Is Facebook Advertising Worth It for Contractors

Facebook’s average cost per click for home service ads sits between $1.50 and $4.00. Google Ads charges $20-30 for the same contractor keywords. On paper, Facebook looks like an obvious win. In practice, the gap between cheap clicks and actual booked jobs is where most contractors lose money.

The question isn’t whether Facebook ads are affordable. They are. The question is whether those affordable clicks produce customers who pay you.

The cost breakdown: Facebook vs. Google

Facebook CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) for home service businesses average $14-18. Google Search CPMs for the same audience run $40-60. You reach far more eyeballs per dollar on Facebook.

CPCs tell a similar story. A plumber pays $1.80-3.50 per click on Facebook. That same plumber pays $20-25 per click on Google Search. An HVAC contractor might spend $2.00-4.00 on Facebook versus $25-35 on Google.

But clicks aren’t leads. And leads aren’t jobs.

Facebook’s average conversion rate for home service ads is 1.5-3%. Google Search ads convert at 7-10% for the same trades. A Facebook click at $2.50 with a 2% conversion rate produces a lead at $125. A Google click at $25 with an 8% conversion rate produces a lead at $312.

Google leads cost more per lead, but those leads are actively searching for your service. Facebook leads are interrupted while scrolling through vacation photos and political arguments. That intent gap shows up in close rates.

Those averages don’t tell the whole story, though. Air Titans, an HVAC company, reported getting customer acquisition costs of $120 through Meta (Facebook/Instagram) ads compared to $800 through Google PPC. Their strategy: seasonal maintenance offers targeting homeowners within a 15-mile radius, run consistently for 6+ months so the algorithm could optimize. The consistency matters — contractors who run Facebook ads for 30 days and quit never give the platform enough data to find their ideal customer.

Lead quality: the real difference

Google Ads leads close at 25-35% for most home service businesses. The homeowner searched “AC repair near me,” clicked your ad, and called. They need the service now.

Facebook leads close at 5-12%. Many are casual inquiries. Some are price shoppers who filled out your form on impulse. Others forget they even submitted a request by the time you call back.

A $125 Facebook lead with a 7% close rate costs you $1,785 per booked customer. A $312 Google lead with a 30% close rate costs $1,040 per customer. The “cheaper” platform just became 72% more expensive per actual job.

This doesn’t mean Facebook never works. It means you need to understand exactly when and how it works to avoid burning through your marketing budget on leads that go nowhere.

When Facebook ads work for contractors

High-value seasonal promotions

Facebook excels at creating demand for services homeowners aren’t actively searching for. AC tune-ups in early spring, furnace inspections in early fall, and annual maintenance plans perform well because you’re reaching homeowners before they realize they need the service.

Seasonal campaigns on Facebook generate leads at $15-25 when timed correctly. A $99 AC tune-up offer pushed in March, before the summer rush, attracts homeowners who plan ahead. These leads tend to close at higher rates because the offer has a specific price and timeline.

Plumbing Nerds, a Florida plumbing company, grew from pacing $800K year-over-year to $2.7M annually — and attributes the growth primarily to Facebook advertising. Their approach: before-and-after project photos, $99 drain cleaning offers, and consistent daily posting. The paid ads drove calls, but the organic content built trust that made the ads convert. That combination — paid reach plus organic credibility — is what separates contractors who scale on Facebook from those who burn budget.

Retargeting website visitors

This is where Facebook’s ROI argument gets strong. Retargeting ads produce click-through rates 10x higher than cold audience campaigns. Someone who visited your water heater installation page last week and now sees your ad on Facebook is fundamentally different from a random homeowner in your zip code.

Retargeting CPCs drop to $0.50-1.50, and conversion rates jump to 5-8%. Cost per lead from retargeting campaigns runs $12-25, with close rates approaching Google Ads territory because these people already showed intent on your website.

If you’re running Google Ads or investing in SEO, Facebook retargeting lets you squeeze additional value from traffic you already paid for. A homeowner who clicked your Google Ad, visited your landing page, and left without calling sees your Facebook ad two days later and comes back. That second touch often costs less than $2.

One HVAC contractor on ContractorTalk installed the Meta Pixel and ran retargeting ads to anyone who visited his website in the last 30 days. His retargeting cost per lead was $14 — compared to $85 for cold audience campaigns on the same platform. He called it “the cheapest leads in my entire marketing budget.” That ratio — cold versus warm audience costs — holds up across most trades.

Brand awareness in new service areas

Expanding into a new city or neighborhood where nobody knows your name? Facebook’s geographic targeting lets you put your brand in front of every homeowner in a specific zip code for as little as $5-8 per thousand impressions.

You won’t get immediate leads from brand awareness campaigns. But when those homeowners eventually need a plumber or electrician, they’ll recognize your name. Brand recall increases by 80% after just 5-7 ad impressions, which means a $300/month awareness campaign in a new market starts paying off when those homeowners search Google 2-3 months later and click your organic listing because they’ve seen your name before.

Before-and-after project showcases

Visual platforms reward visual businesses. A roofing contractor with dramatic before-and-after photos generates 3-5x more engagement than a text-heavy ad about roofing services.

Bathroom remodels, landscape transformations, and full HVAC system installations photograph well and stop the scroll. These portfolio-style ads generate leads at $18-30 and attract homeowners who are in the early research phase of a major project.

When Facebook ads don’t work

Emergency services

Nobody scrolls Facebook looking for an emergency plumber. When a pipe bursts, homeowners go to Google. Less than 2% of emergency service leads originate from social media. Spending money on Facebook ads for emergency drain cleaning or HVAC repair is almost always a waste.

Your budget allocation for emergency services should go entirely toward Google Ads, LSAs, and organic search.

Low-value one-time services

A $150 drain cleaning doesn’t produce enough margin to absorb Facebook’s customer acquisition cost. If your average job value is under $300 and you’re not upselling or cross-selling, Facebook’s economics don’t work.

Profitable Facebook campaigns need average job values of $500 or higher. Below that threshold, Google Ads and organic search deliver better ROI because the leads are further down the purchase funnel.

Budgets under $500/month

Facebook’s algorithm needs data to optimize. Campaigns spending less than $500/month don’t generate enough conversions for Facebook to identify your ideal customer profile and serve ads to similar people.

At $300/month with a $2.50 CPC, you get 120 clicks. At a 2% conversion rate, that’s 2-3 leads. Facebook’s machine learning can’t optimize around 2-3 conversions per month. The algorithm needs at least 15-20 conversions weekly to find its footing, which means you need $1,500-2,000/month minimum for the platform to work as designed.

Contractors with smaller budgets get better results focusing that money on Google Business Profile optimization or targeted SEO.

The Facebook lead form problem

Facebook’s lead generation ads let homeowners submit their info without leaving the platform. This reduces friction, which sounds good. But it also reduces commitment.

Lead form submissions have a 35-40% bogus rate for home service businesses. People tap “Submit” without reading what they’re submitting. Some are curious but not serious. Others are bots or accidental clicks on mobile.

When you call a Facebook lead form submission 10 minutes later, there’s a 50/50 chance the person says “I didn’t fill anything out” or doesn’t answer at all.

A plumbing contractor on Reddit shared that his Facebook lead form submissions had a 45% “fake or unresponsive” rate. He switched to sending Facebook traffic to a dedicated landing page on his website instead. Lead volume dropped by 40%, but the leads that came through closed at 3x the rate. His cost per booked job actually decreased.

Sending Facebook traffic to your website instead of using lead forms produces fewer leads but higher quality. The extra step of visiting your site, reading about your services, and then calling or submitting a form filters out the tire-kickers. Website-directed Facebook campaigns produce leads that close at 2x the rate of lead form campaigns.

The numbers that actually matter

Forget CPCs and CPMs. Here’s how to calculate whether Facebook ads are worth it for your specific business.

Step 1: Track your cost per booked job, not cost per lead. Divide total Facebook ad spend by the number of jobs you actually booked from Facebook leads.

Step 2: Compare that number to your average profit per job. If you spend $200 per booked customer on a $2,000 job with 40% margins ($800 profit), Facebook is delivering a 4x return. If you spend $400 per booked customer on a $500 job with 30% margins ($150 profit), you’re losing $250 per customer.

Step 3: Factor in lifetime value. A Facebook lead who becomes a maintenance plan customer worth $2,400 over 3 years changes the math entirely. The initial acquisition cost gets amortized across years of repeat revenue.

Facebook vs. other channels: side by side

For a typical HVAC contractor spending $2,000/month per channel:

Google Search Ads: 65-80 clicks, 5-6 leads, 1-2 booked jobs. Cost per customer: $1,000-2,000.

Google LSAs: 25-30 leads, 6-8 booked jobs. Cost per customer: $250-330.

Facebook cold campaigns: 500-800 clicks, 10-15 leads, 1-2 booked jobs. Cost per customer: $1,000-2,000.

Facebook retargeting: 1,200-2,000 impressions to warm audiences, 5-8 leads, 2-3 booked jobs. Cost per customer: $650-1,000.

LSAs win on pure cost per customer. Google Search wins on lead quality. Facebook cold campaigns produce volume but struggle on close rates. Facebook retargeting hits a sweet spot between cost and quality when paired with other traffic sources.

The contractors getting the best results don’t pick one channel. They run Google Ads or LSAs for high-intent searches and use Facebook to retarget the 93% of website visitors who leave without converting. Read our full Facebook Ads strategy guide for 2026 for the tactical setup.

How to test Facebook ads without wasting money

Start with retargeting only. Install the Meta Pixel on your website, let it collect 30 days of visitor data, then launch a retargeting campaign with a $10-15/day budget. This tests Facebook’s effectiveness with your warmest audience before you risk money on cold traffic.

Track everything. Use UTM parameters on every ad so you know which campaigns produce calls and which produce clicks that go nowhere. Your CRM should tag every lead source so you can calculate true cost per booked job by channel.

If retargeting works (cost per booked job under your profit threshold), expand to lookalike audiences built from your customer list. Upload your customer email list to Facebook, and the platform finds homeowners with similar demographics and behaviors.

If retargeting doesn’t work, Facebook probably isn’t your channel. Focus your budget on platforms where homeowners are actively looking for your services.

The verdict

Facebook advertising is worth it for contractors who meet three conditions: average job values above $500, budgets of at least $1,500/month, and a system for following up on leads within 5 minutes.

Miss any of those three, and your Facebook ad spend is probably better allocated to Google Ads, LSAs, or SEO.

The best-performing contractor Facebook accounts don’t treat the platform as a lead generation machine. They use it as a brand-building and retargeting tool that supports their primary acquisition channels. Facebook warms up prospects. Google closes them.

On the Owned and Operated podcast, Jack Carr (Rapid HVAC, Nashville) described Facebook as “the top of the funnel that feeds Google.” Homeowners see your Facebook content, remember your name, and then search for you on Google when they need service. Tracking that full attribution chain is why contractors who measure only direct Facebook leads undervalue the platform.

If you’re debating where your next marketing dollar goes, start with our marketing budget allocation framework to see where Facebook fits in your specific situation.