Most contractors we work with invest somewhere between $500 and $2,500 per month depending on how many services and cities they want to win. A one man renovation business targeting a single suburb needs far less than a general contractor chasing commercial work across the GTA. We are upfront about this: if your market is small enough that a basic setup will do the job, we will tell you rather than sell you a package you do not need.

For competitive terms, expect 3 to 9 months of consistent work. The map pack usually moves faster than organic results, and that is where most contractor calls come from anyway. We often see Google Business Profile improvements produce calls within the first several weeks. We shared some of our favourite tactics in our guide on getting into the Google map pack.

Yes, that is what service area pages are for. We build a dedicated, genuinely useful page for each city or region you cover, whether that is Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, or anywhere else in Canada. Thin duplicate city pages get filtered out by Google, so we write each one around the services, permits and housing stock that make that market different.

Referrals are the best leads you will ever get, but almost every referral still Googles you before calling. If they find an outdated website or a competitor with 200 reviews, some of those sure-thing leads quietly disappear. Homeowners research contractors the same way they compare contractor insurance providers: they read reviews and shortlist online. A solid website plus SEO makes sure the reputation you have earned actually shows up in search.

If you need jobs this month, start with Google Ads and layer SEO underneath it. We have managed campaigns for contractors and home trades across Toronto and the rest of Canada, so we know what a realistic cost per lead looks like in your trade and we filter out the spam and junk calls that inflate so many contractor accounts. We also have direct access to a Google team when something in an account needs a deeper diagnosis. Over time SEO takes over more of the load and your average cost per job drops.

It is changing SEO, not replacing it. AI assistants recommend contractors by pulling from the same signals search always used: clear service pages, consistent local listings and strong reviews. The work that ranks you in Google is the same work that gets you cited by AI tools. We now bake this into every campaign through our AI and LLM optimization services, so your company shows up whether a homeowner asks Google or ChatGPT.