Plumbing marketing checklist: 45 checks to score your business

Group 1: Phone and call handling

A plumbing lead is a phone call more often than a form, and most of the money in marketing is lost between the ring and the booking. Test these with your own phone.

• Calls in business hours are answered live, or reach a fallback within a minute. Call your main number from a cell phone at three different times this week. If nobody picks up, an answering service, a call-back text or a second person should.
• The after-hours greeting tells the caller exactly what happens next. For example "for a burst pipe or sewage backup, stay on the line and we will page the on-call plumber". If emergencies do not reach a person, do not advertise 24 hour service.
• Someone is on call for emergencies, and you know who it is tonight. A named person with a phone that is charged and turned up, plus a back-up if they do not answer in a few minutes.
• Missed calls get a text within about a minute. Even a short "Sorry we missed you, what is the problem and your address?" saves some of them. See missed-call text-back and answering scripts.
• Everyone who answers uses the same short script. Company name, name of the caller, address, what is happening, whether water is running, best number. Written on one page next to each phone.
• The voicemail box is set up, says when you will call back, and is not full. Check it today. A full mailbox is a lost job that never even shows as a missed call.
• You know how many calls you missed last week. From your phone system or call-tracking report. The missed call revenue calculator turns the number into dollars.
• Forms and text enquiries are answered within a time you set in writing. Pick a limit, such as 15 minutes in business hours, and check the actual reply times for a sample of recent enquiries.

Group 2: Google Business Profile and reviews

The profile set-up itself is covered check by check in the local SEO checklist. This group is the owner-level view: is the profile working as a lead source, and are reviews flowing.

• Every check in group 1 of the local SEO checklist is ticked. Run through the profile checks in the local SEO checklist for contractors once and come back here. It covers categories, services, service areas, hours and photos in detail.
• Profile calls roughly match your own call log. Compare the calls shown in the profile performance report with your phone records for the same month. A big gap suggests a wrong number, a tracking number problem or missed calls.
• If messaging is switched on, someone answers within the hour. Unanswered chat on a profile looks worse than having no chat. Turn the feature off if nobody owns it.
• You gained new reviews in the last 30 days. Open the profile and sort reviews by newest. Recent reviews matter to customers, and a gap of months looks like a business that has slowed down.
• Review requests go out after every finished job, by a process rather than by memory. A text with your direct review link, sent by the tech or the office the same day. Ask every customer. Asking only the happy ones is review gating, which goes against Google's policy. See review request templates for plumbers.
• Every review has a reply, written by a person, within a week. Short, polite, specific. For a negative review, state the facts calmly and offer to talk by phone. See Google reviews for plumbers.
• You compare your rating, review count and last-review date with the three companies above you every quarter. Write the numbers in a note. You are looking for a gap you can close, not for a rating to chase.

Group 3: Website and service pages

The website should answer what a worried homeowner asks in the first ten seconds and make the call easy. Check it on a phone, on mobile data, standing in a driveway.

• Your top three most profitable jobs each have their own page. For example drain cleaning, water heater replacement and sewer line repair. Pages are written for the job, not one "Services" page. See plumber website design.
• Each of those pages says how you price the job. Flat rate, hourly, diagnostic fee, trip charge, what is included. You do not need to publish a price list, but the method should be clear so the caller knows what a call leads to.
• A caller can ring you within two taps on a phone from any page. Open the site on your phone. A tap-to-call button in the header or a bar fixed to the screen does this.
• There is an emergency page that says what to do before you arrive. For example where the main shut-off valve usually is, and what hours a person answers. It should match your real emergency cover.
• License, insurance and warranty details are visible on service pages. Show the numbers where your state or province expects them, and say what the warranty covers and for how long.
• The enquiry form asks only what you need, and you receive an alert within a minute. Name, phone, address or postal code and the problem. Submit a test enquiry now and time how long it takes to reach a phone.
• A thank-you page loads after the form is sent. It confirms what happens next and gives you a page address that tracking can count. See conversion tracking.
• Photos are of your own people, trucks and work. Stock photos of smiling plumbers do not build trust. Real crew photos with first names do. The guide to what the best plumbing websites do right shows what to include.

Group 4: Paid ads and tracking

Ads are the part of plumbing marketing where money is wasted fastest, usually by counting the wrong thing. Skip this group only if you spend nothing on ads, and tick the checks that do not apply.

• The ad accounts are in your business name, and you hold an admin login. Not the agency's or a former employee's. If you ever leave, you should be able to take your history with you.
• Ads count phone calls and form submissions as conversions, not clicks or page views. Open the conversions list in the account and read the names. See Google Ads conversion tracking setup.
• Calls from ads have a minimum length, and the setting is on purpose. A call under a few seconds is rarely a customer. Pick a threshold and check recent calls against it.
• Someone reads the search terms report every week and adds negative keywords. Jobs, training, DIY, parts and salary searches are the usual waste. The guide to reducing wasted Google Ads spend has the routine.
• The ad schedule and daily budget match the hours you can actually answer. If nobody picks up at night, either pay for an answering service or do not buy night clicks.
• Location targeting reaches people in your service area, not anyone interested in it. Check the location options in the campaign settings and exclude places you do not serve.
• Each paid channel has its own phone number or tracking, so calls are matched to the ad. See call tracking for contractors. Without it, a call is just a call.
• If you run Local Services Ads, you review the lead inbox weekly. Look for wrong-job leads and leads you are not sure you should pay for. See Local Services Ads dashboard and lead disputes.

Group 5: Follow-up and repeat business

Past customers cost nothing to reach and already trust you. This group is where many owners find the cheapest revenue they have.

• Every customer is saved with name, phone, address, job type and date. In a CRM, your job software or even a spreadsheet. If it lives only in a tech's head, it is not an asset. See plumbing software and CRM.
• Every quote that is not accepted gets a follow-up at two days and again at about a week. A call or text, not a hard sell. Many lost quotes are people who simply got busy.
• You review the list of lost quotes once a month. Look for patterns: price, timing, a competitor, no reply. Call the biggest ones.
• A thank-you and a review request go out the same day as the job. One message, with the review link, sent by the tech from the truck or by the office.
• Water heater and sewer customers get a reminder at a sensible interval. Based on the age of the unit you installed or the date of the last service, with a plain offer to book. Keep it honest: remind, do not scare.
• You offer a maintenance visit or plan with the price and contents written down. Skip it if you cannot deliver it reliably. A plan you forget to honour does more harm than none.
• Texts and emails go only to people who agreed to receive them, and each one says how to stop. Consent rules differ in the US and Canada, and Canada's anti-spam law is stricter. Check the current rules for your state or province and ask a lawyer if you are unsure.

Group 6: Measurement

If you cannot name your cost per booked job, you are guessing which marketing works. Five numbers are enough.

• Every lead is logged in one place with its source. Phone, form, text, Google Business Profile, Local Services Ads, referral. A shared sheet works if the whole office uses it.
• Each lead is marked booked or not booked, and booked jobs have a revenue figure. Update it weekly. This single habit is what turns marketing reports into business decisions.
• You can state last month's cost per booked job for each paid channel. Ad spend divided by booked jobs from that channel. Not cost per click, and not cost per lead.
• You know the share of calls answered and the share of answered calls that were booked. These two numbers show whether the problem is the phone, the sales conversation or the marketing.
• Forms and calls are set up as key events in GA4. So reports show enquiries by page and channel. See GA4 key events setup.
• A monthly marketing budget and a maximum cost per booked job are written down. Then you can say yes or no to a new idea quickly. The plumbing marketing cost guide helps set the figure.
• A 30 minute monthly review is on the calendar and happens. Open the five numbers, decide one thing to stop and one to try, and write it down.