I sat down last week with a luxury remodeler who was frustrated. He had spent the last six months pouring money into a high-production video series for Instagram. The content was beautiful. The lighting was perfect. The audio was crisp. And it had generated exactly zero qualified leads.
He looked at me and asked the question I hear almost every week: "Adrian, where should I actually be spending my money? Google or Social?"
It is the most common "fork in the road" for construction business owners. You have a limited budget, and you have two giants asking for it.
The answer isn't "it depends." For a custom builder or remodeler who needs to put projects on the board now, the answer is a single, non-negotiable concept: Intent.
If you are just starting to build your marketing system, or if you are trying to fix a broken one, you don't need a scattershot approach. You need a hierarchy.
To choose a channel, you have to understand the mindset of the person seeing your ad. This is the difference between shouting at a crowd and answering a question.
1. Interruption Marketing (Facebook/Instagram/TikTok)This is "passive" traffic. The user is on their phone to see photos of their niece's birthday or watch a funny video. They are scrolling. They are bored. When your ad appears, you are interrupting their entertainment.
2. Intent Marketing (Google Search)This is "active" traffic. When someone goes to Google and types "custom home builder with land" or "additions for historic homes," they are not browsing. They have a specific problem, and they are actively hunting for a solution. They have their wallet in their hand.
This is why my framework always puts Google Ads at the base of the pyramid.
When a client comes to me with a limited budget and aggressive goals, I force them to follow this strict order of operations. We do not move to Step 2 until Step 1 is maxed out.
This is the foundation. Before you try to convince strangers that they should want a renovation (creating demand), you must first capture the people who already want one.
There are people in your service area right now searching for exactly what you do.
These are "money keywords." According to recent data, 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine [1]. If you are not there to answer that search, you are invisible.
The beauty of Google Ads is the control. We can target specific zip codes (down to the neighborhood level). We can bid higher on "luxury" terms and exclude "cheap" or "affordable" terms to filter out tire-kickers.
Is it expensive? Yes. In competitive markets, you might pay $15 or $20 a click. But remember the intent. A click from someone searching "hire custom builder" is worth 100x more than a "like" from someone scrolling Instagram at 2 a.m.
Once you are driving traffic from Google, you will notice something painful: 95% of them won't contact you on the first visit. This is normal. Building a custom home is a massive financial decision, not an impulse buy.
This is where we introduce the second layer. We install a tracking pixel on your site. Now, when that serious prospect leaves your site to check Facebook or Instagram, your brand follows them.
This is the only time I recommend Social Media in the early stages. We aren't using it to find new people; we are using it to stay in front of the interested people we found on Google.
Only after you are capturing the high-intent traffic (Phase 1) and retargeting the bounces (Phase 2) should you spend money on "cold" social media ads.
Instagram is great for brand awareness. It builds trust. It validates your quality. But it is passive. If you have a hole in your schedule for Q2, a pretty Instagram reel won't fix it. Google Ads will.
The reason so many builders get this wrong is that Google Ads is boring. It's text. It's spreadsheets. It doesn't give you the dopamine hit of seeing 500 likes on a photo.
I challenge you to look at your bank account, not your notification center.
I worked with a design-build firm in Texas that was obsessed with Houzz and Instagram. They had thousands of followers but erratic revenue. We shifted 70% of their budget to Google Search campaigns targeting specific architectural styles they specialized in. Their follower count stopped growing. Their "likes" plummeted.
But their qualified leads increased by 40% in ninety days.
Why? Because we stopped shouting at a crowd and started whispering to the people who were already looking for us.
If you are sitting down to plan your spend, here is the playbook:
Marketing is about timing. Social media catches them when they are dreaming. Google catches them when they are deciding.
As a business owner, which client do you want to talk to?
Google Ads works on an auction system for keywords. You are paying a premium because the user has high intent. You are bidding against other builders for a person who is actively searching for a service. Facebook is cheaper because you are paying for attention from a passive audience. The cost per lead is often higher on Google, but the conversion rate to a sale is typically much better.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is critical for long-term health, but it is slow. It can take months or years to rank #1 for "custom builder." Google Ads allows you to jump to the top of the page immediately. For a predictable lead flow system, you need Ads to bridge the gap while your SEO authority builds.
This is rare in residential construction, but it happens with very niche services (e.g., "geothermal eco-bunkers"). In this case, the Intent Framework flips. You must use Interruption Marketing (Social/Video) to educate the market and create demand because the search volume simply doesn't exist yet.
You can set up a "Smart Campaign" yourself, but I advise against it for high-ticket construction. Google's default settings are designed to spend your money, not save it. They will have you bidding on broad terms like "home repair" or "tools." A professional setup ensures you are only paying for the specific, high-value keywords that drive revenue.
You track conversions, not clicks. A conversion should be defined as a "Form Fill" or a "Phone Call" from the ad. If you are getting clicks but no contacts, the problem is likely your website (landing page), not the ad.
[1] https://www.webfx.com/blog/seo/seo-statistics/
[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
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