Lead Generation for Contractors: Where the Best Jobs Come From

Where do contractors get their best leads?

1. Past customers and referrals. The cheapest and easiest jobs to close. Ask for reviews and referrals when a job wraps up well.
2. Google Local Services Ads. Pay-per-lead listings at the top of Google with the Google Guaranteed badge. For one painting company, they returned $11 for every $1. See our guide to Google Local Services Ads.
3. Google Business Profile. The map listing. Keep services, service area, photos and reviews current.
4. Your website and search. A page for each service and the main cities you serve, like "exterior painting in Torrance," with photos of real jobs and an easy way to request an estimate.
5. Yelp. Strong in some markets and trades, especially when your reviews are good.
6. Lead marketplaces like Angi, Thumbtack and similar sites. They can fill gaps, but many share each lead with several contractors.
7. Partners. Realtors, property managers, designers and other trades who don't do what you do.
8. Job site signs and trucks. Neighbors see your work up close.
9. AI tools. More homeowners now ask ChatGPT which contractor to call. In one example Rob shares, a homeowner asked which painter was good with older homes, like a house built in 1924, then called the painter ChatGPT recommended and booked an estimate. Our guide to AI search optimization explains how to become the business ChatGPT recommends.

Are cheap leads good for contractors?

Usually not. In tracked results from a Southern California painting company, Facebook and Instagram leads cost $104 each and Google Local Services Ads leads cost $229. But each Facebook job cost $3,541 to win, while each Local Services Ads job cost $1,319. 63% of the Google leads booked an estimate, compared to 29% from Facebook. The full breakdown is in are Google Local Services Ads worth it?

The lesson: judge every source by cost per signed job, not cost per lead.

What about shared lead sites?

When a site sells the same homeowner's request to several contractors, the job usually goes to whoever calls first and shows up prepared. If you use them, respond within minutes, and track whether those leads actually close. Our guide to speed to lead covers how to respond fast without hiring.

How do contractors stop missing calls?

You're on a ladder, driving or with a customer when the phone rings, and most callers won't leave a voicemail. An AI receptionist can answer, book the estimate and text you the details, so you don't lose jobs you already paid to get.

How do you book more jobs from estimates?

• Send the estimate within a day or two, while the homeowner is still excited.
• Walk through it in person or by phone instead of just emailing a PDF.
• Follow up three to five times over two weeks, by phone and text.
• Show photos of similar jobs nearby and reviews from those neighbors.
• Make it easy to say yes with a simple deposit and start date.

How do you know which lead sources make money?

Tag every lead with its source, then follow it to a signed job and its revenue. In the painting case, 39 customers had been logged as plain "Google" when they came from Local Services Ads, which hid the best channel's results. Our lead tracking service sets this up in the CRM you already use, and the home service ads case study shows what it revealed.

Want to see where your business is losing jobs? Start with Rob's free Growth Leak Audit.