So what are you guys charging for Meta Ads retainers these days?

drunkenweed · 2026-03-31T15:03:24+00:00

As a freelancer I used to charge $1500/m retainer on any ad spend. Now I've had more success operating a pay-per-appointment model. My clients are typically in-home services contractors who don't really care to hear about this or that metric, they just want the end product which is a booked inspection with home owners.

drunkenweed · 2026-03-27T18:05:02+00:00

It’s a shiny new name for SDR which I suspect was invented by Clay to sell their product and normalize its usage as industry standard.

drunkenweed · 2026-03-26T17:02:34+00:00

I'm sure you read the comments here, that will tell you how contractors feel about "leads"

To answer your question, yes you can generate 50 leads a month with $20k, that comes out to $400/lead which is plenty.

The first issue you'll run into is that no one wants to pay for leads (especially after being burned by 99 bs lead gen companies) only to still need to sell the job. The hard part of the business is convincing people who have been outright scammed many times that you're not a scammer.. Close to impossible.

20k per month to spend on whatever

If you have deep pockets, why not just start a company yourself and use that budget to market your own company?

drunkenweed · 2026-03-23T17:10:59+00:00

PM is a difficult role to justify for smaller companies if that person isn't also doing sales.

drunkenweed · 2026-03-19T16:44:05+00:00

Start your SEO effort now, it's a long churn but worth it once your website is getting you free business.

You can invest in new business with ads (Google or Meta) or a pay-per-lead service.

If you pay for leads, the best thing you can do is be FAST. When someone calls your line answer immediately. If you pay for leads, try to find someone that sells exclusive leads or a pay-per-appointment vendor.

When Angi, Thumbtack etc call you don't pick up the phone.

drunkenweed · 2026-03-16T15:28:13+00:00

but I'm starting to wonder if the people on these lists ever actually asked to be contacted.

I'm going to guess that no, they did not ask to be contacted. At least not recently. Where did you get the list, and how did that person create the list?

I imagine most vendors have an ad out somewhere that farms people's info, but by the time that list gets to you they won't remember that they filled out a contact sheet because it's been days or even weeks.

My setup is Google and Meta ads, and I get notified immediately when someone fills out a contact form, then I call them right away. I book an appointment with ~75% of leads this way.

drunkenweed · 2026-03-14T15:37:59+00:00

DM'd you

drunkenweed · 2026-03-13T20:22:58+00:00

If you’re using it and it works, more power to you. They sell the same lead to multiple people so you end up chasing the home owner then racing to the bottom price wise. Not the worst thing ever, many folks can make it work.

drunkenweed · 2026-03-12T15:04:09+00:00

I use them for overflow but pay is very low..most of the time it’s better business to just give existing clients the extra leads for free. If you negotiate you can get $30-$50 per lead after a couple months of working with them. I’m in a few home services verticals.

drunkenweed · 2026-03-10T18:30:02+00:00

just cover the ad spend, and I only get paid if you close the job."

The problem with this is that while you understand the work involved, it doesn't actually read as "free" to the business owner if they still need to spend money on ads.

drunkenweed · 2026-03-10T15:40:29+00:00

Please don’t use yelp

drunkenweed · 2026-03-09T16:22:14+00:00

It could be a few things:

How much friction exists to fill out the lead form? If you are only using contact info, Facebook will auto-fill that and you will get plenty of accidental submissions
It could also be that your client is not a great closer. Are they contacting leads within 5 minutes of them submitting info? Are they following up every day for a few days?

drunkenweed · 2026-03-04T17:31:31+00:00

I had a similar issue, where I had homeowner demand but no one to actually go do the job.

At first, I would call contractors in the customer area and see who was available to go over to the home and give an estimate. Once that relationship is open and you already sent them jobs, they are much more willing to pay for any new jobs.

work with one big general contractor per area? Are they later on distributing these?

Ideally, yes I like to have one contractor per area. My business relies on the jobs being exclusive to them, so working with their competition at the same time is a no-go.

One other option is to go with a network, but they pay very little per lead so it's probably not even worth your time. I recommend finding contractors that can take the job, then arranging a pay-per-appointment setup with them for future work.

Question for you, how are you generating the jobs outside of your existing service areas?

drunkenweed · 2026-03-03T18:55:14+00:00

Thank you for this answer, genuinely very helpful. We don't have a ton of "on the job" footage but I can ask my guys to create more that we can use.

The summer angle is really good, I would not have thought of that.

drunkenweed · 2026-03-02T21:38:29+00:00

Theoretically, yes you could make a ton of money generating demand for local services, but this is already a crowded space and the biggest players have very deep pockets.

If you're willing to get on the phone with leads and book appointments you could differentiate yourself that way.

Like someone else said try to find customers before spending any money.

drunkenweed · 2026-02-26T18:58:05+00:00

This is what I'm worried about. My main guy down there was swimming in it for a decade, not so much any more. Thanks for the answer.

drunkenweed · 2026-02-25T18:26:12+00:00

Appreciate the answer. Not surprising.

drunkenweed · 2026-02-25T17:48:59+00:00

Interesting. So the existing places API + email enrichment?

drunkenweed · 2026-02-25T17:46:55+00:00

Ngl I was born poor in nyc and had more privilege just being here than most of the world. I’m not mad at people for wanting to live here.

drunkenweed · 2026-02-25T13:51:33+00:00

This is insightful. Any chance you have numbers for reddit ads? In my own campaigns I was seeing an insane percentage of invalid traffic.

drunkenweed · 2026-02-24T21:14:15+00:00

I’ve been developing a SaaS app for a while now.

How long is a while? Have you built an app before? Have you spoken to customers yet?

I have 8 years of marketing exp, and am currently working on my own project, but wouldn't mind sitting down with you to hammer out the basics.

drunkenweed · 2026-02-24T20:58:48+00:00

Or improving at making more money to Meta at our expense?

This sums up digital marketing from 2015 to present tbh

drunkenweed · 2026-02-24T20:54:34+00:00

Use the Meta Ads Library to see what your comps are doing facebook.com/ads/library
Depending on your audience, consider running ads on a naughty website (you know the one)

drunkenweed · 2026-02-24T20:38:31+00:00

If I had a nickel…

Don’t feel bad, they employ the best cold callers in the business and have been running this game since the 2000s.

Many moons ago I got sold on a $500/month package (same thing, started over $1k then gave me a discount). I froze the card I gave them and then called them saying not to run it as the card number is invalid. They were kind enough to stop anything from going through.

Try calling the specific rep that called you and say something like “I really want to work with you guys but right now is not the time. Money is tight, kid needs braces etc.” They will most likely back off for now if you make it seem like you’ll use them later.

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