How much should a remodeler spend on marketing?
Skip the percentage of revenue. Work backwards from the jobs you want and the budget falls out of the arithmetic.
PJC Media · · 6 min read
How much should a remodeling company spend on marketing?
Work backwards from the number of jobs you want, not forwards from a percentage of revenue. Divide your revenue target by your average contract to get jobs, divide jobs by your close rate to get site visits, divide visits by the share of leads that book one to get leads, and multiply by your cost per lead. For a remodeler selling $65,000 kitchens that usually lands well under the three to ten percent of revenue rule of thumb, as long as the follow-up does not leak.
Why the percentage is the wrong place to start
Ask how much to spend and most people will give you a percentage of revenue, usually somewhere between three and ten percent. It is not a useless number, but it answers the wrong question. It tells you what other companies spend, not what it costs to get the jobs you want.
A remodeler doing $800,000 a year in $80,000 kitchens needs ten jobs. One doing the same revenue in $12,000 bathrooms needs sixty-seven. The same percentage would give both of them the same budget, and one of them would be badly short.
The four numbers that set the budget
You probably know three of these already. The fourth comes from your ad account, or from the ranges for your trade if you are starting from nothing.
- Average contract
- What a typical signed job is worth. Use the jobs you want more of, not your overall average.
- Close rate from a site visit
- Out of the homeowners you sit down with, how many sign. One in three or one in four is common for considered remodels.
- Lead to visit rate
- Out of the enquiries that come in, how many turn into a booked visit. This is the number your follow-up controls.
- Cost per lead
- What the channel charges you for one enquiry. On Meta that is typically $45 to $120 for kitchens and $25 to $70 for flooring in our markets.
A worked example
Say you want an extra $650,000 in kitchens over the next year, and your kitchens average $65,000. That is ten jobs.
You close one in three site visits, so you need thirty visits. One in three of your leads books a visit, so you need ninety leads. At $45 to $120 a lead, that is roughly $4,000 to $11,000 in ad spend for the year.
Now change one number. If your follow-up is slow and only one in six leads books a visit, you need one hundred and eighty leads and the budget doubles. The ads did not get worse. The leak got bigger.
Most remodelers with a marketing budget problem have a follow-up problem.
What the ad spend does not include
The arithmetic above is media spend only: the money that goes to Meta or Google. On top of it sit the things that make the spend work.
- Management, whether that is an agency fee or the hours you spend on it yourself.
- A website that loads on a phone and asks for the estimate. Without it, the cost per lead above is fiction.
- Follow-up that replies inside five minutes, every time. This is the cheapest line on the list and the one that changes the arithmetic most.
- Photography of your own finished work. It is the creative that performs, and it costs a phone and a habit.
Where to put the first dollar
Fix the follow-up before you raise the budget. Then make sure your Google Business Profile backs up what the ads say, because homeowners search your name after they see an ad. Then spend. Doubling lead volume and doubling the share of leads that book a visit produce the same number of jobs, and only one of them costs more every month.
Questions people ask
- What percentage of revenue should a remodeler spend on marketing?
- The rule of thumb is three to ten percent, but it is a poor way to set a budget. Work backwards from jobs wanted, close rate, the share of leads that book a visit, and cost per lead instead.
- What is a good cost per lead for a remodeler?
- On Meta, roughly $45 to $120 for kitchens, $25 to $70 for flooring and $20 to $60 for painting in our markets. A cheap lead that never books a visit is more expensive than a dear one that does.
- Should I raise my marketing budget or fix my follow-up first?
- Fix the follow-up first. It costs nothing per lead and makes every dollar of ad spend that comes after it worth more.
Keep reading
- How to write a remodeling estimate that wins the jobHomeowners compare estimates by the total on the last page. Here is how to write one that makes the comparison work in your favor.
- How hardscapers win the job when their quote is higherYour patio costs more because of the base nobody sees. Here is how to make the homeowner see it before they compare numbers.
- How to sell more bathroom remodels at a higher ticketMost remodelers lose bathroom jobs on the first phone call, not on price. Here is how to fill the calendar with primary suites instead of vanity swaps.
- Remodeling marketing trends for 2027: what is changing and what to do about itFive shifts in how homeowners find and choose a remodeler, and the practical response to each.
$200,000 in signed work in 90 days, or you do not pay us. One remodeler per market.
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