The 90-Day Marketing Plan That Fills a General Contractor's Calendar

General contractors have one of the most difficult marketing problems in the trades. Projects are large and infrequent — a homeowner might do one major renovation every 5-10 years. The sales cycle is long. Estimates are time-consuming. And most leads from generic Google searches are early-stage researchers, not buyers ready to commit. Done wrong, contractor marketing burns money chasing leads that never convert.

Done right, it fills your project calendar 6-8 weeks in advance with qualified homeowners who have budgets and timelines. Here is the 90-day system we use to get there.

Why Contractors Struggle With Consistent Work

Most general contractors experience either a glut of work from referrals — too many projects, not enough crew — or a dry spell when those referrals slow down. There is rarely a steady middle ground. This happens because referrals are passive. You have no control over when they come or how many you get. The answer is not to replace referrals but to add a parallel lead system that produces predictable results on a schedule you control.

The other common mistake: contractors who do try online marketing invest in a single channel. Just a website with no traffic. Just Google Ads with no landing page. Just social media with no follow-up. A contractor marketing system needs multiple components working together because the buyer journey for a renovation project spans 30-90 days of consideration.

Month 1: Build the Foundation

No paid advertising works without the right foundation in place first. Month 1 is about building the infrastructure that makes every dollar spent on ads convert at the highest possible rate.

Month 2: Turn on Paid Traffic

With the foundation in place, Month 2 activates paid channels targeting homeowners actively searching for renovation services.

Google Ads targets high-intent searches: “kitchen renovation contractor [city],” “basement finishing [city],” “home addition contractor near me.” These are homeowners who have already decided to proceed with a renovation and are comparing contractors. The cost per click is higher than generic searches, but the conversion rate is 3-5x better.

Meta Ads work differently for contractors. They build awareness and generate estimate requests from homeowners who are in the consideration phase — thinking about a renovation but not yet actively searching. Showing before/after project content targeting homeowners aged 35-60 in your service area produces a steady flow of longer-term opportunities. These leads take longer to convert but are often larger projects.

“Most contractor clients start seeing estimate requests within 2-3 weeks of launching Google Ads. The key is having the landing pages and follow-up system in place before the traffic arrives.”

Month 3: Scale What Works

By Month 3, data from Months 1 and 2 shows which keywords produce projects (not just estimates), which project types have the shortest close cycle, and which geographic areas within your service radius generate the best-margin jobs. Month 3 is about doubling down on what is working and cutting what is not.

Two additional systems get activated in Month 3: retargeting (showing ads specifically to homeowners who visited your website but did not submit an estimate request) and local SEO (service-area pages that begin ranking organically for renovation searches in specific neighbourhoods). Retargeting closes the gap on homeowners who were interested but not ready — and renovation homeowners often visit contractor websites 3-5 times before making contact.

What to Expect in 90 Days

A realistic outcome for a general contractor starting from little or no online presence: 6-10 qualified estimate requests per month by the end of Month 3, with 2-4 converting to signed projects depending on average project value and your close rate. For contractors with average job values of $20,000-$50,000, this produces $40,000-$200,000 in new project revenue from the first 90 days of the system.

Our complete 90-day contractor growth system covers all 10 components described above. If you want to see what this looks like specifically for your market and project types, book a free strategy call. See our full general contractor marketing services and how our Google and Meta Ads management works.