Hiring a marketing agency or freelancer vs doing it yourself: a guide for air duct cleaning owners
What marketing help should cost a duct cleaning company, the red flags specific to this trade, what to do yourself, and why a trial-first arrangement beats a contract.
Duct cleaning owners get more marketing cold calls than almost any trade, because the lead resellers know the $49 ads have made the real companies desperate for a better way. The pitch is always the same: guaranteed leads, page one, a contract. Most of it is the same bait-and-switch the trade already suffers from, aimed at the owner instead of the homeowner.
This guide is about how to tell the difference, what fair looks like, which parts you should keep in-house, and why nobody should pay for marketing in this trade before they see it work.
Do these yourself, always
Some jobs cannot be outsourced well because they depend on being on the job site:
- The review ask at the door. Nobody can do this but the tech. The reviews guide has the script.
- Before-and-after photos and short video. The raw footage has to come from your crew. Editing can be hired.
- Answering the phone with a price range. An outside service can do it with your script, but the script is yours.
- Relationships with HVAC companies, realtors and property managers. An owner's handshake does this; an agency cannot.
If an agency says it will handle reviews for you, ask how. If the answer involves anything other than making it easier for your crew to ask, walk away.
Hire out the parts that are software and attention
Google Ads, Meta ads, the website, local SEO, the follow-up automation, AI search work and reporting are all learnable, and all of them are also an hour or two a week of maintenance that most owners stop doing by month two. That is where paid help earns its fee: not in knowing secrets, but in doing the boring part every week.
A fair monthly range for a one to three truck duct cleaning company:
- Google Ads management: $300 to $800 a month, plus the ad spend paid directly to Google on your own card.
- Meta ads management: $300 to $700 a month plus spend.
- Local SEO and profile upkeep: $200 to $500 a month.
- A five-page website: $1,500 to $4,000 once, or $100 to $300 a month on a plan that includes hosting and updates.
- Missed-call text-back and follow-up setup: $100 to $300 a month including the software.
- A full package of three or four services: $1,000 to $2,500 a month.
Above those ranges you should be getting something unusual. Below them, ask what is being skipped.
Red flags specific to this trade
Guaranteed leads. Nobody controls search demand. A guarantee means they are buying shared leads and reselling them, or the guarantee has fine print.
Leads sold to several companies. Ask directly whether the lead goes to anyone else. Shared leads in duct cleaning are heavily price-shopped and often come from the $49 shoppers.
A contract longer than a month before any result. This trade's whole problem is paying for a promise. Do not repeat it with your marketing.
They cannot tell you what a duct cleaning call costs in your metro. Anyone who has run accounts in this category knows the ranges: roughly $25 to $70 per tracked call on Search, $20 to $55 on Local Services Ads. Vague answers mean no experience here.
They want to run a "$49 special" or a Groupon. They are proposing to make you the company your customers are afraid of.
Reporting that shows impressions and clicks instead of calls and booked jobs. Ask to see a sample report. If there is no column for booked jobs, the agency is not measuring what you care about.
They want to own the ad account, the website or the domain. Everything should be in your name. If the relationship ends, you keep it all.
They cannot explain the website gap. Companies with a site have a median of 18 reviews versus 2 without, and 35.1% of duct cleaners have no site. Anyone pitching ads to a company with no site and 4 reviews is pitching in the wrong order.
Questions to ask before paying anyone
- Which duct cleaning or home service accounts have you run, and what was the cost per booked job?
- What do you need from me each week, and what happens if I do not provide it?
- Who owns the accounts and what do I keep if we stop?
- What does the first two weeks look like, specifically?
- What will the report show, and will it show booked jobs?
- Can I try it before paying?
The last question is the one that matters. An agency confident in its work for this trade can set up a campaign, run it for two weeks and show you the calls. One that needs a six-month contract before the first call is asking you to take the same risk your customers take with the coupon ads.
Freelancer or agency
A good freelancer is often the best value for one service, especially Google Ads or a website. The risk is capacity: one person, one sick week, and your campaign sits. An agency costs more and should bring coverage and a process. Either way, judge them on the questions above and the two-week result, not on the size of the office.
A third option is a tool-plus-coaching arrangement where you run it with help. It works for owners who like the work. It fails for owners who are on the crew every day, which is most of this trade.
The trial-first standard
The reason this site offers a free 14-day trial is that the standard should be proof first, payment second. Any service, set up and run for two weeks, no card, with a report at the end showing calls and jobs. Then a monthly price quoted before the trial starts, and no renewal without a decision. If that standard is met by someone else, use them. If it is not, ask why not.
The benchmark report shows what the trade looks like: a median of 9 reviews, 31.6% without hours, 35.1% without a site. The bar for being found is not high. The bar for being trusted is. Spend your marketing money, and your marketing partner's time, on the second one.
Frequently asked
How long should I give an agency before judging? Two weeks for setup and first calls. Thirty days for Google Ads numbers to mean something. Ninety days for SEO and AI search. If there are no tracked calls at 30 days on a paid campaign, something is wrong.
Should I sign up for a lead service as well as an agency? Not at the same time. Run your own channels first with honest tracking, then test a lead service against those numbers for a month.
What should I prepare before a trial? Access to your Google Business Profile, a list of towns you serve, your price ranges, 10 to 20 job photos, and whoever answers the phone. The website essentials guide lists what the site needs.
Any service on this site can be tried free for 14 days, no card. Text or call (385) 486-5536.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, air duct cleaning companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor