What a fall gutter guard Facebook campaign costs, and when it pays back
A line-by-line cost breakdown for a 30-day Facebook campaign selling gutter guards in leaf season, with the close rate and ticket you need to break even.
Every fall, homeowners stand under overflowing gutters and say they should do something about it. Most never call. A Facebook campaign can turn some of them into gutter guard installs, but only if the numbers work. Before you spend a dollar, it helps to know what the campaign really costs and how many jobs it takes to pay back.
Below is a cost breakdown for a 30-day leaf season campaign. The figures are typical ranges and a worked hypothetical, not a promise. Swap in your own numbers.
Why gutter guards and why now
Gutter guards are a planned purchase. Nobody searches for them in a panic, and many homeowners put the decision off for years. Meta is good at reaching people who have the problem but have not acted yet.
Late October through November is the moment. Leaves are falling, gutters are overflowing, and homeowners can see the problem from the driveway. An ad showing a clogged gutter next to a clean, guarded one hits while the pain is fresh.
The costs, line by line
1. Ad spend: $600 to $1,200 for 30 days. That is $20 to $40 a day. Below $20 a day, a campaign often gets too few leads in a month to learn anything. Above $40 a day for a small company, you may get more leads than you can quote quickly.
2. Creative: $0 to $300. Your own phone photos and a 20-second video from a recent install usually do better than anything polished. A before shot of a packed gutter and an after shot of the guard installed is the core ad. If you pay someone to edit a short video, budget up to a few hundred dollars. If you shoot it yourself, it is free.
3. Lead form or landing page: $0 to $500. A Facebook instant form costs nothing. A dedicated landing page on your website may cost a few hundred to set up if you do not have one. Instant forms bring more leads; a page tends to bring fewer but more serious ones.
4. Your time on follow-up: 6 to 10 hours. This is the cost people forget. Every lead needs a call or text within minutes, a quote visit and at least one follow-up. Value your time at what you would pay someone else to do it.
5. Software: $0 to $100. A missed-call text-back tool or simple CRM helps you respond fast. Many owners already have one.
Total for a typical 30-day test: about $700 to $2,000, depending mostly on ad spend and whether you build a landing page.
The payback math
Here is a hypothetical example using middle-of-the-range numbers.
- Ad spend: $900 over 30 days
- Cost per lead: $30, so about 30 leads
- Share of leads you reach and quote: 50%, so about 15 estimates
- Close rate on estimates: 25%, so about 4 installs
- Average guard job: $1,800
- Revenue: about $7,200
Against roughly $1,200 in total costs including creative and software, that is a good return. But change two numbers and the picture shifts. If you only reach a third of leads because you are on ladders all day, and your close rate is 15%, you might sell one or two jobs. That can still cover costs on a $1,800 ticket, but barely.
The lesson is that the campaign is often less of a risk than your follow-up. The missed calls and speed to lead guide covers how to answer leads fast when you are on a roof, and the calculator shows what each lost lead costs.
What makes the ad work
Show the problem. A photo of a gutter overflowing in the rain or packed with leaves stops the scroll.
Name the town. "Homeowners in Beaverton" in the first line tells the right people the ad is for them.
Make one clear offer. For example: free estimate and a set discount on guards booked before a date. Keep it simple and honest.
Ask a qualifying question. Add "Do you own this home?" to the instant form. It filters out renters.
The Facebook and Instagram ads guide has more on creative and retargeting.
Before you start
Make sure the homeowner who sees your ad and then looks you up likes what they find. The median gutter company in our benchmark report has 6 reviews, and 20% have none at all. A homeowner about to spend over a thousand dollars will check. If you have fewer than 10 reviews, spend a week asking recent customers before launching.
Also check that your profile lists gutter guards as a service and that your hours are filled in. 56.7% of gutter company profiles show no hours, which makes it harder for people to know when to call.
When to stop or scale
After 30 days, look at cost per install, not cost per lead. If each install cost you less than about 10% to 15% of its ticket in ad spend and follow-up, keep going and consider raising the budget. If you got leads but no installs, fix follow-up before spending more. If you got almost no leads, change the creative before you give up on the channel.
If you want a gutter guard campaign built and run for you, any service is available as a free 14-day trial, no card. Text or call (801) 509-9725.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, gutter companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor