7 cost-effective ways to advertise cleaning services

Key takeaways

• Create profiles on online business platforms and social media platforms to reach more potential customers for your cleaning business
• Consider pay-per-click ads as a cost-effective way to advertise cleaning services
• Use testimonials and referral programs to help you get new customers from your existing customers

The cleaning industry in the U.S. is growing by over 6% each year, according to Grand View Research. Moreover, around 80% of dual-income families are expected to use a cleaning service in the coming years.

This means there are plenty of potential customers for cleaning service businesses—you just have to reach them. There are a variety of marketing campaigns you can run to advertise cleaning services.

Even if you have a small marketing budget and a small amount of time to devote to your marketing plan, these seven ideas can help you advertise your cleaning services and grow your business.

7 ways to advertise cleaning services

These seven advertising strategies will help you find customers for your new business or grow your existing cleaning business. If you have limited marketing resources, consider focusing on just one of these marketing ideas. Once you’ve tackled one, try mixing and matching a few to maximize your results.

1. Build a broad online presence

Most small business owners know they need a website, but building an online presence goes beyond your website. You want your business to appear wherever potential customers are searching for cleaning companies.

Adding your business to business platforms allows you to advertise to potential clients for free. Try listing your company on online business platforms like Yelp and online directories like Angie’s List, Google My Business, and Bing Places for Business.

When you add or claim your Yelp Business Page, you can reach high-intent customers who are ready to connect—in fact, 57% of customers contact a business they found on Yelp within one day.

Once you create your business page and update it with your information—including your website address, phone number, and other contact information—you can also use the free “Request a Quote” and “Request a Call” features to make it easier for people to get in touch with you.

2. Use social media platforms

Creating social media accounts for your small business is another free way to broaden your online presence and build trust with potential customers. Create accounts on as many different social media platforms as makes sense for you.

When you’re choosing which platforms to use, keep your target audience in mind. If your ideal clients are homeowners, you’ll likely want to create a Facebook business page. You may also want to consider a Nextdoor account. While the audience on Nextdoor is smaller, it’s a good platform for local businesses because you can reach a hyper-local demographic, and many people use the platform to ask neighbors for recommendations on home services. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube can also be good platforms for reaching new customers.

If your company focuses on residential house cleaning, then you may not need to keep a LinkedIn account. But if you’re focused on commercial cleaning and the majority of your cleaning clients are other businesses, then LinkedIn may be an essential platform for you to reach your target market. It’s the most effective social media platform for generating business-to-business leads, with 82% of B2B marketers finding their greatest success on LinkedIn.

Once you’ve decided which platforms you want to use, fill out your profile with your business information, including a link to your website and your business address or service area. Then start posting content regularly. You can share helpful cleaning tips, show before and after pictures, or make video content that shows off your cleaning know-how.

Whether you’re posting a few times a week, once a week, or once a month, the frequency is up to you. As long as you post regularly, it will show the social media platform that your account is active, keeping your content discoverable.

3. Optimize for local search

This online advertising strategy goes hand-in-hand with the previous two. If you’ve made a website, added your business to online business platforms, and created social media accounts, you’ve already taken the first steps toward making your company come up in local search results.

You can help your business rank higher in search engine results by using a local SEO or search engine optimization strategy. The goal of this strategy is for your company to come up among the top search results anytime someone in your service area types something like “cleaning services near me” or “home cleaning businesses near me” into a search engine like Google or Bing.

One of the simplest ways to optimize your business is to add your address or service area to every online profile that you have. Check that your address or service area appears correctly on your Yelp Page, business directory pages, and social media profiles. Then add it to every page of your business website—the easiest way to do this is by putting it in the header or footer of your site.

Next, make sure your company name appears in the exact same way on all of your accounts and your website. You don’t want it to say “Sunshine Cleaners” in one place and “Sunshine Cleaning” in another because search engines and potential customers won’t be sure if it’s the same company.

Finally, you can start adding more content to your website to help your website rank higher in search engine results. Add landing pages that describe each of your service offerings and specializations. Make sure each page includes at least a few hundred words of description, and try to include keywords related to your industry.

4. Use email marketing

Many cleaning business owners who are looking to grow are looking for new clients, but your existing clients may be your most valuable asset. According to research by OneSignal, the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%, but selling to an existing customer has a success rate of 60-70%.

Email marketing helps you stay in touch with both your past and potential customers who have previously shown an interest in your company. Create an email list and send follow-up emails to remind past clients to schedule a cleaning.

Sending out emails can encourage repeat business from clients who schedule once-in-a-while cleanings. It can also encourage your regular clients to sign up for an extra cleaning during important times of the year, like during the holidays or spring cleaning.

It’s a gentle and effective reminder to use your services. A survey by Litmus found that 41% of marketers say email marketing is their most effective marketing effort and that the average ROI for email marketing was $36 for every $1 that companies spent.

5. Use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising

PPC advertising is a form of digital marketing where ads for your business appear on search engines, social media channels, online business platforms like Yelp, and other sites with paid advertising. You only have to pay for the ad if someone actually clicks on it, hence the name “pay-per-click.”

On search engines and online business platforms, your ad will display when a potential customer searches for terms related to your business.

For example, when you invest in Yelp Ads, your business page is placed in key places on Yelp.com and the Yelp mobile app, such as above or below relevant search results in the “Sponsored Results” sections and on your competitors’ pages.

With pay-per-click ads on social media platforms, you’ll typically set an ideal customer profile. For example, your ideal customers might be homeowners in Austin, Texas. Your cleaning ads will display for potential customers who fit your ideal customer profile.

Since you only have to pay if one of those potential customers clicks the ad, this is an inexpensive online advertising option for small businesses.

6. Start a referral program

Word-of-mouth marketing is also a powerful tool for finding new customers through your existing customers. The Nielsen Trust in Advertising Study found that 88% of people trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other form of advertising.

If you specialize in residential cleaning, then your clients likely have neighbors who could benefit from your services. Encourage them to recommend your business with a referral program.

As part of a referral program, you’ll offer your existing customers an incentive if someone they refer to your business signs up for your services. For example, you might offer one free cleaning or $20 off their next cleaning service.

Some referral programs offer incentives to both the existing customer who made the referral and the new customer who is signing up for your services for the first time. Offering incentives to both customers helps you not only get the referral but also close the deal with the new customer.

7. Collect customer testimonials

Repeat business isn’t the only way your current customers can help you grow. Testimonials from existing or previous clients help show prospective clients that your house cleaning business is experienced, trustworthy, and reliable.

Typically to collect testimonials, you’ll reach out to a current client and ask them to write a short testimonial that you can display on your website. You may offer them an incentive, like a discount on their next residential cleaning, but some of your current clients may be willing to write testimonials without any incentive.

You can also collect customer reviews. Unlike testimonials, reviews shouldn’t be solicited. If you provide exceptional service, your customers will likely feel more inspired to leave reviews on sites like Yelp. Their reviews can help you build trust with potential new clients.

According to a local consumer review survey, 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses. It’s also important to respond to your reviews—both positive and critical—to show that you care about your customers’ experience. Eighty-eight percent of people said they were more likely to use a business if the business owner responded to all of their reviews.

Bonus content: Learn more about how to get reviews organically.

Make your marketing strategy sparkle

From digital marketing strategies like social media marketing and pay-per-click advertisements to grassroots marketing campaigns like referral programs, there are many ways for small businesses to reach new customers.

You don’t need a big marketing budget or time investment to advertise your cleaning services. You can start with free strategies like broadening your online presence, posting regularly on social media, and optimizing all of your online profiles with your business address or service area to reach more local customers.

To make your cleaning business marketing and advertising more effective, learn how to write ad copy and craft the perfect call to action. Then you’ll be ready to run cleaning service ads and grow your business.