Advertising for contractors: 15 ideas, and where video fits

Before a homeowner calls, they look you up. Most of your advertising sends people to these four places, so set them up before you pay for anything.

1. Your Google Business Profile. It’s free, and it’s often the first thing people see when they search your trade and their town. Fill in every field: services, service area, hours and photos. Add new job photos regularly, plus short videos of your crew and finished work.
2. A website that shows the work. It doesn’t need to be big. It needs your trades, the towns you serve, real project photos, your license number and a clear way to call or request an estimate. A short video of the owner or crew on the home page shows visitors who they’ll be dealing with.
3. Reviews from real customers. Ask every happy customer at the end of the job, and send a direct link. Reply to every review, good or bad. Never buy reviews, write your own, or offer something in exchange for a positive one. It breaks platform rules and federal rules on fake reviews.
4. Project pages and photos. Before-and-after photos, with the neighborhood and the scope of the job. A homeowner in Folsom wants to see a kitchen you finished in Folsom, not a stock photo.

Homeowners compare contractors on these pages before they ever pick up the phone. If your profile has three photos from years ago and no reviews, every ad you run sends people to a weak first impression.

Online ads put you in front of people now, instead of waiting on search rankings or word of mouth. They come in two kinds: ads that show up when someone searches, and ads that show up while they scroll.

5. Google search ads and Local Services Ads. Search ads show when someone types “roof repair near me” or “ADU builder Sacramento.” Local Services Ads appear at the top of some searches for eligible trades and are charged differently from regular search ads. Check whether your trade qualifies in your area. Search ads are mostly text, so the page they send people to matters: your website or profile has to show the work.
6. Facebook and Instagram ads. These reach homeowners who aren’t searching yet: the family that has been thinking about an ADU, or the couple who hates their bathroom. You can target the area around your jobs. Here the ad itself has to stop the scroll, so the creative matters most: a real person from your company talking to camera, with captions, in vertical format.
7. YouTube, TikTok and short-form video ads. The same vertical ads can run on YouTube Shorts and TikTok. Longer YouTube videos, like a walkthrough of a finished ADU or a full remodel, suit homeowners researching a big project.
8. Retargeting. Show your ads again to people who visited your website or watched your videos. A roof, a remodel or an ADU is a big decision that takes time. Retargeting keeps your name in view while they decide. Use a different ad than the one they already saw: a customer story, an install day, your real offer.

We won’t give you a budget number here, because it depends on your trade, your towns and the season. A practical approach: start with one or two channels, run a few different ads, and keep the ones people stop for. Either way, you need ads to run. Search ads need words; social ads need video.

Contractors have something most companies don’t: the work happens in the open, on a street, in front of the neighbors. These ideas use that.

9. Truck wraps and yard signs. Your trucks pass homeowners every day. Keep the wrap readable at a glance: name, trade, phone and website. Put a yard sign up at every job, with the homeowner’s OK. In California, check that your contractor license number appears on your advertising where the rules require it, including on vehicles.
10. Mailers and door hangers around your jobs. When you finish a roof or a kitchen, the neighbors have watched your trucks for weeks. A door hanger or postcard to the surrounding streets, with a photo of the finished job (with the homeowner’s permission), puts a face to the trucks. Add a QR code that opens a short video of that job.
11. A referral program. Past customers already know your work. Ask them directly, make it easy to pass your name along, and thank them when they do. If you offer a reward, put the terms in writing.
12. Partnerships with other trades. Realtors, property managers, designers, suppliers and trades that don’t compete with you. An ADU builder and a solar company serve the same homeowner at different times. So do a remodeler and an HVAC company. Agree to pass each other’s names along when a customer asks.
13. Home shows and community events. A booth puts you face to face with homeowners who are planning projects. A screen looping your job-site videos shows more than a banner can.

The last two ideas are video on its own terms: ads made from your jobs, and regular content that shows your company over time.

14. Video ads filmed on your own jobs. Short, vertical ads with your owner or technicians on camera, filmed on real job sites. Each ad opens with a line the homeowner recognizes, then shows the work. “Still living with pink tile?” is one of the ads we filmed for GVD Renovations. Make three at a time, each with a different opening line. Run them, then film more like the one people stop for. Our video ads page shows how a shoot day works.
15. Monthly social media video. Regular short videos on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube: answers to the questions homeowners ask, a build in progress, the crew at work, finished projects. It isn’t paid advertising, but it does a related job. When a homeowner finds your page, they see an active company and the real people behind it. IMKAT Homes, a Sacramento ADU builder, now has 50+ pieces of organic content on its channels: the builds, the finished units and the team.

Why does video get its own section? Of all 15 ideas, it’s the one that shows the people. A homeowner who will have a crew in the house for days or weeks wants to know who’s coming. A photo shows the work. A video shows the people doing it.

One shoot day gives you material for most of this list. Here’s where the same footage can go:

• Google Business Profile (1): short clips of the crew, the install and the finished job.
• Website and project pages (2, 4): an owner introduction on the home page, and a short video on each project page.
• Customer stories (3): a real customer on camera, in their own words, with their permission. Never script their words, and never use actors posing as customers.
• Search ads (5): video on the page your ads send people to, so they see who you are when they land.
• Social and video ads (6, 7, 8): finished vertical ads, with different ads saved for retargeting.
• Mailers and door hangers (10): a QR code that opens a video of the job down the street.
• Referrals and partners (11, 12): a short video your customers and partners can forward in a text.
• Home shows (13): a loop of job-site footage on the booth screen.

That’s the reason to film in batches. One half day on location can cover a set of finished ads and the clips for everything else, instead of a separate scramble for each channel.

You don’t need all 15 at once. A sensible order:

1. Set up the free basics. Profile, website, reviews and your license number. Your ads send people to these, so they come first.
2. Use what you already have. Trucks, job sites and past customers. Signs, door hangers and referrals need no agency to get going.
3. Pick one or two paid channels. Search ads for people already looking. Facebook and Instagram for people who aren’t looking yet. A small budget spread across everything is hard to learn from.
4. Have the creative ready before you spend. Your budget gets the ad in front of people; the ad decides whether they watch. Start with at least three different ads.
5. Review every month, and refresh. Keep the ads people respond to, replace the rest, and film new ones a few weeks before your busy season.

Who runs the ads is a separate decision. You can run them yourself, hire an ad manager or use an agency. Base015 doesn’t run ads: we make them, and your team or your ad manager runs them. Agencies work with us too. For more than three years, Turn Media has had us film and edit about 90 white-label ads for its clients.

The ideas above apply to every trade, but what goes on camera changes:

• HVAC: your technicians, the room that never cools, and seasonal ads filmed before summer and winter. See HVAC video ads and 12 HVAC advertising ideas.
• Roofing: the crew on the roof, drone shots of the finished job, and the warning signs homeowners can see from the driveway. See roofing video ads.
• ADU builders: the build from start to finish, the finished unit, and why people build one, like family or rental income. IMKAT’s ads include “Targeting Investors” and “Growing rental portfolio.” See ADU builder video ads.
• Remodeling: the problem room, before and after, and what the process looks like. See remodeling video ads.
• Solar: install day, the crew, and the owner explaining the process. Only mention savings, rebates or incentives you can back in writing. See solar video ads.
• Auto detailing: before and after, close-ups of the process, and the person doing the work. See auto detailing video ads.

Base015 is a video production company for contractors in the Sacramento region. We film and edit video ads and monthly social media video. We don’t run ads, buy media or manage your accounts. We make the videos that go into ideas 1 through 15.

• Half-day shoot: $600, half a day on location with our crew and gear.
• Full-day shoot: $1,000, for more scripts, people or places.
• Ad Batch: $900 for 3 finished ads, scripted, edited and ready to launch.
• Ad pack: from $1,500, a half-day shoot plus one Ad Batch, delivered within 7 days of the shoot.
• The Sacramento Trust Engine (monthly social media video): from $2,500 a month, with a 3-month minimum. It’s for companies already spending a few thousand a month on marketing, and we work with one company per trade in the Sacramento region.

What clients have done with it: IMKAT Homes started with ADU ads and came back for organic content, 30+ ads and 50+ pieces in all. GVD Renovations brought their own scripts, and we filmed 9 talking-head ads in a single shoot day. Mini Split Experts started with five ads and came back for more shoots, 15+ talking-head ads so far. In the words of Paul Panochko, Owner of Mini Split Experts: “Base015 brought clarity and consistency.” See all our work.

Travel is included in Sacramento, Roseville, Folsom, Elk Grove, Rocklin, El Dorado Hills and Davis, and shoots elsewhere add $150 (see service areas). For an ad pack, book a shoot online, no call needed. For monthly content, see how the Trust Engine works and book a strategy call there. Full details are on our pricing page, and questions go through the contact form.