Yard Signs That Actually Generate Calls

Yard signs have been around longer than Google. They’re still working.

A roofing contractor in Ohio tracked every lead source for 12 months. Yard signs placed after completed jobs generated 23% of his new customer calls. Cost per sign: $3. Average job value: $8,400.

The math on yard signs looks absurd compared to digital channels. A $3 investment yielding an $8,400 job doesn’t compute in a world where clicks cost $30 and leads cost $150.

But yard signs only work when you do them right. Most contractors stick a generic sign in the yard, leave it for a week, and wonder why the phone didn’t ring.

What the data shows

The average yard sign generates 3-5 leads over its lifetime when placed strategically. That lifetime varies, anywhere from 2 weeks in an HOA-restricted suburb to 3 months on a rural property.

Signs placed within 500 feet of a recently completed job outperform cold placements by 4x. The neighbor effect is real. Someone sees your truck for two days, sees the sign go up, and sees the finished result. That’s three impressions before they even look at the sign.

Visibility matters more than quantity. One sign on a busy corner outperforms ten signs on cul-de-sacs with no through traffic.

Design that gets noticed

Size and material

18x24 inches is the standard. Big enough to read from a car, small enough to not look obnoxious. Some contractors go larger for commercial sites or properties with significant setback from the road.

Corrugated plastic is the material of choice. It’s lightweight, weather-resistant, and cheap at volume. Metal frames last longer but cost 3-4x more and are overkill for temporary placement.

Wire H-stakes work for most yards. They’re easy to install, easy to retrieve, and cost under $2 each.

Color and contrast

Your sign needs to be readable from 50+ feet by someone driving 30 mph. That means high contrast and simple design.

Dark text on a light background works. White or yellow text on a dark background works. Medium tones on medium tones fail.

Use your brand colors if they provide sufficient contrast. If your brand is light gray on white, choose something more visible for signs.

Limit yourself to 2-3 colors maximum. More than that creates visual noise that’s hard to process at speed.

Text hierarchy

The elements that matter, in order of importance:

Your company name, large enough to read from the street. Your phone number, almost as large. A single tagline or service descriptor if space allows.

That’s it. People don’t stop to read yard signs. They glance while driving past. If they can’t get your name and number in that glance, the sign failed.

Don’t list every service you offer. Don’t include your website URL unless it’s very short. Don’t add clip art, mascots, or decorative elements that compete with the core message.

QR codes work now

QR code usage changed permanently during the pandemic. Scanning a code to see a menu trained an entire generation to point their phone at things.

QR codes on yard signs now see 8-12% scan rates, up from 2% in 2019. That’s meaningful traffic from a $3 sign.

Link the QR code to a landing page specific to that campaign. “You saw our sign” with a special offer converts better than dumping scanners on your homepage.

Make the code large enough to scan from 10-15 feet. Test it yourself before printing 200 signs.

Placement strategy

After every job

The single most effective placement is immediately after completing work for a satisfied customer. Ask permission before the truck leaves. Most customers agree because you just solved their problem.

The sign stays up for 2-4 weeks. Neighbors see the work, see the sign, and connect the dots.

If the customer hesitates, offer an incentive. $25 off their next service, a free filter, or a gift card. The sign’s lead value exceeds any reasonable incentive.

High-traffic intersections

Busy corners and intersections deliver maximum impressions. A sign at a four-way stop gets seen by hundreds of drivers daily.

Check local ordinances before placing signs on public right-of-way. Many municipalities have rules about temporary signage. Fines range from $25 to $500.

Commercial properties along main roads sometimes allow sign placement for a small fee or in exchange for a discount on services. A business owner who lets you put a sign on their corner might become a customer too.

New construction and renovation zones

Areas with active construction have a high concentration of new homeowners and people investing in their properties. They’re in buying mode.

A sign near a new development catches people who just closed on a house and are making vendor decisions for the first time. They don’t have an HVAC company yet. They don’t have a plumber. Your sign is an answer to a question they’re actively asking.

The neighbor marketing connection

Yard signs are the visible component of a broader neighbor marketing strategy. The sign alone generates some calls. Combining it with other tactics multiplies the effect.

When you place a sign after a job, you know the exact address. Every home within a 500-foot radius is now a warm prospect. They saw your truck. They probably saw the work.

Send a postcard to those neighbors within 48 hours. “We just completed [service] for your neighbor at [address]. Here’s what we can do for you.” The combination of seeing your sign and receiving a postcard creates recognition that neither achieves alone.

Some contractors take it further. A door knock on adjacent properties while the crew is still on site catches homeowners while your presence is fresh. “We’re doing some work next door and wanted to introduce ourselves in case you ever need [service].”

The integration matters. Signs without follow-up leave value on the table. Neighbor marketing as a complete system captures more of the demand your presence creates.

Tracking what works

Yard signs share radio’s attribution problem. Someone calls your main number after seeing a sign. How do you know which sign, or if it was even a sign at all?

Unique phone numbers

Put a different tracking number on signs in different areas. At $2-5/month per number, the cost is minimal. You’ll know which neighborhoods generate calls.

Call tracking services like CallRail or Marchex make setup easy. Forward to your main line and review reports weekly.

Specific landing pages

QR codes should link to distinct pages. When someone lands on yourcompany.com/neighbor-offer, you know exactly where they came from.

Track these pages in Google Analytics. Even without sophisticated attribution, you’ll see traffic patterns that correlate with sign placement.

Ask every caller

“How did you hear about us?” captures data on every call. Train your team to ask consistently and record the answer.

The responses won’t be perfectly accurate. Someone might say “sign” when they actually saw your truck and a sign. But patterns emerge over time. If you place 50 signs in a neighborhood and calls from that area increase, the signs are working.

Common mistakes

Leaving signs too long

A sign that’s been in someone’s yard for 3 months looks abandoned, not professional. It signals that you don’t follow up, don’t manage details, and might not manage their job well either.

Establish a pickup schedule. Signs come down after 2-4 weeks. Have a system to track where signs are and when they need retrieval.

Some customers want to leave the sign up indefinitely because they’re proud of the work. Thank them and explain that you rotate signs to keep them fresh. Offer to bring a new one back if theirs is damaged.

Poor placement on the property

A sign stuck in the corner of a large property, 80 feet from the road, behind a tree, does nothing.

Signs need to be visible from the street, facing traffic. If the driveway is on the left, put the sign on the left side of the property. If there’s a mailbox at the curb, put the sign next to it.

Take 30 seconds to find the spot with maximum visibility. That small investment of time determines whether the sign generates leads or wastes plastic.

Generic design

“Smith Heating and Cooling” with a phone number tells me nothing about why I should call you instead of the other three HVAC signs I saw today.

A single differentiator helps. “Same-day service” or “Family-owned since 1995” or “24/7 emergency” gives the reader something to remember.

Don’t go overboard. One message, clearly stated, beats a cluttered sign with five bullet points.

The ROI calculation

200 signs at $3 each costs $600. If each sign generates 3 leads on average, that’s 600 leads. At a 20% close rate and $500 average ticket, you’re looking at $60,000 in revenue from $600 in materials.

The real costs are labor for placement and pickup, systems for tracking, and the time to manage the program. Still, the unit economics are among the best of any marketing channel.

Compare that to Google Ads where $600 might buy you 20 clicks and 1-2 leads.

Yard signs aren’t sexy. They’re not sophisticated digital marketing. They’re corrugated plastic on a wire stake.

They also work better than most contractors give them credit for, especially when integrated with broader neighbor marketing efforts and proper tracking.

Start with signs after every completed job. Add high-traffic placements in your best service areas. Track results, even imperfectly, for 3 months.

The contractors still doing this consistently have figured out something that the digital-only marketers miss: sometimes the oldest tactics still outperform the newest platforms.