Slippery Rock Gazette

Stephen Alberts

Countertop Marketing 

You’re a fabricator and you get most of your retail customers from word-of-mouth and referrals. That’s great! You can build an amazing business with that. But the issue is that you don’t have complete control over the influx of those jobs, and it’s not as easy to scale. 

A solution to that problem is online ads. You might have heard of PPC or pay per click. The two big platforms for the countertop industry are Google ads and Facebook ads. You can grow the retail side of your business with each platform, but you need to do it correctly or you will burn through money. 

In this article, I want to break down how much you should spend and what to expect. These numbers can differ according to the local market you are in, and also the competition in your area. But we work with so many fabricators that we have a good idea of general numbers we can share with you. 

Google Ads

A modest investment in online advertising will bring traffic to your website, and customers in your door.  Most clicks for the countertop industry cost around $5 per click (Google Ads).

Google ads show in a Google search page either at the top or in the maps section, when you type in search terms like “countertops near me,” “granite countertops,” or any countertop-related term. You pay Google each time someone clicks your ad. Each click will not result in a lead, it will simply direct the person on the Google search page over to your website. 

Cost per click: Most clicks for the countertop industry are around $5/click. Bigger cities will have a higher cost per click (CPC), but we usually don’t see it going over $7/click. 

Total to spend per month: Most of our clients spend around $1,000-1,500/per month on their Google ads. So if you spend 1K and clicks are $5 each, you can expect about 200 clicks to your website. Not too bad, in terms of traffic!

Cost per lead: 200 clicks sound good, but how many leads can you expect to get out of those? On average, we see a retail countertop lead costing around $40-125/lead. Our goal with our clients is to stay under $100 per lead. But of course, the lower the cost the better! 

Facebook & Instagram Ads

Facebook/Instagram ads are a different beast. When you run FB ads, you can show them on IG too, since they own that platform. People aren’t searching for countertops on FB or IG, they are most likely scrolling down the newsfeed on their phones. So your ad will interrupt them. But when done correctly, they do work well. You can run a video ad, a click-to website ad, or a lead ad. Each time someone interacts with your ad, you pay Facebook a fee.  

Cost per engagement: It’s tricky to answer this question because someone might just view an ad, or they might click it. Or they may fill out a FB lead form. If you are trying to get people over to your website through Facebook you can usually get clicks for around $2-5/click.

Total to spend per month: Our clients here spend around the same amount, $1,000-1,500/per month.

Cost per lead: Lead cost here is also different. You can usually get a lead for around $20-75/lead. We like to get our clients leads for under $50/lead. But again, Facebook is a different medium. People aren’t actively searching for countertops. So their projects might be further down the road, or they might contact you and forget they did! 

Some Helpful Tips

Google and Facebook will take your money all day long. So you need to be careful when running ads. Below are some tips to follow:

• Learn the platforms yourself or pay someone to do it for you. If you pay a company, make sure they can show you results.

• Start small but not too small! If you run ads for $200/ you probably won’t see a ton of results. I suggest at least $20/day which is around $600/month. But if you can, try to get to that 1K a month budget. The reason is that Google will stop showing your ads when your daily budget runs out. So if you run out at 12p.m., then someone at 2p.m. searching for countertops will not see your ad. And then on FB, they need to show your ad to a nice size audience of their users, so that their FB ad system learns how to get the best results they can. For $200/month, it’s just not enough exposure. 

• Track EVERYTHING! Track your results from day one so you can keep improving them.

• FOLLOW UP! People forget, so when they contact you for a quote, make sure you are using a system or manually following up with them. 

Paid ads can transform your countertop company and make it more predictable. But be patient and make sure you have the budget to test for 3-6 months. When done correctly, you will see the retail jobs roll in.

Stephen Alberts is the owner of the Countertop Marketing Co. They specialize in helping countertop companies grow the retail side of their business outside of word-of-mouth and referrals.
To learn more, book a free strategy call at ountertopmarketingco.com or email steve@countertopmarketingco.com.