When a trades or home service owner asks me for marketing help, I usually start with one question: where did your last 10 jobs come from?
Most owners have a rough idea. They know about how much they spend on ads, their website, or a local mailer. Fewer can say which of those things actually brought in paying work.
That gap matters. Without real answers, every marketing decision is a guess. It is easy to cut the thing that is quietly working and keep paying for the thing that isn’t.
The good news is that tracking does not need to be complicated. Here is the simple version I recommend.
First, ask every new customer how they heard about you. Make it part of the first call and add it to your quote request form. Keep the choices simple: Google search, Google Maps, website, referral, Facebook, yard sign, truck, mailer, repeat customer, or other.
Second, write the answer down where you already keep customer information. Most scheduling tools let you record a lead source for each customer or add a custom field for it. A spreadsheet works too.
Third, track the jobs you win, not just the calls. Ten calls from one source that never turn into work are worth less than three calls that become good customers.
Fourth, review it once a month. Add up the jobs and the revenue by source, and look for patterns.
If you run paid ads, ask whoever manages them to set up call tracking. A tracking phone number shows which calls came from the ads. Without it, ad results are hard to judge.
After two or three months, you will have a much clearer picture. Maybe referrals bring in your best customers. Maybe Google Maps does most of the work. Maybe the mailer you almost canceled is paying for itself. Either way, you can spend more on what works and stop paying for what doesn’t.
This is not the most exciting part of marketing. But it may be the most important, because every other decision depends on it.
For a first step this week, look at your last 10 jobs and write down where each one came from. If you are not sure about some of them, that tells you something too.
If you want a second set of eyes on your marketing, send me a message on LinkedIn. I’m happy to help you sort out what’s working.