Guides · Topic
Running ads
Paid traffic is the fastest way to find out whether your offer works, and the fastest way to lose money if the list of words you are buying is wrong.
Search ads catch demand that already exists, so they suit driveways, repairs and anything somebody wants fixed this month. Social ads create demand that did not exist yet, so they suit patios, stamped work and anything a homeowner has to be shown before they want it. The two need different money and different patience.
The guides in this topic
Read the keywords and budgets guide first. It has the cost table the other posts refer back to.
Facebook and Instagram Ads for Concrete Contractors
Meta ads create demand rather than catch it. Which concrete work that suits, what the creative has to do, and the follow-up that decides whether it pays.
Read it
Google Ads for Concrete Contractors: Keywords, Budgets and Real CPCs
What concrete keywords cost in Canada, the negative list that stops the waste, and what $1,500, $2,500 and $5,000 a month actually buys you.
Read itThe short version, before you read any of them
Search ads or social ads first?
Search first, almost always. Somebody typing concrete driveway repair into a phone has already decided they have a problem. You are competing for a job that exists. Social ads have to create the want before they can sell it, which costs more and takes longer to read. The exception is a decorative or stamped business, where the work is visual and the buyer did not know they wanted it until they saw one.
What stops the money leaking?
The negative keyword list. Concrete is a word that shows up in DIY searches, in ready mix supply searches, in jobs listings and in school projects. Without a negative list you pay the same price for a click from somebody hiring a contractor and a click from somebody writing a report. This is the single biggest difference between an account that works and one that does not, and it is dull, unglamorous work.
What is the smallest budget worth starting on?
Below roughly fifteen hundred dollars a month in ad spend, a concrete account in most Canadian cities does not gather enough clicks to learn anything. You get a handful of leads, no pattern, and no way to tell a good week from luck. That is a floor for learning, not a promise about results.
Questions
Should I run ads and SEO at the same time?
If you can afford both, yes, because they answer different timelines. Ads start producing inside a week and stop the day you turn them off. Search rankings take months and keep working. Running both means the ads pay the bills while the rankings are built.
Do Local Services Ads work for concrete?
They can, because they sit above everything else and charge per lead rather than per click. The screening takes longer than people expect, so start the paperwork before you need the leads.
Why did my cost per lead go up in spring?
Because everybody else turned their ads on too. Concrete demand and concrete advertising both spike in the same weeks. The contractor who was already running in January is buying the same clicks cheaper.
Where this sits on the rest of the site
The guides explain the thinking. These are the pages that say what we do about it and what it costs.
- Google Ads for concrete contractors is the service page behind this topic.
- Every price is on the pricing page, including what is not included.
- The locations page has local research for ten cities.
The other topics
- Original research — 4 guides.
- Getting found on Google — 2 guides.
- Your website — 2 guides.
- Getting and closing leads — 4 guides.
- What it costs — 2 guides.
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