Solved: How to Get Customers for Furniture Cleaning Business?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I had a look at the problem you're having with your Facebook ads. It's a really common situation to be in, so don't feel like you've done something terribly wrong. Getting loads of likes and followers but no actual business is one of the most frequent complaints I hear from new business owners trying to run their own ads. It feels like you're doing all the right things, but the phone just isn't ringing.

The good news is that this is almost always fixable. The problem isn't your business or your service; it's almost certainly down to the strategy you're using on the ad platform itself. You're likely telling Facebook to do the wrong job for you, and because it's a very literal system, it's doing exactly what you've asked it to do - just not what you actually *need* it to do.

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what you've said. We'll walk through why what you're doing isn't working, what you should be doing instead, and why you might even be fishing in the completely wrong pond to begin with. By the end of this, you should have a much clearer picture of how to get actual, paying customers from your advertising budget.

We'll need to look at how you're paying Facebook to find non-customers...

This might sound a bit harsh, but it's the absolute truth of the matter. Right now, you are activly paying Facebook to find people who will never, ever message you for a quote. I want you to really let that sink in. Every pound you're spending is going towards building a list of people who are, by their very nature, not your customers.

Here's why. When you set up a campaign on Facebook, you have to choose an 'objective'. You might have chosen 'Engagement' or 'Page Likes' or 'Reach'. When you do this, you are giving the algorithm a very specific, very clear instruction. You're saying, "Hey Facebook, please take my money and go find me the people inside my targeting who are most likely to click the 'like' button on a post or a page."

And the algorithm, which is an incredibly powerful but very literal machine, does exactly what you've asked. It sifts through millions of users and identifies the ones who have a long history of liking posts, following pages, and leaving comments. These are the 'engagers'. They are the lifeblood of the platform from a social perspective. But from a business perspective? They are often the worst possible people to show your ads to.

Why? Because their attention is cheap. Think about it. Advertisers who want to make sales – the ones selling cars, software, holidays, clothes – are all competing for the attention of people who have a history of *buying* things online. Those users are in high demand, so showing your ad to them is expensive. The 'engagers', on the other hand, are not in high demand for sales-focused advertisers. They click 'like', but they rarely click 'buy now'. So, their attention is cheap. Facebook can deliver on your 'Engagement' objective for a very low cost by showing your ads to this group. You see a low cost per like and think "Great, this is working!", but what you've really done is paid the worlds most powerful advertising machine to find you the least commercially-valuable audience possible.

Awareness and likes are a byproduct of a succesful business, not a prerequisite for making a sale. You don't need thousands of followers to have a profitable furniture cleaning business; you need a handful of actual customers each week. The best form of brand awareness for a business like yours is a neighbour seeing your van outside a house on their street, or someone seeing a rave review from a friend online. That only happens through getting real work, which comes from conversion-focused advertising, not engagement-focused advertising.

I'd say you're probably on the wrong platform anyway...

Okay, so let's say you fix the objective issue. You switch from an 'Engagement' campaign to a 'Leads' campaign on Facebook. That's a massive step in the right direction. Now, you're telling Facebook to find people likely to fill out a form or send a message. But you're still likely to face a massive uphill battle, and the reason is fundamental to how people use different online platforms.

Think about Facebook and Instagram. You're scrolling through your feed, looking at photos of your friends' kids, watching funny videos, catching up on news. You are in a passive, entertainment-seeking mindset. You are not thinking about the coffee stain on your sofa. Then, an ad for a furniture cleaning service appears. What are the chances that your ad has appeared at the *exact moment* that person has a need for your service? It's incredibly small. It's like a salesperson knocking on your door at random to sell you a new boiler. 999 times out of 1,000, you don't need one right now.

This is called interruption marketing. You are interrupting someone's leisure time to try and sell them something. It can work for certain products – especially impulse buys, fashion, gadgets, things people didn't know they wanted until they saw them. But for a problem-solving service like yours? It's really, really difficult and inefficient.

Now, think about Google. No one goes to Google for a casual scroll. You go to Google with a specific question or a problem that needs solving. You type in "emergency sofa cleaning [your town]" or "how to get red wine out of a rug" or "upholstery cleaning services near me". This is not interruption. This is *intent*. The person is activly, right at this very second, looking for the exact solution you provide. They have their hand up in the air, shouting "I need a furniture cleaner!".

For a service business, especially a local one, your primary battleground for new customers should almost always be on intent-based platforms like Google, not interruption-based platforms like Facebook. You want to be the first answer they find when they have the problem. We run campaigns for all sorts of service businesses, from a local HVAC company to childcare services. While social media can play a role, the vast majority of their high-quality, ready-to-buy leads come from Google Search. It's simply a case of fishing where the fish are biting.

You probably should focus on Google Ads...

Shifting your focus and budget from Facebook to Google Ads will likely transform your results. Instead of trying to convince passive scrollers they need you, you'll be putting your business directly in front of active searchers who already know they need you.

Here's a breakdown of how you'd approach it:

1. Keywords are Everything
This is the foundation of your Google Ads strategy. You need to bid on the phrases (keywords) that your ideal customer types into the search bar. You want to capture high-intent searches. Don't waste money on broad stuff like "cleaning". You want to be specific. Think about the mindset of someone in a panic or someone ready to hire.

Your keyword list should include things like:

• -> "furniture cleaning [your city/town]"
• -> "upholstery cleaner near me"
• -> "sofa cleaning service"
• -> "emergency stain removal [your city/town]"
• -> "professional armchair cleaning"
• -> "rug cleaning services"

2. A Message They Can't Ignore (Ad Copy)
Once you've got your keywords, you need to write a compelling ad. Your ad is a tiny billboard on the search results page. It needs to grab attention and convince the searcher to click on *your* link, not a competitor's. A great framework for this is Problem-Agitate-Solve.

Headline 1: Address the Problem -> Professional Upholstery Cleaning
Headline 2: Agitate / Add Urgency -> Stains & Odours Removed Fast
Headline 3: Provide Your Brand -> [Your Business Name]
Description: Solve the problem and give a call to action -> "Spilled wine on your favourite sofa? Don't let it set! We bring your furniture back to life. 5-star rated & fully insured. Call now for a free, no-obligation quote!"

This copy works because it connects directly with their need, reassures them with social proof (5-star rated), reduces risk (fully insured), and gives them a clear, low-friction next step (free quote).

3. Make it Easy to Contact You (Ad Extensions)
Google lets you add extra bits of information to your ads, called extensions. These are vital for a service business.

• -> Call Extension: This puts your phone number directly in the ad. On a mobile phone, a user can just tap it to call you. This is the lowest-friction way to get a lead. You can even schedule it so it only shows when you know you can answer the phone.
• -> Location Extension: This shows your business address (if you have one) and puts you on the map, which builds local trust.
• -> Sitelink Extensions: These are extra links to specific pages on your website, like "Sofa Cleaning", "Rug Cleaning", "See Our Prices".
• -> Callout Extensions: Short snippets to highlight key selling points like "Fully Insured", "Fast & Friendly Service", "Free Quotes".

4. Google Local Service Ads (The 'Google Guaranteed' Badge)
This is another type of ad you should seriously investigate. These appear right at the very top of the search results, even above the normal ads. To be eligible, you have to go through a verification process with Google, including background checks. If you pass, you get a "Google Guaranteed" badge next to your listing. This is a huge trust signal for customers. The best part is you typically pay *per lead* (a phone call or message), not per click. It can be more cost-effective and the leads are often very high quality because the customer trusts the Google guarantee.

We'll need to look at your budget and what to expect...

So, how much does all this cost? This is the 'how long is a piece of string' question, but we can give you some realistic ballpark figures based on our experience.

The cost per click (CPC), and therefore the cost per lead (CPL), will vary massively based on your location and how many other cleaning businesses are advertising in your area. A quiet town in the countryside will be cheaper than central London.

For context, as I mentioned earlier, we are currently running a campaign for an HVAC company in a competitive city, and they are seeing costs around $60 per lead. I also remember working on ads for childcare services where the CPL was closer to $10 per signup. And one of our best-performing consumer services campaigns was for a home cleaning company which got a cost of £5/lead in the UK. For furniture cleaning, you're likely to be somewhere in the middle. I'd probably budget for something in the £20-£40 per lead range to be safe when you start out. It could be less, it could be more, but that's a realistic starting point.

The important thing isn't just the cost per lead, it's the return on that cost. Let's do some simple maths.

-> Let's assume your average cost per lead from Google Ads is £30.
-> Let's say your average job value (the revenue from one cleaning job) is £180.
-> Let's assume you're decent on the phone and you can convert 1 in every 3 leads into a paying customer.

To get one customer, you need 3 leads. The cost to acquire that one customer is 3 x £30 = £90 (Your Customer Acquisition Cost, or CAC).
The revenue from that customer is £180.
Your return on ad spend (ROAS) is £180 revenue / £90 ad cost = 2x or 200%.
For every £1 you spend on ads, you're getting £2 back in revenue. That's a profitable machine. You can then decide to put more money in to get more customers out.

As for a starting budget, I usually recommend a new service business starts with at least £500-£1000 per month in ad spend. This gives you enough data to see what's working. If your CPL is £30, a £600 budget aims to bring you 20 leads per month. If you close 1 in 3, that's roughly 6-7 new jobs a month directly from your ads. You can scale up or down from there once you know your numbers.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Here is a summary of the strategic shift I believe you need to make. This table contrasts your current approach with the recommended one, which is designed to generate actual business, not just vanity metrics.

You'll need to consider getting some expert help...

I know this is a lot of information to take in. The principles I've laid out are the difference between an ad budget that disappears into thin air and one that becomes a reliable, scalable engine for business growth. While the concepts are straightforward, the technical execution can be tricky. Setting up conversion tracking correctly, doing in-depth keyword research, writing ad copy that converts, managing bids, and optimising the campaigns on an ongoing basis all require expertise and time.

It's very easy to make a small mistake in the setup of a Google Ads campaign and waste hundreds or even thousands of pounds before you realise something is wrong. That's often where bringing in a specialist can pay for itself very quickly – by avoiding those costly errors and getting you to profitability much faster.

You've got a great business that solves a real problem for people. Now you just need to get in front of the right people, on the right platform, at the right time. If you'd like to chat through this in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation strategy session where we can have a look at your specific situation and map out a clear plan of action for you. It might be helpful to have an expert pair of eyes on it before you start investing your hard-earned money into a new platform.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh