Discover how successful remodelers build lead generation machines that produce consistent, quality leads—from tracking metrics to balancing quick wins with SEO.

Published October 29th, 2025

By Stephanie Day

Reviewed by Stephanie Day

Contractors are feeling the squeeze at both ends. They’re spending more than ever on marketing, while labor shortages eat into their ability to complete profitable work. The numbers are brutal: the industry needs 723,000 new construction workers each year just to meet demand, meaning contractors must turn away high-margin jobs they can’t staff. And 85% of contractors struggle to generate consistent leads and pay a higher price for the leads they can find. Average remodeler marketing spend has grown to 5.2% of revenue in 2025, up from 4.4% in 2024. That cuts hard into razor-thin profit margins.

Tired of relying on hope and word-of-mouth? Build a systematic lead generation machine to stay booked solid.

“Every builder should consider themselves a marketing company first,” says Sean Sandona, co-founder and vice president of Jackson Carter Design Build in Chicago. “You’re not a builder until you’re good at marketing.

Today’s lead generation challenges

The advent and evolution of digital marketing has forced the construction industry to rethink its entire lead generation ecosystem. Homeowner behavior has shifted online. While many remodelers still say most of their leads come through referrals, potential clients verify those recommendations via Google searches, online reviews, and social media. Relying on word-of-mouth to build social trust for you is no longer guaranteed, and contractors lacking a digital presence lose even referred leads.

Plus, competition has intensified. Dramatically. The days of being the only home remodeler with a Yellow Pages ad are gone—according to Sandona, top remodelers can spend as much as 7–10% of revenue on marketing when targeting aggressive growth. One survey found that 85% of contractors buy Google ads, and that same percentage buys social media ads, too. Seventy percent maintain an active social media presence, and only slightly fewer contractors keep up an email list.

Homeowners have multiple contractors vying for their attention. They judge your professionalism by your digital presence, even before seeing your work.

Responding to these pressures with random tactics isn’t a strategy. Boosting a Facebook post? Buying leads from HomeAdvisor? Maybe attending a home show when things get desperate? Good ideas, but ineffective without a system, tracking, and predictability.

Sandona operates in Chicago, one of the country’s most competitive markets. He’s more than risen to the challenge: His company has built a lead-generation machine that produces 2,7000 leads annually across 8–10 marketing channels. He maintains a 7–8 month backlog.

How? “We know our numbers down to the decimal,” he says. “We can predict within five percent accuracy how many leads we’ll have next month, what percentage will convert, and exactly where they’ll come from.”

Here’s how to build the same predictability in your business.

1. Embrace multiple lead generation channels

Referrals and word-of-mouth won’t keep you busy. “A multi-channel approach is the key to success,” says Sandona. Client referrals and repeat clients may be your biggest lead source, but that no longer works solo—especially when you’re starting out. Pro remodelers attribute about 15.5% of leads to the company website, and various other online lead-gen mediums make up another 4.7% of leads. The rest comes from paid advertising, local marketing, and community presence.

Sandona allocates 75–80% of his marketing budget to digital channels and 20–25% to traditional channels, like television or print advertising or community outreach. “We adjust on a biweekly basis,” he says, to account for performance on a per-channel basis.

What to do

Set up Google Ads for immediate visibility when people search “home remodeling near me”
Launch Facebook and Instagram ads targeting homeowners in ZIP codes you serve
Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile to target local searches
Keep your referral pipeline active with systematic follow-ups

2. Track all of your numbers

Do you know how many of your leads convert to a home consultation? How many of those consultations convert to contracts?

Multi-stage tracking is critical so you can forecast your revenue and know which channels do and don’t convert. “We expect 10% of our leads to convert into a full consult,” says Sandona. Typically, the company converts about 85% of those leads into design agreements, which then convert at 95% to construction contracts.

Intimate familiarity with all these numbers helps you make informed decisions about future marketing pushes. Maybe Facebook ads don’t work well in your metro, or Google Ads have a particularly high conversion rate. You can’t know what channels fit your business best without data.

What to do

Calculate your revenue goal and divide it by your average project size to know the number of projects needed to reach goal
Work backward: If you need 10 projects and close 20%, you need 50 qualified leads
Track conversion at each stage and for each channel: lead → appointment → proposal → sale
Monitor 90-day rolling averages to spot and fix problems early
Watch for warning signs:
- Backlog falling below three months
- Leads down 20% for three weeks
- Cost per lead up 30%.

3. Manage seasonality

Remodeling demand follows predictable patterns. Winter is slow. Spring is busy. Work with the seasons—don’t just accept the status quo.

“We start our heaviest campaigns in September and October,” says Sandona. “We’re trying to get ahead of the doom and gloom of fall.”

Consider promoting project financing through Acorn Finance during slower seasons to help homeowners get a head-start on their spring to-do list. Plus, this helps when seasonality extends to more than the weather. A simple monthly payment, compared to a large lump sum, helps homeowners move forward even during economic uncertainty like impending tariffs or recession fears.

What to do

September and October: Launch winter booking campaigns
November and December: Push indoor projects and design consultations
January and February: Promote spring scheduling with early-bird discounts
Add complementary services, like handyman work or maintenance projects, in the slow periods

4. Follow up again and again and again

Research says that cold prospects can require 20 to 50 touch points before a sale—so why are you giving up after a few days?

“A lot of remodeling companies get really heavy in the first three to four days and then fall off,” says Sandona. “We keep after them for up to 30 days.”

Following requires more than persistence—it requires speed. Contacting leads within five minutes can 21x your qualification rates.

What to do

Respond within five minutes
Set up automated text confirmations
Call on days 1, 3, 7, 14, 21, and 30
Add potential leads to an email nurture sequence
Send handwritten cards after consultations

Your follow-up script: “I know you’re busy, but I wanted to make sure you got our estimate. Are there any questions I can answer to help you move forward?”

5. Implement the 2-4-6-8 rule

“Google Business Profile is a driving machine for your company,” says Sandona, but managing and updating your profile and associated website can be understandably overwhelming. Sandona’s team follows a strict content calendar that keeps them visible year-round.

Here’s how to implement the 2-4-6-8 rule for your business.

2 Google Business Profile posts per week
4 money pages—or service pages targeting keywords—added monthly
6 review requests sent weekly
8 photos with proper alt text uploaded to Google Business Profile.

Extend this scheduling to other channels, too. For example, you might post 4–5 videos or reels on social media each week or add two photo posts to your Facebook feed.

6. Build quick wins—but play the long game

You need leads to pay bills, but the best lead sources take months to develop. A problem? Not necessarily—you don’t have to choose between immediate results and sustainable growth.

Saldona recommends using paid search ads while you build your lead-gen strategy. “Google paid-per-click is your instant fuel,” he says. “You need a campfire and you don’t have time to look for twigs and leaves that are dry? It dumps gasoline on it. The quality can be missing, but it will generate inquiries fast.”

Quick wins that will generate leads this month

Google Ads campaigns
Facebook and Instagram promotions
Lead aggregators like Angi and HomeAdvisor
Door hangers in recent project neighborhoods

Long-term strategies

SEO and content creation, which Sandona says “should be your biggest budget spend. It’s going to increase your business’s longevity and your lifetime overall sales.”
Referral relationships with real estate agents
Email nurturing for past clients
Google Business Profile optimization

Start taking action today

You can move from an unpredictable pipeline to steady lead flow this week. Start with three concrete actions, each requiring minimal investment but delivering immediate results—and valuable data.

Set up a simple lead tracking spreadsheet with columns for source, date, status, and next action. Track every single inquiry for 30 days to establish baseline metrics. This gives you the data for informed decisions—not just guesses.

Pick one new lead channel to test based on your current gaps. If you’re referral-heavy, add Google Ads to generate volume. If you’re all digital, try a local home show for face-to-face connections. Commit $1,000 and 30 days to see if it works for your market.

Immediately implement a five-minute response time. Set up an automated text or social media DM that fires immediately when someone fills out your web form or contacts your profile. “Got your message! I’ll call within the hour to discuss your project.”

Within 90 days, these actions can establish your conversion baseline, test a new lead source, and improve your response time. More importantly: You’ve shifted from reactive to proactive lead generation. As you see results, expand to additional channels, increase the sophistication of your tracking, and scale what works.

Contractors who treat lead generation as a systematic business function, and don’t just hope for referrals, consistently outperform their competition. Whether you implement financing options through partners like Acorn Finance to increase close rates, invest in digital marketing, or build referral systems, the key is starting now.