Facebook Ads for Construction Companies: Guide

How much do Facebook ads for construction companies cost?

A contractor lead from Facebook typically costs about $61 CAD, the median across four studies and platforms that publish contractor and home services figures. That's about a quarter of a $224 Google construction lead. Few studies break construction out on Facebook, so the contractor figure is the closest match^1–4.

The two leads aren't the same. A Google lead searched for a builder today; a Facebook lead saw your project and put their hand up. Here's what that means per booked job, as an illustration: Google uses the contractor typical⁵, and Facebook assumes half as many leads book.

Debut Marketing illustration. A Facebook lead called next week can cost more per job than a Google lead.

Which Facebook ad ideas work for construction companies?

Show a real project, give people a reason to talk to you now, and only offer what you build. The three ideas below each have a hook (the first line or first three seconds of video), an offer and footage you can shoot yourself. They're starting drafts to adapt, not tested results, and the best one depends on your region.

1. "What can I build on my lot?" In BC, most single-family and duplex lots in larger municipalities must now allow three or four units, and six near frequent transit¹⁰. Most owners don't know what that means for their lot.

• Hook: "Own a house in Surrey? Your lot may now allow four homes."
• Offer: a free lot check with what they can build and roughly what it costs.
• Creative: a drone shot of a finished duplex or garden suite. T City Developments built its website around this exact question¹¹.

2. The basement in winter. Indoor work keeps going when the ground freezes. HomeStars puts a full basement finish at $25,000 to $75,000, with egress windows for a legal bedroom at $2,500 to $5,000 each¹².

• Hook: "Unfinished basement? Here's what a legal suite costs in Calgary this winter."
• Offer: a free walk-through with a written price range.
• Creative: a 20-second before and after of a basement you finished, with captions.

3. The build in 30 seconds. A time-lapse of a kitchen, addition or custom home shows your work, crew and site in one clip.

• Hook: "Six weeks, one kitchen, 30 seconds."
• Offer: a free design consult or site visit.
• Creative: phone time-lapse or drone footage from your own job, with the town named.

Your real rating works as social proof in any of these ("4.9 from 60 local homeowners", with your numbers). To see real examples, open Meta's free Ad Library¹³ and search the builders in your area: it shows every active ad any page is running¹³.

Which ad formats and campaigns should construction companies use?

Use video and before-and-after photos in a Leads campaign, then retarget the people who watched or visited. Carousels suit a finished project shown room by room. For commercial work, skip the ads and use your page to show finished jobs. Start with one campaign and one ad set until you know your cost per site visit.

• Lead campaigns with an instant form bring the most leads for the money. Add questions that sort real projects from dreamers.
• Website campaigns bring fewer, more serious leads, once your landing page converts.
• Retargeting keeps you in front of people who visited your site or watched half your video. You need the Meta pixel for site visitors, and only 13% of construction websites have it⁶.
• Video views, then retargeting suits big projects: run a cheap video campaign, then show a lead ad to people who watched most of it.

Set the location to the towns you build in. With Meta's Advantage+ audience, most targeting is a suggestion, but location, minimum age and language stay as hard limits¹⁴. Test one thing at a time, such as two hooks on the same video, and keep the winner.

Should you use an instant form or a landing page?

Use an instant form for walk-throughs and smaller renovations, and a landing page for additions, custom homes and whole-home work. Pick Meta's "Higher intent" form type, which adds a screen where people review their answers before sending, and ask two or three qualifying questions so you know which leads to call first¹⁵.

Three qualifying questions that work: "What are you planning? (kitchen, basement, addition, new home, other)", "When do you want to start? (within 3 months, 3 to 12 months, just looking)" and "Do you have a budget in mind? (under $50,000, $50,000 to $150,000, over $150,000)". A landing page for a big project needs the phone number and one button at the top, photos of that project type, your Google rating, how you price and your process. Only 16% of construction websites show their rating, 35% explain their process and 4% name their pricing model⁶.

How much should a construction company spend on Facebook ads?

I'd start at $1,000 to $2,500 a month in a small market, $2,500 to $5,000 in a mid-size one and $5,000 to $10,000 in a big metro area. At about $61 a lead, $1,000 a month buys about 16 leads, enough to learn from. Judge big-project businesses over three months, not one.

Meta lets you set the budget per campaign or per ad set, and daily or over the campaign's life. For a first campaign, a daily ad set budget is simplest to control. Raise it only once your cost per site visit is steady.

How fast should you follow up on Facebook leads?

Within five minutes, with an automatic text the moment the form arrives. A Facebook lead filled in a form between other things, and a builder who calls next week is forgotten. Five studies over 15 years say the same: fast calls reach and qualify far more leads. Keep every lead in a CRM so you can see which became projects.

For leads who say "3 to 12 months", set a slower follow-up: a text with two or three finished projects like theirs, a check-in a month later, and retargeting in between. They'll check you out first: 68% of homeowners in our survey used more than one place to research a contractor, and 23% used social media²⁰.

How should construction companies adjust Facebook ads through the year?

Change the project with the season and keep winter ads running for indoor work. Construction employment drops about 10% from August to January nationally, about 4% in BC and 24% in New Brunswick. In the colder provinces, a "book your spring start" ad from January to March fills the calendar before the ground thaws²¹.

Retarget website visitors for 90 days rather than 30, because construction buyers take longer. Refresh the footage every month or so, because the same video stops working once your area has seen it a few times.

What mistakes waste a construction Facebook budget?

Most wasted budgets come from the same handful of habits: no offer, stock footage, slow follow-up and no tracking. None of them are about targeting settings. Fix these before you spend more, because a bigger budget only buys more of the same leads going cold.

• Stock photos and renderings instead of your own projects.
• Promoting a post with no offer and no form.
• Advertising commercial work to homeowners.
• One campaign for every project type, so you can't tell what's working.
• Calling leads back next week, or never following up the "just looking" ones.
• No Meta pixel, so no retargeting and no way to count website leads.

Where should you start?

Run one Leads campaign in the towns you build in, with the project that fits your region and season, your best footage and an instant text reply on every lead. Use the "Higher intent" form with two qualifying questions. Give it a month, count the site visits, then add retargeting. Facebook works best next to Google Ads.

Our Google Ads guide for construction companies covers the search side. If you'd rather have it done for you, see our construction marketing or how we run construction Facebook ads. The full data is in our construction website study.