Marketing for Australian trades · From $500K revenue
Tradie marketing scored on booked jobs, not leads.
Most tradie marketing reports the form-fill count and the cost per lead. The number that pays the wages is the booked job. We connect ServiceM8, Tradify, or your CRM back to the ad platforms so Google Ads and Meta optimise against jobs you actually win, not enquiries you have to qualify. Built for owner-operator trade businesses doing $500K and up, with the work scoped to the size of the business.
30 min · No pitch · Senior operator on the call
Engagement intake, currently open
From $500K
Trade business revenue. We work with owner-operators, not just $5M-plus operations.
2 weeks
Tradie Tracking Audit. Written report, prioritised fix list.
4 weeks
Tradie Profit Setup. Full measurement rebuild and CRM connection.
How we work trades marketing
Four principles. They constrain the work as much as they direct it.
Principle 01
Booked jobs, not form fills
Most tradie marketing reports leads. The number that pays the wages is booked jobs. We connect the CRM (or the booking software) back to the ad platform so Google Ads optimises against the booking event, not the form submission.
Principle 02
Phone calls are the conversion
For most trades, the booking happens on the phone. We track the call (CallRail or call tracking equivalent), pass the conversion event back to Google and Meta as an offline upload, and report cost per booked-call separately from cost per form-fill.
Principle 03
Job profitability, not just job volume
Cheap leads are easy. Profitable jobs are the work. We score campaigns against job-level profitability (job value minus COGS minus overhead) instead of cost per lead. Some campaigns drive volume that does not clear margin; we kill those first.
Principle 04
Marketplaces vs paid ads vs organic
hipages, Service Seeking, Oneflare, and the local Google Business listings all compete with paid Google and Meta. We work the mix together; chasing a 'pure' channel cost is usually missing the bigger picture.
Deliverables
What an engagement actually delivers.
01
Booking-event measurement: form, phone call, online booking, and job-management software conversions all unified through the measurement layer.
02
Offline conversion uploads from your job-management or CRM system (ServiceM8, Tradify, simPRO, AroFlo, Fergus, Jobber, HubSpot) back into Google Ads and Meta. The optimiser learns to target booked-job audiences.
03
Lead-quality scoring tied back to source. Which marketplace, which keyword, which audience produces booked jobs (not just enquiries).
04
Reporting layer that ties marketing spend to actual booked job revenue. Monthly reconciliation. Cost per booked job by channel, by service line.
05
Marketplace allocation review: hipages vs Service Seeking vs Oneflare vs paid Google. Which gives you booked-job profitability above your break-even, which doesn't.
06
Day-to-day media run by our senior operators across Google Ads, Meta, and the marketplaces. We won't run media we can't measure, which is why the rebuild comes first. After handover, the in-house team operates the documented playbook.
Who this is for
- Australian trade or services business, $500K and up in annual revenue
- Spending at least $1,500 a month on Google Ads, Meta, hipages, Service Seeking, or similar
- Job-management or CRM software in place (ServiceM8, Tradify, simPRO, AroFlo, Fergus, Jobber, ServiceTitan, HubSpot, or similar)
- Owner or operator who wants the work explained and the playbook handed back
Who it isn't
- Looking for a virtual assistant or someone to run accounts day-to-day
- Pre-revenue or sub-$500K trying to fix marketing before the offer is proven
- Want a permanent retainer with no defined end-date
- Already running clean ServiceM8/Tradify offline conversion uploads with reconciliation
How we work with trades
Built for owner-operator trades. Scoped to the size of the business.
Three engagement shapes. Pick the one that matches where you are. None of them are retainer-shaped; each ends with a documented handover the in-house person operates afterwards. We scope and price the engagement on the audit call, once we have seen your numbers.
Tier 01 · Diagnostic
Tradie Tracking Audit
Two weeks. Read-only diagnostic of your existing setup. Written report with a prioritised fix list and a 60-minute walk-through. The right starting point if you want to know what is broken before you commit to fixing it.
Tier 02 · Build
Tradie Profit Setup
Four weeks. Full measurement rebuild: ServiceM8 / Tradify / CRM connection, offline conversion uploads to Google and Meta, call tracking, Google Business Profile fixes, and a simple booked-job reporting layer. Documented handover so the in-house person operates it afterwards.
Tier 03 · Optional
Tradie Quarterly Review
90-minute quarterly check-in after the Profit Setup. We review the booked-job report, flag what has drifted, and write up the three fixes that will move the most revenue this quarter. Cancel anytime.
Larger trade businesses (typically $5M and up with multiple service lines or locations) often warrant the full PROFIT framework engagement. We will flag this on the audit call if the scope calls for it.
Where to go next
Related work and the cities we run it from.
Related services
Trade-heavy markets we work in
Run your numbers
Proof, with the working shown
We'd rather show you the maths than the buzzwords.
“Profit Geeks rebuilt our whole sales engine, and not just the ad accounts. They went after the systems sitting behind them too. Sales are up 140% and we've pushed past $25M. Honestly the bit I didn't see coming was the operation running leaner than it did back when we were half the size.”
“We were quietly bleeding about a thousand dollars a week and had no idea why. They found the leaks, sorted out the measurement and the offer, and now we'll do more than $10K in a single day. Same product. Completely different business.”
“We went from scraping together two installs a week to running four crews and fifteen-plus jobs a week, north of $10M turnover. The clever bit was they tied the scaling to what we could actually deliver, so growth never broke the operation. Booked jobs, not vanity leads.”
“After iOS, our Meta numbers stopped matching the bank, and we'd basically been writing the gap off as “just tracking.” Profit Geeks rebuilt our measurement server-side and reconciled it straight back to the P&L. Turned out about $1.42M of ad spend in year one had been working all along. They're the first team that showed me the maths instead of a dashboard.”
“We didn’t spend a dollar more on ads. What they did was fix how we counted a booked job versus a platform “conversion,” cut the wasted spend, and by week twelve our blended ROAS had more than tripled. Revenue went from $4.8M to $9.1M. Same senior bloke on every call too. No juniors, no relay race.”
Reasonable questions
What you're probably thinking.
01
We've been burned by an agency before.
Most of our intake has. The difference is structural. A senior operator runs your account, not a junior hidden behind a dashboard, and you leave the first call with written findings you own even if we never work together. No relay race, no account manager translating between you and the people doing the work.
02
How do I know it'll actually work for my business?
You don't yet, and neither do we until we've seen your numbers. That's why the first step is a diagnostic, not a contract. We've documented this in DTC and home services (the case studies show the full working) and run the same playbook in professional services. If the maths isn't there for you, we'll tell you on the call.
03
What if there's nothing worth fixing?
Then you've spent thirty minutes and walked away with a second opinion that cost you nothing. We'd rather say no than take on an engagement we can't earn, so we turn away intake that isn't a fit. There's no pitch and no follow-up sales sequence.
04
What does it cost, and what am I signing up for?
One quarterly engagement fee. No per-channel markup, no retainer fluff. The same senior operators handle measurement, media and margin, and scaling is tied to your contribution margin, so spend only climbs when the numbers say it's working. The call is where we scope what that looks like for you.
Frequently asked
Eight questions about tradie marketing.
Is tradie marketing different from regular digital marketing?
The acquisition channels are tighter (Google search, hipages, Service Seeking, Oneflare, local Google Business profiles, Meta for some categories) and the conversion event is usually a phone call rather than a form submission. The engagement is shaped to match too, because most trades have not built a $20K-a-month marketing budget yet. We scope the work down to what an owner-operator actually needs and still get real measurement.
What's the best channel for getting tradie work?
Depends on the trade and the locality. High-intent Google search dominates for emergency-style trades (plumbing, electrical, locksmiths). hipages and Service Seeking work for project-based trades (building, renovations, landscaping) where customers compare quotes. Meta and Google Display work for brand-building and seasonal pushes (HVAC pre-summer). Run the channels in parallel and let the booked-job data tell you which is paying off.
How much should a tradie business spend on digital marketing?
Rough heuristic: 5 to 10 percent of revenue on total marketing, of which 60 to 80 percent goes to digital. A $750K trade business is spending $40K to $75K a year on marketing, with $25K to $60K on digital. A $2M trade business is spending $100K to $200K a year. Your break-even ROAS depends on your job margin; the calculator at /tools/roas-calculator returns the number for your business.
Are hipages and Service Seeking worth it?
Sometimes. Both produce volume; the question is whether the cost per booked job from the marketplace clears your margin. Most tradies we audit are losing money on marketplace leads in their lowest-margin job categories and making money on them in their highest-margin categories. The fix is segmenting the marketplace spend, not killing it outright.
Do you handle Google Business Profile and local SEO?
Yes, for trades, the Google Business Profile is often the single highest-leverage acquisition channel. We diagnose the GBP setup as part of every Tradie Tracking Audit and the Profit Setup engagement covers the highest-impact fixes (categories, services, reviews, photos, posts, citations). Day-to-day content production stays with the in-house team or a specialist provider we recommend.
Will you work alongside our existing tradie marketing agency?
Yes. Most clients have an existing local agency, hipages account manager, or virtual assistant running the marketing. We work alongside whoever runs the day-to-day. About half of clients ask us to recommend a delivery agency or freelancer at the end; we keep a short list we trust at trade-business price points.
How much does this cost?
We don't publish a rate card. Engagements are fixed-scope and quoted in a written proposal after the audit call, once we've seen your numbers. There are three engagement shapes for trades (the two-week Tradie Tracking Audit, the four-week Tradie Profit Setup, and an optional quarterly review), and we tell you on the call which one fits and what it costs.
Why is the trade engagement smaller than your other work?
Because trade businesses do not need a twelve-week PROFIT framework engagement. The work is more contained: connect the job-management software to the ad platforms, fix the Google Business Profile, set up call tracking, build a simple reporting layer. We do that work in about four weeks and the in-house person operates it afterwards. We scope the engagement to the size that suits the business, then quote it on the call.
What happens after you book
Three steps. No mystery.
Step 01 · Within 48 hours
30-minute audit call
A senior operator on the call. We look at your real numbers, spend, revenue, attribution gap, and tell you on the call which engagement (if any) is the right fit. No pitch deck.
Step 02 · Within 1 week
Written proposal
Fixed scope, fixed number, written up. The proposal names deliverables, timeline, the people involved, and the price. No hourly billing, no retainer drift.
Step 03 · Within 2 weeks
Engagement starts
Senior operators on day one. Measurement rebuild begins, day-to-day media gets reassigned to our team, and the first set of working sessions lands. Inside two weeks of the audit call.
Next step
Built for owner-operator trades. Scoped to the size of the business.
If your trade business is paying for leads but not winning the jobs you should be, the next step is a free 30-minute profit audit. Bring a month of marketing spend, a month of booked jobs, and one channel you suspect is not earning its keep. We will tell you on the call which of the three engagements above (or none) is the right fit, and what it costs.