PROBLEM · NOT ENOUGH ESTIMATES

Not enough estimates: the crew is ready, the calendar is empty.

You know you close when you get in front of homeowners. You’re just not getting in front of enough of them.

Show me where I’m losing jobsFree 2-minute assessment · No pitch, no obligation

By the BlueSmith team · Updated

At a glance

Who it’s for
Contractor owners seeing these signs in their pipeline
Where it comes from
  • Attention: Too few homeowners in your service area see your work, so the top of the pipeline is thin before anything else happens.
  • Offer: Clicks land on a general website. The homeowner has to hunt for the service, the price, and the booking button.
  • Sales: Inquiries that don’t book on the first call are never contacted again, so half-interested homeowners never become visits.
  • System: Nobody has worked out how many estimates the business needs each month, so there’s no target to hit or miss.
Fix first
Work out the number, then find the gap
SOUND FAMILIAR?

The signs you’re losing jobs here.

  • We close well once we’re sitting with the homeowner.
  • Some weeks there are two estimates on the calendar. Some weeks none.
  • The crew can handle more work than we’re booking.
  • Inquiries come in, but few turn into an actual visit.
  • We don’t know how many estimates we need to hit our numbers.
THE DIAGNOSIS

Four places it breaks. Four fixes.

Attention × Offer × Sales × System. The problem usually lives in one part and shows up in another.

01Attention
The cause

Too few homeowners in your service area see your work, so the top of the pipeline is thin before anything else happens.

The fix

Facebook and Instagram campaigns aimed at the project you want and the zip codes you cover, with fresh video from your jobs.

Meta Ads
02Offer
The cause

Clicks land on a general website. The homeowner has to hunt for the service, the price, and the booking button.

The fix

A project page for the exact job, with a price range and a calendar on the same page.

Project Pages
03Sales
The cause

Inquiries that don’t book on the first call are never contacted again, so half-interested homeowners never become visits.

The fix

Follow-up that keeps offering a time until they book or say no, and reminders so booked visits actually happen.

Appointment Booking
04System
The cause

Nobody has worked out how many estimates the business needs each month, so there’s no target to hit or miss.

The fix

A monthly estimate target worked back from the jobs you want and your close rate, tracked against what each campaign books.

Conversion Tracking
WHAT WE’D FIX FIRST

Work out the number, then find the gap

We start with how many signed jobs you want and your close rate. That gives the estimates you need each month. Then we compare it to what you book today and look at where the shortfall sits. If inquiries are there but don’t book, we fix booking first. If they aren’t, we build the ads.

PUT A NUMBER ON IT

Contractor ad budget: how much spend do your jobs actually need?

Start with the number of jobs you want. The calculator works backward to the estimates, leads, and monthly ad spend it takes to get there.

4
35%
30%

Monthly ad budget: $3,048

Monthly ad budget$3,048
Leads needed per month
38
Booked estimates needed
13
Ad spend as share of that revenue
3.0%

4 signed jobs at $25,000, 35% of leads booked, 30% closed, $80 per lead.

See what we’d build for these numbers

Starts with example numbers. Change them to yours. Arithmetic only, not a promise of results.

Open the full contractor ad budget calculator

STRAIGHT ANSWERS

Questions we hear.

How many estimates do I need a month?

Divide the jobs you want by your close rate. Example numbers, not a benchmark: eight jobs at a one-in-three close rate means 24 estimates. Then check how many of those your team can actually run.

Should we run more estimates even if some are weaker?

Only if your team has the time. A calendar full of bad-fit visits feels busy and closes poorly. Qualifying questions keep the count up without filling it with tire kickers.

How fast can ads fill the calendar?

It depends on your market, budget, offer, and capacity, so we don’t promise a number. We track booked estimates from launch and adjust the ads, page, and follow-up from there.

Can Google help too?

Yes. On larger scopes we add Google Ads and your Google Business Profile so you show up when homeowners search for the work. We usually build Facebook and Instagram video first, because that’s where the core system starts.

Find out where yours breaks.

Seven questions. Two minutes. See the one part of your engine holding your projects back.

Show me where I’m losing jobsFree 2-minute assessment · No pitch, no obligation

Avg response time 2.5 minutes