Building Materials Marketing That Drives More Orders

It depends on your market, your product mix and the services you need. Most of our building materials clients run paid search and Shopping ads for immediate quote requests, paired with SEO as the long-term foundation.

We’ll right-size a plan to your market, your competitive landscape and your growth goals, and tell you exactly where each dollar goes.

Very. At the typical industrial or commercial company in the calls we've listened to, 44% of calls went to voicemail or were never picked up: 36% during business hours and 59% after hours. And most of those callers do not try again: 69% of callers who reached voicemail did not call that business again within a week.

That is why we track every call from your campaigns, flag missed calls, and help you set up call routing, after-hours coverage and fast call-backs, so the leads you pay for are not lost at the front desk.

Based on calls to 21 industrial and commercial companies we market, Apr to Sep 2026.

We classified a sample of 293 new-customer calls to the industrial and commercial companies we market by what the caller wanted (all industrial & commercial, not only building materials suppliers). The most common reasons to call were price or a quote (34%), product availability or lead times (25%), custom, bulk or group orders (10%) and location, hours or service area (6%).

Typical questions: “How much would this cost?”, “Do you have this in stock, and how long would it take to get it?”, “Can you handle a custom or bulk/wholesale order?”. Your website, ads and Google Business Profile should answer these before the phone rings, and your team should be ready to answer them when it does.

Based on calls to SmartSites clients, Apr to Sep 2026; questions paraphrased, no caller or client identified.

Mostly business hours: 19% of calls came outside Monday to Friday 9 to 5 (4% on weekends), and the busiest day is Monday. Of the calls that were answered, 55% were new-customer inquiries, 14% were existing customers, and 18% were sales pitches or wrong numbers.

That mix is why we report on qualified calls, not raw call counts.

Based on 11,000 calls to 30 industrial and commercial companies we market, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026 (timing) and Apr to Sep 2026 (call types).

Across the Google Ads accounts of the 40 industrial and commercial companies we manage, the median cost per lead over the last 12 months was $105, with a median cost per click of $2.80 and a median conversion rate of 4%.

Your number depends on your market, services and how well the landing page and phones convert. We use these medians as a starting benchmark, then work to beat them.

Source: Google Ads accounts managed by SmartSites, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026; a lead is a tracked call or form conversion as set up in each account.

For the 5 building materials suppliers whose Google Business Profiles we manage, the median profile got about 1,480 views, 10 calls and 52 direction requests a month over the last year.

Reviews, photos, accurate hours and categories move those numbers, which is why local SEO is part of every plan we build for a building materials supplier.

Source: Google Business Profile performance data for profiles managed by SmartSites, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026.

You don’t have to choose. The best results come from doing both, with experts who know how to use AI responsibly:

• AI-assisted audits: our initial and routine audits combine years of human expertise with AI to spot opportunities a person alone would miss.
• Enterprise-grade data: professional SEO and ads tools give us visibility into organic, AI and paid search. You get the insights without the bill.
• Always human-in-the-loop: every output is reviewed by a strategist before it ships, and you own all work product.

A good in-house marketer is only one person. With SmartSites you get a whole team (strategist, SEO specialist, paid media lead, web designer, email specialist and social manager) for less than the cost of a single hire, with no recruiting, no PTO and no learning curve.

No, and we’ll always be straight with you about that. Effective marketing takes time, and suppliers that expect instant ROI from SEO are usually disappointed. We don’t do risky shortcuts. Here’s what to realistically expect:

• SEO can be a roller-coaster, but the long-term curve bends up and compounds.
• Paid search typically generates quote requests within the first 30 days.
• Web rebuilds pay for themselves through higher conversion rates.

Yes. We optimize for generative engines (GEO) as well as traditional search, so building materials suppliers show up in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and the AI assistants contractors increasingly use to source materials. Our tracking includes AI mentions and citations, not just rankings.

Yes. For suppliers selling tools, hardware and materials online, we build and manage Shopping feeds and Amazon listings alongside search ads, so your products show up with pricing and images right where contractors are already comparing options. For Factory Direct Supply, that approach lifted ROAS 60%.

Building materials suppliers don’t think in impressions or vanity metrics. They think in:

• Cost per qualified lead
• Order value
• Repeat purchase rate
• ROI

We do too. The wins we drive are more bulk orders, more contractor accounts, and quote requests that actually close.

Paid search usually produces quote requests within the first month. SEO builds over several months and keeps compounding. Our case studies include leads up 1,379% for Midtown Lumber and organic site traffic up 324% for Melfast.