How much should an electrician spend on marketing?
Electricians should budget against customer lifetime value rather than job value, because compliance work repeats. A landlord needing certificates every five years across four properties is worth many times a single call-out, and that changes what a marketing spend can justify.
Lifetime value is the number here
Most trades work from job value because most jobs are one-offs. Electrical compliance isn't. A certificate is required on a cycle, and an agent managing a portfolio brings the same requirement repeatedly across many properties.
That means a marketing spend which looks expensive against a single job can look cheap against the relationship it starts. It also means the customers worth winning aren't the ones ringing about a broken socket.
| Customer | First job | Realistic value over 5 years |
|---|---|---|
| Homeowner, one fault | Low hundreds | Often nothing further |
| Homeowner, rewire | Mid thousands | Occasional follow-on work |
| Single landlord | Certificate | Repeat certificates plus remedial work |
| Letting agent, portfolio | Certificate | Recurring across many properties |
How to set the budget
- Work out what a repeat compliance customer is actually worth to you across five years, not one visit.
- Decide which customer type you want more of. For most electricians the honest answer is agents and landlords.
- Judge any spend on whether it produces that type, not on total enquiry volume.
- Track remedial work separately. Certificates often lead to it, and ignoring that undercounts what compliance is really worth.
What most electricians get wrong
Measuring cost per lead against a single job. It makes compliance marketing look expensive and emergency marketing look cheap, which is precisely backwards once repeat work is counted.
The other error is not tracking where remedial work came from. An EICR that produces two days of follow-on work is a far better outcome than the certificate fee suggests, and if you only record the certificate you'll conclude the wrong thing about what's working.
Related questions
Is £147 a month enough?
It depends on your area and where you're starting, and anyone answering that without looking at both is guessing. What it does mean is a low break-even, particularly if it brings compliance customers rather than call-outs.
Should I spend more on EV charger work?
It's growth work with informed buyers, so it rewards content rather than ads. Buyers research specification and grants before contacting anyone.
What if I only do domestic call-outs?
Then margins are thin and the honest advice is usually to add a service line rather than buy more call-outs.
Want the numbers run on your mix?
Tell us the split between domestic call-outs, compliance and installations. We'll work out what each is really worth and where a budget would go furthest.