Plumber Advertising: 10 Ideas and Tips

Advertising can be tricky, but we’ve got you covered with tips and tricks to help get the word out, increase brand awareness, generate leads, and become a fixture in the community.  

Plumber Advertising Channels

Plumbing and home services brands can capture consumers’ attention in many ways, from TV and streaming advertising to digital tactics on the web, print, and more. 

Television & Streaming
On average, Americans spend 5 ½ hours watching broadcast or cable TV daily, making it a popular platform for brands to reach audiences to create brand awareness and influence a viewer’s purchasing decisions in visually creative ways. There are also several types a brand can consider including broadcast and streaming TV advertisements, content sponsorships such as weather integrations, lifestyle show appearances, and more. 

Most importantly, TV advertising is still extremely effective and the second-most profitable advertising medium in the United States. For home service providers, advertising via broadcast TV gets even better. According to Nielsen Scarborough and TVB, home improvement intenders:

• Are reached by broadcast in the past day (3 in 4) 
• Believe TV is the most influential media for awareness (2 in 5)
• Watch local news (1 in 2)
• Trust local news as a media source (8 in 10)

Meanwhile: 

• 8 in 10 are streaming viewers
• 3 in 4 use ad-supported streaming services
• 9 in 10 are reached when TV is combined with streaming

To top things off, TV and streaming ad campaigns have many benefits, including:

Low Cost & High ROI
“TV can be scary for people who don’t understand how the cost works. It looks really expensive, but it’s not,” says Duane Charping, CEO of Roof Fix in San Antonio. “It’s probably the smartest marketing strategy I’ve ever chosen because it’s by far the least expensive with the biggest turnaround.”

Attribution and Measurement
TV’s measurement capabilities have grown immensely in the last few years. TEGNA Attribution, for example, collects real-time data to connect viewership to outcome metrics such as website visits and app downloads. This data can be used to prove the value of TV/streaming schedules to drive business results, make optimization decisions, and maximize the efficiency of paid media.

Targeting Ideal Audiences
Whether your brand is trying to reach local or national audiences, TV advertising allows advertisers to tailor their message to a specific audience by targeting specific demographics and geographic locations.

Reach an Attentive Audience with High Recall
TV demands attention, and when ads are delivered on a big screen, brands get it. CivicScience found that 25% of US adults pay the most attention to TV ads compared to ads viewed online, on social media, radio, billboards, newspapers, and magazines. MediaScience also finds that viewers are more likely to remember TV ads than mobile ads by 40%.

• Create Memorable Branding in Creative Ways: There are a lot of fun and creative ways to develop messaging, and you can have different creative messages for different programs or targets you’re trying to attract. When audiences become captivated and emotionally connected to an ad, it improves brand awareness, ad recall and increases purchase intent. By leveraging sound and enticing visuals, commercials make brands memorable, which improves brand awareness and increases ad recall.

• Develop Brand Trust Trust Through Halo & Hollywood Effect: Trust is crucial for TV and advertising, and TVB found that local broadcast news is the most trusted platform for viewers. That trust halo extends to brands that advertise alongside this trusted content. Additional studies have shown that consumers are more likely to trust – and buy from – brands that advertise alongside sources of information they trust, such as local TV news stations.

Digital Marketing

In addition to TV and streaming, digital tactics can act as a perfect complement to your marketing strategy to reinforce messages among consumers actively engaged with home improvement content. There are several ad types and tactics a brand can consider. TEGNA’s award-winning local websites and apps are one way to reach loyal users with video and display ads, high-impact units, and native advertising. These ad types can be further amplified with precision audience targeting, geofencing, retargeting, and brand-new first-party audience targeting tools, such as TEGNA’s AudienceOne. 

Additionally, according to Nielsen Scarborough, TVB, and MRI-Simmons, home improvement intenders:

• Look at ads on local news sites (9 in 10)
• Can be reached with TV when combined with a local station site (8 in 10)
• Visit a local station site/app in the past 30 days (2 in 3)
• Trust local station sites (7 in 10)
• Are 35% more likely to be influenced by display ads
• Are 83% more likely to be influenced by native ads

What is the Best Platform to Advertise a Plumbing Business?

While there are benefits to each channel, it’s important to view a marketing strategy cohesively. By combining the power of digital channels, television, and out-of-home campaigns, your team can create a cross-channel strategy to engage more potential customers. Each touchpoint in a customer’s journey should work to facilitate trust while building brand awareness. 

However, specific channels such as local news and locally owned websites can help ensure you reach the right audience in a specific area. Focusing on local media outlets can boost sales for a plumbing business while mitigating wasted ad spend. 

Plumber Advertising Strategies

Plumbing companies of all shapes and sizes can benefit from TV advertising if it’s done right. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach and infinite options exist for executing it when working with a TV station. Any brand looking to grow business, create awareness, and drive sales/results will benefit from running TV ad campaigns with the following strategies.

Advertise on TV
Direct-to-consumer home improvement companies, such as plumbers,  greatly benefit from TV advertising. One big ticket coming in as a lead from one commercial could pay for the whole campaign, not even considering future clients and branding/awareness benefits.

Focus on local channels
Local TV advertising is a good starting place for plumbers because of the ability to target a specific audience in a specific area, generate trust, build brand awareness, and show off their commitment to the local community by participating in local events. 

Understand your target market
To reach your target audience, you must understand what demographic you are trying to reach. Use these five tips to get to know your target market better. They include revisiting customer personas, revisiting the customer journey, following industry trends, and learning the importance of collecting first-party data and diving deep into measurement and analytics.

Create memorable creative
Memorable creative will help your business stand out. Aim to capture the viewer’s attention. To tell a compelling story to increase brand loyalty, you can use The Farmer’s Dog and Google’s Loretta as examples of emotional storytelling or By The Yard for a humorous approach. 

Track campaign success
Determine which channels have been successful and invest more capital there. Tools like TEGNA Attribution can help you know which campaigns are delivering the best results for your brand. 

Examples of Successful Plumber Advertisements

From understanding consumer media habits to custom research, TEGNA has partnered with several plumbers nationwide to help them connect with ideal audiences through traditional commercials, lifestyle show integrations, sponsorship opportunities, and more. Here are three examples of how we work with brands to create and showcase great ads that deliver tangible results. 

KENS5 Helps Beyer Bend Over Backwards

Price Brothers Recruit the Best with WCNC

Anderson Plumbing & Heating Sponsors “News 8 Right Now” ​

Final Thoughts

TV advertising has worked and driven tangible results for thousands of our partners, helping to make TV the second most profitable advertising medium in the United States. Advertising, especially alongside trusted local news broadcasts, reaffirms a brand’s place in the community and showcases that your brand can also be trusted with the right amount of frequency and exposure to target audiences. By aligning with the unique content opportunities that TEGNA offers, your brand has an opportunity to be the talk of the town.

About TEGNA

TEGNA delivers proven results through simplified multi-platform advertising solutions that connect your business to the audiences that matter most via Broadcast TV, OTT Advertising, and Digital Solutions, including Targeted Display & Retargeting,​ as well as campaign measurement ​and optimization with ​TEGNA Attribution. ​TEGNA stations also offer a variety of customizable content sponsorships, as illustrated above. 

Let’s get in touch if you’re thinking of amplifying your brand’s TV efforts, advertising to homeowners, or joining TEGNA affiliates to serve the greater good of our communities.