Contractors get pitched by marketing agencies constantly — most of them generic, most of them never having actually run a trades business. Here’s what to actually check before signing anything.
1. Have they worked with contractors before, specifically?
Trades marketing is different from e-commerce or SaaS marketing. Lead volume matters more than brand awareness. Local search matters more than national reach. Speed-to-response often matters more than the ad creative itself. An agency without direct trades experience will waste your budget relearning things a trades-specific agency already knows. Before spending anything, it’s worth stepping back and asking the same structural question covered in In-House Marketing Team vs. Agency and Full-Service Agency vs. Freelancer — because “which agency” is only the right question once “agency vs. the alternatives” has already been answered honestly.
2. Do they understand your actual sales cycle?
A roofing lead and a landscaping lead don’t behave the same way. Storm damage leads need a callback in minutes, not hours. Design-build landscaping leads need nurturing over weeks. Ask any agency you’re evaluating to explain, unprompted, how they’d handle your specific lead type. If they can’t, they’re guessing.
3. Who actually owns your Google Business Profile?
For local trades, Google Business Profile is often the single highest-leverage asset a marketing partner touches — verification status, categories, service areas, reviews, and posts all directly affect whether you show up in the map pack. Ask specifically who manages this, how often, and what their process is for handling suspensions or verification issues, since these happen more often than most owners realize.
4. Do they talk about leads, or do they talk about impressions?
A red flag in trades marketing specifically: an agency that reports on reach, impressions, and engagement without ever tying those numbers back to actual leads and booked jobs. Ask exactly how leads are tracked, attributed, and reported, and how often.
5. What happens to your accounts if you leave?
Some agencies build ad accounts, websites, and automation inside their own locked infrastructure, effectively holding your marketing hostage if you switch providers. Ask directly: if we part ways, do we keep our website, our ad accounts, our CRM, and our data? A trustworthy agency has a clear, unhesitant answer.
6. Can they show real before-and-after work?
Not a portfolio of screenshots — actual transformations: a website before and after, a Google Business Profile before and after, real client names where possible. Vague case studies with no specifics are a sign of thin experience.
7. Is pricing scoped to your actual business, or is it a fixed package?
Trades businesses vary enormously in size, service area, and competition. A marketing agency selling identical fixed packages to every contractor regardless of market usually isn’t doing real strategic work — they’re running a template.
The bottom line
The best marketing partner for a contractor isn’t the biggest agency or the cheapest one — it’s the one that can speak fluently about how trades businesses actually generate and close leads, and can prove it with specific, verifiable work. If an agency can’t answer these seven questions clearly and specifically, keep looking.