Marketing Ideas For Tradies
Price up each marketing idea for a trade business and get a realistic monthly budget. Covers vehicle signage, ads, local SEO, flyers, sponsorship and review systems.
Trades typically spend 3 to 10 percent of revenue on marketing, which this uses as an anchor.
A full vehicle wrap is $2,500 to $6,000 and lasts five to seven years, which is why it looks cheap monthly. The gotcha is removal. Wraps on leased or financed vehicles must usually be removed before return at $500 to $1,200, and cheap vinyl that has baked in the sun for six years can lift paint on removal.
Trade businesses in Australia typically spend 3 to 10 percent of revenue on marketing. Established operators with strong referral flow sit near 3 percent, while a business actively chasing growth or entering a new suburb runs closer to 8 or 10 percent for a year or two before settling back.
A review generation system is the highest return item on this list per dollar. Software to automate the request costs $30 to $150 a month, and moving from 20 reviews to 80 reviews measurably lifts map pack ranking and call through rate, which makes every other channel on the list work harder.
💰 Ways to save
- Set your budget as a percentage of revenue rather than a fixed dollar figure, and review it quarterly. Three to ten percent is the normal Australian trade range, with 3 to 5 percent suiting an established business coasting on referrals and 8 to 10 percent suiting one chasing growth or opening a new service area. A percentage automatically scales down in a quiet quarter, which protects cash flow far better than a fixed monthly commitment you forget to cancel.
- Front load the one off assets that keep working for years. A vehicle wrap at $2,500 to $6,000 lasts five to seven years and delivers impressions every day you drive, uniforms at $60 to $150 per set last a year or more, and a properly built review request system costs a few hundred to set up and then compounds. Spend on these before recurring channels, because they lower your ongoing cost per lead permanently.
- If you use an agency, get the fee structure in writing including whether it is a percentage of spend, a flat retainer, or a minimum plus percentage. On a $1,500 monthly ad budget an agency with a $1,200 minimum fee is charging you 80 percent overhead, which no channel survives. Below roughly $3,000 a month in ad spend, a competent freelancer at $400 to $900 a month is usually better value than a full agency.
- Reactivate your existing customer database before buying new leads. Exporting past customers into an email and SMS tool costs $20 to $80 a month, and a single well written message reminding people about annual servicing, safety checks or seasonal work routinely produces work at under $20 per booked job. Most trades sit on hundreds of past customers who would rebook if asked and never are.
or from $25/week over 5 years , indicative finance
Run a business or agency? Put a calculator like this on your own website, branded as yours.See how →How we estimate this
## What tradie marketing actually costs, item by item
Pricing reviewed: June 2026.
Pricing reviewed June 2026. Indicative Australian costs, not a quote.
Are you a business or agency?
Put this calculator on your own website, branded to you, visitors get an instant estimate, you get a qualified enquiry with their details.
Understanding marketing ideas for tradiess in Australia
What tradie marketing actually costs, item by item
Marketing ideas are easy to list and hard to budget, so here are real 2026 Australian numbers. A full vehicle wrap costs $2,500 to $6,000 and lasts five to seven years, while partial signage on doors and tailgate is $400 to $1,200. Branded uniforms run $60 to $150 per set. Printing 5,000 A5 flyers is $600 to $1,200 with distribution a further $80 to $160 per thousand. Google Ads for a trade needs $1,000 to $4,000 a month in spend to be meaningful, plus management. Local SEO retainers are $800 to $2,500 a month. Review generation software is $30 to $150 a month. Local club sponsorship runs $500 to $5,000 a season. Email and SMS platforms cost $20 to $80 a month for a typical trade database.
How much you should be spending overall
The percentage of revenue framing is the most useful anchor because it scales with the business. Australian trade businesses typically commit 3 to 10 percent of revenue to marketing. An established operator with a full diary and strong referral flow can sit at 3 to 4 percent and stay busy. A business actively growing, hiring a second crew, or pushing into a new suburb usually needs 8 to 10 percent for twelve to twenty four months before easing back. On $600,000 of revenue that is $1,500 a month at the conservative end and $5,000 at the growth end. Setting the number as a percentage rather than a fixed figure means it falls automatically in a quiet quarter, which protects cash flow better than a fixed commitment nobody remembers to pause.
The assets that keep earning
Some spend is a purchase and some is a rent. Vehicle signage, uniforms, professional job photography and a review generation system are purchases. They cost once and then work for years, which makes their monthly cost trivial and their return the highest on any trade marketing list. A wrapped ute parked on a suburban street for three hours during a job is unpaid local advertising to everyone who walks past. Photography of finished work at $500 to $1,500 for a half day session feeds your website, your Google profile, your social posts and your quotes for years. Buy the assets before you rent the channels, because assets lower the cost per lead of everything you rent afterwards.
Flyers, sponsorship and the local plays
Letterbox drops still work in the right circumstances, specifically when you are already working in a street and can drop the surrounding two hundred homes the same day with an offer referencing the job in progress. Costed properly that is 5,000 flyers at $600 to $1,200 printed plus $400 to $800 distributed, against a response rate of 0.1 to 0.5 percent, so expect 5 to 25 enquiries from a full drop. Local sponsorship of a junior sports club at $500 to $5,000 a season is a brand and relationship play rather than a lead channel. It rarely produces trackable enquiries but it produces recognition in a defined catchment, which matters most for trades whose work is concentrated in a handful of suburbs.
Where an agency helps and where it does not
The management question changes the arithmetic more than most trades expect. Agencies charge either a flat retainer of $800 to $2,500 a month, a percentage of ad spend at 10 to 20 percent, or a minimum plus percentage. Crucially, the fee sits on top of the ad spend rather than coming out of it, so a $2,000 Google Ads budget with a 15 percent fee costs $2,300. Below roughly $3,000 a month in ad spend, agency minimum fees consume too much of the budget to justify, and a competent freelancer at $400 to $900 a month is usually the better buy. Above that level, an agency's testing capacity and reporting generally earns its keep.
The cheapest idea on the list
Reactivating past customers is consistently the lowest cost per job available to a trade business and the least used. A plumber who has served four hundred households has four hundred people who already trusted them enough to let them into the house. An email and SMS platform costs $20 to $80 a month, and a single seasonal message about gutter clearing before storm season, annual safety checks, or servicing before summer typically produces work at under $20 per booked job. The same applies to a review request sequence, since moving from twenty reviews to eighty lifts map pack visibility and call through rate, which makes every paid channel cheaper at the same time.
Building the actual budget
Start with your revenue percentage to set the ceiling. Allocate the first slice to assets, meaning signage, uniforms and photography, spread across the year. Allocate the second slice to the compounding base of reviews, database reactivation and local SEO. Allocate whatever remains to the controllable dial of Google Ads, and treat flyers and sponsorship as discretionary extras funded only when there is headroom. A $600,000 revenue trade business running a sensible mix typically lands at $2,500 to $4,000 a month all in, and should expect that spend to produce 20 to 40 leads and 8 to 15 booked jobs. Measure it that way, by jobs, and the budget conversation stops being guesswork.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a tradie spend on marketing?
Three to ten percent of revenue is the normal Australian range. Established businesses with strong referral flow sit at 3 to 4 percent, while businesses chasing growth or a new service area run 8 to 10 percent for a year or two. On $600,000 revenue that is $1,500 to $5,000 a month depending on where you sit.
How much does a vehicle wrap cost for a trade vehicle?
A full wrap is $2,500 to $6,000 and lasts five to seven years, while partial signage on doors and tailgate is $400 to $1,200. Budget for removal too, at $500 to $1,200, if the vehicle is leased or financed and must be returned in original condition.
Do letterbox drops still work for tradies?
They work best when dropped in the streets immediately around a job you are already doing. Printing 5,000 A5 flyers costs $600 to $1,200 with distribution a further $80 to $160 per thousand. Response rates of 0.1 to 0.5 percent mean a 5,000 drop realistically produces 5 to 25 enquiries.
Is a marketing agency worth it for a small trade business?
Usually not below about $3,000 a month in ad spend, because agency retainers of $800 to $2,500 or minimum fees consume too much of a small budget. Remember the fee sits on top of ad spend, so $2,000 of ads at a 15 percent fee costs $2,300. Under that threshold a freelancer at $400 to $900 a month is better value.
What is the cheapest marketing idea for a tradie?
Reactivating past customers by email and SMS. The platform costs $20 to $80 a month and a single seasonal reminder about servicing or safety checks routinely produces work at under $20 per booked job. A review request system at $30 to $150 a month is the second cheapest and lifts the performance of every other channel.
How do I know if my marketing is working?
Measure booked jobs by channel, not impressions or traffic. Give each channel its own tracking number or form source, then divide monthly spend by jobs won. A trade spending $2,500 to $4,000 a month on a sensible mix should expect roughly 20 to 40 leads and 8 to 15 booked jobs.
Run a business or agency? Add this marketing ideas for tradies calculator to your own website →