A Practical, No-Theory Guide for Remodelers Who Want Predictable Leads
The remodeling industry has never been more competitive. Homeowners spent over $480 billion on renovations in 2024, and search interest in “kitchen remodel contractor” and “bathroom remodel ideas” continues to climb year over year. What’s changed isn’t the demand — it’s how homeowners choose who they call.
If you’re still relying only on referrals, you’re invisible to the 61% of homeowners who start with a Google search. And with AI-driven search results now summarizing remodeling advice before showing websites, you’re competing in places you’ve never seen before.
PPC advertising cuts through that noise. It puts your remodeling business at the top of search results at the exact moment a homeowner is ready to talk about their kitchen, bathroom, or home addition. And when done correctly, PPC becomes one of the most predictable lead-generation systems remodelers can run.
This guide breaks down how I set up PPC ads for remodeling businesses, step-by-step. No fluff, no theory — just the process that consistently brings in high-quality leads.
Remodeling customers behave differently from typical home service buyers. They’re not calling for an emergency, and they’re not making a decision on the spot. Most are planning a project months before they ever book an estimate.
I’ve run campaigns where the first click happened in March, the consultation wasn’t scheduled until May, and the project didn’t close until August. That’s normal.
Here’s what PPC solves:
PPC doesn’t just help you grow — it stabilizes your lead flow when referrals slow down or seasonality hits.
Before I touch an ad account, I want clarity on what we’re actually trying to generate.
For remodelers, goals usually break into three categories:
I’ve worked with remodelers who said they wanted “more leads,” but what they really meant was fewer but better-qualified leads. PPC can deliver both — but only if you define what qualifies someone as worth paying for.
If you tell me your best customers live in neighborhoods with homes valued at $600K+, that changes everything: keywords, ad copy, landing pages, the whole structure.
PPC works best when it’s tied directly to business outcomes, not vanity metrics like clicks.
Remodeling is hyper-local, even more than roofing or HVAC. Homeowners rarely hire remodelers outside their immediate radius.
If your best work is in three ZIP codes, but your ads target the entire metro area, your lead quality tanks. I’ve seen campaigns burn thousands on areas the contractor didn’t even serve.
When I set up location targeting, I focus on:
Good PPC isn’t about reaching everyone — it’s about excluding the wrong people early.
Here’s a mistake I see constantly: sending PPC traffic to the homepage.
A homepage is built for browsing. A landing page is built for buying.
When I build landing pages for remodelers, I follow a simple rule:
Show homeowners exactly what they came to see. Nothing more. Nothing less.
A kitchen remodeling landing page shouldn’t mention bathrooms, flooring, basements, painting, or handyman work. Strip it down.
Here’s what matters most:
When landing pages are built right, conversion rates jump — often 2x or 3x.
Not all remodeling keywords are created equal. Some sound good but don’t convert.
People searching “kitchen remodel ideas” are dreaming. “Kitchen remodel contractor near me” is a buyer.
When I build keyword lists, I always think about intent:
Low intent:
“small kitchen ideas,” “bathroom tile inspiration,” “2025 home trends”
People browsing Pinterest-level content.
Medium intent:
“kitchen remodel cost,” “bathroom renovation timeline”
People planning a project but not ready to talk yet.
High intent:
“kitchen remodel contractors,” “bathroom remodeling company near me,” “home addition builder in [city]”
These are the keywords that produce real leads.
I’ll often bid on medium-intent keywords but drive that traffic to more educational content, not a hard-sell landing page. High-intent keywords get the PPC budget priority.
Most remodelers want to advertise everything they offer. That’s not how PPC works.
A “remodeling contractor” campaign is too broad and wastes money. Instead, I break campaigns down by project type so ads match exactly what homeowners are searching for.
A typical structure looks like:
This level of granularity matters. If someone searches “bathroom remodel,” I want a bathroom ad with bathroom messaging leading to a bathroom landing page.
Relevance reduces cost and increases conversions.
Most remodeling ad copy I see looks like it was written by someone who’s never stepped inside a remodeled home.
Homeowners care about four things:
When I write ad copy, I lean on specifics:
Remodeling isn’t a commodity purchase. This is a major investment. Your ads should feel like you understand that.
I don’t run campaigns without tracking — period.
If you’re not tracking conversions, you’re just “spending money and hoping.”
You need to track:
The calls are especially important because most remodeling leads prefer to talk instead of fill out forms.
When I turn tracking on for remodelers, it’s not uncommon to find that 70% of their conversions weren’t being counted before.
Remodeling clicks aren’t cheap. The competition is high, especially in major metros. But the leads are valuable — typically worth anywhere from $10K–$100K depending on project type.
I start with:
A bath remodel lead in Phoenix and a kitchen lead in Charlotte don’t cost the same. Budgets vary, but remodelers usually start seeing meaningful data with:
When budgets are too low, Google can’t learn, and the campaign never stabilizes.
PPC doesn’t work if you set it up once and ignore it. Every week, I review:
One example: I worked with a remodeler who kept getting calls for exterior siding because Google matched “home improvement contractor” queries too broadly. Adding 30+ negative keywords immediately cut out 40% of wasted spend.
Good PPC is less about adding things and more about removing what isn’t working.
PPC doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The best campaigns win because they fix the pieces most remodelers ignore:
I once ran two identical campaigns for the same contractor in two cities. The only difference was landing page layout. One converted at 8%, the other at 24%. Same ads. Same keywords. Same audience.
PPC exposes weak points in your sales process — then gives you the data to fix them.
Setting up PPC ads for a remodeling business isn’t complicated, but it’s easy to get wrong. If you don’t tighten your targeting, refine your keywords, or build landing pages that answer exactly what homeowners came to find, you burn money fast.
But when everything is aligned — the service area, the messaging, the tracking, the optimization — PPC becomes the most reliable, scalable lead engine a remodeler can run.
The remodelers winning right now aren’t the ones with the biggest team or the longest history. They’re the ones who figured out how to show up at the right time, with the right message, in front of the right homeowners — and they do it every single day.
If you want me to tailor this for kitchen remodelers, bath remodelers, design-build firms, or high-end remodelers, I can rewrite the entire guide with niche specificity.
Turn tactics into traction with a strategy built to perform, no guesswork, no fluff, just results.
