If you are a plumber, an electrician, a roofer or a builder, Facebook ads can do one useful thing for you. They can put your work in front of homeowners in your area and get some of them to ask for a quote. This page is written for the UK, in pounds, and it sticks to what you need to decide.
What does an enquiry cost in the UK?#
There is no reliable UK table for trades. These are the figures published in 2026, and none of them states the data behind it.
| Source | Figure | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Trade2Base, June 2026 | £15 to £50 per lead for UK trade services | A company that sells to trades. Its own estimate |
| Local Page UK, April 2026 | £15 to £45 per lead for electricians, and £1.00 to £1.80 per click | A marketing company's own estimate |
| Whito, September 2026 | £8 to £25 per lead across UK businesses in general | Labelled as UK averages |
So plan for somewhere between £8 and £50 an enquiry, and find your own figure in the first month. A dearer enquiry is fine when the job is worth more, which is why the next sum matters.
What is a job worth to you?#
Work this out first. It tells you whether £30 an enquiry is cheap or dear.
Take a roofer whose typical repair leaves £400 after materials. One enquiry in four becomes a job. He could pay up to £100 for an enquiry and break even, so £30 leaves him well ahead. A handyman who keeps £50 from a small job and wins one in three can pay about £16.60 at most. The same £30 enquiry would lose him money.
Run your own figures in the cost per lead calculator.
What will be on Meta's invoice?#
Two things are added on top of the budget you set.
- A 2% location fee. Meta lists a 2% fee for ads shown to people in the United Kingdom. It appears as its own line on the invoice and is separate from your campaign budget.
- VAT. Meta says your daily budget does not include VAT. Whether Meta adds VAT or you account for it yourself depends on which Meta company is named as "Sold by" on your receipt and on whether you buy the ads for business purposes. Ask your accountant how to treat it.
Meta may also spend up to 75% over your daily budget on a single day, and no more than seven times the daily budget in a calendar week. More detail is in How much do Facebook ads cost in the UK?.
How much should you start with?#
Trade2Base suggests starting at £10 to £20 a day, and Local Page UK says many electricians begin with as little as that. Whito treats £300 a month as the minimum for meaningful data. These are advice from companies that sell marketing, so check them against your own sum. If an enquiry may cost you £30 and you want ten a month, you need about £300 a month.
Form, call or website?#
- Emergency work, such as leaks, lockouts and no heating: use a call ad. The person taps "Call now" and their phone opens the keypad with your number filled in. These show on mobiles only, and someone must pick up.
- Planned work, such as boiler swaps, rewires and new roofs: use a form inside Facebook, or your website. Meta's "Higher intent" form adds a review screen before sending, which cuts careless enquiries.
- Jobs that need a few questions first: a message ad opens a chat with you.
The trade-offs are in Lead form or your website?.
Set your service area#
In Ads Manager you can aim the ad at cities, at postcodes, or at a radius around a pin you drop on the map. Choose the area you actually cover. Do not show ads across a whole county if you only work in two towns. Each tap from someone 60 miles away is money gone.
Photos that win work#
- A finished job, in daylight, taken on your phone.
- Before and after, side by side, for building, roofing and garden work.
- You or your team on site. A face and a branded van build trust.
- Your accreditation, such as Gas Safe or NICEIC, mentioned in the text if you hold it.
Skip stock photos and logo graphics.
Answer fast#
A slow reply wastes the enquiry you paid for. Someone who sends a form may have asked other firms too. Call back the same hour if you can. If you are on a roof all day, send an automatic text and ring at lunch.
How to set it up yourself in Ads Manager#
Meta's Ads Manager builds an ad in three layers, and each layer holds one of your decisions.
- The campaign holds the goal. Choose leads, so Meta looks for people likely to ask for a quote.
- The ad set holds how people reach you, who sees it and the budget. Pick where the enquiry happens: a form, a call, a message or your website. Set the location to the area you serve, by city, by postcode or by a radius around a pin. Leave the rest broad. Set a daily budget you can keep up for a month.
- The ad holds what people see. Add your own photo and one line that says what you do and where. If you picked a form, you build the form here.
- Publish, then leave it for a week. Meta reviews the ad first, and the first days are uneven while its system learns.
The full path, with what goes wrong at each step, is in Running Facebook ads without an agency.
Where Madder fits today#
Madder is an AI agent that sets up and looks after Facebook and Instagram ads for a small business. It reads your website, drafts a campaign, builds ads from photos you upload and approve, and creates the campaign paused in your own Meta ad account. You switch it on with a separate approval.
For most tradespeople it is not the right tool yet, and we would rather say so plainly.
- Madder aims a campaign at a whole country. It cannot aim at a city, a postcode or a radius today. A trade that covers one area would pay to reach people who can never hire it.
- Madder's ads send people to your website. It does not set up call ads or forms inside Facebook today, and its campaigns are set to bring visits to the page.
For a local trade, use Ads Manager's own location settings for now, as set out above. The general guide is Ads for local service businesses.
Madder is in early access. If it may suit you later, join the waitlist.
Questions people ask#
Do Facebook ads work for tradesmen in the UK?
They can, when the ad is shown only in your service area, uses real photos of your work and asks for a quote. Whether they pay depends on what a job leaves you and how many enquiries you win.
How much does a lead cost for a plumber or electrician in the UK?
Published 2026 estimates run from about £15 to £50 for UK trades (Trade2Base, Local Page UK), and £8 to £25 for UK businesses in general (Whito). None states its sample, so treat them as rough.
How much should a tradesperson spend on Facebook ads?
UK marketing guides suggest starting at £10 to £20 a day. A better answer comes from your own sum: the number of enquiries you want, multiplied by what an enquiry is likely to cost.
Is there a fee on top of my Facebook ad budget in the UK?
Yes. Meta lists a 2% location fee for ads shown to people in the United Kingdom, as a separate line on the invoice. VAT is also separate from your daily budget.