Reference guide for contractor owners
Plain-English definitions for every marketing term you will run into as a $1M to $5M+ contractor. No jargon. Just what it means, why it matters, and where to go next.
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Paid Ads
Google Ads are pay-per-click ads that appear at the very top of search results when a homeowner types in something like "roofer near me" or "AC repair." You bid on keywords and pay each time someone clicks. Done right, they are one of the fastest ways a contractor can get inbound calls from people who are ready to hire right now.
Meta Ads are paid ads that run on Facebook and Instagram. Unlike Google Ads, you are not waiting for someone to search. You choose your audience (homeowners in your area, by age, income, or interests) and put your brand in front of them. Meta is great for demand generation: creating interest in your service before someone even starts Googling.
PPC stands for pay-per-click. It means you only pay when someone actually clicks your ad. Google Ads and Meta Ads both run on PPC models. The cost of each click varies depending on how competitive your market and keyword are.
CPC is how much you pay every time someone clicks one of your ads. In competitive markets like roofing or HVAC, a single click can cost quite a bit because so many contractors are bidding for the same keywords. That is why getting your ad and landing page tight matters: you need those expensive clicks to turn into real leads.
Cost per lead is how much you spend to get one new lead, whether that is a phone call, a form fill, or a booked estimate. If you spend $1,000 on ads this month and get 20 leads, your CPL is $50. It is one of the most useful numbers to track in your ad campaigns. See how to lower your cost per lead.
Local Service Ads are a special Google ad format that puts a small profile box at the very top of search results. It shows your business name, your star rating, and a direct call button. You pay per lead, not per click. For trades like HVAC, plumbing, and electrical, LSAs can be one of the best-performing channels available.
Google Guaranteed is a badge Google gives you after you pass a background and license check. It shows up on your Local Service Ads listing and tells homeowners that Google backs your business. Contractors who earn the badge tend to get more calls because it lowers the homeowner's risk.
Retargeting means showing ads to people who already visited your website but did not call or fill out a form. Someone who looked at your deck-building page and left is a warm lead. Retargeting follows them with your ads on Facebook, Instagram, and other sites to bring them back. It costs less than cold traffic and converts much better.
A lookalike audience is a feature in Meta Ads. You upload a list of your best customers, and Meta finds new people who share similar traits (location, age, online behavior, interests). Instead of guessing who to target, you let the algorithm clone your ideal customer profile. It is one of the fastest ways to scale ad reach while keeping lead quality high.
Negative keywords are words you tell Google to exclude from triggering your ads. If you are a full-service roofing company, you do not want to pay for clicks from people searching "DIY roof repair" or "roofing jobs hiring." Adding those phrases as negatives saves budget and keeps your clicks cleaner.
A conversion is any action a visitor takes that you actually want: a phone call, a form submission, a booked estimate. Tracking conversions tells you which ads and pages are actually making you money versus which ones are just burning budget. Without conversion tracking, you are flying blind.
Search and SEO
SEO is the work you do to make Google show your website near the top of search results without paying for ads. It includes writing helpful content, getting other sites to link to you, and making sure your site loads fast and is easy to read. Good SEO compounds: it gets more valuable every month, unlike ads that stop the second you stop paying.
Your Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows up when someone searches for your business or for contractors in your area. It includes your business name, hours, photos, reviews, and a map pin. Keeping it updated, responding to reviews, and adding photos regularly is one of the cheapest SEO wins a contractor can make.
The map pack is the block of three local business listings with a map that Google shows near the top of results for searches like "electricians near me." Getting into the top three is the goal of local SEO. Contractors in the map pack get the majority of local clicks without paying per click.
Paid traffic comes from ads you pay for, like Google Ads or Meta Ads. The leads stop when the budget stops. Organic traffic comes from SEO work: people who find you in search results without you paying for that click. A strong SEO strategy builds organic traffic that keeps growing even when you are not running ads.
Keywords are the exact words and phrases people type into Google when they need a service. "Roof replacement Chicago," "HVAC repair near me," and "kitchen remodel contractor" are all keywords. SEO strategy starts by finding the keywords your ideal customers actually use and then building content around them.
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to yours. Google treats each quality backlink as a vote of trust in your site. A local news article that links to your business, a supplier listing, or a home improvement directory listing all count. More authoritative backlinks push your site higher in search results over time. Learn more at our SEO page.
Citations are mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on directories like Yelp, Angi, BBB, and Houzz. Google cross-references these listings to confirm your business is real and located where you say. Consistent NAP data across all directories helps you rank higher in local and map pack results.
Schema is a block of hidden code added to your website pages that tells Google exactly what each page is about. For contractors, it can get your star ratings or service areas to show right in the search result without anyone clicking. It is a technical SEO step that most competitor sites skip, which makes it a meaningful advantage when done right.
SERP stands for search engine results page. It is the page Google shows after someone types in a search. A typical SERP has paid ads at the top, the map pack in the middle, and organic results below. The goal of both paid and organic marketing is to get your business to the top of the SERP when the right homeowner searches.
Website and Conversion
A landing page is a focused web page built for one job: getting a visitor to call or fill out a form. It does not have a full navigation menu or a bunch of links pulling visitors away. It has one clear offer, strong proof, and one call to action. Landing pages paired with paid ads almost always outperform sending ad traffic to a generic homepage.
Your conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who take the action you want. If 200 people visit your site in a month and 8 call you, your conversion rate is 4 percent. A higher conversion rate means you get more leads from the same amount of traffic, making every dollar you spend on ads and SEO go further.
Speed to lead is how fast you respond after a new lead comes in. Research consistently shows that the contractor who responds first wins the job most of the time. If you wait a few hours while a competitor calls back in five minutes, you are handing jobs away. Fast follow-up is one of the cheapest ways to close more business without spending more on marketing.
Call tracking gives each marketing channel its own unique phone number. Your Google Ads get one number, your website gets another, your yard signs get a third. When someone calls, the system tells you exactly where that call came from. This lets you stop guessing and actually know which channels are booking you jobs.
An A/B test runs two versions of an ad or web page at the same time to see which one performs better. Version A might have one headline, Version B a different one. You split traffic between them and measure which drives more calls or form fills. The winner becomes the new standard, and you test again. Over time, this is how top contractors lower their cost per lead without increasing their ad budget.
Metrics
ROI is return on investment. If you spend $3,000 on marketing this month and book $30,000 in jobs you can trace back to that marketing, your ROI is 10x. It is the single most important metric for any contractor evaluating a marketing channel. Everything else (impressions, clicks, followers) is a proxy. Booked revenue is what actually matters.
ROAS is return on ad spend. It is the same idea as ROI but applies specifically to your paid ad budget. Divide the revenue from ads by what you spent on ads. A 5x ROAS means every $1 in ads generated $5 in revenue. Knowing your ROAS by channel helps you decide where to put more budget and where to cut.
Your close rate is the percentage of estimates or proposals that turn into booked jobs. If you gave 20 estimates last month and signed 6 of them, your close rate is 30 percent. Tracking your close rate helps you figure out if a lead quality problem is coming from your marketing or from what happens after the lead comes in.
Customer lifetime value is the total revenue one customer brings you over all the jobs they hire you for. A homeowner who calls you once for a roof repair might be worth $1,200. That same homeowner who hires you for a full replacement, refers two neighbors, and leaves a review is worth many times that. Understanding CLV helps you decide how much it is worth spending to acquire a customer in the first place.
Attribution is figuring out which marketing channel actually caused a lead or sale. A homeowner might see your Instagram Reel on Monday, click a Google Ad on Wednesday, and call from your website on Friday. Which channel gets credit? Attribution models try to answer that question so you can make smarter budget decisions. Call tracking and conversion tracking are the tools that make attribution possible for contractors.
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Social and Content
Short-Form Video (Reels)
Short-form video is content under 60 seconds, posted on Instagram Reels, TikTok, or Facebook. For contractors, it is the fastest way to build brand recognition in your market. A homeowner who has watched three of your Reels already feels like they know you before they ever call. Our social content service is built around this format because of how well it works for trades.
Impressions vs. Reach
Impressions count every time your content is shown, including repeat views. Reach counts how many unique people saw it. If 500 people saw your Reel and 200 of them watched it twice, you have 700 impressions but only 500 reach. Reach tells you how many people your brand is touching. Impressions tell you how often.
Engagement
Engagement is the total of likes, comments, shares, and saves on your social posts. High engagement signals to the platform that your content is worth showing to more people, which means more free reach. Comments and saves carry the most weight. For contractors, content that shows real work and real results tends to drive the most engagement.
UGC (User-Generated Content)
UGC is any photo, video, or review that your customers create and share about your work. A homeowner posting a before-and-after of your deck build is UGC. It is powerful because it comes from a real customer, not your marketing team. Homeowners trust it more than polished ads. Encouraging customers to share their experience is one of the best things a contractor can do for their brand. Pair it with a strong review strategy.
Evergreen Content
Evergreen content stays useful and relevant for years, not just for a few days. A blog post answering "how do I know if I need a new roof?" will get traffic from Google for years. A post about a limited-time deal goes stale in days. Building a library of evergreen content is a slow-burn SEO investment that compounds well for contractors in any trade.