Contractor marketing for trades and home services, built around the jobs you want
A contractor marketing agency for trades and home services. For 10 years, across 500+ clients, we've been learning what a homeowner types when the furnace dies at midnight, and what makes them pick up the phone for a $30,000 kitchen instead of just bookmarking the page. You see that research before you spend a dollar with us, then we aim it at filling your schedule with the jobs you actually want.
- Generated for clients
- $100M+
- Clients
- 500+
- In business
- 10 Years
- In-house team
- 30+
TQ Construction: 4.27x ROAS
Turn urgent searches into calls.
Get found when homeowners need you.
Here’s the short version → Setsail Marketing is a digital marketing agency based in Vancouver, BC, that runs SEO, paid ads, websites and email for trades and home-services businesses across Canada and the US.
- For:
- Electricians · plumbers · HVAC companies · roofers · landscapers · renovation contractors
- How we work:
- Before any campaign starts, Setsail models how that contractor’s own customer searches, compares and decides · research shown to the business owner before any delivery work begins
- Engagement:
- Scope, timeline and price agreed in a 90-day plan · month-to-month
- Evidence:
- Research across 500+ clients over 10 years
- Where:
- 100% in-house from its base in Vancouver, BC · trades businesses across Canada and the US
- Proof:
- B Corp certified · Google Partner
Trades that brought us in, and the calls that followed.
TQ Construction: 4.27x ROAS
A Burnaby design-build general contractor running paid search with us. Their Google Ads returned 4.27x on ad spend, turning $6,700 in spend into $28,500 in tracked leads. We also rebuilt their site and ran SEO alongside it.
Ray Blinds: 5 to 32 ranking keywords in 2 months
A Vancouver blinds and window-coverings retailer running integrated SEO and PPC with us. We found more than 8,000 broken pages holding their site back, cleaned them up, and their ranking keywords went from 5 to 32 in two months, with 3 in the top 10.
Microworks Handyman: 100%+ organic traffic growth
A Metro Vancouver handyman company running local SEO and Google Ads with us. Their organic search traffic more than doubled year over year within three months of the SEO programme starting, and a separate Google Ads campaign brought in 154 leads at $21 each in the first 75 days.
We know how your homeowner picks a trade, before we spend a dollar of your money.
Most agencies start with your business. We start with the person calling you, because that's the part that decides whether any of this actually works.
The 2am call and the six‑month planner aren't the same customer
One customer is in trouble right now: no heat, a leaking pipe, water coming through the ceiling. They're searching one-handed on a phone and they'll call the first name that looks legitimate and local. The other is planning a roof, a panel upgrade or a kitchen, weeks or months out, and they'll read everything before they call anyone. The same ad, the same page and the same phone script can't win both, and most trades marketing quietly chases whichever one is easier to measure.
Reviews from last month beat reviews from three years ago
On the emergency side, nobody compares on price. They compare on who answers the phone and who can show up today, and the shortlist is set before anyone quotes. On planned work, they compare on proof you finish: how recent your reviews are rather than how many you have, photos of work that looks like their house rather than a showroom, and whether your quote showed up on time. A late quote loses more planned jobs than a high one ever does.
Fast on emergencies, slow on everything else, and rarely just one yes
Emergencies close in minutes. Planned work closes slowly, and there's almost always a second person in the room: a partner at the kitchen table, a property manager reporting to an owner, a general contractor protecting their own schedule. What closes it is something the first person can forward without having to defend it, a clear scope, a real timeline and proof you've done this exact job before, the same test they're applying to us right now.
This is modelled from doing exactly this research for 10 years, across 500+ clients, and it's the part of what we do that a competitor can't copy in an afternoon.
What we run for trades and home‑service businesses
Pick one to start, or run the full stack. Either way it's built around your market, not a template.
10 Years in Business$100M+ revenue generated500+ clients
B Corp Certified
Google Partner
- Channel Partner
- Claude Partner
Book a Growth Strategy call
30 minutes, free.
Start with a call. We’ll dig into your trade business, your service area, and what’s holding your numbers back, and you’ll leave knowing exactly what to fix first. If it makes sense to go further, our strategists then build your full Growth Strategy and present it with the complete plan.
10 years · $100M+ revenue generated · 500+ clients
Before the call, we run a 200+ point audit of your full online presence, so we arrive already knowing your starting point. On the call, we’ll walk you through:
- What we found and what it means for your trade business
- Where other trades in your area are outperforming you
- Your top priorities — what to fix first
Bring your goals and challenges. We’ll bring the data.
Not ready for a call?Get a free digital audit covering your website, search visibility, competitor ad activity and conversion setup.We do not share or sell your information. Your details are used to build your audit and share it with you.
Setsail is a digital marketing agency in Vancouver, British Columbia, with a 30+ person in-house team running paid ads, SEO, websites, email and social for owner-led businesses across Canada and the US.
Trusted by governments and 500+ businesses
10 years · $100M+ revenue generated · 500+ clients
In their words · Reviews ★★★★★
Trusted by governments and 500+ businesses in North America and worldwide
From political campaigns to nationwide rebrands and massive product launches: an in-house team that moves fast and delivers, across North America and worldwide.
“If I have a client who needs something up in three weeks, you guys will just do it… I never hear no, or ‘it can’t be done’.”
Theodora Jean
Founder & CEO, Coldwater Communications
“Everything that Setsail has designed for us, we try to incorporate that now in all of our presentations, including investor materials.”
Dorthy Cheng
Executive Assistant, CleanDesign
“You made yourselves part of Charlo. You made yourselves part of my story.”
Lia Psomiadis
Founder, Charlo
“We changed our direction of our business and Setsail has been matching that pace each and every time that we made that adjustment.”
Blake Voyer
Microworks Handyman
“I’ll immediately hear from somebody… It’s just handled. It’s just white glove considerate handled without a white glove price tag.”
Melanie Clarance
Co-Founder, AetherEV
“Creating a real strategy with KPIs that aren’t out of touch… this isn’t a pie in the sky story, this is an actionable work plan.”
Lucas Ens
Economic Development Officer, City of Prince George
“We’ve been working with Setsail for 7 years for all our marketing materials, website design, product design, videos, photos. They’ve been great. Responsive, responsible, great materials.”
Larry Knurik
VP Logistics, GVA Brands
“It’s been really easy, smooth, and it’s been a great time, and I’d recommend it to anyone.”
Antonio Zivanovic
Founder, ElektraFi
“Tom and Jason are a thrill to work with… The direction and strategy that they bring to the table is top notch.”
Gordon Lai
Surface 604
“If you’re looking for a marketing team that really gets it and delivers outstanding results, Setsail Marketing is the way to go.”
Sam Atakhanov
Founder, DŌST Bikes
One person can't run your ads, your site, your local rankings and the calls coming in from all three. So you get a specialist for each part.
Here's who's actually on your account, not just pitching you at the start.
Account Strategist
Owns your plan, models your local market and reports back on what's actually working, in dollars and jobs.
Paid Search Specialist
Runs your Google Ads and Local Service Ads, watches cost per lead daily, and cuts what isn't working fast.
SEO & Local Specialist
Builds your rankings for the searches your area actually uses and keeps your Google Business Profile current.
Web Developer
Builds and maintains a site made to convert a call, not just look good on a laptop.
All 100% in-house at Setsail.
Communication and reporting that make marketing the easiest thing on your desk.
From “is this even working?” to watching it work: live portal, monthly report, scheduled calls, or a quick message when something’s on your mind. However you like to work, we’ll match it. Inside the portal: your live dashboard and anything that needs your approval.
01
Day one: you know where you stand
We record your starting numbers before we touch anything, so every win after that is one you can see.
02
Every week: you see it moving
Progress shows up in your portal as it happens, so you never wait for a report to know.
03
Every month: you know what your money bought
What we expected next to what happened, in a report you can read in five minutes.
04
Every cycle: steered
Every 90 days the plan re-forms around what’s working, so your budget keeps flowing to the work that pays.
Plans designed to reach your goals, at a pace that matches your ambition
Flat monthly plans for every part of this, from a single PPC campaign to the whole stack. See what's included on the pricing page.
Every plan starts the same way: a Growth Strategy call. 30 minutes, free. You’ll know whether we’re a fit and what we’d look at first.
Trades marketing is a hundred small jobs. Here's every one we do.
Paid ads & lead gen
- Google Ads search campaigns
- Local Service Ads setup and management
- Call tracking on every ad
- Landing pages built to convert a call
- Budget pacing and bid management
- Negative keyword and fraud-click cleanup
SEO & local search
- Google Business Profile optimization
- Local citation building and cleanup
- On-site SEO for your service areas
- Content for every service you offer
- Review generation and response support
- Visibility when someone asks an AI assistant who to call
Website
- Mobile-first design built to convert a call
- Site speed and hosting
- Photos and video of real work, not stock
- Reviews and past-work sections up front
- Ongoing care and updates
Tracking & reporting
- Call tracking numbers by source
- Lead and job attribution by channel
- Monthly reporting in plain numbers
- Live dashboard access
Social & reputation
- Local social content
- Review monitoring and response
- Before-and-after project posts
What’s included depends on the plan you pick.
If you catch yourself nodding at one of these, book the call
The Microworks handyman website we built, on a MacBook Pro on a wooden tableMicroworks- ✓ Your phone rings, but you can't tell which ad or which channel actually brought the job.
- ✓ You're the best in your trade, but the competitor with worse work ranks above you.
- ✓ Referrals are steady, but you want to choose the jobs instead of taking whatever calls in.
- ✓ You've been burned by an agency that took your budget and handed you a report full of jargon.
- ✓ You're running the same ad and the same page for emergency calls and planned jobs, and neither one is winning.
- ✓ You want to grow past word of mouth without losing the reputation that built you.
If you caught yourself nodding at two or three of these, book the call.
Contractor marketing agency, trades lead generation & home services growth FAQs
Setsail Marketing
Vancouver, BC + Beaverton, OR
- Clients across Canada and the US
- 500+
- Revenue generated for clients
- $100M+
