Solved: Improving Facebook Ads for Home Improvement Leads

Hi there,

Thanks for your enquiry. It's refreshing to see someone who's already past the basics and is thinking about the right things – lead quality, KPI optimisation, and training the algorithm. Most people are still stuck on just getting clicks.

You're basically looking for a partner, not just a freelancer to push some buttons, and you've hit on the exact reason why most home improvement ad campaigns eventually fail. They get stuck chasing cheap, low-quality leads and never build a predictable system for attracting high-value clients.

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts on how I'd approach this. It's a bit different from what most 'experts' will tell you, because frankly, the problem usually isn't the ad account itself. It's the entire strategy from the first ad impression to the final handshake.

You're asking for a better mechanic, but you need a new engine

I want to start with a bit of a contrarian point, but it's probably the most important one. You've said your ad copy and creative are "pretty succesful" and you're looking for someone to handle KPI optimisation and automation. In my experience, when a business is struggling with lead quality, the ads themselves are rarely the root cause. It’s a symptom of a deeper issue. Focusing on optimising CPL for a broken funnel is like trying to set a new land speed record in a car with flat tyres. You can tune the engine all you want, but you won't get far.

The core problem for 99% of service businesses running ads is a fundamental mismatch between their offer, their message, and the audience they're trying to attract. You're getting low-quality leads because your entire system is designed to attract them.

Let's forget demographics for a second. "Homeowners aged 35-65 in this postcode" tells you nothing useful. You need to get obsessed with their nightmare. A homeowner doesn't wake up one day thinking, "I fancy spending £30,000 on a new kitchen." They wake up frustrated, stressed, or embarrassed. Their nightmare is:

• -> The shame of hosting a dinner party in a kitchen that looks like it's from the 1980s.
• -> The daily frustration of a cramped, poorly designed bathroom where the whole family has to fight for space every morning.
• -> The anxiety that their "biggest asset" is losing value because the backyard is a wasteland and the neighbours' houses all look immaculate.
• -> The stress of a growing family and a home that no longer fits their lifestyle, leading to constant arguments and a feeling of being trapped.

This is the emotional state you need to target. Your ideal customer isn't a demographic; it's a person living in one of these nightmare scenarios who is actively, or subconsciously, looking for a way out. When you understand this, your entire approach to advertising changes. You stop selling "kitchen remodeling" and start selling "a home you're proud to show off". You stop selling "bathroom renovations" and start selling "a peaceful, spa-like escape to start your day". This is the first, and most critical, step to improving lead quality.

I'd say you need to stop obsessing over CPL and start thinking about LTV

You mentioned wanting to optimise for CPL, Conversion Rate, and ROAS. That's good, but for a high-ticket service business, CPL (Cost Per Lead) can be a dangerously misleading metric. You could get your CPL down to £5, but if none of those leads ever turn into a paying customer, your CPL is effectively infinite. The real question isn't "How low can my CPL go?" but "How high a CPL can I afford to pay to acquire a dream client?"

To answer that, you need to understand two numbers: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). For a remodeling business, 'lifetime' might just mean the value of one big project, but the principle is the same.

Let's do some back-of-the-napkin maths. You'll know your own numbers better, but we can use some industry averages to illustrate the point.

• Average Project Value (APV): What's the average revenue from a single project? Let's say a standard kitchen remodel is £25,000.
• Gross Margin %: After materials, labour, and all direct costs, what percentage is left as gross profit? Let's assume a healthy 30%.
• Lead-to-Close Rate: Of the qualified leads you speak to, how many become paying customers? This is a crucial number. Let's say you're good and you close 1 in 5, or 20%.

Now, we can work backwards to figure out what a good lead is actually worth to you.

Gross Profit per Project = APV * Gross Margin %
£25,000 * 0.30 = £7,500

This £7,500 is the total amount of gross profit you make from one client. Now, you need to decide how much of that profit you're willing to reinvest into acquiring the *next* client. A healthy business model often aims for a 3:1 ratio of LTV to CAC. This means for every £3 of value a customer brings, you're willing to spend £1 to get them. This gives you a solid profit margin while allowing for aggressive growth.

Maximum Affordable Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) = Gross Profit per Project / 3
£7,500 / 3 = £2,500

So, you can afford to spend up to £2,500 to land one new £25,000 project and still maintain a very healthy 3:1 return. Now, let's connect this back to your ad spend.

Maximum Affordable Cost Per Qualified Lead (CPL) = Max CAC * Lead-to-Close Rate
£2,500 * 0.20 = £500

Think about that for a second. Based on these numbers, you could afford to pay up to £500 for a single, genuinely qualified lead who has a real project and is ready to talk. Suddenly, that £60 lead from Facebook that you thought was expensive might look like an absolute bargain, doesn't it? I remember one campaign we ran for an HVAC company in a competitive area where they were seeing costs of around $60 per lead. For a high-ticket service like theirs—and yours—what matters is the final value of the closed job. They understood that paying a bit more for a lead that turns into a multi-thousand-dollar project is a fantastic investment. They weren't worried about the CPL; they were focused on the final return.

You probably should kill the 'Request a Free Quote' button immediately

Now we get to the biggest lever for improving lead quality: your offer. The "Request a Demo" or "Get a Free Quote" button is the most common failure point in service business advertising. It is high-friction and low-value. You're asking a potential client, who doesn't know or trust you yet, to commit their time to a sales conversation. What does that attract? People who are just shopping around for the lowest price.

Your offer's only job is to provide a moment of undeniable value. It must solve a small, real problem for them for free, earning you the right to solve their bigger problem for a price. You need to replace "Get a Quote" with something that a serious homeowner would find genuinely helpful.

Here are some examples of high-value, low-friction offers for a remodeling business:

• The 'Kitchen Remodel Sanity Check' Guide: A downloadable PDF covering the "10 Costly Mistakes Homeowners Make When Remodeling Their Kitchen (And How to Avoid Them)". This positions you as an expert guide, not just a contractor. Anyone who downloads this is clearly in the planning stages and is a much better prospect.
• The 15-Minute Virtual Design Consultation: Offer a free, no-obligation video call where you give them 2-3 initial ideas for their space based on photos they send you. This provides immediate value and builds rapport far more effectively than a sales pitch.
• The Interactive Budget Calculator: A tool on your landing page that gives a realistic ballpark estimate for a project based on a few inputs (size, material quality, etc.). This filters out people with unrealistic budgets before they ever fill out a form. We're not talking a simple form here, but a proper tool that gives them a detailed breakdown.

These offers do two things brilliantly. First, they self-select for quality. A tyre-kicker won't bother reading a 10-page guide, but a serious buyer will devour it. Second, they change the dynamic of the first conversation. Instead of you trying to sell them, they're coming to you with questions based on the value you've already provided. The sale becomes a natural next step, not a battle.

This is how you 'train the algorithm'. When you change your conversion event from a generic "Lead" (from a 'Free Quote' form) to a more qualified event like "Guide Downloaded" or "Consultation Booked", you give Facebook much better signals. The algorithm stops looking for people who like filling out forms and starts looking for people who exhibit the behaviours of someone actually planning a home renovation. This is a far more powerful way to optimise than just tweaking bids and budgets.

You'll need a message they can't ignore

Once you have a high-value offer, you need to drive the right people to it with ad copy that speaks directly to their nightmare scenario. This is where the Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS) framework is so effective.

Generic, Low-Quality Ad Copy:
"Kitchen Remodeling in London. Experienced team, quality materials. Call today for a FREE, no-obligation quote!"
(This speaks to no one and sounds like every other ad out there.)

Problem-Agitate-Solve Ad Copy:
Problem: "Is your outdated kitchen more of a source of stress than joy? Do you find yourself making excuses not to have people over because you're embarrassed by the space?"
Agitate: "Every day you put it off is another day of frustration, another missed opportunity to create memories in a home you truly love. You work too hard to not feel proud of your home."
Solve: "We help homeowners in London transform their frustrating kitchens into beautiful, functional spaces their families can enjoy for years. Download our free 'Kitchen Remodel Sanity Check' guide to start planning your project the right way."

See the difference? The second ad doesn't even mention a 'quote'. It connects on an emotional level, validates the homeowner's feelings, and then offers a helpful, low-risk next step. This is what attracts high-quality clients who value expertise over just a low price.

Finally, let's talk about building the machine

This brings us to your points about campaign structure and automation. With the right strategy in place (understanding the nightmare, calculating affordable CPL, creating a high-value offer, and writing PAS copy), the technical setup becomes much more effective.

Campaign Structure:

I would move away from standard Lead Generation campaigns using Facebook's lead forms if possible. While they can deliver a low CPL, the quality is notoriously poor because it's too easy for people to submit their info. Instead, I'd structure campaigns like this:

1. Top of Funnel (Prospecting): A Conversion campaign optimised for your new high-value offer (e.g., 'Guide Download'). The audience would be a mix of detailed targeting (interests like 'home renovation', 'Houzz', high-end furniture brands) and, once you have enough data, lookalike audiences based on your past best clients. You need to upload a customer list for this, the more data the better.
2. Middle of Funnel (Nurturing): A Retargeting campaign for people who downloaded the guide but haven't booked a consultation. This would show them video testimonials, case studies of past projects, and ads that directly invite them to the 15-minute design call. The goal here is to build trust and authority.
3. Bottom of Funnel (Closing): A Retargeting campaign for people who visited the consultation booking page but didn't complete it. This is a small, high-intent audience that just needs a final nudge.

This structure aligns with a real customer journey for a high-ticket purchase. Nobody decides on a £30k kitchen after seeing one ad. They need time, information, and trust. This campaign structure facilitates that process.

Smart Automation:

You're absolutely right that automation is vital. But its purpose shouldn't be to harass someone until they answer. The follow-up has to be congruent with the value-first approach.

Using a tool like GoHighLevel or ActiveCampaign connected via Zapier, here’s how a smart follow-up could look:

• Immediate (0-5 mins): An email and a text message are sent.
  • Email: Delivers the promised guide. "Hi [Name], here's the Kitchen Remodel Sanity Check guide you requested. I hope you find it helpful! My colleague [Name] will give you a quick, friendly call in the next day or so just to make sure you got it and to answer any initial questions. No sales pitch, I promise."
  • Text: "Hi [Name], just sent over the kitchen planning guide to your email. Let us know if you don't see it! - Team @ [Your Company]"
• Day 3: Automated email with a relevant case study. "Thought you might find this interesting... here's how we transformed a kitchen similar to yours in the [Neighbourhood] area. [Link to case study/video]."
• Day 7: Automated email with a helpful tip. "Quick Tip: When planning your budget, always set aside a 10% contingency for unexpected surprises. It's the #1 thing homeowners forget."
• Day 14: A different angle. "Still thinking about your project? Many of our clients find our free 15-minute design consultation is the best way to get clarity on what's possible. No obligation, just helpful advice. You can book a slot here."

This sequence nurtures leads, positions you as the helpful expert, and keeps you top-of-mind without being pushy. It respects the long consideration phase for these types of projects. It's about building a relationship, not just chasing a signature for an appoitment.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Shifting from a lead-chasing model to a client-attraction system is a significant piece of work, but it's the only way to achieve the kind of predictable growth you're looking for. Here is a summary of the approach I've outlined.

As you can see, this is a much deeper process than just 'running ads'. It requires a strategic partner who understands marketing psychology, business economics, and the tech stack needed to tie it all together. This is how you build a reliable system that generates not just leads, but high-value, profitable clients month after month.

If this approach resonates with you and you'd like to talk through how we could specifically implement this for your business, I'd be happy to schedule a free, 20-minute strategy session. We could review your current setup and map out a more detailed plan of action. There's absolutly no obligation, of course.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh