The schedule empties out in February. The phone rings three times in two weeks, and two of those calls are €200 repair jobs. The reflex kicks in on its own: you need to do something, a website, some advertising, a listing somewhere.
That is almost always the moment money gets spent badly. A tradesperson looking for clients in a hurry picks the channel that is quickest to switch on, not the most profitable one. They pay for leads shared with four competitors, or launch ads with nothing in place to handle the enquiries.
There are six serious channels for filling an order book in the building trades. None of them is bad. They simply don't work in any order, and the one everyone switches on first is often the one that should come last.
The two numbers to know before you choose
Picking a channel without these two numbers means deciding blind.
Your average job value for the work you actually want to do. Not your overall average, which mixes a €150 repair with a €40,000 extension. The value of the typical job you want more of.
The number of quotes you need to win one job. A tradesperson who wins one quote in two and one who wins one quote in six don't have the same problem, and certainly not the same channel to switch on. The second one doesn't need more enquiries, they need better enquiries.
These two numbers tell you straight away how much you can spend to get a contact. A trade with a €25,000 average job can pay several tens of euros per contact without flinching. A repair business with €300 jobs can't, and for them paid channels almost never make sense.
1. Word of mouth, and why it hits a ceiling
This is the best channel in the building trades, and there is no arguing with that: the contact arrives already convinced, doesn't compare three quotes and barely negotiates. A tradesperson who lives entirely on referrals usually has the best close rate in town.
The problem is that you can't steer it. It produces whatever volume it produces, it follows your jobs with a six-month lag, and it collapses exactly when you need it, because a gap in the schedule today is the result of a quiet quarter six months ago.
Three things give it a push, and they cost nothing:
- Ask for a review at handover, not three weeks later. The client is happy, standing in front of you, phone in hand.
- A site sign with a phone number readable from the pavement. On a residential street, the neighbours of a job are the most qualified prospects in the area.
- Photograph every job properly, before and after. These are your ammunition for every other channel on this list, and you can't get them back once the job is handed over.
Well-maintained word of mouth still has a ceiling. It doesn't fill a gap, it keeps you from having one.
2. Google Business Profile and reviews: the foundation
Someone searches "pergola Bordeaux" and Google shows them three listings with stars before any website. It is free, it is local, and it is the first place a tradesperson should put their energy.
The mechanics are brutally simple. Between a tradesperson at 4.8 stars with twenty recent reviews and one at 4.9 with three reviews from 2023, the first one gets the call. How regularly reviews come in matters as much as the rating. A complete listing, with the right categories, a sensible service area and project photos added every month, takes positions your competitors leave empty through neglect.
The setup details are covered in the Google Business Profile guide. Remember the priority: it is the only channel on this list that costs nothing but time, and it will still be working two years from now.
3. Lead platforms: the painkiller
Travaux.com, Habitatpresto and the rest. The pitch is appealing: you pay, the enquiries come in, no technical skills to learn.
What you are buying deserves a precise name. You are not buying a client, you are buying the right to call someone that three to five other tradespeople will also call, often within the same hour. The consequence is mechanical: the conversation turns to price, because that is the only ground on which the homeowner can compare you. And the price of the contact itself ranges from a few euros to several tens depending on the trade and the size of the project.
These platforms have a real use: plugging a gap right now while you build the rest. They fail as a strategy, for two reasons. You own nothing, so if their prices double or their volume drops, you have no recourse. And they position you as the cheapest name on the list, which is the exact opposite of what a tradesperson doing high-value jobs wants to build.
Verdict: a temporary fix, never a foundation.
4. Referral partners: the most underused channel
Architects, project managers, kitchen designers, landscapers, estate agents, property managers. These people talk every week to homeowners who have a project, an approved budget and a need for someone reliable.
It is the channel with the best effort-to-return ratio in the building trades, and almost nobody works it seriously, because it produces nothing in the first month. An architect doesn't hand you a job after one coffee. They hand you twelve over three years, once they know you won't make them late.
Getting started comes down to one habit: identify ten complementary businesses in your area, the ones whose projects naturally call for your trade, and go and see them with photos of your work rather than a business card. The corollary is worth saying, it works both ways: the tradesperson who refers others is the one who gets referred.
Slow to pay off, then very rewarding. Start now precisely because it is slow.
5. Google Ads: buying demand that already exists
Someone types "bathroom renovation Nantes". They have decided, they are comparing, they are ready for a quote. You can appear in front of them by paying.
That is this channel's greatest strength, and its limit. The demand exists, so the intent is excellent. But it is finite: the volume never exceeds the number of people actually typing that search in your area, and that number doesn't move because you raise your budget. Since all your competitors bid on the same terms, clicks on home improvement searches are expensive, often several euros, sometimes much more in high-value trades.
Google Ads works well for a trade where demand is explicit and urgent, and poorly for a trade where the client doesn't yet know they have a project. Nobody searches for "bioclimatic pergola" before they have seen one. The full comparison is in the article on Meta Ads versus Google Ads.
6. Meta Ads: creating demand, and why it comes last
On Facebook and Instagram, nobody is looking for a tradesperson. That is the whole point. Thousands of homeowners in your area are vaguely thinking about extending, covering a terrace or redoing a room, without having run a single search. A well-framed job photo triggers a project they would have put into words in eighteen months, or never.
For a trade with long projects and high job values, it is the only channel that genuinely grows the pie instead of fighting over a slice. It is also the one that punishes lack of preparation the hardest, because these people are further from a decision than those who find you on Google.
Four conditions must be in place before you launch:
- Usable job photos. Without them there is nothing to show, and no setting makes up for it.
- A form that filters. Type of project, timeline, rough budget. A two-field form produces volume and waste, and the details of the settings that filter enquiries change everything downstream.
- Someone who calls back the same day. This is the hardest constraint for a trade whose hands are busy. If nobody can pick up, you are paying for contacts your competitors will sign.
- Available capacity. Unanswered enquiries damage a local reputation faster than having no advertising at all.
These conditions explain why Meta sits at the end of the list. It is not the weakest channel, it is the one that needs everything else to be in place already. The full setup for building trades and the budget to plan for an honest test are covered separately.
The order I recommend
It depends not on your trade but on your situation.
The schedule is empty in three weeks. Start with your past clients and your existing referral partners, one by one, on the phone. It is the channel that can turn around fastest. Add a lead platform alongside, accepting that it is temporary. Don't launch advertising for an immediate gap, it won't arrive in time.
The order book is holding but nothing comes in on its own. Your Google listing and reviews first, then referral partners. Six months of steady effort, close to zero cost, and it doesn't drop off when you stop paying.
The foundation is in place and you want to move upmarket or cover a new area. Meta Ads, with the four prerequisites met. It is the only channel that goes after projects that don't exist yet.
Your demand is urgent and explicit, water damage, breakdowns, leaks: Google Ads before anything else, and a phone that gets answered.
The channel often isn't the problem
One last point, and it is the one that saves the most money.
Many tradespeople convinced they lack clients actually have a follow-up problem. Quotes sent and never chased, enquiries called back three days later, projects filed as "not ready" that buy from a competitor six months on. Adding a channel to that system is pouring more water into a leaking bucket, and paying for the water.
Before looking for more enquiries, count the quotes you sent last quarter and the ones that never got a follow-up. If that number is high, your best channel is already in-house, and structured follow-up of prospects who aren't ready yet will pay off faster than any advertising.
Where to start this week
Three actions, in this order, with no budget.
Claim and complete your Google listing, with the right categories and ten project photos. Ask your last three happy clients for a review, by message, today. List ten referral partners in your area and call two of them.
Then, only once that base is in place, decide whether your situation calls for advertising. The question is never "which channel works", it is "which one can I keep up for six months".