Paid Ads 2026: What Still Works

In this episode, Caitlyn and Meredith break down the current state of paid advertising for home improvement contractors and separate myth from reality.

They cover four key platforms—Google Search, Local Service Ads, Meta (Facebook & Instagram), and YouTube—highlighting what’s changed, what still works, and where contractors should focus their budgets in 2026.

Listeners will learn:

•  Why Google Ads are more expensive—but still effective
•  How LSAs have become a top-performing lead source
•  Why retargeting is the most valuable Meta strategy
•  How YouTube can influence homeowners early in the decision process

The episode emphasizes the importance of a coordinated, multi-channel strategy focused on visibility, trust, and consistent follow-up throughout the customer journey.

Want to find out how we can create a custom digital marketing game plan for your contractor business? Schedule a call with us at fatcatstrategies.com.

Transcript

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Intro: Welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors, a podcast for home improvement contractors to help you crush your lead goals and take your business to the next level. Join us each episode as we give you powerful insights and practical tips on the best digital marketing strategies to help you grow your home improvement business. Let's get started.

Meredith: Welcome back to Digital Marketing for Contractors. I'm Meredith Medlin.

Caitlyn: And I'm Caitlyn Noble, and today, we're talking about paid ads, which, if I'm being honest, is one of my favorite topics, because there is so much bad information floating around about it right now.

Meredith: There really is. We hear it from contractors all the time. "google Ads don't work anymore," or, "Facebook Ads are dead, and you know, I tried it once and it didn't work, so I'm done with it."

Caitlyn: And look, some of those complaints are valid. The paid ads landscape in 2026 is genuinely different from what it was last year, three or four years ago. I mean, but different doesn't mean broken. It means you have to play the game differently.

Meredith: So, that is exactly what we're gonna dig into today. We're gonna talk about four channels: Google Search and PPC, local service ads, Meta, which is Facebook and Instagram, and YouTube. And for each of those, we're gonna talk about what's changed, what still absolutely works, and what contractors should actually be doing right now.

Caitlyn: And we'll be honest when something isn't working the way it used to. There is no cheerleading here. I was not a cheerleader.

Meredith: Nope, no cheerleading.

Caitlyn: You danced or something.

Meredith: I danced, but there was no pompoms.

Caitlyn: Okay.

Meredith: Zero pompoms. So promise, no We're gonna start where most contractors start, which is Google Search.

Caitlyn: Google Search ads, the OG.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: And still, despite everything, probably the highest intent advertising channel available to a home improvement contractor. When someone types "emergency roofing repair Toledo" in Google and clicks your ad, that is a warm lead. They have a problem. They are actively looking for a solution, and they are ready to talk to someone.

Meredith: Yeah. The intent is unmatched. You really can't replicate that anywhere else right now.

Caitlyn: You can't, but here's the honest conversation we have to have. It is more expensive than it used to be. CPCs, which cost per click, in home improvement have climbed significantly over the last couple of years. Roofing is brutal.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: We're seeing clicks in competitive metro areas running anywhere from $40 to $80. That's clicks,

Meredith: Per click, yeah. Not form fill, not phone call.

Caitlyn: Yeah, which is still a raw lead.

Meredith: Yep.

Caitlyn: Sometimes higher for the most competitive terms.

Meredith: And $80 a click, that

Caitlyn: I mean, if you're driving, you I

Meredith: Sorry, hope you

Caitlyn: Crash.

Meredith: swerve. That's a number that, when we talk to clients about it, it can be very surprising.

Caitlyn: Well, well, forget, then forget Google Ads.

Meredith: Yeah, no.

Caitlyn: I mean, it is, and if your landing page converts at 3% and you're paying $70 a click, you do the math. You're spending over $2,000 to get a single lead. That only works if your average job value justifies it, and for a lot of contractors, it does. A new roof or a full siding replacement is a big ticket, but you have to know your numbers cold.

Meredith: Yeah. So, what is the answer? Just accept the high CPCs and hope for the best? What do we do?

Caitlyn: No, and this is where I see a lot of contractors leave serious money on the table. The answer is getting much more disciplined about the type, match types, and negative keywords. This is not exciting stuff, but it is the difference between an account that bleeds and an account that prints. Oh, I like that.

Meredith: Yeah. Break that down now. For somebody who is not deep in the weeds on this, what, what does that mean?

Caitlyn: Sure.

Meredith: We're matches

Caitlyn: Sure, sure, sure.

Meredith: keywords.

Caitlyn: So, match types. This is something, I mean, if you're working with your agency, I mean, this would just kind of maybe blow their minds if you got into this conversation. So, challenge accepted.

Meredith: Impress them.

Caitlyn: Match types control which searches actually trigger your ad. If you're running broad match on the keyword "roofing," which is the default Google pushes you towards, you might be showing up for "roofing nail gun reviews" or "roofing contractor jobs near me." Those clicks are worthless to you and you're paying for them. Tightening your match types and building out a solid negative keyword list, terms you explicitly tell Google not to show your ad for, that's often where we find the biggest efficiency gains in an account.

Meredith: Yeah, some low-hanging fruit there, for sure. So you might be spending the same budget, but getting way more relevant clicks out of it once you start getting these

Caitlyn: Phrase

Meredith: specific phrase matches in your account. Yeah.

Caitlyn: Exactly. And the other thing that's changed is how Google is pushing automation. Smart Bidding, Performance Max, Google very much wants you to hand over the wheel and let the algorithm drive and spend all of your money.

Meredith: Okay. Well, should we?

Caitlyn: Mm. Partially.

Meredith: Okay.

Caitlyn: Smart Bidding can genuinely work well once an account has enough conversion data to learn from. So let me say that again. Smart Bidding can genuinely work well once an account has enough conversion data to learn from. But Performance Max, which is Google's fully automated campaign type that runs across all their inventory, it's a mixed bag for local contractors. We've seen it work, and we've seen it burn budget on irrelevant placements. The lack of transparency is a, the big issue, and you don't know where your money is going.

Meredith: Okay. So, the recommendation here is proceed with caution, it sounds like.

Caitlyn: Definitely proceed with caution and keep a human in the loop. Don't just set it and forget it, because Google's goals and your goals are not always the same. Google wants to spend your budget. You want to get leads at a profitable cost.

Meredith: Yeah. Give Google the reins and they will just be like, "You should just spend more money."

Caitlyn: It, it's a nightmare.

Meredith: That would be great. what about the stuff that still works on Google 100%?

Caitlyn: Ad copy that speaks directly to the job, specific benefit-forward headlines. "Free estimate, same week," beats, "Call us today," every single time. Extensions, using all the available extensions, like call extensions, location extensions, site links. Those increase your real estate on the page and your click-through rate without costing you more click.And sending people to a dedicated landing page instead of your homepage, that alone can double your conversion rate.

Meredith: Yeah, I feel like only sending traffic to your homepage is such a mistake that we come across and that we see. But fixing it can give you a huge lift.

Caitlyn: It's chronic. Someone clicks an ad for bathroom remodel Indianapolis and lands on a homepage with a slider and links to eight different services, they're gone in four seconds. Send them to a page that matches exactly what they searched for. Same message, clear CTA, one job to do.

Meredith: Okay, and what about retargeting? Does that play a role in Google Search?

Caitlyn: Great bridge to the broader retargeting conversation we'll have, but on Google specifically, you can layer audience targeting on top of your search campaigns, meaning you can bid higher for people who have already visited your site. So, if someone searches, searched for roofers, visited your site, didn't convert, then searches again a week later, you can make sure they are showing up aggressively for that second search. They're a much warmer prospect, and worth paying more to win.

Meredith: For sure. Okay. So, let's move on to something that has completely reshuffled the top of Google for local contractors. LSAs. So, LSA stands for local service ads, and if you are a home improvement contractor and you're not running LSAs, I genuinely wanna know why. Because they have become one of the most efficient lead generation tools available, and a lot of contractors are either not running

Caitlyn: Yeah.

Meredith: or they're just running them wrong.

Caitlyn: Yeah, let's start with what they are for, who isn't familiar. LSA, LSAs are the ads that show up at the very top of Google, above the regular PPC ads, above the map pack, above everything. They show your business name, your Google review star rating, your review count, and a click-to-call button. And here's the difference from regular Google Ads, you pay per lead, not per click.

Meredith: And that is a different economic model, is it not?

Caitlyn: Completely different. You're not paying every time someone clicks to your website. You're paying when someone actually calls you or messages you through the ad. You can even dispute leads that aren't legit. Wrong service area, wrong job type, people looking for something you don't offer.

Meredith: Okay, so a very low risk

Caitlyn: Yeah,

Meredith: when we're comparing it to PPC.

Caitlyn: Absolutely, it is.

Meredith: Okay.

Caitlyn: And what's changed in the last couple of years is that Google has really pushed LSA to the top of the results page, on mobile especially, which is where the majority of home service searches happen. LSAs often take up most of what's visible before you have to even scroll. So, if you're not there, you're starting behind.

Meredith: All right. So, what does it actually take to get local service ads? Because I know there's a fun verification process.

Caitlyn: Super fun. There is, and you have to go through Google's verification background checks for the business, and in some categories, for individual technicians. License verification, depending on your trade, insurance documentation. It's a bit of a process, but y'all, it's a one-time thing, and it's so worth doing.

Meredith: Yeah, and so you go through the verification process, you get approved. Once you're in, what makes the difference between an LSA that performs and one that just kinda sits there?

Caitlyn: Reviews. Full stop. LSAs are most, almost entirely a review-driven ranking system. Google is surfacing the most trusted businesses, and trust on LSAs is measured largely by how many Google reviews you have and what your rating is. We've seen contractors go from page two of LSAs to consistently top three by running a focused review generation campaign for 60 days.

Meredith: Okay, so if your Google review count has been stagnant, that's directing, directly gonna cost you money on LSAs?

Caitlyn: Directly. It's not a vanity metric at this point. It is a ranking factor with real revenue attached to it.

Meredith: All right. So, what about the budget side? How do you manage spend on LSAs? Is it like PPC, or what's it like?

Caitlyn: It's different. You set a weekly budget, and Google tries to match you with leads within that. The cost per lead varies a lot by market and trade. We see anywhere from $30 to well over $100 per lead, depending on how competitive the market is and what service you're advertising. Roofing in a major metro is on the higher end, of course. Something like gutter cleaning or window cleaning will probably be much lower.

Meredith: Okay, and you mentioned a dispute process. Is that actually useful, or is it just more trouble than it's worth?

Caitlyn: Mm. It's genuinely useful, and it's underused. If someone calls you looking for a service you don't offer, or they're way outside of your service area, or if it's clearly a spam, you can dispute it and get that lead credit back. You do have to be on top of it. It doesn't happen automatically. But for a busy roofing company getting hundreds of LSA leads a month, even disputing 10 or 15 will add up.

Meredith: Oh, for sure. I can imagine. And the thing I want to make sure that the contractors listening take away from this is LSAs and PPC are not the same thing.

Caitlyn: No, they're not.

Meredith: They're not in competition with each other.

Caitlyn: Nope.

Meredith: And so ideally, in a perfect world, you're gonna be running both of those.

Caitlyn: 100%. They serve different moments in the customer journey, and they show up in different places on the results page. Running both gives you much more coverage, and frankly sends a signal of authority. When a homeowner sees your LSA at the top, your PPC ads in the middle, and your organic listing below that, that reputation builds trust before they've even called you.

Meredith: Yeah, you're winning on all fronts at that point. And that's kind of a perfect segue into the retargeting piece of the puzzle, and we're gonna kinda keep coming back to that.

Caitlyn: I wonder if you get to keep asking all the questions.

Meredith: It, I think I do. So, I'm super stoked on that.

Caitlyn: Me too. So let's talk Meta.

Meredith: All right. Meta, that is now Facebook and Instagram, and that's the channel that I feel like we have to defend most whenever we're talking to contractors.

Caitlyn: And honestly, because I think Fat Cat Strategies has kind of figured out this Meta

Meredith: Puzzle or formula.

Caitlyn: Puzzle, I almost said strategies again, but yeah.

Meredith: Fat Cat Strategies' strategies?

Caitlyn: Strategies. Because the Facebook Ads Are Dead crowd is loud.

Meredith: Very loud. And, you We get it, the platform has changed. Organic reach on it is basically zero.

Caitlyn: Mm.

Meredith: Plus the privacy updates from Apple a few years ago genuinely

Caitlyn: Joy.

Meredith: your targeting precision.

Caitlyn: Joyful.

Meredith: All of that means costs have gone up, and it's, it's fact.

Caitlyn: And yet...

Meredith: And yet, Meta is where a massive chunk of homeowners, especially the 35 and up demographic, that is actually spending money on home improvement, this is where they spend significant amount of their every day. Significant. And the visual nature of the platform is a natural fit for the home improvement work. Think about before and after

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: project videos, finished kitchen reveals. The content is made for that platform.

Caitlyn: The thing that changed is the strategy. What used to work on Meta, highly targeted interests and demographic ads aimed at cold audiences, that's a harder game now. The targeting isn't just as precise as it used to be post-iOS updates. So, where Meta really earns its keep for contractors today is, da-da-da-da, retargeting.

Meredith: Tell me more.

Caitlyn: Of course, 'cause you don't know anything about this. Hey. So, someone who visits your website, let's say they land on your bathroom remodeling page. They browse around. They don't fill out a form. They go on with their life, but now your Meta pixel has captured that visit. And for the next 30, 60, 90 days, they are seeing your ads on Facebook and Instagram, before and after photos of bathroom remodels you've done, customer testimonials, a video walkthrough of a recent project. You are staying in their head while they are in that consideration phase.

Meredith: And home improvement is almost always a long consideration cycle, right? So, you know, nobody wakes up one day and says, "I'm gonna get a new kitchen, and I'm gonna buy it today."

Caitlyn: I mean, I, I do, my husband laughs.

Meredith: And it actually, you actually do it?

Caitlyn: Yeah.

Meredith: Okay, got it.

Caitlyn: Almost never.

Meredith: Mm-hmm.

Caitlyn: The average home improvement project has a research and consideration window of weeks to months, which means the contractor who stays visible during the whole window has a massive advantage when the homeowner is finally ready to pull the trigger.

Meredith: Okay, so retargeting on Meta, AKA Facebook and Instagram, isn't just nice to have. For home improvement, it's almost the whole point. Is that fair?

Caitlyn: Yeah, I'd argue it's the highest ROI use of Meta budget for most of our clients. You're not trying to reach cold audiences who've never heard of you. You're staying top of mind with the warm audiences who've already shown interest.

Meredith: Okay, so what about the cold audience campaigns on Meta? Are those just dead?

Caitlyn: Not completely, but the bar is higher. You need to be really thoughtful about creative. Video performs static images by a wide margin right now. Short, punchy videos that show real work, real results, real people, not stock footage, not polished, commercial-looking content. The more authentic it looks, the better it tends to perform. And your targeting has to be geographically tight. You're not trying to reach all the homeowners in the country. Lord. You're trying to reach homeowners within your service area.

Meredith: Right, and so what about lead generation forms on Meta versus sending people off of Meta to a landing page?

Caitlyn: Good question, and the answer has shifted. Meta's native lead gen forms, where the person fills out a form without ever leaving the app, they generate higher volume, but often lower-quality leads. That hasn't changed. The friction is so low that people submit without being super serious. Sending traffic to a dedicated landing page on your website generates fewer submissions, but the leads tend to be more intentional.

Meredith: Okay, so it depends on whether you're optimizing for volume or quality. It's the age-old quality-versus-quantity deal.

Caitlyn: my favorite. Exactly, and it depends on your followup capacity. If you have a solid, fast followup system, which we talked the last episode, you can work higher-volume leads and still convert a good percentage of them. If your followup is slow or manual, you want higher-quality leads who are going to wait for you.

Meredith: Yeah, and the other thing we should flag on Meta is the creative fatigue issue. Ads are burning out faster than they used to, talking about creative. You can't just run the same ad for six months and expect consistent performance.

Caitlyn: This is completely true. I would even say six weeks.

Meredith: Yeah.

Caitlyn: You need a rotation. Mix up the format: video, carousel, single image. Mix up the message: testimonials, project photos, promotional offers, educational content. We typically tell clients to have three to five active creative variations running at any time, and to be refreshing them at least monthly.

Meredith: Right, and that sounds like a lot, but it doesn't have to be. You know, your phone, a finished job site, a happy customer, that's a quick 30-second video right there that you can take from your phone.

Caitlyn: Absolutely. The best-performing Meta, Meta content for contractors often looks like it was shot on a phone, because it was. That's the platform now.

Meredith: All right, so YouTube. Let's close it out with this channel. I think it's probably the most underrated play for most contractors right now.

Caitlyn: Yes, YouTube ads, and Meredith, I agree with you, massively, massively underutilized by home improvement contractors.

Meredith: Okay, so why do we think that that is?

Caitlyn: A few reasons. Video production feels intimidating. Contractors assume it's expensive, and YouTube as an ad platform, and YouTube as an ad platform feels less intuitive than Google Search or Meta, so they just skip it.

Meredith: Okay, so skipping it means that you're leaving out a lot of opportunity, right?

Caitlyn: Yeah, you really are. Here's the context. YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, and people search on YouTube very differently than they search on Google. They're searching for how to choose a roofing contractor, and what does a bathroom remodel actually cost? And how long does window installation, how long does window installation take?That is research behavior. That is a homeowner in the consideration phase trying to get smarter before they make a decision.

Meredith: Okay, so if your video shows up when they're doing that research, before they've even started getting quotes...

Caitlyn: You're shaping how they think about the whole decision.

Meredith: Okay.

Caitlyn: That is powerful, and it's cheap compared to Google Search. Impressions on YouTube are a fraction of the cost of clicks on Google. You can reach a lot of people for for a relatively modest budget.

Meredith: Okay, so what actually works on YouTube for contractors? Because I know the temptation, and what makes it probably intimidating is that, okay, we have to have a produced TV commercial-style

Caitlyn: Mm-mm.

Meredith: use that. Is

Caitlyn: No.

Meredith: not it?

Caitlyn: No, no, no, no, no, no. That almost never works.

Meredith: Okay.

Caitlyn: The formats are, that perform really well, first, short, non-skippable bumper ads. Let me say that again. Short, non-skippable bumper ads.

Meredith: Say that three times fast.

Caitlyn: I can't. 15 to 30 seconds. These are pure brand impressions. You're not closing a sale in 15 seconds. You're just making sure your name and face are familiar when the homeowner eventually does start calling contractor.

Meredith: Okay, so we're building the familiarity factor here.

Caitlyn: Huge in a trust business like home improvement. Hire, people hire contractors they feel like they know. Even seeing your face in a quick ad a few times creates a psychological sense of help.

Meredith: Familiarity.

Caitlyn: Obviously, I've been talking the most in this

Meredith: Yes.

Caitlyn: episode.

Meredith: Monologuing. I'm here for it.

Caitlyn: Read, read that sentence again.

Meredith: Even seeing your face in a quick ad a few creates a psychological sense of familiarity that works in your favor, but what other formats work?

Caitlyn: Longer skippable in-stream ads, the ones that play before a video and you can skip after five seconds. These give you more room to tell a story, a two-minute before and after walkthrough of a project, a customer testimonial with the actual homeowner on camera, something that demonstrates your quality and earns trust. The key is nailing those first five seconds before the skip button becomes active.

Meredith: All right, so what do you have to in the first five seconds to get their attention?

Caitlyn: I just thought of something naughty, Lead with something that stops the scroll. A striking before image, a specific number. "We've installed over 800 roofs in the Charlotte area." A direct question. "Thinking about replacing your window this year?" Just window, all of your windows this year.

Meredith: Just one.

Caitlyn: You need to create enough curiosity or relevance in five seconds that they choose to keep watching.

Meredith: Okay, so what about the targeting on YouTube?

Caitlyn: Mm-hmm.

Meredith: how does that work?

Caitlyn: Yeah, you can target by geography, which is obviously critical for local contractors. You can target by topics, homeowners who've been watching home improvement content. And this is where it gets really interesting. You can create custom intent audiences based on keywords. So, you can say, "Show my ad to people who have recently searched on Google for siding replacement cost," or, "Best roofing company near me." You're reaching people who are actively in the market for exactly what you offer.

Meredith: Okay, so that is not something that I feel like most contractors even know is possible.

Caitlyn: Most don't, and it's one of the most efficient audience targeting options available on any platform right now. You're combining the broad reach of YouTube with the intense signals of Google Search.

Meredith: No, that, I mean, that is super powerful.

Caitlyn: Mm.

Meredith: So what about the production side? Because the we hear a lot is, "Well, I don't have the budget for video. I can't hire somebody to come out and shoot it."

Caitlyn: Ugh, y'all, the bar is lower than people think, especially for YouTube skippable formats. Polished, authentic content outperforms over-produced ads. What you need is decent lighting, decent sound, and a clear story. You should film a project walkthrough on your phone with a $20 clip-on microphone and have something completely usable. We've seen contractor YouTube ads that look like they cost $50,000 to produce that are so much worse, they just don't perform, compared to a simple phone video with real customers talking about their experience.

Meredith: Yeah, authenticity wins.

Caitlyn: Every time. And the retargeting angle on YouTube, just like Meta, is huge. Someone watches your ad, visits your website, doesn't convert, you follow them on Meta, you follow them on YouTube with a different message, you're omnipresent. Woo!

Meredith: That's a 12-point Scrabble word.

Caitlyn: Man, but actually, yeah, okay. you are the contractor that they keep seeing everywhere, and when they finally are ready to make the

Meredith: They're gonna call you.

Caitlyn: they call you.

Meredith: That's the whole game. I mean, show up, stay visible, earn the trust before the call.

Caitlyn: That's literally the whole game. And paid ads, when they're run well across these four channels in a coordinated way, gives you more control over that process than almost anything else in marketing.

Meredith: All right, quick recap before we let you go.

Caitlyn: Of course I'm gonna have to do

Meredith: You're gonna have to do it.

Caitlyn: Google Search PPC is still the highest intent channel available. Manage your CPCs aggressively with tight match types and negative keywords. Human oversight matters. Do not fully hand the wheel to Google's automation.

Meredith: Local service ads, those LSAs. So, get verified, get reviews, and run them alongside your PPC, not instead of them. Reviews are a ranking factor with direct revenue impact.

Caitlyn: Meta, the retargeting play is where the real ROI lives for home improvement. Refresh your creative regularly, lean into authentic video, and think of Meta as your long consideration cycle tool.

Meredith: And last but not least, YouTube. It's the most underrated channel in this space. Use custom intent audiences to reach people actively researching, and don't overthink the production quality. We promise authentic beats polished every time.

Caitlyn: Yes, the through line across all four, show up, stay visible, and earn the trust before the homeowner ever picks up the phone. That's what a coordinated paid ad strategy does when it's built right.

Meredith: All right. If this episode was useful, please subscribe, leave us a review, and share with somebody in the industry who needs it.

Caitlyn: And if you want us to dig deeper in any of these channels, a full episode on LSAs, a deep dive on YouTube targeting, let us know. We're listening.

Meredith: Yeah, and Caitlyn will read and talk through the whole next one too if you're lucky.

Caitlyn: Sure will, Too

Meredith: thank you.

Caitlyn: I actually recorded this whole thing, 'cause if we had to re-record it, it'd be Meredith.

Meredith: Thank you, guys.

Caitlyn: Thanks, Talk next week.

Meredith: Bye.

Outro: Digital marketing for contractors is created by Fat Cat Strategies. For more information, visit fatcatstrategies.com.