Tradie advertising that pays for itself — and the kind that doesn't.
Every advertising option available to an Australian trade business, compared on real cost, speed to first lead and return. Plus the tracking setup that shows exactly which one is booking your jobs.
- 1Google Ads — 24 to 48 hours
- 2Facebook lead ads — 3 to 7 days
- 3Letterbox drop — 1 to 3 weeks
- 4Google Business Profile — 2 to 6 weeks
- 5SEO — 3 to 6 months
What each advertising channel really costs a tradie.
Australian figures for a typical single-location trade business. Scale the budgets, not the number of channels — two channels done properly beat six done badly.
Google Ads
Best for reactive and emergency work. Highest intent, fully measurable. Needs tight keywords and negatives or it bleeds money.
Google Business Profile
The best value advertising in trades full stop. Maps Pack placement wins the 'near me' searches every trade depends on.
SEO / suburb pages
Slow start, compounding return. Once ranked, the leads keep arriving without paying per click.
Vehicle signage
Highest-ROI passive advertising. Keep it simple: name, trade, phone number, big and readable.
Letterbox drops
Works with a real offer and repetition in dense residential streets. Always use a trackable number.
Facebook & Instagram ads
Good for planned high-value work (renos, solar, pools, landscaping). Poor for emergency call-outs.
Radio, print & billboards
Brand-only. Hard to track and rarely justified until you're a multi-location or franchise operation.
Local sponsorship & referrals
Cheap community goodwill and word of mouth. Sponsor the junior footy team, get the sign at the ground, ask for reviews.
How to know which advertising books jobs.
Use a different number per channel
Call tracking numbers on your ads, your van, your website and your flyers. When the phone rings you know instantly what paid for it.
Tag every online link
UTM parameters on ads, email and social links so your analytics attributes each booked job to the right campaign.
Ask and record the source
'How did you hear about us?' logged in the CRM against every job. Six months of this data will change where your money goes.
Measure cost per booked job
Not clicks, not impressions, not leads. Spend divided by jobs booked. Anything above your gross profit per job gets cut or fixed.
None of this matters if the phone rings out. The average Australian tradie misses 30–50% of inbound calls, and most of those callers simply ring the next result. Fix answering before you spend another dollar on advertising — see the AI receptionist for tradies guide.
Related guides.
Google Ads for Tradies
Keyword lists, budgets and the ad copy that books jobs.
Read the Google Ads for Tradies guideDigital Marketing for Tradies
Costs, channels and a 90-day plan for the full online stack.
Read the Digital Marketing for Tradies guideSEO for Tradies
Rank in Maps and organic search across your service suburbs.
Read the SEO for Tradies guideMarketing Agency for Tradies
When to hire an agency, what to pay and what to demand.
Read the Marketing Agency for Tradies guideTradie advertising — your questions.
What is the best way to advertise a trade business in Australia?
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Google Ads and Google Business Profile deliver the fastest, most measurable results for Australian trades because they reach people at the exact moment they need a job done. Vehicle signage and yard signs are the best value passive advertising. Letterbox drops still work in dense residential areas for planned services. Radio, print and billboards are brand-only and rarely justify their cost for a single-location trade.
How much should a tradie spend on advertising?
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As a rule of thumb, 5–10% of revenue once established and 10–15% in a growth phase. In dollar terms, most single-van Australian trades spend $500–$1,500 a month on Google Ads plus a platform fee for the website, reviews and follow-up. Judge it on cost per booked job, not total spend — a campaign at $90 per booked job should be scaled, not capped.
Do letterbox drops still work for tradies?
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Yes, in the right conditions: dense residential streets, a specific offer (not just a logo and a phone number), and repetition — three drops to the same streets beats one drop across three suburbs. Typical response rates are 0.5–2%. Always use a trackable phone number or a dedicated landing page so you know what it produced.
Are Facebook ads worth it for tradies?
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For emergency work, no — nobody scrolls Facebook while their hot water system fails. For planned, high-value work like bathroom renovations, solar, landscaping, pools and new builds, Facebook and Instagram ads with strong before/after creative and lead forms can work well. Keep Google as your base layer and treat social as demand generation for big-ticket jobs.
Is vehicle signage good advertising for tradies?
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It's the highest-ROI passive advertising in trades. A full wrap costs $2,500–$5,000 and lasts years; a partial with logo, trade, phone number and website costs a few hundred. Keep it readable at a glance: business name, one line of what you do, phone number in large type. Skip the fine-print service list — nobody reads it at 60km/h.
How do I track which advertising is actually working?
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Use a unique phone number for each channel (call tracking), tag every ad link with UTM parameters, and always ask new callers how they found you — recorded in your CRM. Without tracking you'll keep paying for the channel that shouts loudest, not the one that books jobs. Most trades discover 70% of their spend produces 20% of their work.
Not sure where your ad budget should go?
Book a free discovery call and we'll tell you which channels suit your trade, your suburbs and your job values.