Most tradies have tried Facebook ads the same way: a good job photo goes up on the Page, the blue Boost button says it could reach thousands of locals, and $50 later there are a pile of likes, a couple of comments from the cousin and not one enquiry.
That’s not Facebook ads failing. It’s the wrong tool for the job, pointed at the wrong goal. Run properly, Facebook and Instagram (both run from the same Meta account, so we’ll just say Meta) can fill a calendar with good planned work. Run like a boost, they mostly buy likes.
This guide covers what actually works for NZ trade businesses: which work suits Meta, how a real campaign differs from a boost, lead forms vs your website, the creative that wins enquiries, and the part almost everyone gets wrong, which happens after the lead arrives. If you want the money side first, what Facebook ads cost in NZ covers budgets, and why $20 a day is the floor.
Does Facebook suit your trade?
Start here, because it decides everything else.
Google catches people who need you now. Someone searching “blocked drain Hastings” has the problem today. Nobody with water through the ceiling is scrolling Instagram hoping a plumber turns up.
Meta puts you in front of people who’ll need you soon. It works for jobs people plan, think about and talk themselves into: a repaint, a new deck, a bathroom, a heat pump before winter, a re-roof, landscaping, solar, a renovation. Those jobs are visual, they take weeks to decide, and the person who’s seen your work three times by then is the one who gets the call.
So the useful question isn’t “does Facebook work for plumbers?” It’s “which of my jobs are planned?” A plumber probably shouldn’t advertise burst pipes on Meta, but bathroom renovations and hot water upgrades can work well. An electrician won’t sell fault-finding there, but heat pumps, lighting upgrades and EV chargers are fair game. If none of your work is the planned kind, put the money into Google first. Our Google Ads cost guide shows what that looks like by trade.
Stop boosting, start a campaign
Boosting is Meta’s quick option. Pick a post, and Meta asks for a goal, an audience, a duration and a daily budget, then shows that post to more people. It’s fine for a bit of local news. It’s a poor way to get enquiries, because a boost is usually chasing the cheapest reactions, and the people who like job photos aren’t the same people who book jobs.
A real campaign is built in Ads Manager, and the differences are what make it work:
- The goal is leads, not likes. Meta optimises for whatever you ask it to. Ask for engagement and you get engagement.
- It’s measured. The Meta pixel (and its server-side partner, the Conversions API) tells Meta which clicks turned into enquiries, so it can find more people like them.
- You test. Two or three ads run side by side, and the weak ones get switched off.
- It remembers people. Website visitors and video viewers can be shown follow-up ads. A boost can’t do that.
Lead forms or your website?
Meta’s lead ads open a form inside Facebook or Instagram, with the person’s name and contact details already filled in. They’re quick, and they usually produce cheaper leads than sending people to a website. The catch is that cheap leads are often soft leads: someone who tapped submit without much thought, or doesn’t remember doing it when you ring.
Two settings make a big difference:
- Form type. Meta offers “More volume”, a form that’s quick to fill in and submit on a phone, and “Higher intent”, which adds a review step so people confirm their details before sending. For trade work we start with Higher intent. You get fewer leads, but more of them answer the phone.
- Two or three good questions. Suburb, what the job is, and roughly when they want it done. That filters out the tyre-kickers without turning the form into homework. Meta allows up to 15 custom questions. Don’t use them all.
Sending people to your website works better when the site is fast on a phone and the page matches the ad: the same job, the same area, one clear way to get in touch. The leads cost more and are usually keener, because they’ve read about you before they enquired.
Our rule of thumb: lead forms when the job is lower value or the site is slow, the website when the job is big and the page is good. Either way, every lead should land straight in your CRM with an instant reply, not in a spreadsheet you download on Friday.
Creative that works for trades
On Meta, the ad itself does most of the targeting, because it decides who stops scrolling. What works for trades is consistent:
- Real jobs, not stock photos. Your crew, your van, your finished work in a street people recognise. A stock photo of a smiling model in a hard hat tells locals you’re another faceless business.
- Before and after. The single strongest format for painting, landscaping, cleaning, roofing and renovation work. Same angle, same light, no filters.
- The owner on camera. Fifteen to thirty seconds on a phone, filmed on site, saying what you do, where, and how to get in touch. It doesn’t need to be slick. People hire people.
- A headline that says what and where. “Exterior repaints across Hawke’s Bay” beats “Transform your home today”.
- A real reason to act. “Now booking exterior work for February” is true and useful. A fake countdown timer isn’t.
- Vertical formats. Shoot 4:5 for the feed and 9:16 for Reels and Stories.
- Fresh ads every few weeks. In a small town, the same people see your ad again and again. When results slide and costs creep up, the ad is usually tired, not broken.
Audiences: give Meta the boundaries, not the brief
A lot of advice still says to target “homeowners aged 35 to 65 with an interest in home improvement”. That’s how Meta worked a few years ago. For new campaigns, Meta now switches on what it calls Advantage+ audience by default, and it treats your settings in two different ways.
According to Meta, location, minimum age, language and custom audience exclusions are controls: hard limits it won’t cross. Age ranges, gender and interests are suggestions: places to start looking, which it will go beyond if it finds better people elsewhere.
What that means for a trade business:
- Get the location right. It’s the one setting that truly matters. Draw it around where you’ll actually drive, not the whole region.
- Exclude your existing customers if you have a customer list, so you’re not paying to reach people who already know you.
- Let the creative do the filtering. A video of a bathroom renovation finds bathroom renovators better than any interest box.
- Know the age limit. With Advantage+ audience on, the hard minimum age can only be set so high (in our builds, Meta won’t accept a minimum above 25). If you truly need a higher floor, you have to switch to the original audience settings and accept the trade-off.
Retargeting: the cheapest leads in the account
Most people don’t enquire the first time they see you. Retargeting shows a second ad to people who’ve already been to your website or watched most of your video, usually within the last 30 to 90 days.
These audiences are small for a local trade business, and that’s fine. They’re cheap to reach, and they already know who you are. The best retargeting ads show proof rather than another pitch: a recent finished job, a Google review, a short clip of the owner. They need the pixel installed from day one, because the audience only exists if Meta has been recording it.
Follow-up decides it
This is where most Meta money is lost. A lead form fills in at 8.40 pm. By the time anyone rings back, two days later, the person has forgotten they asked, or already booked someone else.
Meta’s own advice is blunt. Its best practices for responding to leads are to connect your leads to a CRM rather than downloading them by hand, to run lead ads at times you can actually respond, and to follow up with leads immediately.
In practice that means:
- An instant email reply to every lead, saying you’ve got it and what happens next.
- A call back the same day, while they still remember you.
- Follow-up that keeps going when they don’t answer: we covered the habit in do you actually follow up your leads? and the automated version in lead follow-up on autopilot.
- Something that catches the return call when they ring back and you’re up a ladder. That’s the job of an AI receptionist, and who answers the phone when you’re on the tools? compares the options.
Speed matters more on Meta than on Google, because a Meta lead was browsing, not searching. Their interest is real but short-lived.
How to tell if it’s working
Don’t judge Meta on likes, reach or even cost per lead alone. The number that matters is cost per won job: what you spent, divided by the jobs you actually booked from it.
- Give it time. Meta needs a few weeks to learn who your customers are. Judge a campaign at around eight weeks, not two. The cost guide explains why.
- Record where every job came from. If your CRM tags each lead by source, you’ll know within a couple of months whether Meta jobs are worth the money.
- Expect softer leads than Google. That’s normal. Lead quality improves when the form asks better questions and the follow-up is fast. It rarely improves by changing the audience.
What we do
We run Meta campaigns for trade businesses on the planned side of their work:
- the pixel and Conversions API set up properly
- lead campaigns built in Ads Manager, never boosts
- creative tested and refreshed every month
- retargeting
- every lead flowing straight into automated follow-up
The details are on our Facebook ads page. Pricing is a monthly package that covers our management and your ad budget in one price, sized to your area, with a one-off $497 +GST setup. If Meta isn’t right for your trade, we’ll tell you before you spend anything.
Facebook ads for tradies FAQ
Do Facebook ads work for tradies?
Yes, for planned work. Renovations, painting, decks, landscaping, heat pumps, roofing and solar all suit Meta, because the jobs are visual and people take weeks to decide. Urgent work like burst pipes or power faults belongs on Google, where people search the moment something breaks.
Is $500 a month enough for Facebook ads?
It’s close to the minimum. We treat $20 a day, about $600 a month, as the floor for one campaign in one region. Below that, Meta can’t learn who your customers are, and you can’t tell whether it’s working. The full budget breakdown is here.
How much do Facebook ads cost per 1,000 views?
There’s no fixed price. Meta runs an auction, so the cost per 1,000 views (CPM) depends on who else is trying to reach the same people that week. Local homeowners are a broad, fairly cheap audience, but costs rise in November and December when retailers pile in. Cost per won job matters far more than CPM.
Should I use lead forms or send people to my website?
Use lead forms for lower-value jobs or when your website is slow on a phone, set to “Higher intent” with two or three qualifying questions. Use your website for bigger jobs, when the page is fast and matches the ad. Either way, reply instantly and call the same day.
Should I run Instagram ads as well as Facebook?
You don’t need to choose. One Meta campaign can run across Facebook and Instagram, including Reels and Stories, and Meta shows the ad wherever it’s getting results. Just make sure your video works vertically.
Want to know whether Meta suits your trade and your area before you spend a dollar? Get a free leads audit: 20 minutes with the people who wrote this guide, no obligation.