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Digital vs. Traditional Marketing for Home Services Companies: A No-Bull Breakdown for 2025

Door knocking, Local Services Ads, business directories.

They’re all home-run hitters when it comes to getting jobs, and they show that it doesn’t have to be digital vs. traditional marketing for home services companies. Together, traditional and digital marketing can help your business get more bookings throughout the year.

Learn all there is to online and traditional marketing in this guide now!

Cheat sheets

Get a rundown on traditional vs. digital marketing with these cheat sheets:

Basics

Area Digital marketing Traditional marketing
Definition Use online channels, like search, paid, social, and email, to reach an audience. Use offline channels, like print, radio, and events, to reach an audience.
Pros
  • Targeting
  • Reach
  • Tracking
  • CPL
  • Reach
  • Recall rates
  • Word-of-mouth
  • Skill requirements
Cons
  • Skill requirements
  • Market saturation
  • Technology requirements
  • Cost
  • Targeting
  • Tracking
Average CPL $65 – $82 $51 – $1,000
Average budget allocation* *Home services businesses allocate anywhere from 10-20% of total revenue to marketing 55% 45%

Costs and ROI

Marketing strategy Average cost Average CPL
Google LSAs Unknown (Dependent on the number of leads you want to generate per week) $15 – $50
Local SEO $300 – $5,000 / month $31 – $35
Business directories $15 – $300 / month $15 – $85
Review management $12 – $500 / month Unknown
Email marketing $10 – $2,000 / month $50 – $53
Door knocking Unknown (Dependent on labor costs, print costs, and efficiency) $250 – $325
Yard signs $1 – $30 / sign Unknown
Direct mail $0.50 – $2.00 / mailer $51 – $250
Local sponsorships $200 – $500 / sponsorship Unknown
Trade shows $3,000 – $10,000 / show $811 – $1,000

Use cases

Goal Traditional and digital marketing strategy
Getting jobs Run Google LSAs and a direct mail campaign with aligned messaging and offers
Targeting bigger jobs Produce high-quality print brochures (to share at on-site meetings) and account-based marketing campaigns (to keep the business top-of-mind online)
Improving lead quality Build SEO-optimized pages for different service areas and door hangers that include a QR code to send users to these landing pages
Generating recurring business Create a drip campaign for different recurring services, like seasonal maintenance, along with direct mailers
Building local awareness Invest in vehicle wraps and geofencing campaigns targeted at specific neighborhoods or ZIP codes

Is traditional or digital marketing better for home services companies?

Traditional and digital marketing both have a place in a home services company’s marketing strategy. As a home services digital marketing agency, we’ve seen our clients benefit from both methods.

For example, when a storm hits, our roofing clients bring the two approaches together, like by:

  • Canvassing neighborhoods and knocking on doors
  • Running geo-targeted ads for affected service areas
  • Emailing past customers in the affected area
  • Donating or volunteering at local charities or fundraising events

What if I have to choose between digital vs. traditional marketing?

When it comes to tightening budgets and choosing between marketing efforts, our advice to clients is specific to their business. Because they can track their digital and traditional marketing efforts with us, we can help clients prioritize the strategies driving jobs.

If you don’t have that information, you’re not alone — most home services companies don’t.

That’s why business owners go with their gut on what to cut (and after having my own roofing company for over a decade, I get it).

You choose what seems most effective (or consistent) at generating leads, even if there are pain points with the cost-per-lead (CPL). These cuts can range from strategies, like social media marketing, to methods, like traditional marketing.

From our experience of seeing both sides of the data (both traditional and digital), home services companies will often see the most value and cost-effectiveness from online marketing, in part because more than 55% of people turn to the web before scheduling a home services appointment.

Inside digital marketing for home services companies

Get the details on digital marketing for home services companies:

Pros and cons

The pros of online marketing include:

Pros About
Targeting Dozens of options exist for targeting users online, whether it’s their ZIP code, search terms, life events, or pages viewed, which makes it possible to create ultra-targeted and relevant experiences.
Reach Digital marketing’s reach extends across platforms, whether someone’s browsing social media to get inspiration for a home renovation project or searching Google to troubleshoot a leaky faucet.
Tracking You can make informed decisions about marketing spend with digital marketing’s tracking capabilities, from pages viewed to ads clicked, and understand which strategies nurtured a lead into a job.
CPL The home services leads that come from digital marketing cost $66 – $82 (on average), with companies seeing some of the lowest rates from search.

Meanwhile, the cons include:

Cons About
Skill requirements Digital marketing changes constantly. From understanding search algorithms to advertising auctions, there is a lot to learn and maintain.
Market saturation Competition for attention, whether in search results, social media feeds, or email inboxes, can make digital marketing a struggle — especially if you’re new to it.
Technology requirements Competitive marketing campaigns use a martech stack to generate leads, like by personalizing site experiences and accepting bookings online.

Strategies and tactics

Some effective digital marketing strategies for home services companies include the following (along with a few tactics for tying these strategies into traditional marketing efforts, like yard signs and mailers).

Strategy Top tactics
Google LSAs
  • Get a “Google Guaranteed” badge to improve rankings
  • Optimize response times for higher close rates
  • Upload photos of your fleet, physical location, and past jobs (bonus points if your job photos include your yard sign)
Local SEO
  • Build localized content on your site, like “Emergency HVAC Services for Las Vegas,” and repurpose it for direct mailers
  • Add trust signals, like certifications, licenses, or insurance, on your website
  • Promote offline activities, like attending a trade show or volunteering at a local charity, on your blog
Business directories
  • Claim or create local listings on Google Business Profile, Houzz, and Angi’s
  • Include business hours, address, and services (and keep them up to date)
  • Create regular posts, like for limited-time offers or seasonal reminders
Online reviews
  • Encourage online reviews, like through business cards, invoices, or email drip campaigns
  • Respond to reviews — good and bad — across platforms
  • Use some of the best reviews for different services, like maintenance vs. installation, in mailers, flyers, and trade show resources
Email marketing
  • Build drip campaigns to generate repeat business, like for seasonal maintenance
  • Create referral offers for customers, like a raffle entry or discount on their next service
  • Nurture trade show leads with segmented and personalized drip campaigns, whether based on location, service interest, or business size

Inside traditional marketing for home services companies

Get the details on traditional marketing for home services companies:

Pros and cons

The pros of traditional marketing include:

Pros About
Reach You can take traditional marketing anywhere, whether sending a crew into a neighborhood to knock on doors or sponsoring the high school baseball team.
Recall rates Traditional marketing has a 60% recall rate for mediums like radio and television, which is double that of digital marketing mediums like display advertising.
Word-of-mouth Home services companies benefit big from referrals, and traditional marketing can help here. Something as simple as a yard sign can get neighbors talking (“How’d you like them? I’m looking for someone to take care of my parent’s lawn.”)
Skill requirements Whether writing the check to sponsor that baseball team or posting flyers on your way home, it’s easy to start practicing traditional marketing.

Meanwhile, the cons of traditional marketing include:

Cons About
Cost Traditional marketing costs, from printing mailers to paying trade show fees, add up and contribute to a $51 – $1,000 home services CPL.
Targeting While traditional marketing can reach a large audience, its broad targeting wastes money that could be better spent on a targeted campaign.
Tracking Measuring traditional marketing’s performance isn’t impossible, but it isn’t easy and often makes you responsible for setting up the tracking.

Strategies and tactics

When it comes to traditional marketing strategies for home services companies, you’ll find some of the most effective ones below, along with a list of tactics for using digital marketing to support your offline efforts.

Strategy Top tactics
Door knocking
  • Drive action with a limited-time offer
  • Set crew goals, milestones, and rewards for efficiency
  • Support with a geo-targeted ad campaign for canvassed areas
Yard signs
  • Place signs in a location visible from the road
  • Include your logo, phone number, and quick USPs, like “Free Estimates” or “Fully Insured”
  • Use call tracking to track performance, like by ZIP code
Direct mail
  • Use demographic and life events to target users
  • Experiment with different formats, like postcards vs. letters
  • Direct users to a custom landing page and funnel those users into a lead nurturing campaign
Local sponsorships
  • Support local sports teams, fairs, or fundraisers
  • Host an event, like a workshop, cookout, or giveaway
  • Share photos and event highlights on your social media and blog
Trade shows
  • Highlight certifications, experience, and unique selling points
  • Use digital forms to eliminate data entry and expedite sign-ups
  • Launch geofencing ads to target trade show attendees

How do I use traditional and digital marketing to book more jobs for my home services business?

Use the following steps to start leveraging traditional and digital marketing to generate jobs:

  1. Evaluate your marketing: You wouldn’t start a job — or even an estimate — without taking stock of the situation. The same is true for marketing. List what’s happening now, whether it’s nothing, a mix of traditional and digital, or one or the other.
  2. Outline your audience: Next, determine what makes a lead qualified. Is it their location, service need, or business role? These important details can help with messaging, targeting, and even lead scoring.
  3.  Build your digital moat: Start with the basics, like your Google Business Profile, website, and customer relationship management (CRM) software. I also recommend call tracking software, since it’s useful for tracking offline marketing efforts, such as flyers and mailers.
  4. Plan your traditional and digital marketing overlap: For example, where will QR codes on flyers send people? And which call tracking numbers (and how many) are needed for yard signs, business cards, and vehicle wraps?
  5. Build your offline moat: Again, focus on the basics, but for offline marketing. This step will include a lot of branding, like vehicle wraps, team uniforms, and business cards, but can extend to promotional materials, like flyers, mailers, and more.
  6. Launch your campaigns: Now, start marketing! Launch ongoing coordinated campaigns, like direct mailers encouraging users to call (via a call tracking number) or connect online (via a custom landing page), or one-time efforts, like for a trade show.
  7. Measure your performance: All these steps come together in measuring your performance. While some results will come in instantly, like through Google Local Services Ads, others will take more time or happen sporadically, like a call from a vehicle wrap.

Marketing for home services companies isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it-deal. You’ll see the most success (i.e. jobs) from proactively tracking performance and testing new ideas across traditional and digital marketing.

Start booking more jobs with digital and traditional marketing

You’ve uncovered the ins and outs of digital and traditional marketing for home services companies. Now comes the hard part — bringing the two together to generate more leads (and jobs) for your business.

Make life easier with WebFX and our award-winning team of home services marketing pros.

With our all-in-one digital marketing services and software, we make online marketing hands-free. So, spend less time managing ads and more time giving estimates by contacting us online today for a free quote!

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