A lot of tradies have been sold marketing at some point and couldn't tell you what it did. The usual story is a monthly fee, a report nobody reads, and no real change in how often the phone rings.
Marketing a plumbing business online is not complicated. There are four things that matter, they go in a set order, and you can do the first two yourself this week. Here's the simple version.
1. Your Google Business Profile
When someone has water coming through the ceiling, they pick up their phone and search "plumber near me". What they see first is a map with three or four businesses on it. That listing is your Google Business Profile, and it's free.
If you do nothing else on this page, do this:
- Claim the profile in your own name, with your own login. Don't let anyone set it up under theirs.
- Choose "Plumber" as the main category.
- List the suburbs you actually cover.
- Put in your real hours. If you do after-hours call-outs, say so.
- Add photos of your own work and your van. Real ones, not stock pictures.
2. Reviews
Reviews are one of the things Google looks at when it decides who goes on that map, and they're the first thing a customer reads. A plumber with forty recent reviews will get the call over one with three.
The trick is boring: ask every customer, every time, straight after the job, while they're still relieved the hot water works. Send them the link by text so it takes them thirty seconds. Then reply to each review, good or bad. It shows the next person you're paying attention.
Never buy reviews or write your own. Google removes them, and customers can tell.
3. A website that makes the phone ring
A plumber's website has one job: turn someone who's looking into someone who's calling. It doesn't need to be big. It needs:
- Your phone number at the top of every page, as a button people can tap.
- What you do and where you do it, in the first few lines.
- Your licence number.
- Your reviews.
- Photos of real jobs.
- A short form for people who'd rather not ring.
It has to work properly on a phone, because that's where nearly all of these searches happen. Five good pages will do more for you than thirty thin ones.
4. Not missing the call
This is the one almost everyone overlooks. You can do all of the above perfectly, and then be under a house when the phone rings. Someone with a burst pipe won't leave a message. They'll ring the next plumber on the list.
A simple fix is a text that goes out by itself when you miss a call: "Sorry, I'm on a job. What's the problem and where are you? I'll ring you back by 3." It keeps the customer with you until you're free. Of everything on this page, it's often the quickest to pay for itself.
What you can skip
- Posting on social media every day. Nobody chooses an emergency plumber from Instagram. A tidy page with a few job photos is plenty.
- A monthly "SEO package" with no list of work. If they can't tell you what they'll do each month, you're paying for a word.
- Anything described as a funnel. You need a phone number and a reason to ring it.
When paid ads make sense
Ads on Google put you at the top of the page straight away. You pay each time someone clicks, whether they ring you or not. They can work well for urgent, high-value jobs like blocked drains and hot water. They are also the fastest way to waste money if nobody is watching them.
Before you run any:
- Get the four things above sorted first. Ads that send people to a poor website are money down the drain.
- Set a daily limit you're comfortable losing while you learn.
- Have the ad account in your own name, so you can see every dollar.
- Know what you pay Google and what you pay the person running the ads. They should be two separate numbers.
How to tell if any of it is working
Ignore "impressions" and "reach". Count two things: how many calls and enquiries you got this month, and how many became paid jobs. Ask every new customer how they found you and write it down. After three months you'll know more about your marketing than most reports will ever tell you.
If someone's already selling you marketing
Ask them what they did last month, as a list, and how many calls it produced. If you get a clear answer, you're probably in good hands. If you get a chart and a lot of long words, read this next.
And if you've got a quote or a monthly invoice you can't make sense of, send it to us. We'll explain it in plain English, free.