The short answer
Most BC contractors spend between $1,500 and $5,000 CAD per month on marketing, plus a one-time website build of $3,000 to $12,000 CAD.
A solo operator or two-truck shop typically runs $1,500–$2,500/month all-in including ad spend.
An established company doing $1M–$3M in revenue typically runs $3,000–$6,000/month.
Companies scaling past $5M usually run $6,000–$15,000/month across multiple service areas.
The single most useful benchmark: healthy home service companies invest 5–10% of revenue in marketing. Below 5%, you are usually coasting on referrals and slowly shrinking. Above 12%, you are either in aggressive expansion mode or your close rate is broken.
We have built and run marketing for over 100 contractors across British Columbia, concrete, roofing, plumbing, HVAC, excavation, painting, flooring, and general construction. This is what things actually cost here, with real numbers, because almost nobody in this industry will publish them.
Why nobody publishes contractor marketing prices
Three reasons, and it is worth understanding them before you read the rest of this page.
Reason one: price anchoring. Agencies want to discover your budget before they name theirs. If you say "we're thinking $2,000," the proposal comes back at $2,000. If you say "$8,000," it comes back at $8,000 — for substantially the same work.
Reason two: scope is genuinely variable. A "website" can mean a five-page template or a 40-page site with service-area pages for eleven municipalities. Both are websites. They are not the same product.
Reason three: some of it is not defensible. When an agency charges $4,000/month to publish two blog posts and adjust a Google Ads bid, publishing that price invites the obvious question.
We publish ours. Everything below reflects real market rates in British Columbia as of 2026, drawn from our own client engagements plus published Canadian agency benchmarks.
Contractor website design cost in BC
Tier 1: Template / DIY Builder
One-time cost (CAD): $0 – $1,500
What you get: Squarespace or Wix, 5 pages, stock imagery, you build it
Best for: Brand-new operators, pre-revenue
Tier 2: Professional Small Build
One-time cost (CAD): $3,000 – $6,000
What you get: 8–15 custom pages, mobile-optimised, conversion-focused, basic local SEO, real photography integration
Best for: Most BC trades doing $250K – $1M
Tier 3: Multi-location / Service Area Build
One-time cost (CAD): $6,000 – $12,000
What you get: 20–50 pages, dedicated location pages per municipality, trade-specific service pages, schema markup, speed optimisation
Best for: Companies covering multiple BC markets
Tier 4: Enterprise / Custom Application
One-time cost (CAD): $12,000 – $30,000+
What you get: Custom quoting tools, client portals, integrations with job management software
Best for: $5M+ operations
Ongoing hosting, maintenance, and security: $50 – $250 CAD/month. Anyone charging more than $250/month for hosting alone and not doing active optimisation work is charging you rent.
What actually drives the cost
Page count is the biggest lever, and it is the one most contractors underestimate. If you serve Courtenay, Campbell River, Nanaimo, and Parksville, you need four location pages, not one page that lists four city names in a paragraph. Google's local algorithm does not reward the second approach. That is four times the copywriting, four times the internal linking work, and four times the schema.
Photography is the second lever. A site built on your own job-site photos converts dramatically better than one built on stock images of generic hard hats, homeowners in BC can tell within about three seconds whether they are looking at real local work. Budget $800–$2,500 for a proper half-day or full-day shoot.
Red flag to watch for: if an agency quotes a website with no discovery call, no discussion of your service areas, and no request for your job photos, they are selling you a template with your logo dropped in.
Local SEO and Google Business Profile cost
Service Level: GBP Optimisation Only
Monthly cost (CAD): $300 – $700
Scope: Profile buildout, categories, services, weekly posts, photo uploads, review response, Q&A seeding
Service Level: Standard Local SEO
Monthly cost (CAD): $800 – $2,000
Scope: Everything above, plus on-page optimisation, citation building, 1–2 location pages per quarter, link acquisition, monthly reporting
Service Level: Aggressive Multi-Market SEO
Monthly cost (CAD): $2,000 – $5,000
Scope: Everything above, plus programmatic location page rollout across multiple BC markets, content production, technical SEO, competitive displacement work
Canadian agency data puts the meaningful SEO range at $1,500 to $10,000 per month, with the low end covering foundational work and the high end covering multi-channel management. For a typical BC trades company, you are living in the $800–$2,500 band.
The timeline nobody tells you about
Local SEO takes 6 to 12 months to produce consistent lead flow. Not six weeks. If an agency promises page-one rankings in 30 days, they are either bidding on your own brand name in Google Ads and calling it SEO, or they are about to do something that will get your profile suspended.
The payoff is that mature SEO is the cheapest lead source in the trades, $10 to $50 per lead at maturity versus $80–$230 on paid search. But you pay for that with time up front. This is why we tell every new client the same thing: run ads while SEO matures, then let SEO take over the volume and drop ad spend to the high-margin keywords only.
Google Ads management cost
Two costs here, and contractors constantly confuse them.
1. Ad spend — the money that goes to Google. This is not agency revenue.
2. Management fee — what the agency charges to run it.
Your monthly ad spend (CAD). Typical management fee. Common model
$1,000 – $3,000. $500 – $1,000/month. Flat fee
$3,000 – $8,000. $1,000 – $2,000/month. Flat fee or 15–20% of spend
$8,000 – $20,000. 12–18% of spend Percentage
$20,000+ 10–15% of spend. Percentage, often with performance component
Most Canadian agencies charge a flat fee below roughly $5,000/month in spend, which is the right structure for small budgets — it means the account gets attention regardless of spend volume rather than being deprioritised.
How much ad spend do you actually need?
Here is the rule we use, and it is more useful than any generic budget number: your monthly ad budget should be at least 10 to 15 times your target cost per lead. Below that, you do not generate enough data for the algorithm to optimise, and you burn three months learning nothing.
Home services CPC in 2026 is genuinely expensive. Recent benchmark data puts the average home services cost per click at $7.85 USD, with painting at $13.74, electrical contracting at $12.18, and roofing at $10.70. At a 7.33% average conversion rate, a painting contractor is looking at roughly $187 USD per lead on non-branded search before optimisation.
That is the number that shocks contractors. It is also why the answer is almost never "just run more ads."
Practical BC minimums we would actually recommend:
Single-market plumber or electrician: $1,500 – $2,500/month ad spend
Roofing or HVAC in Metro Vancouver: $3,000 – $6,000/month (high CPC, high job value)
Concrete or landscaping, seasonal: $2,000 – $4,000/month during season, throttled off-season
Vancouver Island / Interior markets: often 30–50% cheaper per click than Metro Vancouver for the same trade
That last point matters and it is underappreciated. A roofer in the Comox valley or Vernon is competing against a fraction of the ad density a roofer in Surrey faces. Regional BC markets are one of the best paid-search values in the country right now.
Google Local Services Ads (LSA)
Separate from Google Ads, and usually cheaper. LSA leads across home services average $53 USD per lead, compared to $90.92 USD for standard Google search ads — roughly 40–50% less. The catch is lower volume and less control over targeting.
There is no management fee model that makes sense for LSA alone; most agencies fold it into a broader retainer for an extra $200–$500/month. Setup requires background checks and licence verification, which in BC means your WorkSafeBC coverage and business licence need to be current.
Photo and video production
Half-Day Job Site Photo Shoot (30–50 Edited Images)
Cost (CAD): $700 – $1,500
Full-Day Shoot (Multiple Sites)
Cost (CAD): $1,500 – $3,000
Drone Footage Add-On
Cost (CAD): $400 – $1,200
Single Project Showcase Video (60–90 Seconds)
Cost (CAD): $1,200 – $3,500
Monthly Content Retainer (1 Shoot Day + 4–8 Short-Form Edits)
Cost (CAD): $1,500 – $3,000/month
This is the line item contractors cut first and regret most. In a market where a homeowner is choosing between four roofers whose websites all say "quality workmanship, free estimates," the one with genuine drone footage of a completed re-roof in their neighbourhood wins the call. It is also the single highest-leverage input for social and for the visual richness Google's local algorithm now rewards.
Logo and branding
Scope: Logo Only
Cost (CAD): $500 – $1,500
Scope: Logo + Basic Brand Kit
Cost (CAD): $1,500 – $3,500
Includes: Colours, fonts, truck wrap files, business cards
Scope: Full Brand Identity
Cost (CAD): $3,500 – $8,000
Includes: Full brand identity, vehicle wrap design, uniforms, and branded marketing collateral
Note that branding is something worth doing properly once. Not worth revisiting every two years.
AI search optimisation (AEO / GEO)
The newest line item, and the one with the most nonsense attached to it. Honest 2026 Canadian ranges:
AEO/GEO added to an existing SEO retainer: $500 – $1,500/month. Entity and FAQ schema, answer-first content restructuring, llms.txt, AI visibility tracking.
Standalone AI search engagement: $2,000 – $5,000/month. Only makes sense if your traditional SEO is already strong.
One caution we will repeat because it is widely true: a lot of "AI SEO" pricing is the same FAQ schema and content structuring that competent SEO has always included, repackaged at a premium. Before paying an AI line item, ask exactly what it delivers beyond your base SEO scope. If the answer is "we add FAQ schema," you were already paying for that.
AI automation and speed-to-lead
Service: Missed-Call Text-Back Setup
Cost (CAD): $300 – $800 one-time, plus $50 – $150/month
Service: AI Receptionist / After-Hours Answering
Cost (CAD): $150 – $500/month
Service: CRM Setup & Lead Routing Automation
Cost (CAD): $1,000 – $3,000 one-time
Service: Full Automation Retainer
Cost (CAD): $500 – $1,500/month
The business case here is not glamorous but it is the strongest ROI in this entire article. 78% of buyers hire the first company that responds, and the industry average response time is 47 hours. If you are paying $150 per lead and losing more than half of them to a voicemail box, fixing that is worth more than doubling your ad budget.
Realistic all-in budget tiers for BC contractors
Tier 1 — Starting out ($1,500 – $2,500/month)
Google Business Profile optimisation and review generation
Basic local SEO on a single market
$1000 – $1,500 Google Ads spend
Missed-call text-back
Best for: solo operators and two-truck shops under $400K revenue. Expect meaningful lead flow in 3–5 months.
Tier 2 — Established Businesses ($2,500 – $5,000/month)
Full local SEO across 2–4 BC municipalities
$1,500 – $3,000 ad spend, managed
Quarterly photo/video content
Review automation and CRM
Best for: $500K – $2M companies. This is where the majority of our clients sit.
Tier 3 — Scaling Businesses ($5,000 – $12,000/month)
Multi-market programmatic SEO rollout
$4,000 – $8,000 ad spend across Search, LSA, and Meta
Monthly content production
AEO/GEO
Full automation stack
Best for: $2M+ companies expanding service areas or defending a leading position.
What this looks like in practice: two BC case studies
Valley West Concrete — 17x return on Google
We worked with the Valley West Concrete team to build two new landing pages, set up and optimise Google Business Profiles, and expand their service area — combining affordable local SEO with paid ads rather than choosing one or the other. The result was a 17x return on their Google spend.
The structural lesson: the landing pages and GBP work were what made the ad spend efficient. Contractors who run ads into a weak website are paying full retail for every lead. Fix the destination first and the same ad budget produces multiples more.
(Full breakdown: Valley West Concrete case study)
Mack's Flooring — $0 to $1M on Vancouver Island
Mack was one of our first clients. We built the website first, then launched a local ad campaign, and have been scaling since, taking the business from zero to $1M in revenue online. The structural lesson: sequencing. Website, then ads. Not simultaneously, and never ads first.
(Full breakdown: Mack's Flooring case study)
Seven red flags when pricing a contractor marketing agency
They won't give you a price range on a discovery call. Legitimate agencies can bracket your cost in five minutes. Refusal to give transparent pricing is one of the most reliable predictors of surprise costs later.
They mark up your ad spend without telling you. Some agencies quote a low retainer and pad earnings by adding a margin to reported cost-per-click. Ask directly: "Do I get access to my own Google Ads account?" The answer must be yes.
You don't own your website or your ad account. If leaving means starting from zero, you are renting, not investing.
Guaranteed rankings. Nobody controls Google's algorithm. Guaranteed results tied to a refund is a different and more legitimate thing — that is a business model, not a ranking promise.
Twelve-month lock-in with no out clause. Confidence looks like month-to-month.
Reporting that shows impressions and clicks but not booked jobs. Impressions do not pay for gravel.
No BC-specific experience. Ranking in Surrey and ranking in Prince George are different problems with different competitive densities.
How to decide what you should spend
Work backwards from job value, not forwards from a budget you invented.
What is your average job value? Say $8,000 for a re-roof.
What is your gross margin? Say 35% → $2,800 gross profit per job.
What can you afford per booked job? A healthy target is 10–15% of gross profit → $280–$420.
What is your close rate on inbound leads? Say 30%.
Therefore your maximum cost per lead is $280–$420 ÷ (1 ÷ 0.30) → roughly $84 – $126 per lead.
How many jobs do you need next month? Say 10 → 33 leads → $2,800 – $4,150 in total marketing cost.
That number is your budget. It is derived from your business, not from what an agency felt like charging.
Frequently asked questions
How much does contractor marketing cost per month in BC? Most BC contractors spend $1,500–$5,000 CAD per month including ad spend. Solo operators typically start around $1,200–$2,000/month; established companies doing $1M–$3M usually run $3,000–$6,000/month.
How much should a contractor spend on marketing as a percentage of revenue? 5–10% of revenue is the healthy range for home services. Companies investing 8–12% consistently outgrow those spending less. Below 5% generally means you are dependent on referrals with no growth mechanism.
How much does a contractor website cost in Canada? $3,000–$6,000 CAD for a professional single-market build, and $6,000–$12,000 for a multi-location site with dedicated service-area pages. Template builders run under $1,500 but rarely rank or convert competitively.
Is SEO or Google Ads better for contractors? Ads produce leads immediately at $80–$230 each; SEO takes 6–12 months but reaches $10–$50 per lead at maturity. The correct answer for most contractors is both — ads for cash flow now, SEO for margin later.
What is a good cost per lead for a contractor? It depends entirely on job value. As rough 2026 benchmarks: plumbing $76 USD, HVAC $85 USD, roofing $228 USD on Google Ads; roughly $53 USD on Local Services Ads across home services. A $200 lead is cheap for a $15,000 re-roof and ruinous for a $250 drain clear.
Do marketing agencies charge extra for ad spend? Ad spend is separate from management fees and goes directly to Google or Meta. Management fees run $500–$2,000/month flat for smaller budgets, or 10–20% of spend for larger ones. Always confirm you own the ad account.
How long before contractor marketing produces leads? Google Ads: 2–4 weeks. Local Services Ads: 1–2 weeks after verification. Google Business Profile optimisation: 4–8 weeks. Local SEO: 6–12 months. Anyone promising SEO results in under 90 days is describing something other than SEO.
Is it cheaper to market a contracting business outside Metro Vancouver? Generally yes. Cost per click in Vancouver Island, Okanagan, and Northern BC markets typically runs 30–50% below Metro Vancouver for the same trade, because there are fewer competitors bidding. Regional BC is currently one of the better paid-search values in Canada.
Get an honest number for your business
We publish our pricing because we would rather have a real conversation than a discovery call built around guessing your budget.
If you want to see where your current marketing is leaking before you spend another dollar, we run a free Google visibility teardown — a walkthrough of your Google Business Profile, your website's conversion path, and how you rank against the three closest competitors in your service area. No pitch deck, no obligation.
Debut Marketing is a contractor marketing agency owned and operated in British Columbia. We have worked with 100+ local contractors across concrete, roofing, plumbing, HVAC, excavation, painting, flooring, and general construction.
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