How to Get More Plumbing Leads: 9 Lead Generation Tips (Plus Crowd-Sourced Tips from Reddit)

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Originally published in February 2022. Last updated on January 24, 2025.
With over 564 thousand plumbers in the United States, plumbing is an industry with a lot of competition. To stand out from the pack and ensure that your business grows, you’ll need a steady stream of leads and new customers.
The strategies you use to help you do this are called lead generation, and you can become a master by following a few actionable steps.
From referrals to email marketing, try these tried-and-true strategies to keep new leads coming in each month, on repeat.
Top 9 lead generation tips for plumbers:
1. Build a user-friendly plumbing website
Your business website is like a first impression. A positive first impression encourages a new visitor to learn more about your plumbing services, while a bad one could move them toward your competitors.
To make that strong first impression, focus on having a professional website design that reflects your brand. Use consistent colors, logos, and imagery, and check that your site performs as well on a mobile device as it does on a laptop.
Once a potential client is on your website, turn them into a solid lead by making sure the site is easy to navigate. Clearly lists your services, and always include an online quote request so it’s easy for clients to reach out.
Stressed about not having web design experience? Don’t sweat it. You can build a professionally branded website in only a few minutes with Jobber’s website builder—free with any Jobber plan.
What to include on your plumbing website
Your plumbing website should include a few crucial elements:
- A homepage to share a quick overview of your plumbing services, your service area, and your contact information.
- A services page with a clear list of your services and prices.
- An ‘About Us’ page that includes details on how long you’ve been in business, the kinds of plumbing jobs you work on, and your plumbing training and certifications.
- A contact page with a contact form, your phone number, and your email address. The more ways you give people to contact you, the more likely you are to get their business.
To make your website more engaging to potential customers and leads, consider these reminders:
- Add pictures of you and your team to different pages on your site. This is important for creating trust and building a bond with your visitors who may not have interacted with you before. Photos of people’s faces can improve conversions by up to 95%.
- Share reviews from happy customers. Sharing reviews can up the number of people who reach out to you by 270%.
- To get more clicks, add a CTA button with, “Get Your Free Quote,” at the top and bottom of your homepage.
Tip from Reddit: On the Reddit thread r/sweatystartup, one business owner recommends following up with prospective clients from your website as quickly as possible. If you promise a free quote—don’t delay. Get out and offer your pricing and services before the prospect commits to another business.
2. Optimize your plumbing website for SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) is a process you can use to help your website appear higher on Google’s search results page when potential customers are looking for your services.
To optimize your website for local SEO, start by making a list of all the potential words and phrases a customer would search in Google to find your services. Your list of keywords could include:
- Emergency plumber [City]
- Residential plumbing services
- Commercial plumbing company
- Licensed plumber [City]
- Water heater repair
- Affordable plumber [City]
After you’ve made a list of keywords, add them to your website content, including your headers (page titles), subheaders, and URLs.
I picked my domain name because of my SEO strategy, and I would recommend doing that for other services businesses. When you have a high search volume built into the name of your site, you’re just doubling down on “SEO juice.

Adding keywords to your site is the first step to getting found. Once you’ve done that, you can get more advanced with our SEO checklist:
- Check the speed of your website to make sure it’s loading quickly for visitors. 53% of people ditch a site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
- Make sure your website design is responsive, meaning it’s easy to view on both computers and mobile phones.
- Add new blog posts with more keywords each month. To keep showing up in organic search on Google, you need to add new blog posts with more keywords to your site each month. To keep bringing more people to your site, share new blog posts each week or month with new keywords.
3. Ask happy customers to write a review
Positive reviews on places like Facebook and Google are the main reason why a homeowner calls you over another local plumber. In fact, 90% of customers say reviews influence their decisions to hire a service provider.
To generate plumbing leads with customer reviews:
- At the end of each plumbing job, ask your happy customers to share reviews for your business on sites like Google, Facebook, Trustpilot, and Thumbtack.
- Share your Google Business Profile review link in follow-up texts or emails. The easier it is for customers to leave a review, the more likely they are to do it.
- Create a testimonials page on your website. To make them even more memorable—share a mix of written testimonials and video testimonials.
Request customer reviews on autopilot? Check. Once your customer pays their invoice from their device, you can set up automatic Google review requests through Jobber.
Tip from Reddit: Another business owner from r/sweatystartup suggests highlighting reviews that explain how you solved a problem. Maybe a job didn’t go perfectly, but you were able to troubleshoot and leave the customer 100% satisfied. Let the customer honestly share their experience, so that others can see how you respond in tough moments.
4. Use lead generation platforms and local directories
Plumbing lead generation platforms and online directories are great ways to help get your business found by people looking for plumbing services online.
- Lead generation websites, like Thumbtack, Angi, or HomeAdvisor, connect customers looking for services (like plumbing) with businesses. For a small cost, you can bid on job requests and send quotes to potential customers.
- Online directories (or local directories), like Google Business Profile, or Yelp, are digital platforms where you can list your business for free. This gives customers searching for plumbers a chance to find you online.
Check out some of the most popular plumbing lead generation platforms and online directories:
Lead Generation Platforms
- Thumbtack
- TaskRabbit
- Angi (formerly Angie’s List)
- HomeAdvisor
- Porch
Local Directories
- Google Business Profile
- Yelp
- Yellow Pages
- Bing Places
To start using lead generation sites or online directories to gain new leads, try these tips:
- Claim your free Google Business Profile. Get your business to show up on Google search results and Google Maps, which is especially helpful for local clients and leads.
- Create a Facebook business profile. Get more people interested in your business by sharing blog posts, photos, and customer reviews.
- Build a Thumbtack for contractors account. Post a free business listing and pay for leads in your area
5. Nurture quality leads with email marketing
Growing an email list and sending out interesting emails is an effective way to turn one-time site visitors into customers and an essential part of any digital marketing strategy.
To build your list and help turn qualified plumbing leads into customers:
- Let visitors sign up to receive newsletters or discounts right from your website.
- Sweeten the deal. More people will sign up for your emails if they get in return. For example, you may offer a discount on a plumbing job or a downloadable booklet on topics like plumbing hacks or troubleshooting.
- Add email addresses to a CRM. Keep people’s contact information in one place with a plumbing CRM.
- Put a call-to-action button at the end of each email. The button should take customers to your website, where they can find out more about your services.
- Send routine maintenance reminders. One of the best uses of an email list is to remind past customers that it’s time for a plumbing service.
- Send a newsletter. Newsletters are a great way to stay top of mind with potential customers. You could write about interesting local news, share reviews from happy customers, or give them your personal DIY plumbing hacks.
- Track your email open rates, and clicks. Track these metrics to make sure your emails are getting results.
I always tell people, especially business owners—if you’re not emailing your clients on a regular basis, you’re losing money.

Take advantage of Jobber email campaigns
To send effective (and prospect-friendly) marketing emails faster, use a tool that prepares email templates and audiences for you.
When you use Jobber to create email campaigns, you can choose from premade templates that are built for specific goals and customers—and that includes your company branding. That means it’s easier than ever to gain new revenue from old customers and keep prospects interested in your business.
6. Generate more plumbing leads with digital ads
Plumbing ads can help new customers find you on social media and Google. Here are four of the best digital ad options for service-based business owners:
Facebook Ads
Use Facebook Ads to market your plumbing services to specific groups of people—such as, “35-50 year olds, interested in home improvement, in Mount Pleasant.” You can set up ad goals (such as, “Get more calls.”), set a budget, and measure your ad’s performance from the platform.
Remarketing Ads
Remarketing ads are ads that appear online for a potential customer who recently visited your website. For example, if someone visited your site to check out your plumbing services but didn’t book a quote, a remarketing ad reminds them of your “24/7 Emergency Plumbing Services” or offers a discount for first-time customers.
Google Ads
Google Ads are text, image, responsive ads (that change based on who is looking at them), or video ads that appear on Google’s search results page or along the side of other web pages. These ads are pay-per-click (PPC), which means you’ll pay whenever someone clicks on the ad—whether or not they become a customer.
PPC ads can be especially useful for reaching people who are actively looking for plumbing services since they can effectively target up to 90% of internet users.
Local Service Ads
Unlike Search or Display ads where you pay per click, Google Local Service Ads are “pay per lead” ads, meaning you only pay when a lead comes in. These ads appear at the top of Google’s search results, making it easy for people looking for a plumber to spot you.
Pro Tip: Connect Google’s Local Service Ads with Jobber to book new leads right from Google search.
To create your first ad campaign, follow these steps:
- Pick your audience. Think about the ages, genders, interests, and income levels of your customers to make sure you’re targeting the right people.
- Create your ad. Give people all the information they need to reach out to you—share your company name, services, phone number, and email address.
- Make your ad shine. Share the unique benefits of going for your business over another local plumber, do you offer 24/7 emergency service? Better pricing? 5-star customer service?
- Create a monthly ad budget. You should always set a budget so you don’t overspend on your ads. Set aside a percentage of your total revenue (e.g., 7–9%) or use this formula:
Budget per lead x desired number of new customers = monthly advertising budget
- Test different ads and ad platforms. You may not get the results you want from the first few ads you post. Creating great ads is about learning what works for your customers. Try out different content, images, and buttons (like “Get your free quote,” or, “Call now.”) and review your metrics every three months.
7. Get referrals in your service area
Customer referrals are one of the best ways to generate more local plumbing leads. After all, customers tend to trust recommendations that come from people they know.
Here’s how to get new referrals from your customers for your plumbing business:
- Choose a reward. Try out different rewards to see what works best for getting more referrals from your customers. You could try out offering discounts on services, branded mugs or t-shirts, or gift cards.
- Show your customers how referral rewards work. Tell your customers about your referral program in your follow-up texts and emails. To make referrals even easier for your customers, you can share personalized, clickable referral links.
- Act quickly. It’s a good idea to call or email potential customers as soon as a lead comes in. The longer you wait, the less likely you are to get their business.
Make word of mouth work for you with streamlined Jobber referrals. With Jobber, you can build automated incentives to reward your customers for passing along a referral. You can also remind your customers about your programs, or quickly analyze the impact of customer referrals on your business growth.
8. Build relationships with other business owners
Relationship building with contractors in the trades is another effective way to get more plumbing leads. Terence Chan, President of Impetus Plumbing and Heating networks with other business owners through social media trade groups:
How I get most of my clients is through social media.
I’m very active in trade groups—we have dinners, we have outings and that’s how we share our work around. Even though there are your competitors, not all of them can do all that work. At the same time, there’s just so much work out there.

Just like Terence, here’s how you can build relationships with other business owners:
- Make friends through social media. You’ll find plenty of other contractors on Reddit, Facebook, and other contractor forums.
- Go to trade shows and networking events. Try out trade shows like Flow Expo, AHR Expo, and Kitchen and Bath Industry Show, and hand out your plumbing business cards.
- Keep in touch. Drop reminders in your calendar to regularly reach out to business owners you’ve met. Ask them to grab coffee or text them to compliment them on a new business win they’ve shared on their socials.
- Be generous. Share referrals to get referrals—the more business you can give other contractors, the more likely they’ll be to share your name with their customers.
- Run local giveaways. Don’t just team up with other contractors. You can also run giveaways or contests with local shops, cafes, and restaurants.
9. Send direct mail
Direct mail is still one of the best ways to get your business in front of long-time homeowners.
Here’s how to create a positive impression with direct mail:
- Make it personal. One reason people love getting something in the post is because it feels more personal. Add a personal URL or QR code to get more people to visit your site.
- Put in a time-limited coupon or discount. Limited-time discounts motivate people to buy your services because they worry they’ll miss out if they don’t.
- Go for color and style. Go for fun or bold colors and prints to make getting mail from you more exciting. (Just make sure to match your branding!)
How to get commercial plumbing leads
Unlike residential leads, which are leads looking for home plumbing, commercial leads are looking for plumbing services for their business. Commercial plumbing leads often result in higher-paying, longer-term jobs than residential ones.
To get more commercial plumbing leads, you’ll need to take a different approach than you would for residential plumbing leads. Here’s how:
- Connect with people on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has over 60 million decision makers—this makes it the perfect place to find commercial plumbing leads. The best way to use LinkedIn is to create genuine friendships. Like and comment on posts and spend two-three months engaging with someone before you share your services.
- Go to business events. Trade shows and local business networking events are a great place to meet commercial leads. Take a look at conventions like BNI and Gartner.
- Hire a sales team to get you more commercial leads. You can only do so much when it comes to landing a steady number of high-paying commercial leads. Trained, experienced sales professionals can help you grow.
People are everything. Our team is great. Our leadership is great. As soon as I shifted to this mindset, my business just exploded. You have to empower people.

Generate more plumbing leads today
From emails to referrals, there are plenty of ways to bring in new leads for your plumbing business. No matter how busy you are managing daily tasks and operations, using a mix of lead generation strategies each month is the “secret sauce” to keeping your business growing.
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