A no-bullshit guide to what a Meta Ads campaign for a UK trade actually costs, what cost-per-lead to expect, and what makes the difference between profit and waste.
I get asked the same question every week: "Should I be running Meta Ads for my trade business?" The honest answer is "it depends", but most owners have wildly unrealistic ideas of what to expect, in both directions.
What Meta Ads actually do well for trades
Meta Ads are excellent at three things for service businesses: filling capacity gaps fast (you have a quiet week, get leads in 7 days), launching new services or service areas (a new branch town, a new offering like EV charging), and dominating high-margin offers (limited-time installations, seasonal services).
What they're bad at
Meta Ads are bad at very high-consideration sales (premium kitchens, multi-month construction projects), brand-driven trust purchases (most homeowners trust word-of-mouth here, not ads), and at very small monthly budgets there's simply not enough data for the algorithm to optimise.
The economics, in plain English
For most local trades, the maths comes down to: cost per lead, lead-to-quote conversion, quote-to-job close rate, and average job value. The bigger your average job value, the more cost per lead you can comfortably absorb. If your average job is in the four-figure range, the maths almost always works. If your average job is sub-£200, almost no paid acquisition channel will work.
The four things that actually move the needle
1. Speed to lead. If you take longer than 5 minutes to call a Meta lead back, your close rate halves. Set up SMS notifications and treat them like 999 calls. 2. Specific offers. A clearly-priced, time-bound offer beats "We do plumbing" every time. 3. Real creative. UGC-style video of you on a real job converts 3–5x better than stock images and graphic-design ads. 4. A landing page, not just a lead form. Lead forms work for very low-budget local campaigns. Above a meaningful monthly spend, dedicated landing pages typically produce 30–50% better lead quality.
When to start
Start Meta Ads when you have: capacity to take on extra work, the systems to follow up leads within 5 minutes, a real ad budget on top of management fees, and an offer you'd be excited to receive yourself.
If you want a proper recommendation for your business, request a free demo and we'll review what would actually make the maths work for you.