Angie’s List lost 739,000 leads this year.
Not because the market disappeared. Not because their team stopped trying.
They lost them because they did what every panicked business does when money gets tight.
They cut marketing spend.
And here’s the crazy part: They’re spending more and getting fewer leads.
If you’re reading this and feeling the squeeze right now, I want you to understand something before you make the same mistake.
The Hard Truth About Down Markets
When markets soften, your instinct is survival mode. You look at your P&L, see tighter margins, and immediately start cutting.
Your software subscriptions? Gone. Your tools? Trimmed. And then—inevitably—you eye your marketing budget.
I get it. I’ve been there. I’ve watched our margins get tight and thought the same thing: “Maybe I should cut my marketing spend.”
And you know what? That almost destroyed us.
Here’s why cutting marketing in a down market is backwards thinking:
In a down economy, leads don’t get cheaper. They get more expensive.
When the market softens, every other plumber in your area is hunting the same customers you are. Everyone’s competing for the same pool of leads. And when demand for leads goes up and supply goes down, the price of acquiring those leads rises.
So when you cut your budget during a downturn, you’re not just getting fewer leads.
You’re getting cut off entirely.
Think of it like an auction. The item you want costs $100. You decide to bid $75 instead because money’s tight. Do you win? No. You just lose the auction and watch someone else buy it.
That’s what happens when you cut marketing in a down market.
What You Should Actually Be Looking At
Before you cut a single dollar from marketing, you need to examine your entire customer journey. Because most of the time, the problem isn’t your marketing. It’s somewhere else in your system.
Here’s the journey every lead takes:
Marketing → Phone Call → CSR → Estimate → Sale → Technician → Payment
And there are leaks all along this journey where money disappears.
The Real Problem Areas (And Why Most People Miss Them)
1. Missed Calls
We recently worked with a client losing 10% of their calls. Ten percent.
Do you know what that means? You’re spending money to generate leads that you never even answer.
If you’re not using call tracking, if you don’t know your answer rate, if you’re not measuring this—you’re flying blind.
Fix missed calls and you fix a lot of problems without cutting anything.
2. CSR Performance
Your CSR is often the weakest link in your chain.
Are they actually booking appointments? Or are they just answering phones?
If you haven’t been listening to your calls (via call tracking), if you’re not doing regular training and role play, then your CSR probably isn’t performing as well as they could be.
Most people assume their CSR is fine. They’re not. Not without intentional training and measurement.
3. Your Estimate (And Your Reputation)
Here’s something most plumbers don’t understand:
Your ability to charge premium pricing doesn’t come from lowering your price. It comes from reputation and trust.
When a customer gets an estimate and they’re price shopping, what influences whether they say yes?
How much they know you. How much they trust you.
And you know where that trust gets built?
Not in the 30 minutes you’re at their house.
It gets built in all the marketing that happens before they ever call you.
If you aren’t:
- Collecting and amplifying your Google reviews
- Running review ads on Facebook, YouTube, and display networks
- Being a visible, trusted member of your community
- Building brand awareness through door knocking and boots-on-the-ground work
…then when the estimate comes, you have no trust to fall back on. And when you have no trust, your only lever is price.
In a down market, lowering your price is the last thing you want to do. You need the money to pay for the more expensive leads.
4. Customer Experience
The entire customer experience—from the ad they see, to your Google Business Profile, to your website, to how your technicians show up at the door—all of this influences price.
Do your techs show up clean and professional? Are they smiling? Do they talk well?
If your entire customer experience is tuned well, you can charge more and close at higher rates.
If it’s not, you’re constantly fighting price objections.
The Math Behind Why Cutting Marketing Fails
Let me show you how this actually plays out.
Say you’re trying to reach a certain number of customers per month. In a normal economy, you spend $X to reach that number.
But the market softens. Leads get more expensive. The cost per lead goes up.
Now you panic and cut your budget by, say, 30%.
In a normal market, cutting 30% might drop you from reaching 100 customers to 70 customers.
But in a down market where lead costs have increased? You don’t just drop to 70 customers.
You drop to 40 customers.
And now you’ve cut yourself off from the market so severely that you can’t recover. The gap is too big.
And let me tell you—that gap hurts worse than having the hard conversation with your team about who stays and who goes.
What to Do Instead
Before you cut marketing, look at:
- Are we missing calls? (Call tracking)
- Is our CSR converting well? (Listen to calls, do training)
- Are we losing on price? (Build reputation and brand awareness)
- Is our customer experience weak? (Audit everything)
- Are our technicians presenting well? (Training and accountability)
For my agency, the answer in a down market is always retention. For you, it’s about closing better from marketing all the way through to the job itself.
Most of the time, I can help a plumbing company make more money without cutting anything—or anyone—important.
The Bigger Picture
Markets fluctuate. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a downturn in 20 years of marketing, and it won’t be the last.
But here’s what separates the businesses that thrive from the ones that don’t:
The winners don’t panic and cut. They optimize and execute.
They know their numbers. They measure their systems. They make intentional decisions.
If you’re feeling the squeeze right now, I want you to remember this:
Before you cut, optimize. Before you optimize, measure.
Because your customers still exist. They’re still out there. The hard part is you’ve got all those other plumbers competing for them too.
But that doesn’t mean you cut. It means you get better.
Ready to Optimize Your System?
If you want to dig deeper into your specific situation, we offer free strategy consults for plumbing companies.
We’ll look at your customer journey, identify the real leaks, and show you exactly where to focus before you make any cuts.
Schedule Your Free Consult Here
Sometimes the answer isn’t less. It’s better.
Tyler Williams
Founder, Mammoth Marketing
Helping plumbing companies dominate their markets
