5 things to ask BEFORE you start a marketing program!

Updated
August 27, 2025

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There are a plethora of marketing agencies and platforms to choose from and so I'm gonna give you five questions you need to ask any new marketing or lead generation source before you hire them. Now there's never a guarantee that a new marketing source is going to work, but what's important is to be strategic in the marketing sources you select to make sure that your business has the capacity to make that marketing source work for you. And by asking these five questions before you start, you'll probably be able to make better decisions on who you choose to go with and when. Question number one is what type of jobs is this new marketing or lead source going to generate?

There's a big discrepancy in the amount of revenue that a repair lead versus a duct cleaning lead versus an HVAC system replacement lead are going to generate for your business. You need to understand what types of leads you're going to get so you can look at the average ticket value of the jobs you close from that lead source. Then you can compare that with the cost of that lead source to see if it's going to be worth it. Number two is how soon are you going to start getting leads?

The sooner you start getting leads, the sooner you're gonna start making sales, and the sooner you're gonna have cash flow coming back into the business. SEO, for example, might take six to twelve months before you start getting a high volume of leads coming in. Now, if your business is in the financial position to put out that cash and wait that long before you start getting those returns, then it's probably a really smart decision to do. But if you don't have a certain amount of cash in reserves, what's going to happen is you're going to invest and invest and invest and it's going to take too long to start seeing that cash flow come back from your marketing source.

So, if that's the case, it might make more sense to go with lead sources that are going to get you quicker returns so that money you invest is going to come back to you quickly and it's going to give you a little bit more. Number three, what's going to be the upfront money and time investment that I'm going to have to put into this? So, the money investment is the total amount of cash that has to come out of your bank account in order to get things started, and the time investment is how much time you are personally going to have to put into getting this new marketing effort or lead source launched.

In reality, doing it properly is going to require a lot of strategic time that they're going to have to spend with you getting to know your business, getting to know you better, and the content that you're going to have to provide to them. So, whoever you're signing on with, ask what's going to be required from your end in order to get things launched. Question number four is do you have the operational capacity to handle the leads? And I'm not talking about doing the work itself, I'm talking about handling the leads and the sales appointments to get that work.

You might only set appointments with twenty percent of your leads, and then you might only sell thirty percent of those appointments, but you still had to do all the work of the follow-up and running all those extra sales calls. And the reason it's important to ask this question is because different lead sources have different amounts of effort that are going to be required from your end. Some lead sources for example generate leads by getting people to call you directly. If that's the case, that that saves you a ton of time in the follow-up that you're going to have to do.

Other lead sources might have a very high volume of leads which can be a huge opportunity, but you have to have enough time to be able to execute that effectively. Number five is realistically what's the worst case scenario and what's the best case scenario. So, let's say you spend ten grand on a marketing source. Let's say the worst case scenario you figure is you'll get fifty leads, you'll book ten of those which is twenty percent, you'll sell two which is a ten percent close rate, and let's say your average ticket is 10k, right?

That's 20k in revenue as a worst case scenario. Then maybe you figure the best case scenario for that is that you get two hundred leads, you book eighty, that's about forty percent, maybe you sell thirty two of those, that's forty percent sales rate and that's three 20k in revenue on the best case scenario. Knowing the worst and best case scenarios kind of helps you make decisions because you can manage your risk a little bit more effectively. So, if this was the true worst case and best case scenario for this lead source, for example, twenty ks in revenue, worst case, that's about breaking even.

Three 20k is a thirty two return. So, it's a very high reward with a very low risk. So, in conclusion, every marketing source or lead source that you invest in is going to have some type of risk. Whether that risk is monetary, whether that risk is operational, it's just going to be there. But I hope this video helped you decide a little bit better and be a little bit more strategic on which marketing sources that you choose and when you choose them. If you got value from this video, please like, comment, and subscribe and I'll see you in the next one.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What makes Service Allies different from other HVAC Facebook ads companies?

What makes us different from other Facebook ads companies is the pains we take to make the leads good quality. This includes the way ads are written, images that are used, the video ads we create, qualifying questions we ask in the lead form, and getting feedback from you to know which campaigns are getting the best quality leads.

How will we get notified when new leads come in?

You can get notified by text, email, app notification, or any combination of the three.

Is there a contract?

There’s no long term commitment with Service Allies. It’s a month to month agreement!

How do people see the ads?

Local homeowners see the ads depending on where we tell Facebook to target. We can use zip codes, or multiple targeting radiuses, to show ads in the areas you want. Homeowners who are on Facebook or Instagram in those areas see your sponsored ad as they scroll.

How many leads can we generate?

It depends on 1) how low we can get your cost per lead and 2) your monthly ad spend budget. Lead costs typically fall between $25 and $75 per lead. If you spend $5000 per month on ads, that would mean between 200 and 66 leads. The more populated your service area is, the higher the scaling potential.

How much do you charge?

You will have two separate costs. The first cost is ad spend, which Facebook will bill you directly for. I typically recommend a monthly budget of $1000 - $2000 to start. Since the average lead cost is $50 in ad spend per lead, this should get you roughly between 20-40 leads monthly. If you need more or less, we can adjust advertising spend as you need. The second cost is our agency fees, which are only available on a live demo call.

How good are the leads?

Normally, between 20% and 40% can normally be booked for sales appointments. This requires that you follow up with the leads consistently, and have a good process for getting them scheduled.

How long does it take to start working?

When a new client signs up, we start with an onboarding call, and launch 7 days later. Over the past 5 years I’ve run this lead generation program, I’ve never seen it take longer than 2-3 days after launch to start getting leads.

How many people are you working with in my market?

We only serve one contractor in a local market. Even if you are part of a large metro area, we’ll single out an exclusive zone just for you. We still have a relatively small client base at the time of writing, so there is a good chance your market is still available. However, the sooner you reach out the better.

How many contractors are going to get the leads?

Just you. Facebook ads will be shown under your business name, and all the generated leads will be exclusively yours.

What if I'm not on Facebook or don't have a business page?

No problem. It's fairly simple to set up a Facebook business page, so we can do this for you at no extra charge. Also, don't worry if your current Facebook page doesn't have many likes. It doesn't seem to affect the volume or quality of leads at all.

How do you get the leads?

We get leads by running ads on Facebook. Ads are like Facebook posts, except you pay Facebook to show your ad to a specific local area and demographic. If you currently don’t use Facebook, or don’t have a Facebook page, that is no problem. We’ll set up a page on your behalf to run ads from.