I've sat across the table from plumbers in Round Rock, electricians in Pflugerville, and HVAC guys in San Marcos who all said some version of the same thing: "I think my marketing is working... I'm pretty sure." That uncertainty is the whole problem. You're paying $1,500 to $4,000 a month and you think it's working. That's not a business decision — that's a prayer.
Marketing agencies that serve trades are notorious for drowning owners in vanity metrics: impressions, click-through rates, social engagement. None of that pays your crew. Here's how to run a 10-minute self-audit that cuts through the noise and tells you the truth.
Step 1: Pull Your Actual Lead Numbers — Not the Dashboard They Built You
Log into your own call tracking or CRM and count the inbound leads from the last 30 days. If you don't have call tracking, check your phone's call log and count unknown numbers. Then ask your agency: how many of those came from paid ads, and how many came from organic search? If they can't give you a clean breakdown within 24 hours, that's a red flag.
According to BrightLocal's 2025 Local Consumer Review Survey, 76% of people who search for a local service on their phone call or visit within 24 hours. That means if your phone isn't ringing, the traffic your agency is sending isn't converting — or there's barely any traffic to speak of. Don't accept a screenshot of Google Analytics sessions. Ask for lead volume, lead source, and booked jobs. Those three numbers are the only scoreboard that matters.
Step 2: Search Your Own Business Like a Stranger Would
Open an incognito browser window. Search your service and your city. Try searches like "emergency plumber Austin" or "AC repair Cedar Park" or whatever your actual service area is. You're looking for three things:
- Google Business Profile: Are you showing up in the map pack (the top 3 local listings)? If you're on page two of local results for your own city, your local SEO is broken.
- Paid ads: If you're running Google Ads, do your ads actually appear? Click one. Does it land on a real page with your phone number visible above the fold, or does it dump traffic onto your generic homepage?
- Organic results: Is your website anywhere on page one for your main service + city combo? If not, you either need more time (fair, SEO takes 4–6 months minimum) or your agency hasn't done the work.
This whole search takes four minutes. Most trade owners have never done it. Do it now.
Step 3: Check What They've Actually Built and Changed in the Last 60 Days
This one stings. Ask your agency to send you a deliverables log — a simple list of what they created, published, or changed in the last 60 days. Real deliverables look like: two new service pages published, Google Business Profile updated with summer AC tune-up offer, five new backlinks built from Texas home services directories, one campaign A/B test completed.
Fake deliverables look like: monthly reporting call completed, social posts scheduled, account management and strategy. That second list is them billing you for existing. If your agency can't show you a tangible change to your digital presence in the last 60 days, they are on autopilot with your money.
Also pull up your Google Business Profile and look at the photo upload dates, post dates, and Q&A responses. If the last post was from four months ago, someone isn't doing their job — and you're paying for it anyway.
Step 4: Calculate Your Cost Per Booked Job
Take what you paid your marketing company last month — including ad spend — and divide it by the number of jobs you actually booked from those leads. That's your cost per booked job. For most trades in Central Texas, a healthy number is somewhere between $40 and $120 depending on ticket size. A gate install or a full HVAC replacement can absorb a higher acquisition cost. A $150 drain clean cannot sustain a $200 cost per lead.
If you don't know this number, you are flying blind. And if your agency has never brought this number up with you, they are not operating as a business partner — they're operating as a vendor who wants to keep cashing checks.
What to Do With What You Find
If you ran this audit and you felt confident in every answer, good — your agency is earning it. If you hit two or more of these and felt a knot in your stomach, trust that feeling. You built your trade business on knowing when a job was done right. Apply that same instinct here.
At Bizinabox, we work specifically with service trades in Austin and Central Texas — and we show our clients exactly what was built, what it cost, and what it produced. No dashboards designed to confuse you. If you want a second set of eyes on what you're currently paying for, reach out to us at Bizinabox and we'll take a look. No pitch, no pressure — just a straight answer about what you're dealing with.