You get an email every month. Subject line: "Your Monthly Marketing Report."
You open it. There are charts. Graphs. A bunch of numbers that trend upward. "Impressions are up 43%!" "Engagement increased by 28%!" The report looks professional. Expensive, even.
You close the email and go back to work.
But wait, did your phone actually ring more? Did you book more jobs? Is there more money in your bank account?
If you can't answer those questions, you might be paying a marketing agency for contractors that's really good at one thing: making reports that look impressive but don't actually grow your business.
The Fancy Report Problem
Most contractors don't have time to decode marketing jargon. You're running a business. You need customers, not a lesson in "engagement rates" or "social media reach."
Here's the thing: a lot of marketing agencies know this. They know you're busy. So they send you reports full of numbers that sound good but don't actually tell you whether your marketing is working.
This isn't always malicious. Some agencies genuinely believe that "brand awareness" and "online visibility" will eventually turn into jobs. But eventually isn't good enough when you're writing a check every month.
A real marketing agency for contractors should be able to answer one question clearly: Are we making you more money than you're spending?
If your agency can't answer that, you're not getting marketing. You're getting a monthly invoice with a side of pretty graphs.
Vanity Metrics vs. Real Growth
Let's talk about the difference between metrics that make you feel good and metrics that actually matter.
Vanity metrics are numbers that look impressive but don't connect to your bottom line:
- Social media followers
- Impressions (how many people saw your ad)
- Website traffic (without knowing if those people called you)
- Email open rates (without tracking if they became customers)
- Likes, shares, comments
These aren't worthless, but they're not the full story. You could have 10,000 Instagram followers and zero booked jobs. That doesn't pay your crew.
Real growth metrics tie directly to money in your bank account:
- Lead volume: How many qualified leads contacted you
- Conversion rate: How many leads turned into paying customers
- Cost per lead: What you paid to get each potential customer
- Return on ad spend (ROAS): For every dollar you spent, how much revenue did you generate
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Total marketing cost divided by new customers gained
Notice the difference? Real metrics track the path from marketing spend to actual revenue. Vanity metrics just tell you that people saw your stuff.
What Your Marketing Agency for Contractors Should Actually Be Doing
If you're paying someone to handle your marketing, here's what you should be seeing every month, not buried in jargon, but in plain English:
1. Pipeline Reporting
Your agency should know how many leads came in, where they came from (Google Ads, Facebook, SEO, etc.), and which ones turned into customers.
If they can't tell you "We generated 23 leads this month, 8 from Google and 15 from your website, and you closed 6 of them," they're not tracking the right things.
2. ROI Conversations
Every month, your agency should be able to say: "You spent $X on marketing. Those leads generated $Y in revenue. Here's your return."
If they're not having this conversation, they either don't know how to track it (red flag) or they're avoiding it because the numbers don't look good (bigger red flag).
3. Lead Quality Feedback
Not all leads are created equal. Your agency should be asking: "Are the leads we're sending you a good fit? Are they in your service area? Can they afford your work?"
If you're getting tire-kickers and bargain hunters, that's a marketing problem, and your agency needs to fix the targeting, not just celebrate that "leads are up."
4. Schedule Impact
At the end of the day, contractors need one thing: a full schedule. Your marketing agency for contractors should be able to connect their work to booked jobs.
This doesn't mean they need access to your entire CRM (though that helps). But they should be checking in: "How's your schedule looking? Are you booking out further than you were three months ago?"
If your schedule hasn't changed but your agency says "engagement is up," something's not working.
5. Strategy Adjustments Based on Results
Good agencies test, measure, and adjust. If Google Ads aren't converting, they should be reallocating budget to what is working, not running the same campaigns month after month because "that's the plan."
If your agency sends the same cookie-cutter report every month with minor number changes, they're on autopilot.
The Funky Moose Difference: No Fluff, Just Results
At Funky Moose Digital, we don't do fancy reports for the sake of looking busy. We focus on what actually matters to contractors: booked jobs and revenue growth.
We track leads from the first click to the signed contract. We know which campaigns are paying for themselves and which ones need to be cut. And we're not afraid to tell you the truth, even if it means admitting something isn't working and we need to try a different approach.
That's the straightforward digital marketing contractors actually need. No jargon. No vanity metrics. Just real growth.
Your Agency Audit Checklist
If you're not sure whether your current marketing agency for contractors is actually delivering, run through this checklist:
□ Can your agency tell you exactly how many leads your marketing generated last month?
□ Do they track which leads turned into customers?
□ Can they show you the revenue attributed to their marketing efforts?
□ Do they report on cost per lead and return on ad spend?
□ Have they adjusted strategy based on what's working (or not working)?
□ Do they ask about lead quality and schedule impact?
□ Can they explain their work in plain English, without hiding behind marketing buzzwords?
If you answered "no" to more than two of these questions, you're probably paying for reports instead of results.
Stop Paying for Pretty Graphs
You didn't get into the trades to become a marketing expert. You got into it to build, fix, or install things. But you do need marketing that works: not marketing that just looks like it's working.
A real marketing agency for contractors should be filling your schedule, not your inbox with fluff.
If your current agency can't show you the money trail from their campaigns to your bank account, it's time to have a conversation. Either they need to start tracking what matters, or you need to find someone who will.
At Funky Moose Digital, we built our entire approach around one simple idea: contractors don't need fancy reports. They need more jobs.
If that sounds like what you've been looking for, let's talk. We'll show you exactly what we'd do to grow your business: and how we'd prove it's working. No jargon. No vanity metrics. Just a clear plan to fill your schedule and grow your revenue.
Because at the end of the day, the only report that matters is the one from your accountant showing more money in the bank.
