Do Yard Signs ACTUALLY Work for Home Service Businesses?

Today we're gonna be talking yard signs for home services businesses. Do they actually work? Yard signs are dramatically cheaper per impression than billboards, often by 10 to 100 times. What the fuck?

It's gotta be simple. You either have to go the branding route or the offer route.

Don't put 500 signs in one neighborhood. I think that if you're doing yard signs, you're probably gonna get complaints.

I will hate it if you're getting negative reviews on your GBP. That would be bad.

What other thoughts do you have on yard signs? Do it? Yay, nay. Um, welcome back to Owned and Operated, a top 200 business and entrepreneurship podcast. I'm your host, John Wilson, and during the day I'm the CEO of Wilson Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling in Ohio and Indiana. For fun, I run a podcast where we talk about growing your home service company, and we talk about strategies in marketing, How to scale accounting, how to hire people, and how to grow your business. So thanks for joining us today. Make sure you like and sub if this is content that you're into. Today we're gonna be continuing our series of Clicks to Calls with my good friend Sam Preston, the CEO of ServiceScalers. Welcome back to the show, Sam.

Thanks for having me. I'm very excited, uh, to hear that you are in the top, you say top 200 best podcast?

Yeah, so we've actually been top, we've flirted with top 200 for the past like probably year, but we would dip in and out of it. But for the past 90 days, 4 months or so, we've been very consistent, like 150 to 175, which, you know, 5 years into podcasting, I'm like, on one hand I'm like, yeah, you know what? I deserve this. On the other hand, it's like, that is kind of fucking awesome. That's kind of awesome.

Yeah, exactly.

I think another like fun thing about that top 200 podcast ranking is like when I look at that, I have like 10 friends that are also inside the top 200. So it's just, I don't know, it's, it's kind of funny. Apparently I've surrounded myself with other podcasters.

There you go. So that, that circle of 5 people, who's your closest friends?

Yeah. Yeah. Today's a funny one. I mean, well, so in Clicks to Calls, we've covered, you know, usually we do a little bit of a recap. So we've covered, got all types of shit. We cover SEO and we covered pay-per-click and Nextdoor ads, stalls. We did. We talked, yeah, we did. We talked billboards, we talked truck wraps. Maybe that was with Ethan. But yeah, we've had a wide-ranging, wide-ranging conversation. Today's kind of a funny one. Today we're gonna be talking yard signs for home services businesses. Do they actually work?

Like—

Yeah. Do they do the thing that you want them to do?

I'm really excited to hear what you think because I was doing research. I obviously have never put out a yard sign in my life.

Yeah.

So I was like, okay, does this work? And I found a Reddit post and this guy was very serious. He was very excited about his results. That did not feel sarcastic as he's writing this.

Really?

And he every Friday would go put yard signs in his community to drive traffic and he hit $10,000. His first year in business with these yard signs.

What's the business?

It was a— I've got it right here— gutter cleaning.

So, okay, so $10,000 is probably a lot for gutter cleaning. I mean, what, every time you clean that sign— I don't know how many gutters that is. Like 50 gutters?

Maybe. So maybe that's better than I think. I just think of that like that's a lot of work to get $10,000 in one year.

I agree. That is a lot of work to get $10,000 in one year. Well, let's, yeah, let's talk about what signs, what yard signs actually, that's really interesting. We have, I have a couple other like sort of examples that I'll give out here. So what is a yard sign? So a yard sign, like you've probably seen it, it is a sign in a yard. Yay.

That's a good one.

We got there. Yeah, we got there. But so yeah, like either after a job's completed or there's companies similar to what Sam just described where like, They'll go out and smack a sign in a yard or at a street corner or whatever. I have a spot in my neighborhood where I go down the— there's a back way outta my neighborhood. My neighborhood's on a hill. So I go down the back way and it goes up against railroad tracks and there's always 3 yard signs there. And honestly, I don't know why I've never put my yard sign there. But there's always 3 yard signs there. So a lot of times it's on public property, frankly. Yeah. So that's a yard sign. It usually has a coupon or the business's name, call me for your gutter cleaning or drain cleaning or painting or, I don't know, whatever. So that's a yard sign. It's kind of like a mini billboard is I think a good way to see it.

Yeah.

And it's intimate because it's in the neighborhood and you can sort of You know, put it all out there.

I will say, unlike billboards though, the cost per view is probably significantly lower. Billboards, lower than expensive. Just like a sign that you're literally putting in the yard and just get people going through feels really cheap.

Probably depends on how much the yard sign is. I mean, if it's a couple bucks, yeah, because I mean, a billboard, like cost per view, like if you're paying like $1,000 a month for 3 months, that's $3,000. If you put it on a highway, well, you probably wouldn't get that price on a highway, I guess. I mean, you probably get like thousands of views a day, so it's like a— what even is that, like a penny a view? But I mean, maybe, maybe. Uh, that's actually— that, that would be a good— that, that would be a good, uh, equation. I'm honestly— I'm fucking ChatGPT that right now. What is my cost per impression? I'm interested. I am interested. What is My cost per impression on a yard sign versus a billboard. Let's see what chat has to say for us. Here's an uncomfortable truth. Growth breaks the moment that your team can't keep up. I know that finding good people fast is really hard, especially in home services. Positions like HR, accounting, marketing, call center, it is hard to keep up. QuickStaffers helps home service companies build reliable virtual teams that actually understand the trades. QuickStaffers provides vetted remote staff who are pre-trained on ServiceTitan and use best-in-industry SOPs. These are team members ready to integrate into your business on day one, handling roles like customer service, lead follow-up, scheduling support, and more. We're actively hiring an offshore assistant controller right now through QuickStaffers. I can't recommend QuickStaffers enough. They've helped us scale our business without a headache. Head over to Quickstaffers.com for more. Okay, you were apparently exactly right, and I'm stupid. Yeah. All right. So, all right. Yard signs are dramatically cheaper per impression than billboards. Dramatically, by the way. It wasn't like they're cheaper. They're like, hey, Sam was. Sam wasn't just right. He was dramatically right.

After all this time, I got to be right at least once.

That's nice. That's got to feel good. Often by ten to a hundred times. What the fuck? Okay, but there's a but, there's a con.

I'm a big yard sign guy, so I know my numbers.

Yeah, he knows his yard signs. Yeah, but they have less reach and maybe most importantly prestige.

Yeah.

Which I actually do think there's something to that where like if you're, if you're on a billboard, I actually think that's kind of why some home service contractors do it. It's like, you know, it's like if, if you're like a, a theater actor, you want to see your name on Broadway, right? If you're a plumber, you wanna see your name on a billboard. It's like my name in shining lights, you know?

This is it.

This is it, this is it, yeah. So I do think there's a prestige factor where, hey, if you're on a billboard, like, you know, maybe I'm a real business. Whereas if I'm on a yard sign, am I a real business or am I just like, Not, not a real, you know, not, but, or, or is, is, is that the perception? 'Cause obviously there are very large businesses that do a lot of yard signs, but I do wonder if that's like a part, you know, the prestige thing.

I think what is kind of interesting, I think some, some businesses it makes a lot of sense and some it doesn't. We can go into there. Yeah. But I do feel like if you've already wrapped your truck, like you spent the 30 grand to get your truck wrapped, it feels like it's redundant and not, Not worth it.

Maybe. I mean, I think it depends on the business. All right, let's do a little bit of economics here, 'cause now I'm still inside ChatGPT. All right, so the cost per sign is $5 to $15. That doesn't feel bad. You know, when I looked into this like 10 years ago, it was like $30. So I don't know if technology got better or what. The lifespan is 30 to 90 days, daily impressions 20 to 200. So pick your street corner well. The estimated cost CPM, which I think that's impressions, right? Yeah, impressions. 50 cents to $5 per 1,000 impressions. You can drop below $1 CPM. I don't know what my CPM is on Meta or I don't know.

I mean, it just depends on how good you're running ads.

All right, billboards, 1,500 to 10,000 a month. That's a lot. $5 to $20 per 1,000 impressions.

Okay.

That's a lot.

Okay.

Yeah, that's interesting. I think the businesses that it would work well on, so we just got my driveway sealed and honestly it was a terrible experience. It was kind of funny. That part wasn't funny, but it was not great. Yeah. Sounds hilarious.

Yeah.

Hilarious. I absolutely loved losing $3,500. So we had our driveway sealed And awful experience. And like, I'm walking and they just like, it didn't look good. I had to have them come back out a second time 'cause I was like, my guy, like this looks insane. And so I'm walking around the neighborhood and like 3 or 4 other neighbors had also just gotten their driveway sealed. And in my head I was like, I wish they had a yard sign because I would've called whoever the hell these guys, 'cause this looks good and my guys looks insane. And I got 'em off Thumbtack or something. No, I think that's a— the 3 people that you need to have. There's a good one.

Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

Well, like that's a good one. Landscaping, I think, is another good one. Very like, hey, we're in your neighborhood type of, you know, outside aesthetics, windows, roofing maybe are good ones.

Yeah, and landscapers for sure. 'Cause every single time I have somebody in my neighborhood that's getting their yard landscaped and I get outta the idea that I have to do it myself to be a real man.

Yes.

I literally walk over to them. I'm like, what is your card? Because I just want to hire somebody that's already going to be in my neighborhood. Oh, you're in my neighbor's house? Okay. When you get done with theirs, just come, come do my yard.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that, that, I think that that makes sense. So I think that's sort of like why they still work is I'm walking around my neighborhood. I like What my neighbor's driveway looks like, I'm jealous of it. You know, I've got that keeping up with the Joneses thing going on. I'm like, well, your driveway looks great. My driveway has to look great. Man, otherwise I'm falling behind in life.

Sealed, bro.

Yeah, I know. I know. Yeah. So yeah, I think it. I I think it still works. And if you haven't, if you're a new listener to the show, we have a couple examples of it working. There's a guy we met, and and I still have to have him on the show. I think he reached out at some point. I got to get ahold of him. But he built his entire business somewhere, I think like $5 or $6 million, which seems outrageous, but $5 or $6 million on the back of yard signs. That was the only advertising they did was hundreds of yard signs a week just went out and built this $5 or $6 million business. And they did that in 3 years, which is crazy. That's a, yeah, I mean, epic is a great word for it. That's absolutely epic. So it still works. And I think there's like a neighborhood repetition. So I'll give another example. We were shopping for landscaping companies to like, you know, do our yard. And there's like, my neighborhood has like 3 landscapers and like it's the same 3 landscapers. Everybody's got one of these 3 landscapers. And I think, like, they don't use yard signs and that's not really the point of it. It's more like reputation inside a neighborhood. Builds trust in that neighborhood. Like we have some streets that we've worked in every single house on that street, no exaggeration. And like we have neighborhoods that we we cover 70% of that neighborhood. Our core zip code we've worked in like 50 to 60% of the homes over the past 50 years. It's kind of crazy. But yeah, I think the more they see the truck, the more they see the name, the more they see the yard sign. In that neighborhood, it does build trust where, hey, well, everybody uses Wilson, so I'll use Wilson. And I think yard signs are kind of an extension of that.

Yeah, no, I think that makes sense. I think that there are— it has its place though. It is not the main job. It's your side gig kind of thing. It is not the thing you want to—

I really want to know what happened with that guy that Like, is that all he's still doing? Like, I wanna know. I would, I need a status update. Like, yeah. Have we added more marketing? Have we not? Is it still working? Like, cuz that's fucking awesome. Like, if he can get to $10 million purely on the back of yard signs, that dude won life as far as I'm concerned. Like, that's the coolest thing I've ever heard.

Yeah.

His marketing spend was like 1%. It was just like, yeah, just yard signs.

Signs.

Just out here doing it.

Literally.

Fuck yeah, dude. This is awesome.

Yeah.

But I do wanna know, I need a status update. Are we still only doing yard signs? Are we locked in on that? Have we added anything else? There's no right or wrong answer. I just need to know.

Please let us know. Service Desk might start offering a new service.

Yard signs. Yeah. Sam's out there, bam, bam.

Just placing 'em for you.

Anything for the client, man.

Yeah.

Anything.

Anything. Exactly.

All right, so what do you think? What do you think makes 'em effective? What do you think makes 'em work?

It's got to be simple. You have to have— I mean, you either have to go the branding route or the offer route, right? You see all those like yard signs, the we buy houses, you know, call here. You know, that works. Or, you know, we buy cars or something like that. We'll buy your car.

We buy plumbing companies.

Say again?

I said, we buy plumbing companies.

We buy just yard signs all over everywhere.

It could work. It could work. It could?

I mean, don't knock it till you've tried it.

Yeah.

That's what I tell my son while I'm trying to get him to eat his dinner.

Broccoli, yeah.

Broccoli again. You know, just eat it, bro. But yeah, like I think you have to have either a very clear short offer or it's gotta be just a branding gig. And I think you have a number. Don't get crazy.

Yeah.

You know, if you are putting a bunch of text on there, no one's gonna read that. They're barely gonna read the—

Yeah.

Your offer and your phone number. So you better, like, if you put anything else on there, I think you're in trouble.

I think the offer that worked for a couple people, so we had Isaac Zimmerman on the show maybe in November. And so he and I were both, we met that guy 'cause we did like an event at Isaac's shop. And that's where we met the guy from Michigan. So Isaac was like, dude, I'm going to totally go do this. It's a hilarious story. We got to link the episode. But so he goes in and he prints out 500 yard signs the next day. And this is just very Isaac. He gets an idea, he's like, nothing, no other idea has ever existed. He can only pursue that one thing. Yeah. And so he gets these 500 yard signs and he's like, you know what? Instead of sort of balancing out, I'm gonna do 500 yard signs in one neighborhood. And, and he was so excited about that idea. I remember him like texting me about it the night before. He's like, dude, this neighborhood's gonna bleed Jay Blanton. It's gonna be awesome. I'm like, all right, like we'll see how it goes, man. And like, and then he got like so many calls. He got a sale the first day. He's like, yeah. And then immediately it was like, people were like, dude, you ruined our neighborhood. Remove these signs. So, so, you know, yeah, don't put 500 signs in one neighborhood. But it— but his offer was like $99 off a plumbing repair, and I think that that— I think that that worked. And I believe that was the offer from that one company up in, uh, up in Michigan too. I think so. I talked to a lot of home service business owners, and if you are anything like the many shops that I know, you're getting flooded with AI Right now, most of them sound great, but then they fall apart the second they hit the real world. The one that I've kept coming back to is Avoca. What impressed me is they actually get how contracting businesses run, and it's not just some AI answering service. Avoca is going to handle inbound calls, outbound follow-ups, texts, web leads, dispatching, and even coaching your CSRs inside of one system that's built for growing home service companies. And if you're on ServiceTitan, this matters. Their integrations go deep, so you're not duct taping 5 tools together and hoping nothing breaks during your busy season. I also like that they're honest about what AI should and shouldn't do. When a call needs a human, they have a 24/7 live transfer built in. No drop balls, no awkward customer experience. Owners using Avoca are seeing hold times basically disappear and booking rates jump, sometimes by more than 30%. And that is real revenue, not just a vanity metric. If you're looking for the one AI partner that actually helps you book more jobs without creating more chaos, this is worth taking a look. Book a demo at the link below.

So are there any legal things we need to be aware of, or HOAs, or anything like that that we need to like know before we get into it?

I mean, I, I think that if you're doing yard signs, you're probably going to get complaints, and I think, uh, prepare for that. Um, maybe be thoughtful about where you put them. Don't put 'em inside people's yards. Like that would probably be bad. Um, put 'em inside like public land, maybe like the Devil Strip, which that's an Ohio thing, I guess. But yeah. Um, I don't know, corners. Yeah. I, I wouldn't put 'em in like people's yards cuz that, I'm sure that'd be trespassing or something. Yeah. Uh, besides that, I don't really know of any laws prohibiting it.

And I don't mind complaints. You know, that's gonna happen every once in a while. I will hate it if you're getting negative reviews on your GBP.

That, that would be bad.

So you start seeing that, you know, get that out there.

Yeah, you know, we don't get that for canvassing, which is kind of interesting. I would've imagined that something like that would happen, but it just never did.

Maybe it's just too hard to go find somebody online. Like they search for it and they can't find it.

Okay, I think some common mistakes that I see when I hear people trying to do yard signs, probably the most common mistake Most common mistake is expecting their technicians to do it. Mm-hmm. Because they just won't. So everyone's got— there's a, there's a strategy called the clover where you go and do a job, and then after the job's done, you go put a door hanger on the house in front of that job, next to that job, other next to that job, behind that house. Clover. You clover the house. No one has ever succeeded in their technicians consistently performing a clover. Like, that has never been a thing. Someone said they might have done it once, they might have done it twice, but like, no one's like, yeah dude, 5 straight years we clover every tech.

Every day.

Like, hell no. Uh, and I think that that's— I think that's the same thing here. Like, your techs have a million other things on their mind. They're not going to be trying to clover or yard sign neighborhoods. So if the best way to do it, salespeople, as they're going out, if they close a sale, hey, can I put a yard sign? Have a marketing team go do it, yard sign. But what you want is you want it to be consistent instead of like a one-off project where you go put 500 signs in one place. You want it to be like the guy you described. I mean, maybe he didn't do a good job, maybe he chose the wrong things or whatever, But hey, every Friday from 12 to 4, I put in 10 yard signs or whatever. That's a system. And that's likely to over time be more and more effective. So I think that's one of the more common mistakes is making it one-off or expecting team members that already have a lot on their plate to just do it. Oh yeah, they'll totally remember to do it. Same as the 30 other things I want them to do. So I'd be finding a different way to make sure it's consistent.

Why do you think it's so hard to get techs to do that? Is it just that they have so much to do and they're already rushing off to the next appointment, or what is it?

Yeah, I think pick your battles. So like, what do you want? What do you want from a, uh, a technician? You want a good, a great customer experience. You want a 5-star customer experience. You want the customer to be happy. You want a sale to be made. You want them to collect. You want them to be a master technician. You want them to be all these things. And a common mistake in smaller companies is sending more and more shit for your tech to do when really you should be aiming at less and less shit. Your tech should be like, how can I do 5 things or 4 things instead of 30 things? Because they're already walking in, they're trying to build rapport, they're trying to explore, they're trying to figure out options. There's a lot going on and I would much rather they focus on that Then remember to, you know, clover the neighborhood. We can find, we can figure out somebody that's not, you know, their compensation to do that.

Yeah, I think that makes sense.

So that's, I'm, maybe someone out there has like totally mastered it and their plumbers are canvassing geniuses, but I do think if you can make it a more consistent, just hire a part-timer or you could do it yourself or whatever. But sometimes it's the install manager on the follow-up. Sometimes the installers, but I found that that tends to not be very consistent either. Cool.

No, I think that makes sense. I've, I mean, I dealt with the same thing in my own business where I had somebody who was just trying to do too many things. And so when we siloed off like, hey, this is your only job and do this as often as possible and get really, really good results with this.

Yeah.

We saw a lot better performance. Yeah.

You want to be scorecarded. Like, I don't want to be pipping a tech. Because hey, you didn't put your yard signs out. Like, come on.

Right.

I don't know. I would find that annoying. I would find that conversation to be annoying. All right, when they work best. I think they work, like we sort of used this a little bit, but in a neighborhood you're pretty dense in or in a neighborhood you're visiting, I think that's like the best pairing. Like everyone knows the 3 landscaping companies in my neighborhood. They're all the same. So, like, I do think it pairs pretty well with the truck wrap thing. Like, if it's a brand, if, do you have a brand? Do you have a brand? Ideally, it's a differentiated brand, refer to that episode, but ideally, it's a differentiated brand with a lot of local reviews and you're pushing on a neighborhood that you wanna be in. I don't know, what are, what other thoughts do you have on yard signs? Do it, yay, nay?

I mean, I think you do it. You know, I know you're mentioning this guy who had a ton of success. I still feel super skeptical that there's not something else behind that than just yard signs. But obviously people have been doing it with, you know, loads of success in other things like buying cars that I can think of or—

Yeah.

Buying houses like the flippers, they do it with success. So it's got to work.

Yeah.

But like, if you're going to do it, make sure it's, you know, a bold service line, a good offer, a very clear call to action, like free estimate or same-day service or, you know, here's my phone number or QR code. And I think it's most often going to work in things that are outwardly visible. I like, you know, landscaping, gutters. Yeah. You know, spraying the house, you know, that stuff is going to work more. And I think it's going to work more often when you're there. So yeah, they're on site. You've got your sign in the yard. The neighbors are like, oh, look, they're mowing the lawn. I'd like— my lawn looks, you know, overgrown. Guys, come over to my house after you're done. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's where it's going to work the most. Versus something that's inside that you just don't see them doing. You know, if you're— yeah, if you're putting down floors, like, it's just hard to see the difference versus on the outside you're like, oh, I can see a visible difference in that. So I think that's where lies the most success. And it's got to be paired with other things that are driving you leads.

Most marketing agencies will show you clicks, impressions, and maybe even traffic. But none of that really matters if the phone's not ringing. And that's why we partner with ServiceScalers. They are built specifically for home service companies, and they focus on one thing, which is driving real high-quality calls and book jobs. This is a no-brainer. They're offering a 60-day money-back guarantee on LSA management, Google Business Profile optimization, and website builds. If you don't get more visibility, more calls, and better leads, then you If you want more booked jobs without the marketing headache, click the link below and book a free strategy call with Service Scalers. We started using it with canvassing, so we have our canvassing team put 'em out and, um, it works. I'm, I'm actually, I'm texting our, uh, field marketing manager right now and like trying to get more information. Like how well does it work? Uh, but we've been putting 'em out and supposedly it is driving some results inside plumbing, which is pretty cool. I think we're just using the $99 off a plumbing repair coupon. And, but yeah, seems to be working, which is pretty interesting. And the way we're doing it is like we have a canvasser just go out and knock doors and at the end of each neighborhood they pop, pop a little yard sign. And I think we're putting out like 20, 30 a day. I mean, I think a lot of it is brand. I think a lot of it is, but there is leads, like there's direct leads coming from it.

Okay.

That's why we did that $99 off thing. But it is working. So I don't have the, I don't have the number. I should have brought 'em. I don't have the numbers in front of me on like how much sales or how much whatever. Uh, but it seems to be— he says we are driving sales from that channel, direct quote.

It does work.

It's enough information for me. Yeah.

I mean, to be honest, like, I'm still in doubt. Like, I feel critical of that idea, but that's one of the things I love about marketing.

Dude, I mean, that one guy up in Michigan is like $0 to $6 million or whatever with only yard signs. I need him to go to 100 million just yard signs. I think honestly, I think the industry needs it. I think the industry needs that because he would both be successful, extremely rich, and it would be hilarious. It would be the best. He'd build an awesome business and it'd be funny the whole way.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. If you're listening again, please reach out. I would really love to fly you down and have you on the show because I need to know more.

Let's go, let's go.

All right, well, thanks everybody for tuning in as we riffed on yard signs. If you have any experience on yard signs and you think it's like the best or worst channel ever, comment below. I would love to hear it.

I've got to know that somebody else is doing this with success just because I feel skeptical, and maybe that's just because I'm a digital guy.

So if you're a digital man, You're digital. Like, yeah, maybe this is analog, Sam.

I don't, I don't like the physical world. I just want to Ready Player One, go into my virtual reality right now.

This is the real world. This is real as it gets. Yeah, I'm on a boat. Don't you ever forget. All right, thanks everybody for tuning in. Peace.