Strategy

How much does contractor marketing cost in Canada? (2026 breakdown)

Published 2026-06-22 · 7 min read

I have talked to over 100 contractors in the past year. Every single one asks the same thing first: "How much is this going to cost me?" Not "Will it work?" Cost comes first. So here are the real numbers.

This is not theory. These are the prices I have seen quoted, paid, and negotiated in Ontario. Yours might vary by 10% or 20%, but the structure is the same everywhere.

The website: $0 to $15,000

The range is ridiculous. You can build a site on Wix for $20/mo. You can hire a fancy agency for $15,000. Both will give you a website. Only one will give you a website that books jobs.

Here's what actually matters: can a homeowner find you on Google, trust you in five seconds, and call you without copying a phone number from the footer? Most $5,000 sites fail at least two of those. Most $500/mo systems like ours nail all three.

The real question is not what the site costs. It is what the site earns. A $15,000 site that brings in zero jobs is expensive. A $500/mo system that books 10 jobs a month is cheap.

Google Ads: $1,500 to $10,000/mo

The cost per click for contractor keywords in Ontario ranges from $8 to $35. "Plumber Toronto" is expensive. "Fence repair Woodstock" is cheaper. The math is simple: budget divided by cost per click equals visitors, and your conversion rate turns visitors into leads.

Most contractors start at $1,500/mo. That buys about 75 to 150 clicks. At a 5% conversion rate, that's 4 to 8 leads. At a 25% close rate, that's 1 to 2 jobs.

Is that worth it? Depends on your job value. If you are a roofer with a $15,000 average job, yes. If you are a handyman with a $200 average job, no.

The mistake most contractors make: they set up Google Ads once and never touch them. Campaigns need weekly attention. Ads go stale. Competitors bid higher. The algorithm changes. If you are not watching, you are burning money.

SEO: $500 to $3,000/mo

SEO is the slowest channel and the most valuable one. A page that ranks for "HVAC London Ontario" will bring you leads for years with zero ongoing cost.

But it takes 3 to 6 months to work. And most agencies charge $1,500 to $3,000/mo with no guarantee. You are paying for effort, not results.

The honest truth: most contractors do not need a dedicated SEO agency. They need a website built to rank, a Google Business Profile that is complete, and a steady stream of reviews. Those three things handle 80% of local SEO.

The local SEO system we built does exactly that. It is not a separate line item. It is included in the $500/mo Found System because it is part of the foundation.

Lead services: $50 to $150 per lead

HomeStars, Thumbtack, Angi, Bark. They all sell the same thing: a homeowner who filled out a form. The problem: they sell that lead to three to five contractors at once.

Your real cost per job from these services is usually $300 to $600. That is fine for high-ticket trades (roofing, HVAC). It is brutal for low-ticket ones (cleaning, handyman).

The bigger risk: you do not own the customer. You cannot email them later. You cannot retarget them. You cannot build a reputation. You are renting leads, not building a business.

The hidden cost nobody talks about

I have spent $281,544 on ads for Wick of Hope. I know exactly what every dollar did. But there is a cost I could not measure on any report: the leads we lost.

The customer who called at 7 PM and got voicemail. The quote request that sat in an inbox for three days. The website that loaded in four seconds on a phone and the homeowner bounced before the hero image even appeared.

That cost is invisible. It does not show up on an invoice. But it is massive. We estimate we lost 30% of our leads in year one to speed and follow-up problems. At $1M in revenue, that is $300,000 in jobs we never knew about.

For contractors, it is the same story. The missed-call text-back system alone saves most contractors 5 to 10 leads a month. At $100 per lead, that is $500 to $1,000 in saved opportunity. The system pays for itself.

What we charge (and why)

The Found System is $500/mo. No setup fee. No contract. That includes the website, the phone system, the CRM, the missed-call text-back, the automated follow-up, the review engine, and the local SEO.

We priced it that way because we ran the business that needed it. When we were at $14K a year, we could not afford a $3,000/mo agency. We could barely afford $500. But $500 was enough to get started, and the results funded the growth.

If you are spending $2,000+ on marketing already, the Found System replaces most of that. If you are spending zero, it is the cheapest way to start that actually works.

Either way, book a 20-minute demo and we'll show you the numbers for your specific trade and city. No pitch, just math.

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