Company hopping is extremely common with contractors and home service companies. You sign up with a company that promises to get you jobs, but they don’t perform as you expected. Within a few weeks, you’re canceling your contract and moving on to another company. We’ve heard similar stories for many of our contractors, but unfortunately, every marketing strategy and company take a little time to perform.

Company hopping not only makes it hard for you to track your revenue but also wastes money and time. In some cases, you might even make it harder for your customers to find you. We look at why you should avoid company hopping, look at the types of companies you might use, and offer 4 simple tips that will help you get more jobs and spend less in the long run.

4 Reasons You Should Avoid Company Hopping

1. Hard to Track Your Revenue – Constantly jumping companies makes it hard to track how much you spend on and make from these leads.
2. Waste Money – All marketing takes time to perform. If you keep hopping around, you’re likely to spend more money on leads.
3. Waste Time – Each time you’re starting over with a new account manager, which means more time wasted on building out new campaigns.
4. Make It Harder for Customers to Find You – Company hopping can make it harder for customers to find you, especially if they create websites for you.

What is Company Hopping

Simply put, company hopping is jumping from one marketing or advertising company to another every few months. Contractors often hop companies because they aren’t happy with their results.

Company hopping is very common with website design, SEO marketing, or paid search management companies. You’ll sign up with a company, but only give them a few weeks or months to perform.

Because they didn’t perform as expected immediately, you hop to another company. The biggest reason that contractors will company hop is the cost, but other factors include the quality of the leads, the quality of the content or ads, and your rapport with the account manager at that company.

You should always track your performance with any marketing or advertising company, but you need to look at the data and allow campaigns time to perform before jumping around. Otherwise, you’re constantly starting back at square one and none of your efforts have a chance to develop into successful campaigns.

Why You Should Avoid Company Hopping

1. Hard to Measure Your Success

In order to measure your success, you need to know how much you spent on marketing and where each lead came from. Jumping from company to company makes tracking your leads, spend, and revenue difficult. Even when you do track all of your leads, constantly switching companies will leave you with jumbled data that makes it hard to determine your successes.

2. Waste Money

Getting more leads and jobs costs money, regardless of whether you pay a company or run your own marketing. You’re likely to spend more money at the start of any campaign because it takes a little time to perfect the ads or content. Paid search ads may take a couple of weeks to optimize, while organic content can take months. While some of these companies might have performed well for you in the long term, you’re most likely just wasting money in the short term for very few opportunities.

3. Waste Time

Every time you company hop, you have to start over with a new account manager. You’ll spend more time on-boarding with each new company, getting to know each other, and then launching new campaigns. Depending on the type of marketing involved, your campaigns could take days, weeks, or months to launch. In this time, you could have been completing jobs the previous company sent you.

4. Make It Harder for Customers to Find You

Depending on the type of companies you are hopping between, you could actually make it harder – or nearly impossible – for customers to find you. This is especially true with marketing companies that create websites or listings for your business. If you cancel with them, they may still own those sites and will charge you a fee to take them with you. Not only do you need to start over from scratch, but they might even direct those leads to your competitors.

Common Reasons Contractors Hop Companies

Cost of the Leads

The cost of each lead is the biggest reason contractors will hop companies. But if you jump ship on a company because they billed you for one lead that didn’t convert, you’re not really looking at the big picture. All leads have a cost, even if you produce them yourself. Marketing your business is a long-term process, so give any company at least 10 valid or billable leads so you have a good idea of how they perform for your business.

Quality of the Leads

After cost, the quality of the leads is often the next reason that contractors will switch companies. Again, all leads are just possible jobs. No matter how you got that lead, not everyone will turn into a job. However, if you’re constantly paying for bad leads, wrong numbers, or spam calls, switching companies might be a good idea. As with the cost of leads, we recommend trying any company for at least 10 valid or billable leads.

Quality of the Content or Ads

If you’re using a company that produces content or advertisements for you, you may want to switch because you don’t like the quality of those items. This is especially common if you’re paying for ads or content regardless of how many leads they generate. Still, they do take time to produce leads. If you aren’t happy, talk with your account manager and see about updating the messaging. If switching companies is your own option, read your contract before canceling. This ensures you know exactly what you can take with you. It also allows you to start building new content before you cancel.

Rapport With Account Manager

Your account manager or representative is your connection to that company and you need to feel comfortable working with them. They should get to know your business and understand how it operates. If you don’t have a good rapport with them, ask if they can reassign you to someone else. This gives you the best opportunity to achieve success without needing to restart your marketing efforts with a new company.

Types of Advertising and Marketing Companies That Generate Leads for Contractors

Leads are just opportunities to get a customer or a job. Regardless of the language they use, each of these companies only sends you leads. While most of those leads will convert into jobs, a few won’t. You should be wary of any company that promises to send you guaranteed jobs because no company can produce 100% valid jobs all the time.

Lead Generation Companies

Lead generation companies usually market general services and send you opportunities. We send out leads exclusively to one contractor, but other lead generation companies share leads with multiple contractors. They can come as phone calls or text messages. Unlike all of the other types of companies listed, you usually pay a flat-rate for valid leads. The other types of companies listed below will charge you regardless of the number of leads they send you.

Advertising Agencies

Advertising agencies will create marketing strategies and advertisements to create leads for your business. They typically focus on internet ads like paid search and display ads, plus can manage TV, radio, and billboard ads as well. Some may also offer content or social media services as well. You may pay a retainer in addition to paying for their services regardless of how many leads they produce. However, you usually get to keep everything they create for you so you can continue to use them to get more jobs in the future.

Marketing Agencies

Similar to advertising agencies, a marketing agency will market your business on your behalf. This may involve creating a website, creating ads or content, responding to reviews and social posts all with the intent of generating leads for your business. As with advertising agencies, you pay regardless of their performance but also get to keep the materials they produced for you in most cases.

Paid Search Management Companies

These companies will manage your paid search advertisements to drive customers to your business. They may run ads from your own paid search account or create campaigns for your business with their account. Some may even create websites or landing pages for your business. You will pay for both the ads and their management services no matter how many leads they produce for you. Depending on the company, you may get to keep your paid search campaigns or you may not.

SEO or Content Management Companies

While paid search companies target ads in search engines, content companies create articles that appear in organic search results. They may also manage your social media posts or create a website or landing page to generate leads for your business too. Similar to paid search companies, they will often charge you for both the content and the management services. You may or may not get to keep the content they create as well, which means everything could disappear if you cancel.

Website Design Companies

Web design firms will often design and maintain your website. This may even include adding new content or managing social posts as well. They typically will register your website domain name and will offer limited graphic design and branding services. You pay a monthly service or hosting fee for their services regardless of how many leads they produce. Additionally, they may even still own your website and domain name if you cancel so ready the contract carefully before signing.

How to Get More Leads and Ensure Success With Any Strategy

• Be Patient – Getting more leads takes time, so be patient with the company or strategy you are using. Unless you are constantly spending without getting leads, give any company at least 10 valid, billable leads before making a chance.
• Track Your Performance – Track every lead you get, making sure you know where it came from, the cost, and the value of the job you got from it. By evaluating your leads, you have the necessary data to drive your business.
• Make Adjustments – Review the data on your leads every quarter and see if you can make small adjustments to increase your revenue or profit. Avoid making too many changes at the same time, as it’s harder to track the outcome.
• Chance Course When Necessary – You will need to change your strategy from time to time. Use your data to determine what strategies don’t work or are less effective than another. Then shift your marketing budget accordingly.

Advantages of Leads From 33 Mile Radius

Stop company hopping and start getting high-quality leads that you need to grow your business. You can buy our leads whether you are running your own marketing or working with other agencies. Our advantages of buying leads guide includes more detail about each of these points.

• Only Pay For Valid Leads – You only pay for valid leads from the homeowner or decision-maker calling about a service you are signed up for in an area where you are active.
• Flat-Rate Pricing – Our leads are a flat-rate depending on the service type and area and you never pay for wrong numbers or fraud calls.
• Exclusive Leads – Each lead is sent exclusively to one partner, giving you the best opportunity to land the job.
• Pause Your Account – You can pause your account at any time, which allows you to take the day off, go on vacation, or just finish up your current jobs.
• Works With Your Marketing – Our leads work even if you’re getting leads from other marketing channels. They’re just more opportunities to get good jobs.
• No Long-Term Contractors – There are no long-term contracts or commitments, so you can cancel your account at any time.
• Dashboard For Tracking Performance – Every one of our leads appears in your dashboard, which allows you to track our performance and measure your success.

Get Started With More Contractor Leads Now

If you’re ready to start getting more contractor leads today, fill out our contact form below. A business development manager will reach out within 1 business day for a 5-minute call to explain our system and answer your questions. If you’re ready to secure your area, they’ll send over our operating agreement and schedule your onboarding call. You could start getting more leads in as little as 24-hours.