For coating, painting and permanent-lighting businesses
Plan your Facebook ads.
Start with the job.
Start with the job you want, the area you serve and who will contact each enquiry. Then choose an appropriate Meta lead destination, prepare truthful project creative, check the full enquiry-to-calendar route and measure what happens after the form. A cheap form submission is useful only if your team can turn it into a suitable conversation and, eventually, work.
Key takeaways
- Advertise a defined project type and service area, not every service your crew could possibly perform.
- Decide whether the enquiry goes through a form, a message or a call, and give someone responsibility for the next step.
- Review real project fit, contactability, estimates and won jobs alongside cost per lead.
- If you buy LMC leads instead of running your own campaign, LMC funds and manages the ads; your team handles calls and booking. Our appointment option includes human callers and booking support.
01 / Campaign planning
Write the campaign brief first.
Record the work you want to quote, areas you can reach, exclusions and capacity. Estimate appointments and installation dates are separate constraints. Use our free contractor campaign planner rather than keeping those decisions in scattered messages.
For coatings, name the spaces and systems your business actually offers. Residential coatings can extend beyond garages, but your estimator decides which surfaces and systems are suitable. For painting, separate interior and exterior work and state whether specialist requests such as cabinets belong in the campaign. For permanent lighting, distinguish permanent installations from temporary holiday decorating and respect any agreed dealer boundaries.
02 / Campaign planning
Choose a next step you can handle.
Meta offers lead-generation routes through forms, calls and messages. Choose a route that fits the information a homeowner needs and your ability to respond. An instant form can collect an enquiry within Meta; a website form can give the visitor more context before they enquire. A message or call route needs someone able to handle that conversation. No destination is universally best for every contractor. Meta’s lead-generation training outline covers forms, messages and calls.
In the current account, verify the available lead campaign setup, conversion location, performance goal, geographic controls, budget and placements before launch. Meta changes its interfaces and eligibility varies. Use Meta's current instructions for the exact controls; this guide is a contractor planning checklist rather than screenshots of a setup that may differ from yours. Meta also publishes a current overview of its streamlined leads setup.
03 / Campaign planning
Show the work honestly.
Use project photos and video you have permission to publish. Say what the project involved and where your company works. Avoid presenting generated scenes, stock photography or another contractor's installations as your completed jobs. A useful coating ad might show preparation and the completed surface; a painting ad might explain the rooms or exterior involved; a lighting ad might show a real installation in daylight and after dark.
Match the message to the offer. If the next step is an estimate, say so. Do not imply a fixed installed price, guaranteed start date, product warranty or result that your company has not approved. Preview the actual placements so the work, headline and next step are understandable on a phone.
04 / Campaign planning
Ask questions that help the conversation.
Collect the details you need to respond and understand basic fit. A useful starting point is project type, service area and how to contact the homeowner. Choose further questions because they change what happens next, not because a longer form looks more qualified.
Illustrative examples, not mandatory forms:
- Coatings: Which space needs coating? What is the general location? What would you like to change about the existing surface?
- Painting: Is the project interior, exterior or both? Which rooms or surfaces are involved? What timing are you considering?
- Lighting: Are you asking about a permanent installation? What part of the property do you want to light? Is there an existing system?
A form answer does not replace a phone conversation or technical site assessment. Keep privacy information and contact expectations clear, and use your approved process for consent and follow-up.
05 / Campaign planning
Test the handover before spending.
Check that a permitted test enquiry arrives in the intended inbox or CRM, reaches the right person and contains the project answers. Verify that notifications work, duplicate handling makes sense and the calendar reflects real estimate capacity. Remove or clearly label test records in your own process so they do not become campaign results.
Decide what happens outside working hours, who owns uncontacted enquiries and when a quote needs a follow-up. An AI draft or automated reminder may assist office work, but it does not prove a homeowner was reached, qualified or booked. Keep the person's actual response and the final status in the record.
06 / Campaign planning
Measure the path from lead to job.
For the same dated group of enquiries, record delivered leads, successful contacts, estimates booked, estimates attended and jobs won. Separate future estimates, cancellations, no-shows and open quotes. Include the relevant advertising, provider and staff costs consistently. Do not compare one campaign's full-month sales with another campaign's new leads from yesterday.
Use the free lead-to-job tracker to keep those stages separate. If many enquiries are outside your area, review campaign geography and the form. If suitable people do not answer, inspect the contact route and follow-up. If attended estimates do not become jobs, review project fit, quoting and the sales conversation before assuming the ad alone is responsible.
07 / Campaign planning
Change one clear problem at a time.
Record the problem, the change and when it was made. Let relevant outcomes develop before deciding whether the change helped. Avoid rewriting the offer, audience, creative and follow-up simultaneously and then attributing the result to one of them. There is no universal spend or duration that guarantees a reliable answer for every market.
Running it yourself or getting support
Who will own the next step?
Running a campaign yourself means your business owns the setup decisions, ad funding and follow-up. If you want LMC to fund and manage the advertising, compare our two services: exclusive leads for your team to call, or appointments qualified and booked by our human setters. Your team still assesses, quotes, sells and delivers the work. LMC retains its advertising operation and records when a client pauses or leaves; confirm any access requirements before choosing an arrangement.
Before you launch.
Should contractors use a Facebook form or a website form?
Choose based on the context the homeowner needs and your ability to handle the response. An instant form keeps the enquiry within Meta; a website can explain the work before a form. Compare project fit, successful contacts and eventual jobs, not only the number of submissions.
How much should a contractor spend on Facebook ads?
There is no useful universal budget for every trade and area. Define an affordable test, the jobs you want, estimate capacity and the outcomes you will measure. Confirm the budget controls in your own account. LMC’s separate lead and appointment services include LMC-funded advertising; that is different from funding a campaign yourself.
Can AI handle my homeowner enquiries?
AI can help draft summaries or responses, but a draft does not establish that a homeowner was contacted or qualified. Review its work and keep a person responsible for the conversation, technical assessment and price. LMC’s appointment service uses human setters.
Want LMC to manage the ads?
Discuss exclusive leads for your team to call, or attended estimates booked by our human setters.