9 Advertising Ideas For Construction Companies That Want New Business

Strategic advertising for construction companies is all about understanding your business’s target customers, where they engage online and what they value in a construction company. Once you answer these questions, you can position your construction company’s advertising efforts to effectively meet and generate demand for your business’s services.

Each of these 9 construction company advertising methods plays a unique role within the awareness, consideration and decision stages of the sales funnel and customer journey. When building out a bulletproof advertising plan for your construction company, pay attention to which method offers the most value in each stage of the sales funnel.

Local services ads are paid advertisements generated within a search engine’s search results. They are can be triggered by “near me” search queries (or general search queries) and the top results are grouped in the Local Pack.

Here’s an example of local service ads in the Local Pack: 

Creating a local service ad strategy for your construction company allows your business to meet customers at every phase of the sales funnel. Designing local service ads to trigger during the awareness, consideration and decision phases means higher conversions and more sales. 

For example, an ad triggered by the local search query “construction company near me” can incorporate copy and links that encourage further research. A local services ad triggered by a more specific query like “affordable construction company near me” can take advantage of the specific need expressed in the query of “affordable” by offering quick quotes or price comparisons. Lastly, make it easy for prospects to choose and contact your construction company with readily available phone numbers, emails or contact forms connected to the local service ad. 

Local service ads on Google often offer construction companies higher conversions and higher quality traffic than traditional local search ads. This is because they target high-intent search queries and prospects looking for specific services that your construction company most likely offers.  

When creating a local service ad campaign, make sure to follow these best practices: 

• Keyword research to write headlines and descriptions that convert
• Implement tracking to ensure ad quality 
• Attach landing page links to specific local search ad offerings 
• Verify your business with Gooogle (or other search engine)
• Work to get the “Google Guaranteed” checkmark for increased credibility 
• Optimize the local services listing 

For more on local services ads, check out Google’s support resources.

Leverage YouTube ads for the awareness phase of the sales funnel and for remarketing campaigns. 

With video marketing on the rise, video-centric platforms like YouTube are strategic advertising platforms for construction companies to invest in. 

If you’re concerned about your construction company’s bandwidth and capability to produce quality video ads, don’t be discouraged. Videos shot on a smartphone, with clear lighting and audio and a compelling CTA are a great place to start and can yield significant results. As your business experiences more conversions (and more revenue) from YouTube ads, consider using those new resources to reinvest back into video production and ad budget and strategy. 

Here are a few content ideas for your construction company’s video ads: 

• Before and after remodels 
• New build progress timelapse
• Quick product or material highlights  
• Advertise a new sale or discount available only through the ad 

For more on expert video marketing for your construction company, read Venveo’s blog “7 Expert Tips for Video Marketing Success (+15 Types of Videos Manufacturers Can Try)”.

Yelp is an established search engine that runs on real customer reviews. It lists and ranks all types of businesses, including construction companies and general contractors.

Creating a free business listing on Yelp for your construction company helps your business reach high-intent customers and gives your business access to run Yelp ads. Because Yelp’s audience tends to be a higher intent market, Yelp ads claim to generate 2.5 times the quality traffic of other search engine ads.

For your construction company’s Yelp listing and ads to be truly effective, they must showcase glowing customer reviews. Customer reviews are the heartbeat of Yelp and if your construction company’s review marketing strategy is lacking, your business will miss out on high-value conversions and customers from Yelp.

An effective review marketing strategy involves establishing an airtight feedback loop between your construction company and its customers.

A review marketing strategy that works can be as simple as directly asking customers to leave a quick review via email, website contact form or desired search engine business listing. Keep a steady flow of reviews, and always reply to both positive and negative reviews professionally and with respect.

Because Yelp’s audience tends to be higher intent than other search engines’ audiences, create an ad strategy focused on the consideration and decision phases of the sales funnel.

Your construction company’s Yelp ads should showcase what makes your business competitive and make it easy for interested users to contact you.

A search engine optimized website isn’t enough to generate quality leads and close sales in today’s digital age. Creating specific and optimized landing pages for individual products and services can increase conversions and revenue.

For every ad your construction company runs, there should be a specific, branded, search engine optimized landing page attached.

For example, if your construction company is running an ad campaign to increase sales for new roofs, the landing page that prospects click through to should only be about your business’s roofing service.

When creating a compelling landing page, follow these best practices:

• Plentiful calls-to-action throughout the page
• One search engine optimized page 
• Link to your business’s full website 
• Easy contact form/contact information 
• Clearly marked discounts/sales for purchase from ad

Linking a landing page to an ad could be the difference between making a sale and losing a customer to your construction company’s competition. Landing pages elevate an online user’s overall experience with your construction company’s brand by giving them clear actions to take and quickly presenting them with the value and information they are looking for.

Landing pages should be optimized for whichever phase of the sales funnel the ad is targeting. However, don’t forget to include compelling CTAs throughout the landing page even if it’s an awareness phase asset.

Adding a blog to your construction company’s website is a tried-and-true SEO method proven to add value to your potential customers and earn your construction company more business. 

Blogging offers the following benefits: 

• Higher rankings in search engine search results
• Higher website traffic, engagement and conversions 
• Increased brand loyalty and customer connection 
• Added credibility and industry authority to your business and brand 
• An edge on industry trends from continuous research for blog copywriting 

When beginning a blog, consistency is more important than volume. Search engine algorithms value regularly updated websites with content that’s helpful and follows SEO best practices. For these reasons, consistently posting one blog a month will reap more benefits long term than posting blogs sporadically throughout the year. 

Assess your team’s bandwidth when creating a content calendar to ensure consistency and quality. 

Here are a few blog and SEO pitfalls to avoid: 

• Posting blogs randomly instead of consistently 
• Keyword stuffing content instead of naturally adding keywords amidst an otherwise valuable blog 
• Failing to add data-rich media (videos, images, infographics, audio bits) throughout your blogs 
• Not researching high volume keywords and writing content around them 
• Neglecting to repurpose blog content or advertise it in emails, ads or social posts for continued engagement 

When writing blogs and drafting a content strategy, remember that the objective of a blog is to move prospects further down the sales funnel and invite them to convert. Every blog should have a clear purpose and CTA while still adding value to the reader and can be created to target the awareness, consideration and decision phases of the sales funnel.

Your construction company’s website is often the first impression potential customers get of your business. But if your business is never found online, leads will never have the chance to convert and choose your construction company over your competition. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the set of digital marketing practices that help your business’s website rank highly in search engine results. 

Here are a few SEO best practices to implement on your construction company’s website: 

• Fast page loading speed (2 seconds or less)
• Keyword-rich, regularly updated content 
• High-quality images and videos 
• Optimized image descriptions and backend meta tags 
• Site indexing on all internet directories  

A search engine optimized website will always have the user’s experience in mind with design, copy and intuitive site navigation. Hiring a skilled website developer, designer and copywriter can ensure that your construction company’s website pleases both search engine algorithms and its online visitors.

Lead generation websites like Task Rabbit, Nextdoor, Angie’s List, Bark or others are websites designed to connect service-based businesses with high-intent customers. Many of these websites have free listing options, paid advertising capabilities and premium customer connect offerings. 

Creating a business listing on a lead generation website is a cost-effective method to earn your construction company valuable leads and business. Make sure to check if the platforms charge to connect with customers and, if you run paid ads, hire a paid advertising specialist or agency.  

Your construction company’s business listing should be geared toward the decision stage of the sales funnel. Assuming high intent from online viewers frequenting lead generation websites can help guide copywriting, design, CTAs and more on your business’s listing.

Text, or SMS, campaigns are a new norm in the digital marketing space. While it’s still a relatively green strategy, construction companies that take advantage of it in its early stages are bound to see significant results as the strategy grows.

Similar to email campaigns, with text advertising, your construction company drafts short, quippy texts (complete with links, instructions and relevant images) and sends them directly to its contacts.

Here are a few ideas of text campaigns your construction company can run:

• Seasonal discounts and sales on services or products
• Advertise short DIY videos filmed and produced by your business
• Referral program incentives
• Current client project updates
• Billing notifications and paperwork
• New products or services

With text campaigns, it’s important to keep them short and to the point. Consumers’ attention spans are even shorter with texts than emails, so adding value right away is key for engagement.

Any contact within your construction company’s text campaign flow should have opted into receiving marketing materials via text. Opting in typically moves a consumer from the awareness stage to at least the consideration stage of the sales funnel. When creating content for these contacts, segment them according to their intent and interest level and serve them content that speaks directly to their needs and questions for the best campaign results.

Social media marketing for construction companies doesn’t have to be bland, forced or unfruitful. In order for your construction company’s social media marketing strategy to be successful, think about incorporating a variety of posts that add value to prospects at every stage in the sales funnel.

Here are a few ideas for different types of social posts to incorporate:

• Entertainment-focused posts
• Education-focused posts
• Brand personality-focused posts
• Sales-focused posts

New research suggests keeping sales-related posts to a minimum. While social media platforms can be a powerful lead generation tool with younger generations opting for their search functions over traditional search engines, brand awareness and building a genuine connection should be your construction company’s first goal with social media marketing.

Steer clear from counting vanity metrics when measuring your business’s social media account’s success. Vanity metrics are KPIs that seem relevant and impactful but don’t hold much weight.

Common vanity metrics in social media marketing are:

• Likes
• Follower count
• Shares
• Impressions

Instead of counting vanity metrics to measure performance, measure these high-impact social media metrics:

• Follower-growth rate
• Conversion rate
• Sentiment analysis
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Engagement rate

Following and improving the performance of these high-impact social media KPIs will ensure an airtight social media marketing strategy for your construction business that targets every stage of the buyers’ journey.

Implementing these 9 advertising ideas at the appropriate sales funnel stage for your construction company will increase revenue, create a stronger brand identity and create lifelong customers.

If your construction company needs assistance with advertising in any of these areas, Venveo can help. Contact us today to learn more and get a quote!