When you decided to start your HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, you had no idea how much of your time would involve focusing on numbers, did you? You’re constantly trying to keep your pricing balanced with wages and materials. You’re trying to find the best prices and thinking about ways to reduce all sorts of costs.
Have you devoted as much effort to controlling what you spend on advertising? Have you carefully analyzed your strategies and returns, or are you behaving like most of your peers and simply throwing way too much money at a few different marketing channels and crossing your fingers? If you’re not applying the same analysis and accountability to your advertising investment, you’re leaving money on the table. A lot of money.
Demanding and earning a real return on your investment isn’t about being cheap; it’s about being smart. At the very list, you should start paying attention to what’s here.
Quantify What Success Looks Like
Don’t spend a single dollar until you’ve defined your goals in easily measurable ways. You won’t know whether your ad campaign was successful unless you can define and quantify success. Is it more phone calls? More website form submissions? More booked jobs? The clearer your goals are, the easier they are to track. At the very least, do these two things:
Set specific KPIs. Instead of a vague goal like “get more business,” set measurable goals using Key Performance Indicators like these:
- Generate 20 new service calls from Google Local Services Ads this month.
- Increase our website’s lead form submissions by 15%.
- Achieve a 5-to-1 Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) from our Facebook ad campaign.
Know your CAC. How much does it cost you to get a new customer? Your Customer Acquisition Cost gives you an easy, trackable metric: just divide your total ad spend by the number of new customers you’ve acquired. Comparing your CAC before your new campaign with what it is now the campaign is underway can tell you whether you’re generating business or wasting money.
Implement the Right Tracking Tools
You can’t make your advertising accountable if you don’t know the right way to track it. Tools like these are essential for connecting your marketing efforts to real-world results:
- Call tracking. This is a game-changer. A call tracking service assigns unique phone numbers to different ad campaigns (say, one number for Google Ads, one for a direct mailer, one for your website). When a customer calls, you’ll know exactly which channel prompted the action.
- Conversion tracking. Make sure your website is set up to track conversions, recording every time a visitor fills out a contact form, uses a chat feature, or clicks a specific button. Tools like Google Analytics and Meta Pixel are essential.
- CRM integration. By connecting your ad platforms to your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system ex. ServiceTitan, Housecall Pros, Service Fusion, etc., you can see which marketing channels generate not just leads but booked jobs and revenue. This is the ultimate form of accountability.
- Understand attribution. With leads, direct attribution connects a lead to the exact marketing source that drove it—like a tracked phone number from a direct mailer. Indirect attribution looks at the role other touchpoints play before a lead converts—such as someone Googling your company after seeing your billboard. Both matter. While it’s important to examine individual attribution sources, understanding the ROI from indirect attribution can be a critical part of determining your marketing’s true long-term impact.
Demand Transparency (Especially from Your Marketing Partner)
If you’re working with a marketing agency, they should be an extension of your team, not a black box. The best agencies thrive on accountability and are proud to provide clear, understandable reports. Make sure those reports focus on what’s real and important, like the number of leads generated, the cost per lead, and the revenue attributed to each campaign. Things like impressions, clicks, and social media likes are nice, but they don’t pay the bills. The agency should be able to show you that the leads they generated actually turned into paying customers. If they can’t, it’s time to find a better partner. Like us, for example.
Constantly Adjust and Optimize
Accountability isn’t a one-and-done accomplishment. It’s a continuous cycle of measurement, analysis, and optimization:
- Review data. Carve out time every week or month to review your ad performance with your marketing and advertising partner. Look at which campaigns are bringing in the most profitable jobs. Are your Google Local Services Ads outperforming your social media ads? Is a particular keyword driving a lot of low-quality leads?
- Reallocate dollars. Use the data you collect to make informed decisions. If a campaign is consistently underperforming, don’t be afraid to pull the plug and move that money to something that’s delivering a better ROI.
- Recognize indirect attribution. Some channels, like TV, radio and branded direct mail, may not show many direct leads in your reporting. That doesn’t mean they aren’t working. These channels build brand awareness that makes your other marketing efforts more effective. Be cautious about cutting them solely because they don’t show immediate, trackable leads.
Remember, you’re not spending money on advertising; you’re investing it. You’ll gain a clear picture of what’s truly working for your business, allowing you to make smarter, more profitable decisions with greater confidence for years to come.
We Know Accountability’s Critical
In fact, the level of accountability our team practices sets us apart. At least that’s what we hear from companies like yours that have worked with ordinary agencies. We like accountability because it proves we know what we’re doing and lets us fine-tune our recommendations to changes in the marketplace.