Start here: more leads is usually the wrong first fix
Before you spend another dollar on lead generation, work out what happens to the leads you already get. In most fence companies we look at, a real share of inbound never gets contacted at all — missed calls that were never returned, web forms answered hours later, and follow-up that stopped after one voicemail.
If that describes your business, buying more leads just increases the number of homeowners who hire someone else. Fix the leak, then turn on the tap. Our calculator will give you a rough dollar figure in about a minute.
1. Google Business Profile — free, fast, most underused
For local fence work, the map pack is the highest-intent real estate on the internet. Someone searching "fence company near me" is not researching; they are shopping. Most contractors claim the profile, upload four photos, and never touch it again.
- →Set the primary category to Fence Contractor, then add every secondary service you truly offer
- →Define your service area by the towns you profitably serve, not a 100-mile blanket
- →Post photos weekly — real job sites, before and after, different fence types
- →Answer the Q&A section yourself with the questions homeowners actually ask
- →Reply to every review, especially the negative ones, calmly and factually
Review volume and recency are among the strongest signals for map pack ranking. A steady drip of new reviews beats forty reviews from three years ago.
The review ask that actually works
Do not email a week later. Text the homeowner the same day the crew finishes, while the new fence is the best-looking thing in their yard, with a direct link to your review page. Ask once, then once more three days later. That single change often doubles review volume.
2. Local SEO — slow to start, cheapest at scale
Organic search is the channel that keeps producing estimates after you stop paying. It is also the slowest: realistically three to nine months before it moves. Build it while another channel pays the bills.
- →One page per fence type you install: wood, vinyl, aluminum, chain link, composite
- →One page per city or town you genuinely serve, with local photos and real detail
- →Price ranges on the page — homeowners search for cost, and pages that answer it rank
- →A gallery organized by fence type, with descriptive file names and alt text
- →Fast pages; a slow site loses mobile visitors before it ever loses a ranking
3. Google Ads — instant, expensive, unforgiving
Paid search buys demand today. It is also where fence contractors waste the most money, almost always for the same three reasons: broad match with no negative keywords, ads pointing at a homepage, and leads that arrive faster than anyone answers them.
- →Bid on install intent, exclude repair-only, DIY, materials, and jobs searches
- →Send vinyl searches to a vinyl page, wood searches to a wood page
- →Turn on call tracking so you know which keyword produced the job, not the click
- →Measure cost per booked estimate, not cost per lead
How we structure fence ad accounts →
4. Referrals and neighbor marketing — the cheapest job you will ever sell
A fence is a highly visible product installed in a neighborhood where every house shares a property line. Almost nobody works that systematically.
- →Door-hanger or postcard to the ten nearest homes the week you install
- →A yard sign while the crew is on site, removed at the walkthrough
- →A referral offer stated in writing at the final walkthrough, not just mentioned
- →A short note to the neighbor whose fence you just tied into
5. Past customers and dead leads — revenue already in your CRM
Every fence company is sitting on a list of homeowners who requested an estimate and never booked. Most of them did not choose a competitor; they got busy. A reactivation campaign across that list is usually the fastest revenue available to a fence contractor, and it costs almost nothing.
- →Text every unbooked lead from the last 18 months with a specific, low-pressure offer
- →Email past customers before fence season with gate repairs, staining, and extensions
- →Segment by fence type so the message is relevant, not blasted
Where to start
If you have fewer than 30 leads a month, fix Google Business Profile and reactivate your old list first — both are free. If you have plenty of leads but not enough booked estimates, the problem is not lead generation at all; it is speed to lead and follow-up.