How Much Should a Construction or Renovation Company Spend on Social Media? (2026)
TL;DR: Most small construction, renovation, and contracting businesses spend $0–$1,500/month on social media. The trade has a structural advantage — every job site produces before-and-after material homeowners genuinely want to see — and a structural problem: the person with the photos is on a roof, not at a desk. Contractor-marketing agencies commonly run $500–$1,500/month; software that turns steady posting into a background process costs $39–$159/month. The budget priority for this trade is Google first, feed second.
Your last job sells your next one — if anyone sees it
Construction is a proof trade. A homeowner about to spend five figures on a renovation wants evidence: finished work, in-progress competence, a company that looks organized. Every completed job is that evidence. The waste in this industry isn't bad marketing — it's finished jobs that produced zero marketing because everyone drove to the next site.
The real cost of DIY here is different from other trades: the photos exist on the crew's phones, and the bottleneck is the office half — captioning, posting, keeping Google fresh — done at 8pm after quoting.
The three ways contractors pay
1. Sporadic self-posting: $0, feast-and-famine. Posts cluster in slow weeks and vanish in busy ones — so the feed looks dead exactly when the business is proving itself on real jobs.
2. Contractor-marketing agency: $500–$1,500/month. Worth it for lead-gen campaigns and website work. For posting your job photos with decent captions, you're paying agency rates for admin.
3. Software: $39–$159/month. Presly keeps the schedule full year-round — project-type education, seasonal maintenance reminders, service explainers — uses your own job photos, and keeps Google Business Profile active. When the crew uploads site shots, they become the content.
Where a contractor's money should actually go
- Google Business Profile. "Kitchen remodel [city]", "roofer near me" — the highest-intent searches in the trade land here. Photos, recency, and answered reviews decide who gets the three quote requests.
- Real job photos. One genuine before-and-after outsells any stock image. Make phone-photo collection from the crew a habit; it's the highest-ROI marketing act in the company.
- Answered reviews. A thoughtful reply to a hard review is read by every homeowner comparing quotes.
- Seasonal timing. Gutter posts before the rain, deck posts before summer. Timing does the work of ad spend.
A sensible budget by stage
- Owner-operator: $39/month software + the phone-photo habit. Skip ads until the Google profile looks alive.
- Crew of 3–10, steady pipeline: $79–$159/month so presence runs itself through busy season; put real budget into review generation.
- Growth push: agency or ads only after the organic surface is solid — paid traffic landing on a dead profile is money burned twice.
Where Presly fits
Presly runs contractor social media from $39/month with a 7-day trial: posts written from your actual services and area, your own job photos, 10 platforms including Google Business Profile, seasonal timing built in, and drafted review replies you approve.