Solved: Marketing new kitchen wrapping company

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out to us. I've had a look at your situation with the new kitchen wrapping business, and it's a great concept. A lot of people are looking for that 'brand new' feel without the massive cost and disruption of a full replacement, so you've definitely landed on a service with real demand. The problem, as you've found, is getting in front of those people effectively.

You've made a start with social media, which is what most people do, but frankly, it's probably not where your first customers are going to come from. It's a common misconception that you just need to be 'on social media' and the customers will appear. For a service like yours, it's a bit more nuanced than that.

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what we've seen work for other service-based businesses. The main thing we need to shift is your focus from just 'being seen' to being found at the exact moment a potential customer needs you. It's about targeting intent, not just awareness. It'll probably require a different way of thinking about your marketing than you have been so far.

We'll need to look at who your customer really is...

Right, first things first. Forget demographics for a minute. "Homeowners aged 30-55 in a certain postcode" is completely useless information for marketing. It tells you nothing about their problems, their motivations, or why they would ever give you thousands of pounds. This is the biggest mistake people make, they define their customer by what they are, not by what they're struggling with.

Your ideal customer isn't a demographic; it's a person living through a specific, urgent, and expensive nightmare. Let's paint a picture. Your customer isn't just someone with an 'old kitchen'. Their nightmare is this: they walk into their kitchen every morning to make a cup of tea and they're hit with a wave of disappointment. They hate the dated, peeling laminate on the cupboards. The colour is something out of a 90s catalogue. It makes the whole house feel tired and drab. They host a dinner party and feel a bit embarrassed about their friends seeing the heart of their home looking so shabby.

They've looked into getting a new kitchen. They got a quote. £15,000. And six weeks of dust, disruption, no sink, and takeaways for dinner every night. The thought is exhausting and the cost is just not feasible right now with interest rates being what they are. So they feel stuck. They feel frustrated. They have an expensive problem they can't see an easy way to solve. *That* is your customer's state of mind. They are actively feeling the pain of their current situation and are desperate for a viable alternative that doesn't involve that level of financial pain or disruption.

Once you understand this 'problem state', everything else becomes clearer. You're not selling 'kitchen wrapping'. You're selling the feeling of walking into a beautiful, modern kitchen every morning without the £15k bill and the six weeks of chaos. You're selling them a good night's sleep, knowing they've made a smart financial decision. Your marketing, your ads, your website copy—everything has to speak directly to that pain and offer your service as the perfect, almost miraculous, solution. Do this work first, or you have no business spending a single pound on ads. You have to become an expert in their specific nightmare before you can effectively sell them the dream.

I'd say you need to forget social media (for now)...

Now, based on understanding your customer's nightmare, let's talk about where you're currently spending your time. You've set up Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok pages. This is the advice everyone gives, and for your business at this stage, it's mostly wrong. I need to be brutally honest here, as it'll save you a lot of time and money.

People are not scrolling through TikTok videos or their friends' holiday pictures on Instagram actively thinking, "I really hope I see an ad for a local kitchen wrapping service right now." It's just not how it works. They're on those platforms to be entertained, to be distracted, to see what their mates are up to. Your ad, no matter how good it is, is an interruption to that experience.

If you were to run ads on Meta (Facebook/Instagram) right now, you'd likely choose an 'Awareness' or 'Reach' objective. And when you do that, you're giving the algorithm a very specific instruction: "Find me the biggest number of people for the lowest possible price." The algorithm is incredibly good at its job. It will go and find all the people in your target area who are cheapest to show ads to. Why are they cheap? Because they never click, they never engage, they never buy anything. They're passive scrollers. You are literally paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your service. Its a complete waste of money for a new business.

I remember one client we worked with, a luxury brand, who wanted to do a launch campaign. We got them 10 million views on Meta, which sounds amazing. But that was their specific goal - pure awareness and branding. They had a massive budget and a different objective. You don't. You need leads, and you need them now. The best form of brand awareness for a small business is a happy customer telling their friends about the fantastic job you did on their kitchen. That only happens when you actually get customers.

So, should you delete your social pages? No. Keep them. Post your before-and-after pictures on there. It's a great place to build a portfolio of your work. It acts as social proof. When a potential customer *does* find you (we'll get to how in a minute), they will almost certainly check out your Facebook or Instagram page to see if you're legitimate and if your work is any good. But don't spend hours creating content or any of your limited budget trying to find new customers there. For now, think of your social media as a supporting gallery, not your main shop window.

You probably should focus all your energy on Google...

So if not social media, then where? You need to be where your customer is when their 'kitchen nightmare' becomes an active problem they are trying to solve. And where do people go when they want to solve a problem? They go to Google.

They're not scrolling, they are searching. There is a massive difference. They are typing things into the search bar like:

• -> "cheap kitchen makeover"
• -> "how to update kitchen on a budget"
• -> "kitchen cabinet wrapping near me"
• -> "vinyl wrap kitchen doors cost"
• -> "alternative to new kitchen"
• -> "emergency kitchen face-lift" (you'd be surprised)

This is where you need to be. Every single one of those searches is a potential customer holding their hand up and saying, "I have the exact problem you solve, and I am looking for a solution right now." This is called 'high intent' traffic, and it's gold dust for a service business. Your job isn't to create demand out of thin air on social media; it's to capture the demand that already exists on Google.

The tool for this is Google Ads. Specifically, Google Search ads. You bid on those keywords, and when someone in your local area searches for them, your ad appears at the top of the results. This is, without a doubt, the single best way for you to get your first paying customers. I've seen it work time and time again. We're running a campaign for an HVAC company right now. They're in a competitive market, and their leads come from Google because when someone's boiler breaks, they don't browse Instagram, they search "emergency plumber near me". Your service is the same. It solves an urgent, tangible problem.

You should also look into Google Local Service Ads (LSAs). These are the little boxes that appear right at the top of Google, even above the normal ads, for local services. They show your business name, rating, and a "Google Guaranteed" badge. This badge is huge for building trust instantly. To get it, you have to go through a background check process with Google, but its well worth the effort. With LSAs, you often pay per lead (i.e., a phone call or a message), not just for a click, which can be very cost-effective.

Forget TikTok dances for now. Your homework is to do some keyword research. Think of every possible way someone might describe their problem and search for your solution. This is where you should be focusing 90% of your marketing effort and budget initially. This is how you'll get the phone to ring.

You'll need a website that actually sells...

Okay, let's say you get your Google Ads running. Someone searches "kitchen wrapping company in [Your Town]", your ad shows up, and they click it. What happens next? They land on your website. And your website has about three seconds to convince them not to hit the 'back' button. Tbh, most small business websites are terrible. They're just online brochures. Your website needs to be a 24/7 salesperson.

Right now, your most powerful sales tool isn't you or your husband, it's a collection of high-quality before-and-after photos. This is non-negotiable. People need to see the transformation. They need to see a tired, dated kitchen turned into something that looks like it's straight out of a showroom. Don't use your phone. If you can, get a professional photographer for a few of your best projects. If not, use a good camera, get the lighting right. Show close-ups of the finish, the corners, the handles. Video testimonials would be even better – a short clip of a happy customer gushing about their 'new' kitchen.

Your website copy needs to speak directly to their nightmare. Use the Problem-Agitate-Solve framework.
Problem: "Tired of looking at your dated, worn-out kitchen but dread the cost and chaos of a full replacement?"
Agitate: "A new kitchen can cost over £15,000 and turn your home into a building site for weeks. Do you really want that disruption and expense?"
Solve: "Get the look and feel of a brand-new kitchen in just a day or two, for a fraction of the cost. Our professional wrapping service transforms your existing units, giving you a stunning, modern finish without the mess."

And then, you need a clear, unmissable Call to Action. The classic "Request a Demo" or "Contact Us" is too passive. You have to make it easy and valuable for them. Your offer should be a "Get a FREE, No-Obligation Quote". Make the button big and a contrasting colour. When they click it, don't give them a long, complicated form. All you need initially is their name, email, phone number, and maybe a box where they can upload a photo of their current kitchen. The less friction, the better.

I've audited so many ad accounts where the ads are fine, but the website is leaking money because it doesn't build trust or make it easy for people to take the next step. Your website isn't an art project; it's a machine for generating leads. It must look professional, load quickly, showcase your work brilliantly, and guide the visitor towards giving you their contact details. Without this, any money you spend on ads is like pouring water into a leaky bucket.

We'll need to look at what a customer is actually worth...

This is a step that almost everyone skips, and it leads to them making bad decisions about their advertising spend. You need to know your numbers. The question isn't "how cheap can I get a lead?", it's "how much can I afford to pay for a lead and still make a healthy profit?". This is where we need to do some simple maths to figure out what a customer is actually worth to you.

Let's make up some numbers for an example. You can swap these out for your own.
Let's say the average kitchen wrapping job you do is worth £2,500. That's your Average Revenue Per Customer.

Now, what's your gross margin? You have to account for the cost of the vinyl, your travel, any other materials, maybe even a portion of your insurance. Let's say your total costs for a £2,500 job are £750.
Your Gross Profit is £2,500 - £750 = £1,750.
Your Gross Margin % is (£1,750 / £2,500) = 70%.

So, on average, each customer you land brings in £1,750 of gross profit. This is the number that matters. This is the pot of money you have available to cover your ad spend, your other overheads, and your own wages.

A healthy business model often aims for a 3:1 ratio between the value of a customer and the cost to acquire them (CAC). This means for every £1 you spend on marketing to get a customer, you should get at least £3 back in gross profit.
So, if your customer value is £1,750, you can afford to spend up to: £1,750 / 3 = ~£583 to acquire a single customer.

That might sound like a lot, but we're not finished. You don't pay per customer, you pay per lead. Let's say you're pretty good on the phone and you can convert 1 in every 5 qualified leads into a paying job. That's a 20% conversion rate.
So, the maximum you can afford to pay for a single qualified lead is: £583 / 5 = £116.60.

Suddenly, paying £40 or £50 or even £60 for a phone call from someone who is actively searching on Google for a kitchen renovation doesn't seem so expensive, does it? It looks like a bargain. This is the maths that unlocks growth. When you know you can spend up to £116 to get a lead, you can advertise with confidence, knowing you're making a profitable investment, not just gambling. Without knowing these numbers, you'll get scared when you see a high Cost Per Lead and turn off a campaign that could have been incredibly profitable.

I'd say you should budget for these kinds of costs...

Knowing what you can afford to pay for a lead is one thing, but what should you actually expect to pay? The honest answer is it varies massively depending on your area, the competition, and how well your campaigns are set up. But I can give you some real-world ballpark figures from other B2C service clients we've worked with.

For services targeting homeowners, you're probably looking at about £10-£50 per lead from Google Ads. We've run ads for childcare services where the CPL was around $10 per signup. Our best consumer services campaign was for a home cleaning company which got a cost of £5 per lead. But that's exceptionally low. On the other end, we have that HVAC client in a very competitive city, and they are seeing costs of around $60 per lead. Given that kitchen renovation is a high-value service, I'd say you should be mentally prepared for a cost per lead somewhere in the £30-£70 range to be safe. If it comes in lower, fantastic.

So, what about a starting budget? I usually recommend a new service business starts with an ad spend of at least £1,000-£2,000 per month on Google Ads. Let's see what that looks like with our estimated costs.
If your budget is £1,500 per month, and your cost per lead is, let's say, £50:
£1,500 / £50 = 30 leads per month.

If you convert 1 in 5 of those leads (your 20% conversion rate):
30 leads * 0.20 = 6 new jobs per month.

And if each job is worth £1,750 in gross profit:
6 jobs * £1,750 = £10,500 in gross profit.

You spent £1,500 on ads to make £10,500 in gross profit. That's a 7x Return on Ad Spend. That's a business that can grow very, very quickly. Of course, these are just illustrative numbers. Your conversion rate might be higher or lower. Your job value might be different. But this is the framework. This is how you should think about your advertising. It's a direct investment in profitable growth.

This all depends on a well-structured ad account, the right keywords, compelling ad copy, and a website that converts. It's not as simple as just turning it on, but this is the potential that is waiting for you on Google.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below to give you a clear, actionable summary of what we've discussed. This is the roadmap I would use to start generating leads for your business.

I know this is a lot to take in, and it's a very different approach from just 'creating social media pages'. The truth is that effective paid advertising is a specialism. You are experts in transforming kitchens. We're experts in finding the people who need their kitchens transformed. It's often more effective for business owners to focus on what they do best – delivering a fantastic service – and let an expert handle the complex, ever-changing world of digital advertising.

Setting up a Google Ads campaign that is properly structured, that targets the right people without wasting money, and that actually drives profitable leads, takes a lot of expertise and ongoing management. There's a reason so many people say "I tried Google Ads and it didn't work." It's usually because it wasn't set up to succeed in the first place.

If you'd like to chat through this in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can look at your specific situation and give you some more tailored advice. It might be helpful to have an expert eye on things before you start spending your hard-earned money.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh