Facebook reaches 78% of the Australian population. That means when you're looking for homeowners in your service area — people who need a deck built, a bathroom retiled, or a hot water system replaced — they're almost certainly on Facebook or Instagram right now.

This guide is for tradies who have never run an ad before. No jargon, no theory. Just the practical steps to get your first campaign live and working.

Why Facebook Ads Work for Tradies (and When They Don't)

Facebook ads are great for one specific thing: reaching people who aren't searching yet.

Think about a homeowner who's been putting off their bathroom renovation for six months. They haven't Googled anything. They're not ready to get quotes. But they're scrolling Facebook on a Sunday afternoon — and your before-and-after photo of a bathroom reno in their suburb stops them mid-scroll.

That's the job Facebook ads do. They create demand by putting your work in front of people who didn't know they were ready to act.

Where Facebook ads shine for tradies:

  • Filling your calendar during slower periods
  • Building local name recognition so people remember you when they're ready
  • Showcasing completed jobs to homeowners in your service area
  • Promoting a specific offer — end-of-season gutter cleaning, winter heating tune-ups, etc.

Where Facebook ads do NOT work well:

Emergency jobs. If someone's hot water system has just failed at 7am, they're not browsing Facebook — they're Googling "emergency plumber near me" and calling the first result. For that kind of work, Google Ads is the right tool. Facebook and Google solve different problems at different moments in the buying journey.

One Thing to Understand Before You Spend a Dollar

Facebook Ads and Google Ads are fundamentally different.

Google Ads = capture people who are actively searching for your service right now. High intent, ready to buy.

Facebook Ads = reach people who might need your service soon, even if they don't know it yet. Lower immediate intent, but much larger audience.

Neither is better. They work together. But if you're running Facebook ads expecting phone calls within an hour like Google Ads sometimes delivers, you'll be disappointed. Facebook works on a longer burn — it builds awareness that converts over days and weeks.

Step 1: Set Up Your Meta Business Account

Before you can run any ads, you need a Meta Business account. This is free and takes about 15 minutes.

Go to business.facebook.com and create a business account linked to your personal Facebook profile. From there, set up:

  • A Business Page for your trade business (if you don't already have one)
  • Meta Ads Manager — this is where you build and manage all your campaigns
  • A payment method — credit or debit card, billed in AUD

If your business already has a Facebook page with some posts and reviews on it, you're ahead of the game. Ads run from your business page, so the more legitimate it looks, the better.

Step 2: Define Your Audience

This is the most important decision you'll make in the whole campaign. Get this wrong and you'll burn money showing ads to people who'd never hire you.

Location: Set a radius of around 30km around your service area. If you're based in Dandenong and you service the south-east suburbs, set Dandenong as your centre point. Don't target "Greater Melbourne" — that's 5 million people. You want the 50,000 homeowners in your actual service area.

Age: Homeowners skew older. Target 30 to 65. People under 30 are less likely to own a home and less likely to be the decision-maker for trade work.

Interests: Add interest targeting as a guide — things like home improvement, renovation, real estate, home ownership. These aren't perfect, but they help Meta's algorithm find the right people faster.

Advantage+ Audience: Meta now offers an AI-driven option called Advantage+ audience, where you provide some basic signals and let the algorithm find your best buyers. For local service businesses like trades, this works well. Don't be afraid to use it — Meta's targeting has gotten very good at finding homeowners with renovation intent.

Step 3: Choose Your Campaign Objective

When you create a new campaign in Ads Manager, Meta asks what you want to achieve. For most tradies, the right choice is one of these two:

  • Leads — Meta shows your ad to people most likely to fill in a contact form or click a "Get a Quote" button. Best if your website has a strong enquiry form.
  • Traffic — Meta drives clicks to your website. Better if your site is well-optimised to convert visitors once they land.

Start with Leads if you're not sure. Meta will optimise to get you enquiries rather than just clicks.

Step 4: Create Your Ad Creative

This is where most tradies either win or waste their money.

The single most important rule: do not use stock photos.

A generic image of a smiling tradie from Shutterstock will be ignored. People scroll past stock photos automatically. What stops the scroll is a real photo of real work — your work, in a real house, that looks like something a person in your suburb might want done.

What actually performs well:

  • Before-and-after carousel ads. Two photos side by side — the cracked, mouldy bathroom before, the clean tiled renovation after. Swipeable. Instantly compelling. A landscaper like Dave who does garden makeovers in Frankston can show a weed-covered mess on the left and a manicured garden on the right. People swipe and they want what's in the second photo.
  • Short smartphone video. 15 to 30 seconds. Walk through a completed job. No professional filming required — a steady hand and good lighting is enough. Show the finished tiling, the new decking, the neat electrical fit-out. Add a simple caption: "Just finished this bathroom reno in Berwick — 6-day turnaround."
  • Social proof ads. Take a real 5-star Google review and turn it into a graphic. "BrightClean Plumbing completely transformed our bathroom — the team was professional and finished on time. 5 stars — Sarah M., Cranbourne." That one image builds more trust than any headline you could write.

Your ad headline should be direct and local. Examples:

  • "Bathroom Renovations in Dandenong — Free Quote This Week"
  • "Landscaping in Frankston — Book Your Free Consultation"
  • "Local Electrician — South East Melbourne — Same Week Availability"

Keep body copy short. Two or three sentences max. The image does the heavy lifting.

Step 5: Set Your Budget and Run for 7 Days

Start at $20 to $40 per day. That's $140 to $280 for a one-week test — a reasonable amount to get real data without committing to a big spend.

Set the campaign as a daily budget, not a lifetime budget. Daily gives you more control to pause and adjust.

Critical rule: do not touch the campaign for 7 days.

Meta's algorithm needs time to learn who responds to your ad. If you make changes on day two because you haven't had phone calls yet, you reset the learning phase and waste the spend you've already committed. Let it run. Watch the numbers. Make decisions on day 7.

Step 6: Read Your Results

After 7 days, open Ads Manager and look at these numbers:

Click-through rate (CTR): This is the percentage of people who saw your ad and clicked it. For a tradie campaign, aim for 1% or above. Below 0.5% usually means the creative isn't connecting — try a different photo or headline.

Cost per click (CPC): What you're paying each time someone clicks your ad. For Australian local service ads, a reasonable benchmark is $1 to $3 per click. Much higher than that suggests your targeting is too broad or your creative isn't resonating.

Cost per lead: If you're running a Leads campaign, this is your most important number. A good result for a tradie campaign is $15 to $50 per lead depending on the trade and job value. A $35 lead for a bathroom renovation worth $8,000 is outstanding. A $35 lead for a $200 gutter clean is not.

If your numbers are outside these ranges after 7 days, the most likely culprits are creative (the photo or video isn't stopping the scroll), audience (too broad, wrong location radius), or landing page (people are clicking but not enquiring).

The Most Common Tradie Facebook Ads Mistake

Targeting the whole city.

It sounds counterintuitive — more reach should mean more jobs, right? But "all of Melbourne" means 5 million people, most of whom don't own a home, aren't in your service area, or are nowhere near ready to hire a tradie. You end up spreading a small budget so thin that no one sees your ad more than once, the algorithm never learns who responds, and you get zero results.

A tight 30km radius around your service area — shown repeatedly to the same pool of homeowners — will outperform a city-wide campaign every single time. Local repetition builds recognition. Recognition builds trust. Trust generates calls.

Before You Run Ads, Check Your Website

Running Facebook ads to a weak website is like putting a sign out the front of a shop with no stock inside. The ad gets people to the door. The website has to close the sale.

Before you spend money on ads, make sure your site has:

  • A clear service description and service area
  • Your phone number visible at the top of every page (and clickable on mobile)
  • A simple enquiry form that actually works
  • Real photos of your work
  • At least a few testimonials or Google review quotes

If your site isn't converting, no amount of ad spend will fix it. We've seen tradies get great click-through rates with zero enquiries because the landing page had no form, no phone number above the fold, and a generic stock photo as the hero image.

If you're not sure whether your site is ready, read our guide to web design for Australian tradies, or get in touch with our team — we can take a look at no charge.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do Facebook ads cost for tradies in Australia?

A sensible starting budget is $20 to $40 per day. Run for at least 7 days before drawing any conclusions. That's a $140 to $280 test — enough to get real data. Many tradies scale to $50 to $100/day once they find a campaign that's producing leads at a cost that makes sense for their job values.

Do I need a big following on Facebook before I can run ads?

No. Ads run from your business page but they're shown to people who don't follow you. Your page needs to look legitimate — a profile photo, a cover image, some posts — but follower count has no bearing on your ad performance.

Can I run Facebook ads myself, or do I need an agency?

You can absolutely run them yourself using this guide as a starting point. The main risk is wasting budget while you learn — which is why starting small and letting campaigns run for a full 7 days matters. If you'd prefer someone to handle it, our social media marketing service covers Meta ad management for trade businesses.

Should I run ads on Facebook, Instagram, or both?

Both. When you create a campaign in Meta Ads Manager, it defaults to running across both Facebook and Instagram. Leave that setting as-is. Meta will allocate your budget to whichever placement is performing better. You don't need to manage them separately.

Ready to Get Started?

Facebook ads can fill your calendar during slow periods, build your name in the suburbs you service, and generate a steady stream of enquiries — but only if the fundamentals are right.

Get your targeting tight. Use real photos of real work. Start small, read your numbers, and scale what works.

And make sure your website is ready to convert the traffic before you spend a dollar on ads. If it isn't, our web design team can help — we build websites specifically for trade businesses that are designed to turn visitors into enquiries.

Talk to us about your website or ads strategy — no obligation, no sales pitch.