The first 90 days of marketing for a Mississauga trade

Before day 1: the numbers you need

You need four figures. Estimates are fine; precision comes later.

1. Average job value. Total invoices over the last six months divided by the number of jobs.
2. Gross margin. What is left after labour and materials, as a percentage.
3. Close rate. Out of every ten enquiries, how many become paid jobs?
4. Spare capacity. How many more jobs a month your crews can take without overtime or hiring.

Worked example

A Mississauga HVAC and plumbing firm based near Erin Mills:

If the owner is willing to spend up to about a third of lead value on getting the lead, the target cost per lead is about $57. To fill 25 more jobs at a 40% close rate, the firm needs about 63 more leads a month. At $57 each, that is roughly $3,600 a month in total marketing cost, fee and ad spend combined.

That figure is the ceiling for the whole plan. Write it down.

Days 1–14: fix the leaks

Spending on ads before fixing the basics pays for visitors who can't or won't call. Two weeks of fixes usually helps every channel.

Business Profile:

• correct categories, services, hours and holiday hours
• a realistic service area (see our service area planning guide)
• recent photos of your team, vehicles and real jobs
• remove the address if customers don't visit you there

Website:

• phone number at the top of every page, tappable on mobile
• one clear page per main service
• loading in a few seconds on a phone
• hours and a reply promise your team can keep

Phone handling:

• who answers during the day, and what happens after hours?
• does voicemail say when you will call back?
• is someone checking texts?

Tracking:

• call and text tracking on the website and profile
• a simple spreadsheet or job-software field to mark which leads became jobs

Google says local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence. Fixing your profile improves relevance immediately; reviews and local mentions build prominence over the next months.

Days 15–45: a small, capped ad test

Now run a controlled paid test. The aim isn't volume yet; it is learning what demand and lead costs look like in your area.

Set-up:

1. Pick your two or three highest-value services.
2. Target your core wards only, using location targeting, and exclude your no-go zones.
3. Write ads that name the service and the area, and send each to the matching service page.
4. Add negative keywords from day one: jobs, careers, training, DIY, free and parts.
5. Set a daily budget that keeps the month within your ceiling.

What to watch weekly:

• search terms actually triggering your ads (cut the irrelevant ones)
• calls and texts from ads, and how many were real customers
• cost per lead against your target

Expect the first two weeks to be noisy. Don't judge the channel on five calls.

Days 15–90: start the slow work in parallel

While ads run, begin the work that lowers cost per lead later:

• Reviews: after every completed job, send a polite review request by text or email. A steady trickle beats a burst.
• Service pages: improve your top three, adding photos and details from local jobs.
• Local content: one useful article a month answering a real customer question, such as what a furnace replacement involves in an older Mississauga house.

This is where local SEO does its work. It won't show much by day 90, but it sets up the next six months.

Day 30 checkpoint

Ask four questions:

1. Is tracking working, and do we trust the numbers?
2. Are leads coming from the wards we targeted?
3. Is cost per lead within about 50% of target? (Early numbers often run high.)
4. Are leads booking at roughly our usual close rate?

If tracking is broken, fix that before anything else. If leads come in but don't book, look at phone handling and quoting speed.

Day 60 checkpoint

By now you should have enough data to make decisions.

• Shift budget toward services and wards with the lowest cost per booked job.
• Cut keywords and areas producing leads that don't book.
• Consider Local Services Ads if your trade qualifies and search ads are working.
• Review your reach area. Are jobs there worth the drive?

Day 90 checkpoint: scale, hold or stop

Compare results against the ceiling you wrote down.

Common mistakes in the first 90 days

• Spending before measuring. Without tracking, you will never know what worked.
• Judging too early. A slow first fortnight doesn't mean a channel has failed.
• Chasing the whole city. Keep the test tight to your core wards.
• Ignoring the phone. The cheapest lead is one you already paid for and then answered.
• Changing everything at once. If you change ads, pages and targeting in one week, you can't tell which change mattered.

After day 90

By now you know your real cost per lead, which services and wards pay, and whether your team can handle more. That is a strong base for a twelve-month plan. Our Google Ads service and pricing page show how we run this with clients, and you can contact us to talk through your own day-90 numbers.