How to Get Home Services Leads: 14 Lead Generation Tactics

1. Local SEO

Local SEO (search engine optimization) involves optimizing your page for local intent keywords.

This ensures your business appears on local search result pages, displayed when potential customers use search terms such as "roofing companies near me."

Local SEO can help generate high-quality leads, as it showcases your website to prospects, several of whom are actively looking for your services.

Moreover, in 2021, 77 percent of consumers in the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom used Google to find business information. 

Google local search results consist of two sections: a map pack and some organic results.

Organic results are the standard blue links on every search engine result page (SERP).

Conversely, map packs consist of the top three home service providers alongside a map containing directions to their physical location.

Here’s a map pack for the search phrase “ac maintenance Austin.”

Google has stated that its local search algorithm uses three key criteria to pick companies for the map pack:

• Distance: how close the searcher is to the company.

• Relevance: the association between the search query and the local business profile (more on this later).

• Prominence: the popularity of a business, judged based on its mentions across the web, its ranking in result pages, and the number of reviews and positive ratings it has.

Do the following to score high on each of these criteria, thereby boosting your chances of earning a place in the map pack:

Optimize your Google Business Profile

Formerly known as Google My Business, Google Business Profile (GBP) is a free listing platform that lets service providers control how they appear on Google. It lets you add business details such as hours of operation, phone number, location, and photos.

Some tips for optimizing your GBP include:

• Keep your GBP updated. Add photos, videos, and new details.

• Ensure your hours of operation and business name are accurate.

• Include a local phone number.

• Fill up your GBP with reviews.

The last point—filling up your business profile with reviews—is crucial, as Google determines prominence by the number of reviews and positive ratings on your profile.

So, encourage techs to request reviews from satisfied customers before they leave a job. And create simple postcards with directions older customers can use to leave online reviews.

Also, you can simplify the customer review and management process with ServiceTitan's Reputation Management platform.

The platform automates customer review requests and collates all reviews across your business listings and social media pages into a central dashboard.

This tool lets you respond to each customer review, appreciate commendations, and address complaints before they worsen.

You can also tie each review to the originating job or tech, which helps you spot and coach employees struggling to deliver quality customer service.

Local service website pages

If you have several service areas, consider creating location-based service pages for each one.

This increases the odds of ranking high on result pages for those locations, as new leads will likely book an appointment when they discover you operate within their area.

Before creating local service website pages, ensure you find relevant location-based keywords using:

Google auto-complete feature

Input your keyword in Google's search bar, and wait while it predicts more related keywords.

Google's related searches section

Use your target keyword to search. Then, scroll down to the bottom of the search engine result page to find other related searches.

2. Facebook Lead Ads

This special form of Facebook advertising lets prospects fill in their details—like phone number and email address—directly in the ad without leaving Facebook.

A customer relationship management platform (CRM) integrated into the back end of your Facebook Ads Manager automatically collates the prospects' details.

Running ads on Facebook is a great way to generate leads, as:

• More than 186 million United States residents use Facebook. For context, that's almost 56 percent of the population of the United States.

• 31 percent of customers say they’ve bought from local businesses after watching a Facebook ad.

No surprises there. Responding to an ad directly on Facebook takes seconds, while landing pages take time to load, causing friction in the conversion process.

Consider using the following tips to achieve greater results with Facebook lead ads:

• Add click-to-call and click-to-book buttons

• Integrate your home services CRM with your Facebook Ads Manager

• Minimize form fields and questions

See how to set up Facebook lead ads.

3. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

This online marketing strategy lets advertisers place their ads on digital platforms such as SERPS and websites after paying a specific amount for each click or impression.

Google PPC is the most popular form of PPC. This is expected since 87 percent of customers use Google to evaluate local businesses.

Advertisers bid for business-relevant keywords on Google's AdWords platform. Google's algorithm then selects the businesses to display at any given time.

Google PPC ads are an effective lead generation channel because they help drive many potential leads already searching for your services to your page.

To make it to the sponsored section, bid on keywords your target audience uses to search for your services. Ensure your landing page copy is both persuasive and relevant to your ad. And always measure and iterate.

You can use a marketing tool like Google Analytics to measure your marketing campaign's performance. 

However, to track your campaigns’ exact ROI instead of just the number of phone calls they generate, consider ServiceTitan's Home Services Marketing platform.

It ranks all campaigns using their revenue and lets you create and assign toll-free numbers to each campaign.

This ensures ServiceTitan's system matches every call with the source campaign and displays the ROI generated since creation in real time.

Watch how to connect your PPC ads to ServiceTitan.

Another tool that supercharges PPC ads performance is ServiceTitan's Lead Integration.

This feature connects all your third-party booking platforms to ServiceTitan's CRM so that you can manage and track leads from one place.

This cuts manual data entry costs and ensures you're getting accurate data.

The different booking platforms ServiceTitan's Lead Integration connects to include:

• Google Local Services Ads (more on this in the next section)

• Trane and American Standard

• FlowPath

• Building36

• The Home Depot

ServiceTitan’s system also shows you lead quality metrics such as customer lead rate, opportunity rate, and average job value.

4. Local Services Ads

Google Local Services Ads (LSA) are a special paid offering that empowers customers to call, message, or book appointments directly from the ad.

You can find them at the top of SERPS with key company details: name, opening hours, ratings, reviews, phone number, and directions to the physical location.

PPC ads and Local Services Ads have subtle differences.

Local Services Ads charge on a pay-per-lead basis. You only pay when a lead contacts, calls, or sends a message, making the channel more cost-effective.

Further, Google uses review response rates, ratings, and the number of reviews to pick LSAs to display for each search query.

Here are some tips for high-converting LSAs:

• Use only high-resolution images and videos

• Respond to both negative and positive reviews promptly

• Verify your GBP to earn Google's guaranteed badge to build customer trust

• Provide accurate and up-to-date company information

Considering LSA's high effectiveness and conversion rates, we created the Local Services Ad integration in partnership with Google.

With the integration, every job booking and its associated customer details populate directly into your ServiceTitan CRM.

This prevents errors and data redundancy.

Also, every job booking is included in your marketing scorecard, so you know your LSA's performance.

This way, you can ensure you're spending only on performing campaigns.

5. Referral Marketing

Referral marketing means rewarding customers for recommending your services to people they know—neighbors, friends, relatives, and old classmates.

Referral marketing tends to generate qualified leads since most referred leads convert. Plus, most people prefer hearing about a business from people they know rather than brand advertisements.

According to data from the Wharton School of Business, referred customers also have a high lifetime value. This means they’re more likely to generate more revenue for your business over time.

It's advisable to actively request customer referrals, as even the most satisfied customers may need a gentle nudge to recommend your services.

So, you should:

• Include referral requests at the bottom of your invoices

• Reward customers for referrals

• Encourage techs to request referrals after delighting customers

• Add referral requests to felicitation messages—anniversaries, holidays, etc.

• Provide customers with referral message templates

Above all, strive to provide top-notch service and exceed customer expectations, as customers are more willing to offer referrals after a great experience.

For example, Proskill Services, an Arizona HVAC, plumbing, and electrical service company, has over 3,000 Google reviews, a 5-star rating, and nearly 800 Facebook recommendations.

According to co-owner Travis Ringe, delivering quality customer service has been the secret to gathering many reviews.

“If you want to drive reviews, you must deliver a full experience worthy of writing a review,” says Travis.

Another secret behind their success has been using ServiceTitan’s Customer Experience platform to exceed customer expectations.

“What sets ServiceTitan apart’” Travis says, “is the customer experience and how many features are constantly being added to improve it.” 

ServiceTitan’s Customer Experience platform lets you send appointment reminders and brief technician bios via SMS so customers know you're on your way.

This assures the customer that you’re on their case and reduces the apprehension of letting strangers into their homes.

The platform's in-built GPS technology lets you empower customers to track the tech's real-time location.

This feature is great, given the industry’s increasing adoption of technology. It also helps customers know when the technician will arrive at their location.

“Customers love the live tracking feature, which allows them to see when our techs are scheduled to arrive,” says Travis. “That was a huge added benefit for us.”

Recommended reading: Discover more home services marketing strategies.

6. Lead Magnets

Lead magnets are free resources such as educational ebooks and blog articles service businesses use to collect potential customers' information. 

Prospects gain access to the free resource after submitting their contact information—email addresses, phone numbers, etc. The company then nurtures the prospect into a new customer using educational materials.

Any lead magnet must help resolve a specific customer problem related to your services.

For example, let's say you're an electrician and you discover that homeowners need help to change their light bulbs.

You can create a How to Change a Lightbulb e-book that prospects download after giving their email addresses. Then, you keep sending educational and promotional emails until they book a job.

To nurture leads into customers using email marketing, consider using ServiceTitan's Marketing Pro Email software.

With a simple-to-understand user interface, the software delivers robust campaign performance insights for Improving your emails.

In addition, the software has professionally designed pre-built email templates that help you create email drip campaigns on your own.

Simply build your audience using the lead’s email addresses, select a template, add your logo, and change the default text to your email copy.

This saves time and cuts down costs.

Learn more tips for running profitable email marketing campaigns

7. Getting Involved in The Local Community

A traditional and effective way to generate leads is to involve yourself in the local community, which builds trust with residents who are either existing or potential customers. 

Local community involvement is also a great way to create brand awareness, which can help generate leads.

Some ways to participate in your local community include:

• Sponsoring local events: This is one way to generate local awareness. You can sponsor fairs, festivals, charity events, and concerts.

• Supporting local charities: Show your care for the community’s well-being by donating to local charities. You can also volunteer to work for a local nonprofit supporting a cause that’s on brand and urge employees to do the same.

• Hosting free educational workshops: To demonstrate your abilities, host workshops on topics relevant to your expertise. For example, you could hold a webinar on fireplace maintenance if you’re a chimney sweeper or one on safe handling of electrical appliances if you’re an electrician.

8. Flyers

Flyers are promotional materials for business services, campaigns, upcoming events, etc.

Printing and distributing flyers requires minimal time and money, yet they reach a wide audience. Plus, they are great tools for marketing to non-internet users and an older demographic that may be inactive online.

Furthermore, their tangibility fosters a deeper connection with customers and creates lasting memories of your brand.

To increase your flyers’ effectiveness, consider the following:

1. Use compelling copy and a call to action (CTA).

2. Have one core message per flyer.

3. Ensure the design aligns with your brand.

4. Keep the design simple.

5. Don't cramp your text. Leave sufficient whitespace.

9. Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs reward repeat customers with exclusive perks such as discounts and event tickets.

Such perks can incentivize customers to choose you over competitors and recommend your services to friends, relatives, and neighbors.

The primary principle of establishing loyalty programs is finding a perk that appeals to prospective customers.

Conducting customer surveys, reviewing customer feedback, and researching loyalty programs in your industry are great ways to find rewards for loyalty programs.

You can also try out different perks and compare their performance or personalize the rewards to each customer (especially if you serve commercial clients).

After setting up a loyalty program, promote it everywhere—on billboards, your website, flyers, social media accounts, etc. Then, coach CSRs and techs on how to sell the program to prospects.

10. Social Media Contests

Running social media contests generates local leads and grows your page's visibility and followers.

However, note the cautionary words of Simon Hughes, founder and creative director at Design & Build Co.: “Businesses should bear in mind that the people entering and following may not actually be their ideal customers.”

“Although they may desire to win the prize, they may not have the disposable cash to purchase it ordinarily. The percentage of warm followers likely to purchase may actually decrease,” he adds.

For a contest to work, you must use a prize that aligns with your service.

For example, offering $1,000 is not a good idea if you're an electrician. You’ll only attract participants interested in the money alone.

A better idea would be to offer a 10 percent discount on their first booking. This may attract fewer leads. But they'll be more likely to convert.

Here are tips for running effective social media contests:

• Set a time limit: “I’ve found that 12–15 days is the best duration for giveaways,” says Crystal Uys, marketing manager at Catster. “Too short, and you might miss out. [Too long], and your audience might become disinterested.”

• Limit the information you request: Request only the participants’ names and email addresses; you’ll need to re-engage with them later.

• Be transparent: Lay out the guidelines for participating and the criteria for picking a winner.

• Obey local contest regulations: Consult a lawyer for legal guidelines.

Some good social media contest ideas for home businesses include:

• Before-and-after contests: Participants share before-and-after videos or photos of your services.

• Best captions: Share a meme and urge followers to create creative captions. Give those with the most likes a discount.

• Name a hero: Followers should nominate local heroes. Highlight the nominees, and let followers decide the winner.

• DIY hashtag challenge: Encourage followers to share their DIY funny fails and use engagement—likes, shares, and comments—to pick the winner. 

11. Trade Shows

Trade shows allow you to pitch your services physically to potential customers.

You can distribute promotional materials such as calendars, which constantly reminding prospective customers of your services.

Trade shows are also a good place to network with complementary businesses, which can be a great source of referrals.

Consider paying for a booth to organize interactive demos and one-on-one consultations when attending industry trade shows. This will demonstrate your expertise and increase the likelihood of prospects remembering your business.

Also, hand out your business cards and collect the emails of people who visit your booth. You can re-engage them later using special email or cold call campaigns.

12. Partnerships

Another traditional lead generation tactic is partnerships.

You can collaborate with complementary local businesses with customers likely to need your services.

For example, let's say you're an electrical company. 

You could partner with a real estate agency, that offers free electrical inspections to new house buyers. You can then use the electrical issues you discover to persuade the house to book your services.

Consider using commissions and free advertisements to sweeten the partnership offer.

13. Online Directories

An online directory is a digital list of businesses alongside website links.

Some of the top-ranking results on local service pages are from listing directories, which are a great source of home improvement leads.

Google also uses the number of local listings to pick businesses for the map pack.

Some examples of home services directories:

• Thumbtack

• HomeAdvisor

• Angie’s List

• Nextdoor

• Yelp

In addition to registering in popular listing directories, creating profiles in industry-specific directories is advisable.

Some examples include Eaton (for electricians), PlumbingWeb (for plumbers), and Local Painter Quotes (for painters).

Finally, ensure your name, address, and phone numbers (NAP) are accurate and consistent. 

A consistent NAP across all listings signals to Google that your business is authentic. This is why Google uses NAP as a key local search ranking factor.

Also, 62 percent of customers say they won't use a business with inaccurate information on its listing.

To ensure the accuracy of your listings, you could use tools such as BrightLocal’s listing tool and Semrush’s listing check.

14. Facebook Groups

Aside from having a Facebook business page, creating a Facebook group is a great way to generate leads.

A dedicated Facebook group helps build trust with potential customers and grow brand awareness. Group members can become loyal customers and even send referrals to you.

Although your goal of creating a Facebook group is to generate leads, you shouldn't be overly promotional.

Instead, post educational content, share behind-the-scenes footage, answer customer queries, and post engaging content like memes.

Join and remain active on other relevant Facebook groups besides running your own.

You can provide helpful and in-depth answers that can persuade attendees to book a job with you. However, seek permission from the group's admin before you post.

Now Over to You

Home services lead generation is one business activity that must always continue. Otherwise, your home services business is at risk of closing.

Implement the above methods to ensure a steady stream of leads. Consider using ServiceTitan to support your lead generation strategy.

ServiceTitan is a comprehensive tool home services businesses use to streamline and automate key business processes. The cloud-based software helps service businesses increase their revenue by up to 25 percent.