Electrical work has an advantage most trades would kill for. A lot of it is compulsory. Switchboards age, rentals have to meet the healthy homes standards, houses get sold, and every bit of fixed wiring needs a certificate. The work is out there. The problem is that on a search results page, one sparky looks exactly like the next.
This guide is for owners of electrical businesses who want more of the right work. (If you’re an electrician looking for a job, Seek and Trade Me Jobs are where NZ employers advertise. This one’s about winning customers.) Everything here is NZ-specific, and every claim is linked to its source.
Start with the work you want, because there are four kinds
Most marketing advice treats “electrical work” as one thing. It’s at least four, and each one comes from a different place:
- Faults and call-outs. No power, tripping breakers, a burnt-out socket. Found on Google, booked in minutes, decided by who answers.
- Planned residential work. Switchboard upgrades, rewires, EV chargers, solar and batteries, heat pump wiring, renovations. Researched, quoted, compared.
- Compliance and repeat work. Rentals, property managers, pre-sale checks, maintenance. Won once, then repeated for years.
- Builder and commercial work. New builds, fit-outs, maintenance contracts. Won through relationships and tenders, rarely through Google.
Fault work keeps the vans moving, but it’s low value per job. Planned and compliance work is where the margin and the repeat business sit. Decide which mix you want before you spend a dollar, because the channels below suit different kinds.
1. Make it easy for customers to check you
Electrical customers are nervous in a way that, say, painting customers aren’t. They’ve heard the stories, and they’ve been told to check. So help them.
- Your EWRB registration and practising licence. Anyone can look you up on the Electrical Workers Registration Board’s public register, and digital licences carry a QR code that goes straight to your profile. WorkSafe tells homeowners to ask to see the licence and check the expiry date. Put your registration number on your website, quotes and Google Business Profile so they don’t have to ask.
- Certificates of Compliance. WorkSafe tells homeowners electricians must issue a CoC for any fixed wiring work, including new power points, and to keep it for insurance claims and when selling the house. Say on every service page that every job comes with its certificate.
- Master Electricians. If you’re a Quality Assured member, your customers get a $20,000 workmanship guarantee on residential work. That’s a real reason to choose you. Say so plainly, and link to it.
- Insurance and a named person. Public liability cover, and the name and photo of who’s coming to the house.
None of this costs anything, and it lifts how many visitors get in touch from the traffic you already have.
2. Your certificate trail is a customer list
Here’s the asset almost every electrician ignores. Every CoC you’ve issued is a property you’ve worked on, an owner who was happy enough to pay you, and a record they’re told to keep. Those owners will need you again: the switchboard you didn’t replace, the heat pump they’re thinking about, the EV they’ll buy, the house they’ll sell.
Make it a habit:
- Keep every past customer in one place, with the address and what you did.
- When a job’s done, tell them what else you do. Most customers don’t know their electrician also installs EV chargers or sorts heat pump wiring.
- Once or twice a year, send past customers a short, useful email: winter safety, the healthy homes standards if they’re a landlord, what’s changed with solar. Only to people who’ve dealt with you, with a working unsubscribe. (Our follow-up guide covers the NZ spam rules.)
A past customer rings you instead of searching, and a search is where you compete with everyone else.
3. Property managers and compliance work
Rentals are the most reliable repeat work in the trade. Under the healthy homes heating standard, landlords must have one or more fixed heaters that can directly heat the main living room, and in most cases that means a heat pump or similar. Add smoke alarm checks, maintenance call-outs and pre-tenancy work, and a single property manager can send you work every week.
What property managers care about isn’t your price. It’s:
- turning up when you said you would, and telling the tenant you’re coming
- a clear, itemised invoice with the property address on it
- the certificate in their inbox the same day
- one person they can ring
Win one portfolio by being the easiest sparky to deal with, and the rest of the office hears about it. Real estate agents work the same way for pre-sale checks.
4. Builders, kitchen companies and other trades
New builds and renovations come through the builder, not Google. So do kitchen and bathroom jobs through the companies that design and fit them. A builder who rates you will put you on every job they run.
What earns that: being on site the day you said, leaving it tidy, not holding up the next trade, and being reachable when the plan changes. For bigger commercial work, government tenders are listed on GETS, which is free to search. The building work guide covers how builders pick their subbies, from the other side.
5. Get found on Google for the work you want
For faults and planned work, Google is where people look.
- Your Google Business Profile. Right categories, every service listed, your service area, real photos of your work (a tidy switchboard beats a stock photo every time), and hours that match when someone actually answers. Our Business Profile checklist and map pack guide cover it.
- Reviews. A steady flow of recent reviews that mention the suburb and the job. How to ask without it being awkward.
- A page per planned service. EV charger installation, switchboard upgrades, rewires, solar and batteries. People research these, so a page that answers their questions (what’s involved, how long, what affects the price, your certificate) ranks and converts. One “Services” page with a bulleted list does neither.
6. Google Ads, split by the kind of work
Ads put you at the top for searches happening right now, but run all your electrical work through one campaign and the cheap fault searches will spend the budget before the switchboard upgrades get a look in. Split them: urgent work in one campaign, each planned service in its own, so you can set budgets by what each job is worth. What clicks cost in NZ is in our Google Ads cost guide.
Two traps worth knowing:
- Job seekers. In our own ad account, the searches for electrician marketing pulled in “electrician job in hamilton”, “electrical trade assistant” and “electrician work in new zealand”. People looking for a job, not customers. Your ads will catch “electrician jobs”, “apprenticeship” and “trade assistant” too. Add those as negative keywords from day one. (The full story and the numbers from our account are in the building work guide.)
- Calls you can’t see. Google’s call-forwarding numbers aren’t available in New Zealand, so calls straight from your ad show up as clicks, not calls. Third-party call tracking fixes that, and we set it up for clients who want it. If the clicks come but the phone doesn’t ring, work through these checks.
7. Answer the phone, then chase every quote
You’ll be in a ceiling cavity or a switchboard cupboard when half your calls come in. Fault callers ring the next name when they don’t get you. Planned-work callers are more patient, but not by much.
The fixes, cheapest first: a better voicemail, someone in the office, or an AI receptionist that takes the calls you miss through a divert on your own number, tells the caller it’s an AI and takes the whole job down for your call back. Who answers the phone when you’re on the tools compares them, and after-hours calls covers the 8pm ring if you don’t do emergency work.
Then chase every quote you send until it’s a yes or a no. Switchboard and rewire quotes are big enough that customers sit on them, and the electrician who checks in politely is often the one who gets the job. Do you actually follow up your leads? shows how to check where yours go cold.
Which channels work, and how fast
| Channel | Best for | How fast | You own it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Past customers and your certificate trail | Planned and repeat work | Weeks | Yes |
| Property managers and real estate agents | Compliance and repeat work | Months | Yes |
| Builders and other trades | New builds and renovations | Months | Yes |
| Google Business Profile and reviews | Faults and local planned work | 1 to 3 months | Yes |
| Service pages on your website | Planned work | 3 to 6 months | Yes |
| Google Ads | Faults and planned work | Days | Yes, if the account is in your name |
| Builderscrack, NoCowboys and similar | Filling gaps | Days | No |
| GETS tenders | Commercial work | Varies | Partly |
How electricians get more work: FAQ
How do I advertise as an electrician?
Start free: a complete Google Business Profile, a steady flow of reviews, and your registration and certificates visible everywhere. Then add Google Ads for the work you want most, split by job type, with job-seeker negatives from day one. Signwritten vans and referrals still matter, but online is where most people check you before they ring.
How can electricians get leads for free?
Past customers, property managers, builders and your Google Business Profile. All of them cost time, not money, and the certificate trail you already have is the fastest place to start: those owners know you, and they’ll need an electrician again.
What are good marketing ideas for electricians?
Show your EWRB registration and say every job comes with its certificate. Build a page for each planned service you want more of (EV chargers, switchboards, solar). Get in front of property managers. Tell every customer what else you do. And answer, or capture, every call.
How much do electricians charge per hour in NZ?
It varies by region, the work and whether materials and travel are included, so any single figure online is a rough guess. Work out your own charge-out rate from your costs and the margin you need, and price planned jobs as a fixed quote where you can. Our quote template and guide walks through it.
Is Builderscrack worth it for electricians?
It can fill gaps, but you’re paying to compete with other sparkies for the same job. We’ve done the maths on Builderscrack. Use it alongside channels you own, not instead of them.
Want this mapped onto your business, your area and the electrical work you want more of? Get a free leads audit: 20 minutes with Ryan or Matt, your actual numbers, no obligation. For more on how we work with electricians, see electrician lead generation.