TL;DR: Most trades businesses grow through word of mouth until it stops working — and by then, they have no plan. A solid 2026 marketing plan for UK tradespeople focuses on three things: getting found on Google, turning enquiries into booked jobs, and keeping work flowing through the quiet months. This guide walks you through exactly how to build one.
Most plumbers, electricians, and builders don’t have a marketing plan. They have a handful of things they’ve tried at various points — some Facebook posts, a few Google Ads, a profile on Checkatrade — but nothing joined up, nothing measured, and no real idea what’s actually driving the work.
That’s not laziness. It’s how trades businesses grow: busy periods keep you on the tools, quiet periods panic you into throwing money at the nearest quick fix.
The problem with that approach is it keeps you reactive. You’re always catching up. This guide is about getting ahead of it.
What Does a Good Trades Marketing Plan Actually Look Like?
A marketing plan for a trades business doesn’t need to be a 30-page document. It needs to answer three questions clearly:
- How are new customers going to find you?
- What happens when they do — how do you turn an enquiry into a booked job?
- How do you stay busy during the slow months?
If you can answer those three questions with specific actions, specific budgets, and someone accountable for each, you have a marketing plan that will outperform 90% of your competitors.
What most sole traders and small trades teams have instead is a vague intention to “get more work” and a hope that word of mouth keeps flowing. For some businesses, that works for years. Until it doesn’t. And when it dries up, there’s no system in place to replace it. The businesses that weather quiet patches are the ones who built a lead system before they needed it.
Which Marketing Channels Should UK Tradespeople Prioritise?
Not every channel is worth your time or money. Here’s an honest breakdown of what works for trades businesses in the UK in 2026, and what to focus on first:
Google Search (paid and organic)
When someone’s boiler breaks down, a fence blows over, or they need a rewire quoting, they go straight to Google. Being visible at that moment — through Google Ads or local SEO — is the single highest-value thing a trades business can do online. It’s demand capture: the customer has already decided to buy, you just need to be there when they search.
Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is the listing that appears when someone searches your trade in your area. It’s free to set up and one of the most powerful tools available. A heating engineer in Coventry with 47 Google reviews will beat one with 3 every single time — even if the second one has a better website and a lower quote.
Reviews on Google, Checkatrade, and Rated People
Reviews are not just nice to have. They are the primary trust signal for residential customers in 2026. A roofer with 80 Google reviews and a consistent 4.9 rating doesn’t need to sell himself on a quote visit. The reviews do it for him. Build a system for collecting reviews after every job — it’s one of the highest-ROI things you can do.
Social media — selectively
Instagram and Facebook work well for visual trades: builders, landscapers, kitchen fitters, joiners. Before-and-after photos, project walkthroughs, and short videos of work in progress build credibility over time. But social media is a slow burn. Don’t expect instant leads from it. Put it in the plan as a brand-building channel, not a lead generation channel — and consider which platforms actually work for your trade before investing time.
Lead generation platforms (Checkatrade, Rated People, MyBuilder)
These can be useful to fill gaps, especially for newer businesses building up Google reviews. But they’re expensive per lead and you’re competing against other trades for the same job, often on price. Use them tactically, not as your primary source.
How Much Should a UK Trades Business Spend on Marketing?
A widely used rule of thumb is 5–10% of your target revenue. In practice, here’s what that looks like for trades businesses:
- Solo trader targeting £80k/year: £4,000–£8,000 per year (roughly £330–£665 per month)
- Small team targeting £250k/year: £12,500–£25,000 per year (roughly £1,000–£2,000 per month)
- Growing business targeting £500k+: £25,000–£50,000 per year, split across Google Ads, SEO, and content
To put that in context: a heating engineer in the Midlands running Google Ads with a £600/month budget was generating 18–22 leads per month within three months at roughly £28 per lead. With a 40% quote conversion rate, that meant around 8 new booked jobs every month from a standing start.
The same £600 spent on a Checkatrade subscription would have bought approximately 10–14 lead credits — competing with 3–5 other businesses on each job, usually on price.
Budget alone doesn’t determine results. Where you spend it, and how well the campaigns are set up, matters far more than the number.
How Do You Build a Trades Marketing Plan Month by Month?
A simple quarterly plan beats an elaborate annual one that nobody looks at after January. Here’s a practical structure:
Q1 (January–March) — Get visible:
- Audit and update your Google Business Profile — photos, services, opening hours
- Get Google Ads campaigns live before the spring surge in demand
- Contact your last 20 customers and ask for a Google review
- Make sure your website loads fast on mobile and has a clear phone number above the fold
Q2 (April–June) — Convert more enquiries:
- Review your enquiry follow-up speed. Missing a call and not calling back within an hour loses jobs. Set up a simple missed-call text message.
- Build your portfolio of recent completed work for social media
- Start asking every new customer how they found you — this data is gold
Q3 (July–September) — Scale what’s working:
- Look at your lead data. Which channel is generating the most jobs at the lowest cost per job?
- Increase spend on what’s working. Cut what isn’t.
- Start creating seasonal content: autumn boiler service campaigns, pre-winter roof inspection offers, driveway work before the frosts
Q4 (October–December) — Protect the quiet months:
- Run Google Ads specifically for emergency work in your area
- Contact past customers with relevant service reminders
- Plan your January spend now so you’re not starting the new year in reactive mode
This structure takes an hour to map out. Having it written down, with a budget attached to each quarter, puts you in a completely different position to the businesses that are still figuring out what to do when work goes quiet.
How Do You Know If Your Trades Marketing Is Working?
The answer is simple: you track it. Specifically, you need to know:
- Cost per lead — how much does it cost to generate each enquiry?
- Lead to job conversion rate — what percentage of enquiries become booked work?
- Cost per booked job — the actual cost of winning each piece of work
- Revenue per channel — which source is generating the most profitable jobs?
A landscaper in Yorkshire running Google Ads and Facebook simultaneously tracked their leads for 90 days. Google Ads produced leads at £34 each with a 55% conversion rate — cost per booked job: £62. Facebook produced leads at £18 each with a 20% conversion rate — cost per booked job: £90. The cheaper lead source was the more expensive way to win work.
Without tracking, you can’t see that. Most trades businesses keep spending money on things that feel like they’re working, without any evidence either way. A simple spreadsheet — source, date, enquiry type, outcome, job value — will tell you everything you need within three months.
If you want to understand what this means in practice for your numbers, working through how many leads you actually need per month is worth doing before you set your budget.
Need Help Growing Your Trades Business?
We Are SMC works exclusively with trades and construction businesses across the UK. We handle your Google Ads, SEO, social media and content so you can focus on the work. Get a free 30-minute strategy call at wearesmc.co.uk/get-started — no hard sell, just honest advice.
