Most trades ad campaigns fail in the follow-up, not the ad
Ask ten tradespeople who tried Facebook ads and stopped, and eight will say the leads were rubbish. Look at their accounts and a different story appears. The leads were fine. They were rung back the next afternoon, or not at all. The ad did its job. Nobody did the rest.
The campaign that 'didn't work'
Picture a typical case, with made-up but realistic numbers. A plasterer spends £700 over six weeks. He gets 31 instant form leads at around £23 each, which for plastering in a provincial town is decent. He wins one job. He cancels and tells his mates Facebook was a waste of money.
Here is what a lead sheet like his tends to show. Average time to first call: 19 hours. Eleven leads never called at all because he was 'too busy that week'. Of the 20 he did ring, 14 went to voicemail and were never tried again. He spoke to six people. He quoted four. He won one.
One in four quotes won is a fine close rate. One in 31 leads contacted properly is the problem. The ads had a 100% success rate at generating enquiries. The follow-up had a 20% success rate at generating conversations.
Why the ad gets the blame
Because the ad is the thing you paid for and the thing you can see. The follow-up is invisible and it is yours. Nobody likes to conclude that the problem was them.
Agencies are complicit. It is easier to say 'let's test new creative' than 'you did not ring 11 people'. So the campaign gets another round of ads, the follow-up stays broken, and the same result arrives with a new picture on it.
The cost per lead was never the issue. Cost per conversation was.
Facebook leads are different and nobody says so
A tradesperson's experience of enquiries comes from word of mouth and Google. Those people are looking for you. They have a problem today, they rang on purpose, they will wait a day for a call back because they already decided they want someone.
A Facebook lead was interrupted. They were not looking. An ad caught them, they tapped, the form was pre-filled, two seconds later they were looking at something else. Their intent is real but shallow, and it evaporates by the hour. Treat them like a Google lead and you lose most of them before you have found your phone.
This is not a flaw in Facebook. It is the price of reaching people before they are searching, which is the whole advantage. The trade-off is that speed becomes the product. Our guide on following up Facebook leads fast lays out the system; this piece is about why so few people build it.
The agencies that understand this sell something different
Look at how the better trades agencies describe their offer. Lead Wave, the Norfolk firm, puts an automatic text to every enquiry within seconds at the centre of its pitch. Rated Media sells booked appointments and post-estimate follow-up, not leads. We Build Trades talks about AI-powered lead follow-up as part of the system, not an extra.
None of them is primarily claiming to make better ads. They are claiming to close the gap between the lead arriving and a human conversation starting, because they have watched clients lose the gap for years. You can read how each describes it in our profiles of Lead Wave, Rated Media and We Build Trades.
An agency that only talks about creative and targeting, and never asks how fast you answer the phone, is selling you the easy half.
The follow-up is also where price is decided
Ring a lead in five minutes and you are the first voice. You set the frame. You are the professional who was on it. The homeowner has not yet spoken to three other firms, so your quote is not being judged against a cheaper one.
Ring the next day and you are one of several. You are now in a price comparison you did not need to be in. The same lead, the same job, and a lower margin, because of a 20-hour delay. Follow-up speed is not just a volume lever. It is a pricing lever.
The quote is the second place it dies
Even trades who answer fast often stop at the quote. The visit happens, the PDF goes out, and that is the end of the effort. Then the job goes to a competitor who sent one text saying 'did that come through alright?'
A quote is a lead that has cost you the ad, the call and an evening. Letting it go silent is the most expensive thing in the whole funnel, and it is almost never counted as a marketing failure because it happens so far from the ad.
If you only change one thing after reading this, chase your quotes.
What this is not saying
It is not saying creative does not matter. A poor ad produces poor leads and no follow-up system can fix that. Our guide to ad creative that works for trades exists for a reason.
It is not saying every failed campaign was the client's fault. Some agencies run shared campaigns, target 40-mile radii, or report reach instead of leads. Our guide on reading your Meta ads report like an agency would helps you tell the difference.
It is saying that when the leads arrived at a sensible cost and the jobs did not follow, look at the phone before you look at the ad.
Judge the campaign on the right number
Before you decide Facebook does not work for you, pull up the lead list and answer three questions. How many did you contact within an hour? How many did you speak to at all? How many quotes did you chase after sending?
If the answers are 'few', 'half' and 'none', you have not tested Facebook ads. You have tested whether leads convert themselves. They do not, for anyone, on any platform.
Fix the follow-up first. Then run the ads again. Most people are surprised.
Frequently asked questions
Why do Facebook leads seem lower quality than Google leads?
They are interrupted rather than searching, so their intent is real but fades fast. Contacted within minutes they convert well; contacted the next day they often do not remember enquiring.
How do I know if my follow-up is the problem rather than the ads?
Check median time to first contact, the share of leads you actually spoke to, and whether sent quotes were chased. If those are poor, the campaign has not been fairly tested.
Should an agency be responsible for follow-up?
Some build it in through automated texts, call handling or appointment setting. At minimum an agency should ask how fast you respond and show you contact rates alongside cost per lead.