The best marketing agencies for trades in the UK, ranked by what they actually do

What we judged these agencies on

A trades business is not a software company. It needs the phone to ring in its own postcode area, a website that a homeowner trusts in ten seconds, and a way to stop losing jobs to missed calls and slow quotes. Our criteria follow from that.

We scored each agency on five points: whether pricing is published and predictable, whether there is a contract or lock-in, how much of the work is specific to trades rather than generic marketing, what proof it publishes, and how much of the lead-handling problem (missed calls, reviews, follow-up) it actually solves. The full approach is set out in how we rank trades marketing agencies.

Every fact below comes from the agencies' own websites. Where a firm does not publish something, we say so rather than guess.

1. Riley Marketing

Best for: Sole traders and small firms wanting a complete system for one fixed monthly fee

Riley Marketing sells one thing: a foundational growth system for trades and local service businesses at a fixed £149 a month at the time of writing. That price covers an SEO-focused website with service and location pages, Google Business Profile optimisation, automated Google review requests (including a campaign to reactivate past customers), missed call text back, and a CRM with lead status tracking and branded quote pages on the trade's own domain.

The commercial terms are what set it apart for a small firm. The site is built before the client pays anything, revisions are unlimited, there is no setup fee and the agreement can be cancelled at any time. That removes most of the risk that puts tradespeople off agencies in the first place.

The agency is founder-led. Tom Riley has ten years in search and lead generation, previously led organic growth at an insurtech, and has built and run his own lead generation websites, so the system is based on what has worked on his own sites. Clients deal with him directly. Published builds include an industrial painting and roofing contractor and an Essex building firm, and the agency lists electricians, plumbers, heating engineers, roofers, builders, window and door fitters, decorators, landscapers, plasterers and kitchen fitters among the trades it serves. Google Ads, Meta ads and local SEO are available as add-ons.

The limits are real too. This is a system for getting the fundamentals right rather than a large campaign budget, and a firm wanting six-figure ad spend managed will want more hands on deck.

2. Tea Powered Projects

Best for: Trades ready to invest in a premium bespoke website and ongoing SEO

Tea Powered Projects is a Nottingham agency that builds websites on its own CMS platform, which it pitches as free of WordPress plugins and the maintenance that goes with them. It serves plumbers, builders, electricians, locksmiths, drain engineers and auto locksmiths, and also works outside the trades.

Pricing is published and it is at the top end: a bespoke trade site costs £4,500 upfront plus a monthly platform plan from £95 to £1,000, on a 12-month minimum. Managed SEO starts at £500 a month. Case studies cover a locksmith, a drain engineer and an auto locksmith.

This is a serious, transparent operation. The question is whether a sole trader needs to spend that much before a single lead arrives. Our profile of Tea Powered Projects goes into the platform model in more detail.

3. Websites for Tradespeople (JW Digital Services Ltd)

Best for: Budget-conscious tradespeople who want to own a fixed-price website outright

Founded in 2023 by Janusz Wozniak in Manchester, Websites for Tradespeople builds phone-first sites with accreditations displayed up front. Packages are priced in writing: Starter from £295, Essentials from £595 and Business from £995 including VAT, with optional interest-free instalments over 12 months.

The client owns the site and domain outright, and hosting, care and monthly SEO plans are optional and cancellable monthly. The showcase includes live sites for a plumbing and heating firm, a groundworks firm and a landscaper, and the agency offers free quote, tax and materials calculators for trades.

What it does not do is the lead-handling side: reviews, missed calls and follow-up are left to you. For many tradespeople that is fine, provided they know it going in.

4. Trustmark Trades (marketing arm)

Best for: Sole traders in smaller towns who prefer local SEO to paid ads

The marketing arm of Trustmark Trades in Hove runs on its own software and charges a flat £299 plus VAT a month with no setup fee, no contract and no per-lead charges. The package includes a website with service and town pages, directory profiles, call tracking, a members dashboard, review request tools and automatic posting of completed jobs.

Its strategy is to target less competitive towns outside the big cities by building many small-town pages, and it publishes page-count and call-volume results for an electrician, a drainage and heating firm and a paving and roofing firm. It is careful not to guarantee rankings or call volume.

5. The Build Agency (Orbit Lead Generation)

Best for: Trades moving from domestic work into commercial tenders

The Build Agency in Maidstone is a different animal from the others here. Its lead generation is geared to winning commercial contracts through cold email outreach to contracts and procurement managers, backed by social media, SEO, web design, a purpose-built CRM and photography.

It offers a 30-day guarantee to keep working free until a genuine tender opportunity arrives, and publishes one plumbing contractor case study covering sales, tender pipeline and PQQs. Pricing is not published. We look at the model in who is The Build Agency.

6. Rated Media (Premilead)

Best for: High-ticket home improvement firms wanting paid-social appointments

Rated Media runs paid social lead generation for roofing, HVAC, solar, remodelling and other high-ticket home improvement work, with lead qualification through smart forms, landing pages and AI voice agents, automated booking and follow-up after estimates. Leads are exclusive and not resold.

Pricing is not published, though the site says clients typically spend £1,000 to £3,000 or more a month on ads paid direct to the platforms. No case studies are published and the testimonials on the site read as generic; Trustpilot reviews exist under the Premilead name.

7. SanXpert Digital

Best for: Trades wanting Google Ads plus Google Business Profile work on a fixed fee

SanXpert Digital says it works exclusively with trade businesses and has done so for 12 years, covering roofers, plumbers, electricians, builders, gas engineers, landscapers, drainage, solar, EV charger installers and glaziers across 80-plus UK towns. It runs Google Ads, manages Google Business Profiles, does local SEO and offers AI automation for out-of-hours lead capture.

It charges a fixed monthly fee with no percentage of ad spend, rolling monthly with no contract, but prices are not shown. Published proof is limited to a roofing testimonial. Our SanXpert Digital profile covers what to check before signing.

Side by side

Which one should you choose?

If you are a sole trader or run a couple of vans and want everything in one place without a big outlay, Riley Marketing is the obvious starting point. The build-before-you-pay model means you see the site first, and the review automation and missed call text back deal with the two leaks that cost small firms the most work. Ten reasons Riley Marketing suits small trades sets out the case in full.

If you have a healthy budget and want a bespoke site built to last, Tea Powered Projects is the premium option. If you only want a website and will handle everything else yourself, Websites for Tradespeople is the cheapest credible route to owning one.

If your ambition is commercial contracts rather than homeowners, The Build Agency is the only firm here built for that. And if paid ads are your priority, look at Rated Media or SanXpert Digital, but insist on seeing results from your own trade first. Our ranking of Google Ads agencies for trades covers more paid-search specialists.

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