hot water cylinder control valves
Heating and Hot Water Components
Thermostats for temperature control
Heating elements for water heaters and appliances
10) Set Service Prices
Setting your initial service prices involves more than simply calculating labor, material, and overhead costs—you must project baseline profit margins to ensure they align with your financial objectives.
List your fixed costs, such as tools, insurance, and utilities, followed by your variable costs, like transportation and marketing. Then, interject your previous plumbing experience and unique skill or service types.
Research other reputable plumbing companies in your service area to see what they charge for services. Competitor analysis helps your company stay within the market range to maximize conversions.
Underpricing your services can devalue your brand, and overpricing them can alienate your core consumer base. You can gradually raise your prices as you build your brand over time and generate more consistent leads.
Remember that your initial pricing is likely to evolve with your business, and I recommend reviewing your prices each quarter based on consumer feedback, operational costs, and market trends.
11) Hire Technicians
While some plumbers start as a one-man show, others with a long-term vision business hire technicians immediately.
The first step is identifying your ideal plumber (and person) to fill your initial technician positions. Write the job description in your own words and use a tool like Grammarly to edit the grammar.
Once you’ve edited your job description, create a job post on your website, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and social media networks.
As you accumulate responses, begin meeting with select candidates for an interview. You can hire your initial technicians once you get a better feel for the candidates in person.
12) Invest in Plumbing Marketing
Laying the proper foundation for your plumbing business requires investing in the appropriate marketing channels and avoiding common pitfalls.
Unfortunately, far too many plumbers choose to exist in the “gig economy,” which involves buying leads from third-party lead sellers who use paid ads (PPC) to generate shared leads.
Choosing this route will likely result in your business going under within 5 years. The successful approach is partnering with a plumbing digital marketing agency for SEO, website design, and AI Overview optimization.
By creating a sustainable lead source through organic search results and Google Maps, you can consistently acquire the highest-quality plumbing leads in your marketing and enjoy massive profit margins.
Some of the most essential plumbing marketing tasks include:
Custom Business Website
Google Business Profile
Organic SEO
Social Media Marketing
AI / LLMO Marketing (AI Overviews)
13) Get Your First Client
Your marketing investment will help you land your first client when they book your service through your custom business website or Google Business Profile.
While there are other ways to land your first client, such as word-of-mouth (through family or friends) or buying third-party leads, these are not worth celebrating because they don’t move your business forward.
When you land your first legitimate client through your digital brand, you will get a sense of your company’s potential and profit projections.
It would help to celebrate this accomplishment by taking your employees out to dinner.
14) Build a Sustainable Brand
Building a sustainable brand is the key to plumbing business success in 2025. I stress investing in digital branded assets like a website and organic web presence.
It would help if you started building your reputation by acquiring customer reviews on Google and Facebook and showcasing those reviews on your website.
Ensure you own your plumbing domain name and don’t use a subdomain from Wix or Weebly.
Furthermore, use your website to showcase real plumbing jobs and customer feedback to familiarize people with your company.
Brand building can extend to offline spaces in your local community, such as sponsoring local Little League teams or joining industry associations.
However, these offline events must be reflected in online behaviors, such as more people searching for your brand name online or institutions linking their websites to yours.
As your brand increases prominence over months, years, and decades, your lead quality and profitability will continue to rise.
How Much Money Do You Need to Start a Plumbing Business?
Most startup plumbing businesses need a minimum of $5,000 to start a small operation.
However, larger-scale operations with multiple employees and trucks can require as much as $200,000.
Check out a fictional estimate of business expenses below:
Sample Expenses:
License and Registration: $350
Tools and Equipment: $5,000
Insurance: $2,000
Truck: $30,000
Marketing: $2,500
Advertising: $3,000
Office Space: $12,000
Uniforms: $500
Sample Subtotal: $55,350
Remember, these are sample expenses, and yours will vary depending on your company’s size and scope. For instance, one-man shows may not require an office immediately, and having only one truck will reduce your upfront investment.
Consult with the business plan you created in step one to understand better how much money you’ll need to start your business. Always leave room for unforeseen costs like equipment damage and material pricing fluctuations.
How to Start a Plumbing Business Without Being a Plumber
Starting a plumbing business without being a plumber will require hiring a supervisor or master plumber with the proper local licensing.
Each state has varying regulations, sometimes deferred to cities, counties, or townships.
Some states don’t require state-level licensing for plumbers, but that does not mean your business can operate without a local license.
The following states don’t explicitly require state-level licensing for plumbers:
Kansas
Missouri
Nebraska
New York
Pennsylvania
Wyoming
Licensing may still be required at the city, county, or township level, though your local municipality must confirm those specifics.
Never rely solely on the internet or AI for a definitive answer, and double-check with your local municipalities before attempting to start a business.
Moving Forward With Your Plumbing Business in 2025
Starting a plumbing company in 2025 is an excellent investment that allows you to enter a growing industry valued at $129.1 billion.
While its prospects intrigue many, succeeding in this industry will require deliberate and strategic planning and a full-fledged commitment to building a sustainable business.
Use the 14 steps outlined in this article as a guide for starting your plumbing business on a solid foundation. It begins with a comprehensive business plan and pre-defining measurable goals.
Success in this industry is also dependent on a unique value proposition (UVP), compliance with local regulations, financial planning, and data-driven hiring.
Perhaps most importantly, running a profitable plumbing company means investing in digital marketing for plumbers. Avoid the pitfalls of buying third-party leads and neglecting your digital brand.
Instead, you should invest in a business website, SEO, Google Business Profile, brand signals, and AI Overviews optimization.
To discuss my experience helping plumbers start prosperous businesses in 2025, call my personal cell phone at (877) 388-9884.
Plumbing CRM software has become integral to running a successful business operation in 2024.
The research backs up this claim by revealing that 65% of small businesses adopt a CRM within their first five years.
At Plumbing Webmasters, we’ve worked with thousands of plumbers on digital marketing campaigns and helped them integrate CRM software into their business operations.
CRMs are excellent tools for plumbers because they streamline tasks such as scheduling, payments, invoices, estimates, and client communication.
With that being said, the number of notable CRMs has increased in recent years, leaving plumbers wondering which software best fits their business goals in 2024.
What is a Plumbing CRM?
Plumbing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software seeks to streamline many of the processes that take up the time of your staff and service team.
CRM software suites usually offer digital tools for contacting clients, tracking plumbers in the field, managing invoices, and following up with customers.
Here are some of the processes that CRM software typically automates:
Customer Management: A database to store client data, including contact and billing information and previous service history.
Scheduling and Dispatching: An interactive schedule with the ability to assign jobs to technicians and dispatch them to the location.
Payment Processing and Invoicing: A payment processor to take card payments from clients and an invoice system that generates and sends out invoices.
QuickBooks Integration: The ability to sync billing information from QuickBooks.
Best CRMs for Plumbers in 2024
While there is no one-size-fits-all CRM selection for all plumbing companies, the industry highly regards several options.
Experiences with these CRMs sometimes vary depending on the size of the plumbing operation, its years in business, financial resources, and marketing efforts.
Ultimately, the best CRM for plumbers will be the one that streamlines your specific business most efficiently.
Below, we will outline the seven well-regarded plumbing CRMs in 2024.
1) Jobber
Jobber simplifies day-to-day operations for plumbing companies with an appealing front-end software presentation.
Its features, which include client management, invoices, payments, scheduling, job management, and client communication, are also more than enough for most local plumbers.
Jobber includes a mobile app that keeps contractors connected to their offices through live updates.
In addition, Jobber integrates with QuickBooks, the most widely used accounting software, allowing seamless data sharing between the two apps.
2) Housecall Pro
Housecall Pro is quite literally a household name for most plumbing companies as it allows them to manage their entire business operation through a smartphone and web portal.
The app seamlessly integrates with QuickBooks so companies can sync their billing and financial information with customer management data.
Notable features include API integrations, scheduling, invoicing, payment processing, dispatching, and a comprehensive client database.
The software also includes automated customer notifications, such as “on my way” text messages, schedule confirmations, and invoice reminders.
3) ServiceTitan
Large plumbing companies with 20+ trucks on the road might gravitate toward ServiceTitan, which is tailored toward more significant operations.
The ServiceTitan CRM is designed to help plumbing companies operate and scale their business to grow and become more profitable, sometimes across several locations.
ServiceTitan features include scheduling, dispatching, invoices, and call booking, all of which can be used at scale.
In addition to its benefits for more extensive plumbing operations, ServiceTitan also uses analytics to help plumbers make data-driven decisions about their company.
4) Service Fusion
Service Fusion is another field service management CRM software developed for plumbers and other home service providers.
The software includes standard features such as customer management, scheduling, dispatching, invoices, and payment processing.
Service Fusion stands out with its drag-and-drop scheduling interface and real-time job tracking for efficiency optimization.
In addition to integrating with QuickBooks, Service Fusion offers an in-app GPS fleet tracking component so plumbing companies can efficiently dispatch their technicians.
5) FieldEdge
FieldEdge is a cloud-based CRM and field management software for plumbers and other service providers.
Like other apps on this list, it provides features for customer management, scheduling, dispatching, invoices, and QuickBooks integration.
The mobile app provides access to client history, allowing technicians to have more personalized interactions with their customers.
With FieldEdge CRM, plumbing companies can improve profitability and productivity.
6) FieldPulse
FieldPulse is another CRM and service management software for plumbing companies and other trades.
The app provides scheduling, dispatching, customer management, estimates, and invoices.
The mobile app allows plumbing business operators to manage technicians in the field and efficiently communicate tasks and updates.
Like other CRMs for plumbers, FieldPulse includes a QuickBooks integration so companies can merge their billing info with client data.
7) WorkIz
WorkIz is a field management CRM for plumbing companies (and other industries) that helps optimize operational efficiency through features such as scheduling, dispatching, invoices, and payment processing.
The app’s user-friendly front end makes navigating its features straightforward for even the most old-school plumbers.
WorkIz’s mobile app includes job details, customer communication, and payment processing for use in the field on various plumbing jobs.
Like its competitor CRMs, WorkIz includes QuickBooks integration so plumbing professionals can keep their finances aligned with the rest of their operations.
Plumbing CRM Benefits
If you have gotten along just fine without using plumber CRM software, you may wonder why you should change things now.
CRM software will allow you to operate your business more efficiently and effectively.
Here are some of the essential advantages of using CRM software:
Reduce Human Error
All the moving parts of your operation are opportunities for human error.
A CRM will eliminate some of these moving parts.
For example, when one of your team members has to write down customer information with pen and paper, there’s no guarantee that your field team will understand the handwriting.
Misplaced documents can also be a significant setback for your operations.
CRM automates many of these processes and decreases the chances of miscommunication, lost documents, and missed connections.
Take More Calls
Your staff can only field one call at a time. What if they are talking to one customer while another calls to schedule an appointment?
That’s a missed opportunity and lost money. Most CRM software suites include a phone service that fields calls or directs them to available staff members.
Improve Employee Efficiency
When menial tasks like filing paperwork, sending out invoices, and sending important emails are automated with a CRM suite, your team has more time to focus on more critical tasks.
One of the most vital advantages of CRMs is delegating your man-hours in the most efficient way possible.
Minimize Confusion
Has your team even gotten mixed up in the field? For example, maybe two plumbers showed up at the same property when one was supposed to go elsewhere.
With CRM software, field mixups will happen less often.
All your team members will know where they are supposed to be, and software makes it easier and quicker to reroute team members from a job and send them somewhere else when needed.
Save Money
In the end, fewer wasted man-hours, fewer missed customer connections, and better resource allocation will make your business more profitable.
Operational efficiency is a quality of a growing business, leading to noticeable revenue increases.
Simplify Organization
The best CRM software suites for plumbing contractors will also include options for keeping track of tools, materials, and supplies you have in your inventory.
Some even have tools that keep track of your inventory and automatically order more supplies when needed.
How To Choose The Best CRM for Your Plumbing Business
Identify your primary operational needs and prioritize which tasks must be streamlined.
Next, eliminate any CRM options that don’t provide the following features:
Payroll Integration
Realtime Technician Communication
Client Communication
Mobile App
User-Friendly Interface
Most CRMs offer a demo or free trial so plumbing companies can try the software and narrow down the options much quicker.
The feedback we’ve heard from plumbers is that usability is paramount when choosing the best CRM for their business.
Furthermore, payroll integration is fundamental, which is why so many CRMs integrate with QuickBooks.
Price Considerations
Pricing is a factor for plumbing companies choosing customer relationship management software in 2024, and it should be.
Plumbing companies are at various stages of growth, from startup contractors to companies with 20+ trucks on the road.
Here are some pricing factors to consider:
Price Range
Entry-Level: Base CRM packages can fall between $100 and $500 per month and often provide the essential features of billing, invoicing, client data, and scheduling.
Customized: Most apps will upsell larger companies into a more comprehensive and customizable suite with advanced features.
Price Model
Per Month: Some CRMs charge monthly recurring prices for unlimited users.
Per User/Month: Many CRMs charge per user, per month, ranging from $25 to $200.
Tiered: Some CRMs use a tiered pricing model with more advanced features in each pricing tier.
It makes sense that plumbers at different stages of business growth will have different pricing ceilings as the startup contractor cannot compete financially with the multi-location franchise.
The sales representative of the specific software company often collaborates with you (the business owner) to calculate the cost of your CRM subscription.
Unnecessary Features
When choosing the best CRM for your plumbing business, consider which features are unnecessary or even harmful to your overall business trajectory.
For instance, some CRMs provide “marketing services” as part of their CRM, which can undermine a more comprehensive digital marketing campaign.
Just like you wouldn’t trust a digital marketing agency to build customer relationship management software, you should not trust CRMs to design elaborate marketing campaigns.
Some of the best CRMs offer marketing features, but most plumbers are better off hiring a reputable plumbing marketing agency and allowing them to handle marketing efforts.
Often, CRM marketing features go unused, and the focus shifts to the tasks that CRMs are meant for, such as scheduling, dispatching, and payment processing.
Software Integrations
Your plumbing business may already rely on specific software in its daily operations, which makes software integrations a serious consideration when choosing your ideal CRM.
We noted how most CRMs integrate with QuickBooks, the most commonly used financial management software for home services businesses like plumbers.
However, more than QuickBooks is required to help you choose the ideal CRM because your business likely relies on multiple other software.
Based on the plumbing companies we’ve worked with, other popular software integrations include Stripe, Square, Twilio, Slack, TradeGecko, Samsara, DropBox, and Google Drive.
Some CRMs also offer Zapier integrations, which are not directly built into their software but allow for third-party connection.
Moving Forward With Plumbing CRMs
Choosing the right plumber CRM in 2024 is an essential decision for your business success.
While various options have emerged, it is critical to streamline tasks to choose the software that uniquely suits your company, its operations, and its growth stage.
Plumbing companies should actively avoid unnecessary CRM features better suited for other platforms, such as digital marketing agencies.
In addition, plumbers should prioritize their operational needs, such as scheduling, payment processing, invoicing, QuickBooks integration, and client data history.
Most CRMs offer a demo or free trial, which allows plumbing companies to test drive the software features and how they fit within the business operation.
Remember that a CRM is only valuable if your company consistently generates new plumbing leads through SEO and digital branded signaling.
To discuss your business plans, including CRM options for plumbers, call our agency at (877) 388-9884.
Conversion rate optimization for plumbers increases the number of website visitors who complete an action, such as filling out a contact form or clicking a phone number button.
For local plumbers, website conversions are pivotal as they drive qualified plumbing leads to your business through organic SEO, Google Maps optimization, and AI Overviews.
If your plumbing website is not converting at an acceptable rate, it may be time to evaluate how optimized it is for conversions.
I founded HVAC-Plumber SEO Webmasters in 2013, and over the past 10+ years, I’ve learned that attracting website visitors through Google and other sources is only as good as your website conversion rate.
Sending prospects to a website that doesn’t convert wastes your marketing resources and undermines your broader campaign.
In the following guide, I’ll outline how to apply conversion rate optimization (CRO) for plumbers to your business website in 2024.
Key Takeaways for Plumbing CRO
Invest in a professional plumbing website
Implement engaging calls-to-action (CTAs)
Highlight your company’s expertise and experience
Ensure fast loading times and easy navigation
Track your conversions
Benchmarking a “Good” Plumbing Conversion Rate
The average website conversion rate is between 2% and 5%, with 5% or better considered “good.”
So, for every 100 visitors to your plumbing business website, between 2 and 5 will complete an action like filling out a contact form or clicking a phone number button.
Website Conversion Rate Variables
Different traffic sources impact conversion rates, regardless of how optimized your website is for lead generation.
For example, with all things equal, visitors who find your site through an organic Google search are far likelier to convert than those who click on your Google PPC ad.
Other variables also influence conversion rates, which I will list below:
Traffic Source
As I mentioned, traffic sources impact conversions, and organic SEO traffic has the highest conversion rate.
Google Maps clicks to your website also have very high conversion rates, with some studies showing it as up to 80%.
Traffic from plumbing PPC ads typically have low conversion rates, as much as 21x lower than organic visitors.
Website Speed
Fast-loading websites naturally convert better than slow ones, and the definition of “slow” has changed significantly over the years.
Today’s website users expect any website to load within 3 seconds, but those that load within 1-second garner the highest conversion rates.
Working with an experienced web developer can enhance your site speed, as can WordPress plugins like WPRocket (for those using WordPress).
Content Type (Blogs vs. Service Pages)
A lesser-known conversion factor is content type (i.e., blog posts vs. location and service pages), which comes into play for most plumbing companies.
Unfortunately, the plumbing SEO industry is ripe with agencies who publish “blog posts” for their clients to drive up traffic without conversions.
Google’s Helpful Content Update warns against “producing lots of content on different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results” as this rarely provides unique value to the user.
As a result, plumbing blog posts can reduce rankings and conversions for your priority keywords while driving vanity traffic for zero-conversion terms.
Content Relevance
Content relevance is another factor impacting conversions, which can also be characterized as “satisfying user intent.”
If your prospect seeks a water heater repair in Denver, CO, a page about general plumbing will not satisfy their unique intent.
While organic Google results are unlikely to produce these relevance overlaps because the algorithm ranks relevant content highest, other sources like paid ads can prompt this issue.
As a result, ensure that the website page you are driving users to matches their intent.
As someone with an agency that has produced thousands of plumbing company websites, I know the fundamentals that serve as the baseline for website conversions.
There is no need for a “trial and error” approach when you can learn directly from my 10+ years of first-hand experience with website design.
Below, I will outline conversion rate optimization fundamentals for plumbing companies in 2024:
Calls-To-Action (CTAs)
A call-to-action is a button or statement encouraging the website visitor to take a specific action.
A plumber CTA might be a button that links to a contact form submission or a clickable phone number that allows mobile visitors to call your business number directly from the website.
Without CTAs, conversions will be minimal, so ensure you understand CTAs and how to implement them into your design.
Company Branding
An overlooked conversion principle for plumbing companies is branding, as visitors won’t invest in an unknown entity.
Consequently, displaying your company name, logo, phone number, and address is essential for conversions.
It also helps you link to your other digital assets, such as your Google Business Profile, Facebook Business Page, and YouTube channel.
Site Security
A website SSL certificate is essential to driving website conversions in 2024. Any non-secure website (HTTP) will show a warning in most browsers.
As a result, users who navigate to a non-secure website are unlikely to see the content and, therefore, will never convert.
Most hosting providers make it easy for plumbers to add an SSL certificate to their domain, but you can work with a professional web design agency for assistance.
Social Proof
Content that showcases your real-world value is the most beneficial to conversions on a plumbing business website.
Yes, SEO optimizations are necessary, but showing images of your recent jobs, your plumbing license number, your reviews, and award badges will drive actions from visitors.
At least some of your social proof must be visible “above the fold” on mobile or desktop browsers without having to scroll down.
I recommend using a reviews slider plugin that showcases Google and Yelp reviews through an API so users can trust the source.
Website Accessibility
Another CRO fundamental for plumbing contractors is website accessibility, which means people can quickly access your website and read and engage with the content.
Factors like text size, font, and user navigation all affect accessibility, and experienced designers understand how to make this a priority.
Accessibility must expand across all device types, from mobile to desktop and tablet and everything in between. Responsive web design (RWD) allows websites to adapt to the device they are accessed.
Tracking Plumbing Website Conversions
Tracking an entire conversion funnel is not always straightforward, as a visitor’s origin can span various mediums, from organic search to social media marketing.
However, tracking conversion rates as much as possible is crucial to improve the pages or sections with lower conversion rates.
Below, I will list some of the ways you can track plumbing website conversions in 2024:
Google Analytics
Google Analytics 4 allows plumbing companies to mark specific events as conversions, which can then be tracked and evaluated through the tolls native conversion report.
Visits to a Contact Us or Thank You page are easy to mark as conversions because their URL is already tracked within the GA4 platform.
Plumbers can also create custom events for specific CTA buttons, including click-to-call phone numbers.
Google Tag Manager
More advanced conversions like form field interactions require Google Tag Manager integration with GA4.
GTM is also useful for “conditional conversions,” which require the user to perform prerequisite events before counting their action as a conversion.
Properly setting up Google Tag Manager is more complex than tracking conversions straight from the GA4 platform, so it will likely require professional assistance.
Heat Mapping
Plumbers looking for more granular conversion data may want to invest in heat mapping software that displays visitors’ website behavior in color-coded format.
For example, clicking on a specific part of a webpage will showcase red dots, while scrolling to a different page section will showcase blue dots.
Heat maps capture information beyond the scope of Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager, allowing plumbing web designers to pinpoint the precise areas for improvement.
Tips to Improve Your Plumbing Website Conversion Rates
There are many things local plumbers can do to increase their website conversion rates. Over my 10+ years of first-hand experience working with plumbing companies, I have the data and expertise to understand what tweaks help boost conversions and, ultimately, plumbing leads.
Enhance Calls-To-Action (CTAs)
A call-to-action, or CTA, is more than just a button that says, “Click here.” It is a psychological mechanism that encourages website visitors to take action.
The placement of CTAs is also proven to impact their click-through rates, as those visible “above the fold” foster the most engagement.
Users who have to scroll down your pages to find a call-to-action are less likely to click them than if they are embedded into your website header.
Demonstrate E-E-A-T
My recent podcast outlines the importance of expertise, experience, authority, and trust (E-E-A-T) to Google rankings in 2024, but its impact expands to conversion rates.
Users who feel your plumbing company is an expert with first-hand experience and authority and can be trusted are far more likely to convert.
You can use a tool like DataPins to enhance your website’s E-E-A-T by showcasing recent plumbing jobs.
You can also include your plumbing license number, award badges, and original photos of your truck and staff.
Integrate Reviews on Your Website
While reviews are also part of E-E-A-T, they are worthy of their own category for conversion rate optimization.
Many plumbers make the mistake of either not showing reviews on their websites or adding screenshot images of Google or Yelp reviews to their websites.
Images can be doctored easily, especially in the era of artificial intelligence and deepfakes.
Consequently, it’s essential to use a review slider plugin that pulls your reviews through API from credible third-party platforms like Google, Yelp, and Facebook.
Reduce “Friction” on Contact Forms
Website visitors are less likely to complete contact forms with more than three fields. Plumbing companies sometimes purposely add four or more fields to weed out bad leads.
Adding more fields to your contact form is known as “friction” because it generally increases the quality of your leads.
However, this comes at the expense of some qualified leads slipping through the cracks.
Plumbing companies that invest in organic SEO should reduce friction on their contact forms since most SEO leads are high-quality and do not require additional filtering.
I recommend embedding YouTube videos as these are eligible to rank in Google SERPs and can send more traffic to your website from multiple sources.
As a local plumber, you can create video content using your smartphone and a simple editing tool like iMovie.
You can create an introduction video with your staff and specific videos for each service you provide.
Showcase Unique Value Propositions (UVPs)
Visitors who view your company as a run-of-the-mill plumbing company are less likely to take action.
If they see your website as spammy or untrustworthy, they will likely exit it quickly.
You need unique value propositions (UVPs) to stand out from competitors.
Examples of UVPs for plumbers include:
Local Expertise
Real-Time Trust Signals
Fast and Easy Scheduling
Emergency Readiness
Transparent Pricing
Licensed & Insured Plumbers
Eco-Friendly Solutions
SEO-Driven Design
Prioritize User Experience
Even with proper UVPs and CTAs, low conversion rates can still result from poor user experience (UX).
Factors like website navigation (desktop, mobile, and all devices) heavily impact your final conversion rate percentages.
Ensure your plumbing website design is crafted specifically for your users and is easy to navigate on mobile devices with smaller screen sizes.
An experienced plumbing web designer is less concerned with “wow factor” design elements and more about ease of use, leading to conversions.
Final Thoughts on Conversion Rate Optimization
As the founder and CEO of Plumbing Webmasters – a digital marketing agency for plumbers, my agency has designed thousands of websites for local contractors.
While driving visitors to the website from Google, AI, and other sources is essential, none of it matters if the website does not convert at an acceptable rate.
While the average website conversion rate is between 2% and 5%, my clients’ websites are optimized to outperform these averages.
My experienced web design team has honed their skills in the plumbing website space, where nuances make all the difference in conversions.
My agency prioritizes user experience, navigation, CTA placement, and E-E-A-T signals to generate legitimate prospects for your business.
To discuss my 10+ years of first-hand experience with conversion rate optimization for plumbers, call my personal cell phone at (877) 388-9884.
Google Ads for plumbers is one of the most widely utilized digital marketing channels for local plumbing companies nationwide.
Plumbing business owners gravitate toward Google Ads because it is the fastest way to acquire plumbing leads and new customers.
While SEO is proven to generate a higher conversion rate and ROI when properly executed, it takes several months of careful optimization to produce tangible results.
Meanwhile, Google Ads and PPC advertising can produce new plumbing prospects immediately.
One challenge for local plumbers is identifying which Google Ads format will yield the best results in their respective markets.
Depending on the size and scope of your company, your ad spend budget may be limited or significant.
As the founder and CEO of Plumbing Webmasters – a digital marketing company for plumbers, I’ve worked with thousands of business owners on advertising for plumbing companies.
Below, I will outline the different Google Ads categories and variations and provide
What are Google Ads for Plumbers?
Google Ads for plumbers are paid advertisements that appear on one or more of Google’s platforms. Plumbing companies’ most common Google Ad types are search ads, local service ads, and display ads.
Search Ads
Google search ads emulate organic search results and appear at the top of search results for specific keywords.
Search ads appeal to plumbers because they allow them to automatically appear in search results for plumbing-related keywords that are known to drive conversions.
While fewer people click on paid ads than the top organic results, search ads can still garner over 3% of clicks.
Local Service Ads (LSA)
Google’s local service ads (LSA) differ from search ads because they use a pay-per-lead model instead of pay-per-click.
As a result, plumbers only pay for LSA clicks that result in a legitimate customer inquiry. Considering this, the return on ad spend (ROAS) is typically higher than that of search ads (though it depends on market conditions).
Still, the cost per lead from LSA ads can vary significantly by market, with the average range spanning $5-$150 per lead.
Display Ads
Google display ads reach a broader audience than either search or local service ads because they appear across Google’s display network, which includes platforms like Gmail and YouTube.
Because display ads generate more impressions, they generally yield a lower click-through rate than other ad types, with an average CTR of under 1%.
However, display ads also generally cost less than search ads and can be used in remarketing campaigns to retarget website visitors and others who’ve previously interacted with your brand.
Setting Up a Plumbing Google Ads Account
The first step in setting up your account is defining your budget and campaign objectives. You cannot enjoy success unless you set benchmarks for your goals through Google Ads.
Below, I will walk you through the process of setting up a Google Ads account:
A screen with different objectives will appear that includes:
Sales
Leads
Website Traffic
App Promotion
Awareness and Consideration
Local Store Visits and Promotions
Create a Campaign Without a Goal’s Guidance
After selecting an objective, you will be taken to another screen.
Choosing a Campaign Type
Now, you will be prompted to select your campaign type out of these choices:
Search
Performance Max
Display
Shopping
Video
App
Smart
Hotel
Demand Gen
Choosing Target Results
Now, you will be prompted to “select the results you want from this campaign” by either checking or not checking boxes next to the following options.
Website visits (with a field for your URL)
Phone calls (with a field for your phone number)
App downloads
Naming Your Ad Campaign
Next, you will be prompted to name your ad campaign, something like “Local Plumbing Services – Search Campaign” or anything that helps you distinguish this ad campaign from others.
Selecting Your Ad Networks
You will now be presented with checkboxes for the following ad networks:
Search Network
Include Google Search Partners
Display Network
Include Google Display Network
Use Display Expansion
Most plumbing ad campaigns select the search network while leaving the other boxes unchecked, including “include Google search partners.”
Checking the “include Google search partners” box expands your ad’s reach to other search engines like Ask.com and Dogpile.com, though you cannot see exactly where it is distributed.
Selecting a Target Audience
Your location settings allow you to select your target city (i.e., Fort Worth, TX) where your ad will be shown.
Select “enter another location” and search for your target city.
Alternatively, you can select the entire United States as your ad’s target audience, but that would be a waste of money.
Choosing an Audience Segment
Next, you can choose from pre-existing audience segments via the search tab or create a new one by clicking “New Segment.”
Several plumbing-related segments already exist, such as Plumbing services and Plumbing Fixtures, which you can add to your campaign.
The bottom of this screen will provide two options for targeting settings, which are:
Targeting: Narrows your ad’s reach to only your selected segments
Observation: Don’t narrow the reach of your campaign
Google recommends selecting Observation as it allows its advertising algorithm to reach more potential customers.
Setting an Ad Budget
Google Ads calculates budgets by a daily limit rather than monthly or weekly. As a result, I recommend being conservative with your initial daily ad spend.
PPC ads can quickly drain your budget, and you will regret your investment if you don’t optimize your conversions correctly.
I recommend a daily ad spend of $10-$50 for novice plumbers.
Choosing a Bidding Priority
Next, you will choose a bidding priority from a dropdown menu that includes:
Clicks
Leads
Cost Per Acquisition
Conversions
Return on Ad Spend
Cost Per Click
Conversion Value
Impression Share
You will also see a checkbox to set a maximum cost-per-click bid limit. Beneath that, you will see another checkbox to bid for new customers only.
Including Ad Assets
Next, you can add “ad assets” to your campaign, which can consist of the following:
Sitelink Assets
Call Assets
Location Assets
Callout Assets
Structured Snippet Assets
Image Assets
Promotion Assets
Price Assets
Lead Form Assets
Affiliate Location Assets
Mobile App Assets
Hotel Callout Assets
Google Ad Groups for Plumbers
Once your initial settings are configured, you can set up your Ad Groups within the Google Ads platform.
Ad groups are related advertisements that navigate to a shared landing page. Considering this, grouping ads based on associated services like clogged rain repair, sewer line repair, and hydro jetting is ideal.
During the ad group set-up, you will be prompted to select keywords for which ads in this group will appear in search results.
Google provides a native keyword tool to generate terms and phrases; you can edit and refine this list.
Keywords can be added or removed at any point in your campaign.
Setting Up Final URLs
A Final URL is a term Google uses for your landing page, which you should enter as an HTTPS URL. An HTTP URL will prompt a warning because it is considered “non-secure.”
Considering this, your landing page must be hosted on a domain with an SSL certificate to serve an HTTPS URL.
Remember that your landing page is where the user will go after clicking on your ad, so make sure it is relevant.
Additionally, Google will ask for a “display path” for the URL, which will appear to users.
You want your display path to be simple and topical, so users know they are navigating to a relevant page.
Creating Headlines
Google recommends at least three headlines per ad campaign, but sometimes more is warranted.
Headlines are restricted to 30 characters, and plumbing ads work best when all or most of this space is occupied. Make sure to use title case in each headline.
Your headline should emphasize specific keywords, services, and a unique value proposition differentiating your ad and company from competing promotions.
Writing Descriptions
Google recommends a minimum of two descriptions per ad, highlighting your company’s expertise, experience, authority, and trust.
Examples of inserting E-E-A-T into your ad descriptions are quantifying how many customers you’ve served or highlighting how many years your company has been in business.
The goal is to demonstrate your company’s credibility to potential customers quickly.
Complete Billing Information
Finally, you will be prompted to enter your billing information, at which point you can officially launch your plumbing Google Ad.
Measuring Conversions
Once your ad has been running for 24 hours or more, I recommend monitoring its performance to maximize its ROI.
You can evaluate metrics such as clicks, click-through rate (CTR), conversions per click (CPC), impressions, and revenue.
You can use the +Conversions feature by clicking “Tools and Settings” at the top of the menu.
You will be prompted to select what kinds of conversions you want to track, with a choice between:
Website
App
Phone Calls
Next, you will name your conversion for a plumbing service ad: something like “Quote Request.”
In the value section, you can select from three options:
Use The Same Value for Each Conversion
Use Different Values for Each Conversion
Don’t Use a Value for This Conversion Action
Most plumbers select the first option and then enter a USD value to assign to that conversion action.
Selecting Google Ads Keywords
Plumbers can add and edit campaign keywords from the Google Ads campaign homepage.
You are not bound to your original selections, so you can update your keywords at any point in the campaign.
Select “audiences, keywords, and content on the left side of the menu.”
Select “Search Keywords”
Click the + button
From here, you will be taken to the Google keyword generator, where you can add keywords.
Exact Match Keywords
Exact match keywords are self-explanatory in that they prompt your ad to show up ONLY when the user searches for the exact term or phrase, such as “sewer line repair” or “burst pipe repair.”
Inserting your keywords in brackets tells Google that the term or phrase is an exact match.
For example:
[sewer line repair]
Negative Keywords
Negative keywords tell Google not to display your ad for specific terms and phrases. These help you optimize your budget by eliminating ad spend on terms or phrases you know won’t result in new customers.
Inserting the minus sign before the term or phrase signals to Google a negative keyword.
For example:
-diy plumbing repair
Landing Pages
Landing pages are where the user goes after clicking on your ad. Considering this, your landing page should match the topic of the ad and encourage the user to request a quote.
I recommend designing a specific landing page for each service type, like emergency plumbing services, hydro jetting, garbage disposal repair, etc.
Some plumbing companies make the mistake of sending every click to their website homepage, which lowers conversion rates due to a lack of specificity.
You can include a noindex tag on your landing pages so that they don’t cause keyword cannibalization within your SEO strategy.
The qualities of a strong PPC landing page include:
Clear and Relevant Copywriting
Immediate Loading
Simple Navigation
Clear Privacy Policy
The quality of your landing page can determine the success or failure of your entire ad campaign, so you should invest the necessary time and resources into perfecting it.
Plumber Google Ads Tips For Succesful Campaigns
You can follow the step-by-step Google Ads guide for plumbers but still not fully comprehend the nuances of a successful ad campaign.
While some larger plumbing companies spend ad money haphazardly, most plumbers are relatively careful with their ad spend.
Considering this, learning my tips and suggestions, based on 10+ years in the digital marketing industry, can help you avoid common PPC pitfalls and maximize your Google Ads ROI.
Check out my plumbing Google Ads tips below:
Exclude Keywords Based on User Intent
Understanding user intent empowers plumbers to select a long list of negative keywords, which would have wasted money if left off the list.
Any keywords with informational intent should be added to your negative keywords list because the user is not looking for a service.
Furthermore, navigational keywords like queries that include “YouTube” represent users seeking content on a specific platform other than yours.
Restrict Your Ad Location
Google Ads can quickly drain your marketing budget, so I recommend restricting your ad targeting to specific locations.
As a local plumbing company, homeowners outside your service area are of no value to your business, so serving ads to them is a waste of resources.
You can restrict your targeting locations with radius targeting (drawing a circle around your service area), manual city insertions, or postal codes.
Track Leads from Google Ads
Google Ads provides a call tracking feature for plumbers to see which keywords generate phone calls.
Whether you use Google’s native tracking platform or not, tracking leads generated from Google Ads is vital so you can compare them to prospects from other mediums.
Capturing this data will reveal that Google Ads cannot sustain an ROI on the level of SEO but that short-term campaigns can help spark your broader marketing efforts.
Utilize Ad Extensions
Google offers Ad extensions for free so you can expand the size of your search ad on SERPs.
Sitelinks and phone numbers are standard ad extensions for local plumbing companies, allowing them to add other useful links to their ads.
Including relevant ad extensions can increase your ad quality score, prompting Google to showcase your ad in a more prominent part of the SERP.
A/B Test Your Ad Copies
Google Ads testing is the most effective way to improve its performance over time.
However, plumbers often make the mistake of A/B testing two entirely different ads with their own unique copy, images, and CTAs.
A successful A/B test is a single-variable test in which you merely test a specific component of the same ad (and nothing else).
Create a Dedicated PPC Landing Page
PPC landing pages should heavily prioritize conversions, which slightly differs from the ideal website page optimized for SEO.
Considering this, I recommend creating a dedicated landing page for your Google Ads campaigns.
These landing pages will feature a noindex tag so that they won’t be indexed by Google in organic search results, preventing keyword cannibalization.
Integrate Google Ads With SEO
Running Google Ads as a standalone marketing campaign is its worst use case.
The most successful plumbers I’ve worked with integrate PPC with a broader marketing effort, specifically SEO.
Running Google search ads can help increase brand recognition, but this only benefits your business if you’ve established a website and Google Business Profile that reflect your brand’s best qualities.
Final Thoughts on Plumber Google Ads
Google Ads can be an impactful way for plumbing companies to generate leads in 2024.
After learning the various ad formats, targeting options, and budget control measures, plumbers can follow best practices to maximize their Google Ads campaigns.
As the founder and CEO of Plumbing Webmasters, I’ve worked with thousands of plumbing contractors on digital advertising campaigns.
While organic SEO produces a higher ROI and a sustainable business model for consistent lead generation, Google Ads is a useful short-term tactic to integrate within a broader marketing effort.
Still, local plumbers should be vigilant about not overspending on Google Ads, as they can quickly drain their budget and set back their business goals.
Nevertheless, when handled correctly, Google Ads remains a potent lead generation method.
To discuss my 10+ years of experience with Google Ads for plumbers, call my personal cell phone at (877) 388-9884.
The secret is out: 55% of consumers discover small businesses on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
The behavior of the average consumer has shifted in recent years as homeowners spend more time scrolling through video shorts on the most popular platforms than they do working.
The problem for most plumbers is that they don’t have enough presence where their consumers spend most of their time.
Considering these factors, social media for plumbers has emerged as one of the most essential components of a successful digital marketing strategy in 2024.
I’m Nolen Walker – the founder of Plumbing Webmasters – a digital marketing agency I founded over ten years ago.
In the following guide, I’ll outline my cutting-edge plumbing social media marketing strategy, which thousands of local plumbers have used throughout my career.
This alone should encourage local plumbing companies to create a noteworthy presence on the platforms their consumers use daily.
The opportunity cost of not appearing on these people’s Facebook and Instagram feeds is significant and can result in competitors overtaking your service areas.
Google Rankings
Google’s algorithmic shift toward E-E-A-T increases the value of off-page signals like active social media profiles, which signal to Google and others that your brand is legitimate.
Google prefers to show plumbing companies established on other digital platforms (besides Google) to prevent SEO manipulation from giving users poor results.
Google has even introduced SERP features that feature social media content, especially from YouTube (which Google owns) and, in some cases, from Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Customer Engagement
Your existing plumbing clients spend as much time on social media as your future ones, and they often look to engage with the services they utilize on these platforms.
It’s not uncommon for customers to direct message their plumbing company through a social media platform, asking for clarification about a service or an appointment.
Plumbers should also be aware of how social engagement may impact their reputation, as some customers may use these platforms to air grievances about a bad experience with the service.
Industry Influence
Plumbing companies that establish a social media presence can quickly expand their influence in the plumbing industry.
By showcasing testimonials from satisfied plumbing clients and engaging with present and future customers, local plumbers can heavily impact the perception of their brand.
Diversifying influence across multiple platforms, such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, can foster a stronger and more sustainable plumbing business.
Reaching Plumbing Customers Through Social Media
Organic Social Media Content
Plumbing companies can post on social media platforms for free, though the content reach will be limited, especially at the beginning.
Examples of organic social media content include customer reviews, infographics, short videos, and job photos.
Don’t be alarmed if your content gets limited engagement. It’s still sending positive brand signals to Google and other platforms.
Most importantly, your existing customers will take note of your activity and potentially share your posts with people in their community.
Paid Social Media Advertising
Paid Ads on social media significantly expand the reach of your plumbing company but require a legitimate budget and investment.
Considering this, plumbers should avoid running ads until they fully grasp the nuances of maximizing ROI and optimizing the cost per lead.
Meta ads, which handle advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, are widely regarded as the best social media advertising investment for local plumbers.
Meta platform ads can prioritize various goals, from brand awareness to direct lead capture, each of which may play a role in your digital advertising campaign.
Best Social Media Platforms for Plumbers
Facebook
Over 75% of American adults use Facebook, which makes it the best platform for plumbing companies to reach their consumers.
Facebook is unique from other social platforms in that it includes recommendations, essentially reviews of businesses.
As a result, your plumbing business page will include customer ratings, which are also part of your Bing knowledge panel results (when properly optimized).
Instagram
Almost 64% of U.S. adults use Instagram, and the platform’s popularity has continued to increase yearly.
Instagram is part of Meta, which also owns Facebook, meaning ads run on Facebook can also be run on the Instagram platform.
IG’s strict focus on visual content, such as videos, stories, reels, and images, makes it unique to Facebook.
YouTube
The second most utilized social platform by American adults is YouTube, with 65% engaging with it.
YouTube is a video platform, meaning content shared on YouTube will be either long-form videos or YouTube Shorts, up to 60-second video clips.
While video content once required a large budget to produce, modern smartphones allow almost any local plumbing company to film topical videos of their business.
TikTok
A little over 50% of U.S. adults use TikTok, which has emerged as one of the fastest-growing social media platforms.
What was once considered a platform reserved primarily for teenagers, TikTok’s relevance among adults has surprised many industry forecasters.
Regardless of the societal shifts that led us to this point, plumbing companies must now establish a presence on TikTok to be taken seriously as a brand.
X
Over 40% of American adults use X (formerly known as Twitter), though it’s not considered a must-be place for local plumbing companies as the content focuses more on breaking news.
Nevertheless, some of your customers may look to air their grievances about your plumbing staff on X, which is known for its argumentative tone from users.
Content shared on X is expected to emulate real-time posts, meaning cookie-cutter images or infographics will look more like spam on this app.
Linkedin
Roughly 31% of U.S. adults use LinkedIn, limiting its value within a social media marketing strategy for plumbers.
Creating a LinkedIn business page and a personal LinkedIn profile as the plumbing business owner still makes sense to send favorable brand signals to Google.
Your chances of generating plumbing leads through LinkedIn are slim to none, but that doesn’t negate its potential impact on your digital brand.
Pinterest
About 38% of American adults engage with Pinterest, which, like Instagram, is a strictly visual social media platform.
Much like LinkedIn, plumbers are highly unlikely to gain new customers through Pinterest, but sharing photos of plumbing jobs can generate positive brand signals in the online ecosystem.
Pinterest posts also allow plumbing companies to link back to their websites, which counts as a nofollow link in Google’s SEO algorithm.
Social Media Posts for Plumbing Businesses
Video Posts
Shorter consumer attention spans make video content the highest priority for plumbing social media posts.
Plumbers can create video tutorials or showcase videos of recent jobs to capture followers’ attention.
YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are especially useful for video posts, as users tend to scroll through hundreds of short clips quickly.
Client Testimonials
Sharing client reviews and feedback is an effective use of social media posts on all platforms.
You can use a tool like Canva to create image files based on text reviews from Google, Yelp, and other credible review platforms and then share those on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Evidence of other customers’ good experiences with your company can persuade homeowners to consider using your service.
Sometimes, you can secure video testimonials from your most loyal customers, which you can then share in video format across platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
Native Posts
The key to breaking through organic social media algorithms is to create posts native to each platform and blend in with their standard content.
For example, an Instagram post of your staff at a company activity is an excellent example of a native Instagram post.
Alternatively, a genuine breakdown of the different brands of showerheads for the average homeowner in your service area would make a great post on Facebook or X.
Promotional Posts
Once your plumbing company has generated enough followers and post engagement, you can sprinkle in timely promotional posts to leverage this visibility.
You must be careful not to post too many promotions or discounts on your social platforms (unless you do so with paid ads), as the algorithm will begin to throttle your organic visibility.
When you share promotional posts, make sure the CTA creates urgency for users, such as through limited-time offers, and provides unique value like a new service type.
Plumbing Social Media Ideas & Tips
Highlight Employees and Clients
If you struggle to find inspiration for social media content, start with your employees and loyal clients.
You can easily create images or videos around your top employees and customers with the help of tools like Canva and iMovie.
Plumbers who showcase real people in their social media content create a sense of community and trust with their followers.
Join Groups and Communities
One proactive way to leverage social media is to join groups and communities, like Facebook Groups, related to the plumbing industry or your service location.
When you post inside these groups, avoid promotional content and focus more on organic contributions, as these can lead to business in the long run.
Social media groups foster more intimate content than public posts and are comparable to Reddit and Nexdoor, in which the community holds posts to a higher standard.
Engage With Comments
Users who leave comments on your posts are more likely to reengage with future posts if you acknowledge them.
Considering this, try responding to users who leave comments under your videos, images, and posts, especially if their feedback is complimentary.
The one instance in which you want to avoid engagement is when people (or bots) leave negative or derogatory comments under your posts – a form of trolling or spamming.
Utilize Hashtags
Including hashtags in your posts is a way to increase your organic reach, especially when for new accounts.
Instagram, TikTok, and X are known for hashtags, which can help your post appear in search results on these platforms.
While hashtags can help you reach more users, they only pay off if they match the topic of your content.
Don’t include irrelevant hashtags. Doing so will cause people to resent your posts, reducing their visibility over time.
Post Plumbing Memes
Posting plumbing memes on your social media account is one way to get your followers laughing and engaging with your content.
When followers associate your post with laughter, they are more likely to view your company favorably.
Although memes can increase your engagement metrics, avoid becoming known only for memes. You want the focus to remain on the concept of your plumbing company and brand.
Publish DIY Tutorials
Nothing helps earn the good graces of followers by sharing free value through DIY video tutorials.
As a plumbing professional, you understand how to show people with basic handy skills how to complete minor plumbing repairs and can do so through video format.
Stress the importance of hiring a professional plumber (like you) for dangerous or complicated plumbing issues.
Funnel Users to Your Website
While most social media platforms aim to keep users on their platforms (instead of moving to yours), there are ways to funnel users to your website.
Maybe you’ve recently added a new service page to your plumbing website. In that case, you can share an infographic post highlighting the service and include “find out more through the link in the bio” within the caption.
Now, users can navigate to your main profile and click the link in your bio, which will take them directly to your website.
Using the concepts outlined in this guide, local plumbers can leverage social media marketing to generate leads and expand brand awareness.
My agency, Plumbing Webmasters, helps local contractors maximize their online presence by building a digital brand.
Our services include social media marketing for plumbers, which is part of a broader digital marketing strategy to assist plumbers with consistently acquiring new customers.
The increasing popularity of social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube has required plumbers to take their social media strategies more seriously.
Plumbing companies can strengthen their digital brand and earn brand favorability by producing and sharing video content that appeals to homeowners and future customers.
Call my personal cell phone at (877) 388-9884 to discuss my detailed strategy for implementing social media for plumbers into your company’s online presence.
There are numerous exciting ways for local contractors to generate plumbing leads in 2024.
Plumbing is an essential service, meaning its demand can withstand almost any market conditions. As a result, homeowners will always seek access to a reliable plumber.
Plumbing impacts Americans ‘ everyday lives, whether it is a toilet, bathtub, shower, or sink.
Because the plumbing industry continues to grow at a faster rate than other home services, the opportunity is vast, and so is the competition.
I’m Nolen Walker, and I founded Plumbing Webmasters more than a decade ago. Since our opening, I’ve helped thousands of plumbers generate high-quality plumbing leads.
What are Plumbing Leads?
Plumbing leads are inquiries potential customers make to your business through various mediums, including phone calls, website form submissions, text messages, and emails.
Plumbing Lead Types
Numerous types of plumbing leads exist, including exclusive, shared, residential, and commercial. Your ideal inquiry may vary depending on your business type and sales structure.
Check out the types of plumbing leads below:
Shared Leads: Contact information forwarded to multiple plumbing companies by a 3rd party
Exclusive Leads. Contact information submitted directly to a plumbing company
Residential Leads: Inquiries made by residential homeowners
Commercial Leads: inquiries made by commercial business owners
Below, I’ll outline 25 proven ways to generate plumbing leads in 2024 based on my first-hand experience and expertise.
1) Local SEO
According to SEMRush, 46% of all search users are looking for a local business. As a result, most search marketing occurs on the regional level, especially for plumbers.
Claiming and verifying your Google Business Profile is the foundation of Local SEO for plumbers, but it expands beyond that to your website, citations, and reviews.
Helping Google and its users associate your company with your target service area is the key to unlocking local leads in 2024.
Local SEO Keyword Research
Keyword Targeting: Keyword research tools won’t pick up many local terms, so keyword targeting is more important than “research” at the regional level.
However, SEMRush’s location field allows you to estimate the volume of primary terms like “plumber” on a hyperlocal level.
Still, over half of all local clicks come from hidden terms or long-tail keywords, meaning your keyword strategy must expand beyond data from 3rd party research tools.
Google Business Profile
Claiming and verifying your company’s Google Business Profile allows you to rank on Google Maps and the Google Map 3-Pack.
Please make sure to upload your company logo and other unique photos and include your website URL and social media links.
Your business address plays a significant role in your local rankings on Google Maps, so a legitimate address close to the city’s center is ideal for visibility.
With that said, using a fake address, a virtual address, or a friend or employee’s address may trigger a profile suspension.
Local Website Optimization
Your website’s homepage should feature your business address and include your target city within its title tag, H1, and primary content.
Including your location on your website helps you rank in organic results for local queries and also helps your Google Business Profile rank higher in Google Maps results.
You can expand your visibility into other nearby cities with local landing pages or “city pages.” Be careful with how many city pages you produce, as creating too many similar pages can make them appear as “doorway pages,” which violate Google’s guidelines.
2) Organic SEO
A Google Business Profile is not sufficient for earning local leads online. Your company must also invest in an organic search presence through traditional on-page SEO and content.
While organic SEO has earned a bad reputation because of bad actors throughout the industry, it is a wise long-term investment when adequately implemented.
On-Page SEO
SEO fundamentals like title tags, header tags, URL slugs, and meta descriptions remain integral to ranking on Google.
Ensuring each website page targets an exclusive user intent is essential to providing Google and its users with what it seeks.
Common-sense changes to website pages can make the difference between a top-three Google ranking and a page-two ranking.
Technical SEO
Plumbing business owners shouldn’t be expected to understand the intricacies of technical SEO, but their agency should.
After all, nothing you do matters if Google and other search engines cannot crawl and index your website.
As a result, it’s essential to cover technical basics like XML sitemaps, canonical tags, SSL certificates, and Google Search Console submissions.
Off-Page SEO
Organic rankings rely not just on on-page signals but also on off-page signals. For example, citations and backlinks help distribute credibility to your plumbing domain.
As a local plumber, you want to be listed in all the major directories with a consistent business name, address, and phone number.
From there, it helps to build legitimate local links with credible and authoritative websites like plumbing suppliers, adjacent local businesses, and other topically relevant entities.
3) Google Ads
Paying to appear at the top of Google search results can quickly generate leads.
Pay-per-click or PPC campaigns through Google Ads are one of the most reliable paid advertising platforms for plumbers.
Plumbing companies can strategically deploy Google Ads campaigns to complement or jumpstart their broader digital marketing efforts.
Search Campaigns
While it could take months or even years to rank in the top 3 organically for your primary keyword, Google Ads search campaigns can instantly make you visible.
Of course, this “jumping in front of the line” comes with a considerable price tag, something you must weigh into your broader financial projections and cost-per-lead appetite.
Nevertheless, the opportunity to secure a top position for your chosen keyword term is a surefire way to attract nearby customers.
Local Service Ads
Local Service Ads (LSA), sometimes called Google Guaranteed, is a unique Google advertising opportunity for plumbers.
LSA ads appear above standard PPC ads at the top of search engine results. Unlike search ads, local service ads utilize a pay-per-lead model, which changes the ROI dynamics.
Google’s LSA system ensures your plumbing company only pays for qualified leads, though the expenses can still add up quickly as the lead qualification process increases the cost per lead.
Landing Page Optimization
Maximizing the impact of Google Ads relies on landing pages optimized for conversions.
For example, search campaigns that generate clicks to a specific page will only convert if that page includes a unique value proposition (UVP) and a user-friendly call-to-action (CTA).
Unlike pages optimized for SEO, PPC landing pages should prioritize quick actions to secure as many lead captures as possible.
As a result, plumbing company’s presence on social media is more critical today than ever in history.
While organic social media posts have limited reach for plumbing companies, investing in paid social media ads can break through to users scrolling through their social feeds.
Meta Ads
The Meta Ads platform consists of paid advertising campaigns for Facebook and Instagram and, when properly implemented, can yield the highest ROI of any social media advertising platform.
Meta offers various types of ad campaigns, from lead ads to image and video ads, each of which can be used within a plumbing advertising strategy.
Targeting is the key to efficient ad spending and ROI, and Meta’s Advantage+ targeting algorithm learns users’ behavior regarding your plumbing ad.
YouTube Ads
Nearly 60% of consumers consider YouTube Ads more relevant than TV ads. With this in mind, plumbers can advertise on YouTube to reach target customers.
YouTube offers various ad types, such as in-stream ads (skippable or non-skippable), bumper ads, shorts ads, and more.
For plumbers, the non-skippable in-stream ads can prove highly effective when combined with strategic targeting.
TikTok Ads
TikTok advertisers have the potential to reach over 1 billion adults monthly, creating an unforeseen opportunity for local plumbers.
The social platform was once populated mainly by younger people who were not yet homeowners, but the demographics have shifted in recent years.
While TikTok’s most popular content remains geared toward entertainment and social trends, “meeting people where they are” has never rung truer.
5) Email Marketing
Email marketing helps generate plumbing service leads based on simple math. About 88% of people check their email accounts daily, which makes it one of the few places where you can reach nearly all of your target customers.
The challenge with email marketing is getting people to subscribe to your email list and then open your emails.
You can generate more subscribers through paid advertising campaigns and email sign-up forms on your website.
To maximize your open rates, exceeding the industry average of about 25% requires personalization, list segmentation, and automation-based campaigns.
List Segmentation
Email marketing platforms like Aweber and Mailchimp allow list segmentation so that plumbers can segment subscribers by service type, home type, location, etc.
By segmenting subscribers, you can send target emails to each list, increasing open rates and engagement while reducing unsubscribed.
Personalization
Aweber and Mailchimp also allow for email personalization using shortcodes like (customer-name), which can be inserted into email templates.
Personalized emails are proven to increase open rates and avoid the pitfalls of “mass emails,” which are largely discarded by email users.
Addressing your customers by name can quickly foster a sense of customer care that is absent in generalized email copy.
Discounts
One way to increase open rates is to periodically offer subscribers something of value, like a discount on plumbing services.
By strategically including discount emails in your broader campaigns, you can keep subscribers engaged with your email schedule and build goodwill for future conversions.
Themed discounts typically perform best, especially when presented as a limited-time offer to encourage quick response.
6) Online Reviews and Reputation Management
About 99.9% of American consumers read online reviews before making a purchasing decision, such as hiring a local plumbing contractor.
Online reviews are one of the least expensive means of lead generation for local plumbers, as they can influence search engine visibility and conversion rates.
Google reviews are particularly impactful to lead generation as they can directly influence Google Maps rankings for plumbers.
Reputation management software with automated review requests can help increase your testimonials on platforms like Google, Yelp, and BBB.
Ensure your plumbing staff is trained to ask for reviews in person. This face-to-face or over-the-phone request can inspire your customers to act.
Once more customers use your services, your company will inevitably receive some negative reviews. An encouraging professional response will typically appease other consumers, weighing the pros and cons of the various testimonials.
7) Website Conversion Rate Optimization
A/B testing website pages can increase conversions by 30%. My agency, Plumbing Webmasters, has conducted these tests, so we have internal data that informs our website design practices.
Optimizing your plumbing website for conversion rate is an effective way to get more inquiries, as the number of visitors who call or submit a form will increase substantially.
While design is the main component of CRO, other factors, such as the website’s copywriting and narrative, also play a role.
Homeowners don’t want to read a boring novel about the intricacies of plumbing, but instead, what is the answer to the simple question: Is this plumbing company trustworthy?
Considering this, showcasing award badges, license numbers, and original photos can foster trust and increase conversions.
Of course, CTAs remain the most tangible factor in conversion rate, and red buttons have been shown to outperform other colors.
8) DataPins
Most plumbing websites feature cookie-cutter content, a quality that has only worsened with the emergence of AI-generated content.
This widespread issue has prompted Google’s algorithms to prioritize unique, people-first content that demonstrates experience, authority, and trust.
I spent millions developing a software tool called DataPins, which generates digital branded signals based on real plumbing jobs, including schema markup, geo-coordinates, mini-maps, job images, and job descriptions.
Each pin gets published to its corresponding website page, signaling fresh updates for each service and location with SEO-friendly signals.
Our clients who regularly use DataPins experience significant spikes in traffic, such as Steve’s WaterWorks Plumbing, which enjoyed a 122.6% increase in a 30-day span.
Pins are easy to create with the mobile web app and can be used by any plumber to generate more leads.
9) Social Media Marketing
Building a digital brand in 2024 requires a presence on social media platforms.
We mentioned social media ads earlier in this post as a method of generating plumbing leads, but a widespread marketing presence on the most popular social platforms also contributes to lead generation.
Social media profiles serve as a content hub for your business and a citation. For example, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube all leave space for your website URL.
Facebook even features a CTA that can prompt users to contact your business directly through their platform.
Other forms of social media marketing include posting videos, joining groups and engaging with followers.
Focusing on trending content types like Instagram Stories and Reels is an effective way to garner attention from homeowners seeking plumbing services.
10) E-E-A-T
For plumbers who believe SEO is dead, the concept of E-E-A-T should invigorate your quest for plumbing leads.
E-E-A-T is essentially the modern equivalent of SEO in that it’s what Google’s search quality raters look for when “grading” website pages.
Google’s algorithm favors websites that demonstrate experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
I spoke about how the DataPins software tool can insert E-E-A-T signals onto your plumbing website, and there are additional ways to showcase these qualities.
Award badges, review widgets, license numbers, and original photos are all examples of E-E-A-T.
Brand mentions, and backlinks can also contribute to E-E-A-T, so building a comprehensive digital brand for your plumbing business can pay major long-term dividends.
11) Local Directories
Industry experts have debated the value of local directories for plumbing lead generation.
As a long-time plumbing marketing agency owner, I can tell you that local directories are beneficial in generating leads.
First, local directories help send brand signals to search engines, which contribute to search visibility and potentially higher rankings.
Secondly, building general trust with your consumers is a great way to influence conversion rates.
While some directory listings are unnecessary (like those that Google doesn’t even bother to index), the well-known ones serve as valuable business citations.
In addition to Google Business Profile, Yelp, BBB, Angi’, HomeAdvisor, and Apple Maps are all great places to create citations.
12) Referral Programs
Creating a plumber referral program capitalizes on the most effective testimonial source, which is word of mouth.
Sure, most consumers check online reviews on platforms like Google, but recommendations from friends, family, and neighbors are even more influential.
As your digital marketing campaign generates new customers, you can use them to further expand your clientele through referrals.
Try offering incentives to existing customers using referral codes, which can yield significant returns.
Referrals also increase the ROI of other lead generation methods, such as local SEO and website CRO, as they expand the reach to those people’s inner circle.
The key to maintaining a successful referral program is customer service so that your customers feel validated for participating.
13) Retargeting
Most of your website visitors also spend time on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, which makes retargeting an intriguing way to generate more leads.
Installing a Meta pixel in your website code allows you to retarget visitors on Facebook and Instagram.
This way, someone who finds your website through SEO will then see your Facebook Ad.
Studies show that retargeted users are 8 times cheaperto reach per click than standard users.
In addition, the more a nearby homeowner sees your plumbing brand, the more likely they will recall it when a plumbing issue arises.
You can expand your plumbing business by driving down your cost per lead and focusing on consumers with clear interest.
This statistic highlights the emerging importance of video content on plumbing websites and, specifically, YouTube video content.
For one thing, consumers spend nearly 49 minutes on YouTube per day. Uploading videos on your plumbing YouTube channel can attract leads directly on the platform.
Also, Google owns YouTube, which means that YouTube videos are part of search engine results pages (SERPs).
A well-optimized YouTUbe video can rank directly on search results for plumbing-relead queries.
Considering all these factors, embedding YouTube videos onto your plumbing business website is an outstanding strategy for increasing engagement and attracting more customers.
15) Truck Wraps
A single plumbing truck wrap can garner up to 80,000 daily impressions, making it one of the most undervalued lead generation methods.
Truck wraps serve as mobile advertisements for your plumbing company, featuring your brand logo, phone number, and website (in most cases).
Almost every American city has a vehicle wrap design business to help plumbers wrap their trucks and benefit from these vast impressions.
Aside from expanding brand awareness, truck wraps serve the purpose of traditional advertising platforms like billboards and print ads by working on the consumers’ subconscious.
Wraps work while you drive and when you’re parked in a public space, constantly reminding nearby prospects of your business.
Your previous legwork of choosing a memorable brand name and domain name is rewarded with vehicle wraps.
16) Local Sponsorships
Sponsorships build local authority both offline and online. For example, when you sponsor a Little League team, the team will wear your brand logo on its uniforms and potentially link to your website.
You want to negotiate these considerations within the sponsorship opportunities as your goal is to gain exposure and expand brand awareness.
The visual component of your sponsorships can increase trust in your services and prompt parents to search for your brand name online, sending credible signals to Google.
The links from your sponsored organizations are also influential in Google’s local algorithm, as these partnerships are far more trustworthy than a random “guest post” on an unrelated blog.
I recommend prioritizing local links, such as those you acquire through sponsorship opportunities, over other link-building techniques that some SEO agencies promote.
In summary, local sponsorships have widespread benefits for your local plumbing business and can produce qualified leads.
Marketing at the city or state level is one thing, but infiltrating neighborhoods can be more challenging for plumbing companies.
NextDoor’s platform is the digital doorway to influencing specific neighborhoods throughout your service area.
Nextdoor offers paid advertising opportunities to local businesses as a hyperlocal neighborhood platform.
While the cost per lead is estimated to be higher than Meta, the conversion rate is often also greater.
Strategically running Nextdoor ads is an effective way to attract hyperlocal plumbing prospects.
18) Promotions \ Special Offers
Over 70% of consumers say promotions and special offers are among the top three factors in their purchasing decisions.
Plumbers can benefit from first-time customer discounts, which are proven to incentivize prospects on the fence.
Running promotions on your website or social media pages can energize consumers about your services.
Some companies use coupon codes for an entry point service, like a free consultation, to get new customers “in the door” and earn their repeat business in the future.
Plumbing companies can expand this further by providing membership benefits like waived emergency fees to capture long-term prospects.
Integrating these promotions with your border digital marketing strategy can benefit your company in various ways.
19) Business Networking
Connecting with other businesses can result in a new stream of qualified plumbing leads. Building your network can pay off whether you attend trade shows like Flow Expo or other business networking events.
While these relationships are B2B – business to business rather than B2C – business to consumer, the one thing most companies share is access to consumers through digital branding, marketing, and word-of-mouth.
For example, you partner with a local real estate agent who recommends your plumbing company to its clients. You can build similar relationships with other complimentary industry tradesmen, like foundation repair specialists.
For a more aggressive networking approach, consider hosting your own event and promoting it through your website, email list, social media posts, and anywhere else you can reach potential guests.
These events can help foster new business network opportunities while expanding your company’s brand awareness.
20) Lead Generation Services
Buying plumbing leads from a third-party service can help you attract new customers, though this method has some downsides.
For instance, most 3rd party lead sellers provide shared leads, which means the customer’s information is also given to competitors.
Like pay-per-click advertising, lead generation services cannot be your only lead source if you plan to run a sustainable and profitable plumbing company.
However, leveraging your purchased leads into reviews, testimonials, and brand recognition can help spur your long-term lead-generation strategies like organic SEO and brand building.
If you do sign up with a lead generation service make sure they document what constitutes a lead and whether they have a system for detecting spam or bots that emulate prospects.
21) Word-of-Mouth Marketing
An estimated 88% of consumerstrust word-of-mouth over any other marketing channel. Plumbing companies that can earn personal recommendations typically have a steady incoming stream of quality leads.
The challenge with word-of-mouth is ensuring it occurs at scale rather than merely in your close inner circle of friends and family.
For startup plumbing companies, initial word-of-mouth should be used for reviews, testimonials, and social proof as part of their broader digital marketing strategy.
When thinking more long-term, word-of-mouth at scale occurs when enough people in your service area learn about your company through advertising or organic marketing.
Once they have a good experience with your plumbing company, they are more likely to recommend it to others, which can happen in person or online.
22) Lead Magnets
Some studies have found that lead magnets can increase conversion by up to 785%, making them a surefire method for generating more leads.
If a plumbing website’s average conversion rate is roughly 4%, 96 out of every 100 visitors will leave the website without calling or submitting a contact form.
You can increase that conversion rate by offering lead magnets, which give a “middle option” for visitors who are not immediately ready for your services but are generally interested.
Examples of lead magnets are plumbing homeowner checklists or a homeowner plumbing quiz requiring the user to submit their email address or phone number in exchange for the content.
Once you have their contact information, you can gradually move them through a funnel so they can use your plumbing service when they are ready to choose a plumber.
23) CRMs
CRMs, or customer relationship management software, are tools widely used throughout the plumbing industry to organize existing customers, receive payments, and send out invoices.
Several modern CRMs include lead tracking analytics, which allows you to identify prospects’ sources by campaign types, such as email, flyer, or SEO.
These data points can inform your plumbing business on where to invest more marketing resources and increase lead volume.
For example, if you find that most of your best phone calls come from people who find you on Google Maps, you can invest more resources into ranking in the Google Map 3-Pack.
Some of the most popular CRMs for plumbers include ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, and Jobber.
24) Artificial Intelligence / LLMO
AI has emerged as part of the national discourse in a way few predicted before 2024.
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Gemini, and other platforms have become part of homeowner’s regular online activity.
Optimizing your web presence to appear in answers from these platforms is a practice called Large Language Model Optimization or LLMO.
Large Language Models power tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini to deliver answers based on training data and various online sources.
Google has started integrating AI overviews into its standard search results for plumbing-related queries, which appear above traditional search results.
This new SERP position gives plumbers an opportunity to capture new leads by appearing in these AI answers.
25) Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency
Hiring a digital marketing agency is a great way to get more plumbing leads. However, it’s critical that you choose the right provider.
Digital marketing agencies have generally lost the trust of plumbers because of overhyped services and overpromised results.
In addition, some agencies have misled plumbing companies about the efficacy of some “marketing tactics” like blogging, which violates Google’s Helpful Content Update.
The shaky foundation of the digital marketing industry makes signing up with one seem risky for plumbing companies.
However, the right digital marketing agency can implement all the most effective lead-generation methods in a comprehensive campaign that will outperform anything you can do alone.
Considering these variables, choosing a trusted digital marketing agency remains an excellent investment for plumbers.
How to Get Free Plumbing Leads
Startup plumbing companies often ask for ways to get free plumbing leads. I tell them the same thing: There are no genuine free leads.
While organic visibility on search engines can ultimately produce zero-dollar plumbing leads, the initial investment of building a digital brand worth that visibility costs money.
Word-of-mouth referrals from friends and family may also constitute “free leads,” though that is not a sustainable way to run a plumbing business.
Those jobs are only valuable if you can leverage them into a brand reinvestment through customer reviews and online reputation.
For newer plumbing contractors without a large budget, starting with the basics of a Google Business Profile and a one-page website can lay a solid foundation for future expansion.
Still, you will ultimately have to invest to get a return from quality leads.
Common Lead Generation Mistakes for Plumbers
After working directly with plumbing companies for over a decade, I can speak to the common mistakes plumbers make with lead generation.
It’s not always the plumber’s fault because sometimes their marketing company is investing in the wrong channels, but in many cases, it does come down to a business mindset.
Below, I’ll outline the most common lead generation mistakes I see from plumbers:
Gig Economy Mindset
Plumbing companies living “lead to lead” exist in the gig economy, preventing any business from scaling.
The business model cannot sustain itself when focusing on short-term lead acquisition rather than long-term lead abundance.
That’s why I discourage placing all your emphasis on short-term lead generation tactics like PPC and lead buying and promote long-term techniques like SEO and Google Maps.
Failure to Follow-Up
If it takes your office days or even weeks to follow up with a lead, they’ve probably already moved on to one of your competitors.
It’s essential to have a system to nurture leads and quickly respond to them in some fashion.
This may include CRM software and email or SMS automation to let the prospect know you value their inquiry.
Misinterpreting Lead Quality
Some plumbing companies try to get every possible lead – even for services their company does not provide.
This influx of bad leads can make attending to qualified prospects more challenging and create resentment toward people who feel misled by your content.
Qualified leads are homeowners who know their problem and that you can solve it. You should attract these prospects by creating suitable types of website pages, paid advertisements, and video content.
Next Steps for Plumbing Lead Generation
Over my decade-plus in the plumbing lead generation industry, I’ve witnessed each of these tactics succeed or fail, depending on the quality of the campaign and the service provider’s integrity.
I can assure you that plumbing leads are accessible to local companies that invest time, effort, and resources into building a digital brand.
