How to Get More Home Improvement Customers and Sales Leads
How installers get more customers and sales leads: referrals, reviews, Google, trade registers, marketplaces, ads and bought leads, and where to start.
Installers get more customers by working through three layers, in order. First, win more work from people who already know you: referrals, repeat jobs and reviews. Second, make sure homeowners nearby can find and check you: a Google Business Profile, your trade's own register and a web page for each job you want more of. Third, pay for reach (ads, marketplaces or bought leads) to fill the gaps the first two leave.
Getting sales leads works the same way for a window fitter as for anyone selling to homeowners. A lead is someone who has asked. It becomes a sale only if you answer quickly and well, so fix the reply before you pay for more enquiries.
How do you get more customers from the ones you already have?
1. Ask for referrals at handover, on every job
Most installers wait for referrals to happen. Put the ask on the job sheet instead: at handover, "Is there anyone you know who's thinking about new windows?", and leave two cards. Some trades get a head start. Neighbours see new windows, a conservatory or an extension. Nobody sees loft insulation or a new floor, so in those trades the ask does all the work.
2. Go back for the next job
Most jobs lead to another: a front door after the windows, the stairs and landing after the lounge carpet, a conservatory roof replacement years after the build, an EV charger after solar panels. Keep a list of past customers with what they bought and when, and get in touch when the next job is likely.
Check the rules before you email or text them. The ICO's guidance on electronic mail marketing sets out a "soft opt-in". You can market to someone without separate consent only if:
- you got their details directly from them while selling, or negotiating to sell, something to them (a quote request counts);
- you market only your own similar products or services;
- you gave them a simple way to opt out when you collected their details, and you give one in every message.
A customer who had windows fitted, was offered an opt-out when you took their details and didn't use it fits that test for a message about doors. A list of people you've never dealt with doesn't.
3. Turn finished jobs into reviews
Ask every customer, the same way, soon after the job. Google suggests a link or QR code and advice on replies: keep them short, never share the customer's private details, and answer a bad review honestly rather than with an argument.
Two rules limit how you ask. Google's contribution policy bans reviews given for an incentive, discouraging negative reviews, and asking only the customers you expect to be happy. The CMA's unfair commercial practices guidance lists commissioning fake reviews, or reviews that hide an incentive, as a banned practice under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, from 6 April 2025.
How do homeowners find and check a local installer?
On Google
Google's page on local ranking says results depend mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that you can't pay for a better local ranking. Prominence includes how many reviews you have, so the review habit above feeds straight into it.
If you have a showroom, as many window, conservatory and flooring firms do, Google treats you as a hybrid business: you can show your address and set a service area too, provided the premises have permanent signage. Without signage, list yourself as a service-area business with the address hidden.
On your trade's register
A homeowner who wants reassurance before ringing can check your trade's register. Each one below is described as it describes itself.
Where homeowners check an installer
By trade, as each register describes itself
| Trade | Register | What it tells a homeowner |
|---|---|---|
| Windows and doors | FENSA, CERTASS and other competent person schemes | gov.uk lists these schemes for replacement windows and doors; members self-certify instead of getting building regulations approval. FENSA has a postcode search and says homeowners get a FENSA certificate when the job's done |
| Solar and heat pumps | MCS | The UK's quality mark for small-scale renewables. Its search works by technology and area, and can filter for installers registered for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme |
| Many home improvement trades | TrustMark | Describes itself as the Government Endorsed Quality Scheme. Its search finds registered tradespeople, and it tells homeowners to check registration for the specific trade |
| Flooring | NICF; the Carpet Foundation for carpet shops | NICF's directory lists carpet and floor layers near you. Carpet Foundation members follow a code of practice approved by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute |
Sources: competent person schemes, FENSA, MCS, TrustMark, NICF, Carpet Foundation.
A decision rule: if your trade has a register homeowners check, get on it before you spend on ads. A paid click that ends in a failed check is money spent sending a customer to someone else.
On your own website
Give every job you want more of its own page: real photos from your jobs, the areas you cover, what changes the price, and an enquiry form someone answers within minutes. A single "services" page listing everything you do tells neither Google nor a homeowner what you're best at.
Are marketplaces and directories worth paying for?
They can be, early on. As published on 2 Nov 2026:
- Checkatrade has a Free plan at £0 with a profile and reviews, Approved at £30 a month with its tick and a directory listing, and Growth from £59 a month, where you choose how many leads you want a year for a fixed monthly cost. Fixed plan memberships run for 12 months, and it lists up to 12 checks before approval (pricing).
- Bark charges credits to respond to a request, shows the cost before you respond, and credits expire three months after purchase. A general request can go to up to five professionals, and credits spent on one come back for an invalid phone number reported within seven days (pricing, terms).
Our guide to what trades pay on Bark, Checkatrade and MyBuilder adds MyBuilder and works out what one won job costs on each.
Marketplaces suit a new firm that needs its first jobs and reviews. They suit a considered, high-value job less, because you're often one of several firms quoting, and the conversation turns to price. Our guide to exclusive vs shared leads covers what that does to the homeowner, and our comparison of UK lead generation companies covers marketplaces alongside lead suppliers.
How do you generate home improvement leads with your own ads?
Google search ads reach people searching now ("composite door fitters near me"), so intent is high and volume is limited by how many people search. Facebook and Instagram reach people before they search, so volume is higher and intent lower: you'll need a qualifying question or two on the form and a reply within minutes. See speed to lead for why.
Three things decide whether ads pay:
- Honest wording. The ASA's advice on lead generation marketing covers rulings against window and double-glazing ads built on "funding", "scrappage" and grant claims. An ad that promises what the job can't deliver fills the diary with disappointed homeowners.
- A page per offer. Someone who clicked an ad for bifold doors should land on a page about bifold doors, not your homepage.
- Measuring jobs, not clicks. Tell the ad platforms which enquiries booked a survey, so they find more like them. Our guide to the lead feedback loop explains how.
You can run ads yourself (your time and your spend), pay an agency (its fee plus your spend), or buy leads from a supplier who runs the ads and charges per lead. Our guide to cost per lead vs cost per job compares who carries the risk of wasted clicks in each.
When should you buy leads, and when shouldn't you?
Buying leads fills spare capacity quickly. It works for a team that can call within minutes, including evenings, knows its close rate and does jobs big enough to carry the cost per lead.
It doesn't work when:
- the diary is already full for weeks;
- enquiries wait hours for a reply, since buying more of them only buys more that cool;
- you can't tell which source a job came from;
- the typical job is too small for the price per lead to come back.
Before you buy from anyone, our guide to how to choose a lead generation company sets out ten questions to ask.
Which route should you start with?
Match the route to where your business is now.
| Your situation | Start with | Add next | Leave for now |
|---|---|---|---|
| New firm, few reviews | Your trade's register, a Google profile and a review from every early job | A marketplace or subcontract work for the first jobs | Big ad budgets: ads send people to check reviews you don't have yet |
| Busy from word of mouth, quiet in winter | A referral ask on every job, and a message to past customers before the quiet months | Ads or bought leads for the quiet months only | Paid spend all year |
| Moving into new postcodes | The new area in your Google service areas | Ads or bought leads there, tracked separately | Judging the area on one month |
| Enquiries wait hours for a reply | A message in your name within minutes, then a call at a time they chose | Any paid route, once that works | Buying more enquiries |
| High-value jobs, such as extensions | Partners who see the job first (architects, builders), and reviews with photos | Exclusive leads with tight criteria | Shared leads that start a price race |
Whichever row you're in, ask every enquiry how they heard of you and log it. After three months, divide what each route cost, in money and hours, by the jobs it produced. That number, not the cost per lead, tells you where the next pound should go. Our guides to getting more solar customers and getting more flooring customers work through the routes for those two trades.
Where POCKLA fits
POCKLA is one of the paid routes. We run our own Meta and Google campaigns and sell home improvement leads to installers in seven trades, with indicative prices per qualified web lead (ranges, not quotes; your exact price is agreed on a call):
- £20–£50 for solar leads, window and door leads, conservatory leads, air source heat pump leads and flooring leads;
- £20–£80 for insulation leads, with loft and cavity at the low end and external and internal wall at the top;
- £100–£300 for home extension leads.
Every lead is exclusive to you, and invalid numbers come back. Each enquiry is followed up on WhatsApp in your business's name, or by SMS, and reaches your CRM or POCKLA Desk, where calls made from Desk get free call analytics. Live transfers are available too. There's no setup fee, no monthly fee and no minimum term (pricing).
Bought leads sit in the third layer. They pay when the first two are working and someone answers every enquiry in minutes, and not before.