A water heater fails on a Sunday night. The homeowner quickly searches for three local companies. Two go to voicemail, and one answers immediately. For home services businesses, that’s the make-or-break moment that determines who actually books the job.
CallRail’s new survey of U.S. home services businesses shows an industry gearing up for growth. Teams are increasing marketing budgets, expanding into new channels, and using AI to personalize and tailor their marketing. But even as marketing becomes more sophisticated, the biggest challenges aren’t about getting more clicks — they’re about surviving intense local competition and converting every call into a booked job.
Here are the top five marketing trends shaping home services in 2026 — and what they mean for how you spend, where you show up, and how you follow through with every lead.
Trend 1: Marketing budgets are rising as businesses try to get found in more places online
Home services businesses are entering 2026 with larger budgets and more comprehensive marketing plans. 72% say their marketing budgets will increase compared to 2025, while 22% expect them to remain the same.
Much of that investment is flowing into digital-first efforts — video (63%), paid social (58%), and influencer partnerships (53%) are among the top areas where teams plan to spend more.
2026 marketing budgets for home services businesses
Teams are also exploring new ways to reach homeowners earlier in their decision-making process. Organic social (46%), SMS/text (37%), paid social (33%), and influencer marketing (33%) rank among the top tactics businesses expect to try for the first time in 2026. This shift reflects a growing emphasis on staying present across the channels where homeowners already spend time.
At the same time, foundational efforts aren’t going away. When asked where they expect to allocate most of their budget overall, businesses ranked video and content as their top priority, followed by traditional marketing and paid/organic social. Rather than replacing older channels, teams are layering digital strategies on top, creating broader, more diversified mixes than in previous years.
“Many home services teams still struggle with lead follow-up because their process isn’t systemized. Without a clear workflow to sort, track, and consistently re-engage leads, even strong marketing can fall flat.”
John Sammon
CEO, Sixth City Marketing
Trend 2: Search brings in leads, while video and social build interest
When something stops working, homeowners want it fixed now — and search is where they look for the fastest option. That’s why Paid Search and SEO remain the top drivers of new business for home services organizations. These channels capture homeowners at the exact moment they need help, making them both high intent and easy to lose if a business doesn’t appear prominently.
At the same time, the path to choosing a provider is getting more visual and social. Video and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) continue to influence homeowner trust and confidence. Short-form videos, project walk-throughs, before-and-after clips, and customer testimonials all help homeowners see real work and hear from past customers. These authentic signals make it easier for them to judge credibility before they ever pick up the phone.
Top channels by importance for driving new business
But the biggest shift isn't just where homeowners search, it's how. As users turn to voice search and conversational AI (like ChatGPT) to ask, 'Who is the best plumber near me?', traditional SEO strategies are evolving into AEO.
“There is a massive shift in the way customers are finding home service businesses, and it centers around conversational searches in LLMs like ChatGPT or Gemini. The businesses that fail to understand how traditional search is changing will get left behind.”
Will Troup
CEO, LocalSink
For 2026, the businesses that win will be those that stay visible across traditional search results, social platforms, and AI-driven platforms homeowners now use to look for recommendations.
Trend 3: AI is helping out at every stage of the job
AI has evolved from a novelty to something home services teams rely on every day. Many businesses are already using it to personalize campaigns, identify high-intent customers, score leads, and understand which ads are worth the investment. Personalization, automation, short-form video, and generative AI are among the top approaches teams expect to use in 2026.
But for most home services businesses, AI is still working behind the scenes. It improves targeting, strengthens reporting, and helps teams make smarter decisions — yet it rarely shows up during the moments of highest pressure, when someone with an urgent problem actually reaches out.
How home service businesses are using AI for marketing
As one CallRail customer noted, “We use AI in a lot of our processes, just not in the booking or dispatch workflow right now.” Many teams use AI to improve targeting or generate content, but that’s only half the battle. Once a lead actually reaches out, the real value of marketing depends on how quickly and consistently the business responds. When AI isn’t supporting the booking or follow-up process, teams lose time, miss calls, and struggle to keep up, which means even strong marketing efforts are only delivering a fraction of their potential.
To bridge this gap, home service pros are learning that while AI is great at generating leads, it is even more powerful at handling them. For example, CallRail’s Voice Assist answers the phone 24/7 and qualifies leads, so you never miss a job just because you're busy. Then, Premium Conversation Intelligence™ turns all your calls into brief summaries so you can understand a 20-minute conversation in seconds, shows which jobs were actually booked, and spots urgent issues — all without listening to a recording. Together, they provide contractors with reliable coverage and clearer visibility, without adding extra workload.
Trend 4: Poor sales execution wastes high-intent leads
Home Services businesses feel increasingly confident in their marketing. Half say they are extremely confident, and another 43% are moderately confident that they know which channels bring in their best customers. Very few point to attribution or ROI measurement as a major challenge.
But that confidence drops once a lead actually reaches out.
Even as marketing performance improves, many teams struggle to consistently convert interested homeowners into booked jobs. Two-thirds of Home Services businesses (66%) say lead follow-up and conversion are their biggest operational challenges, and 57% point specifically to gaps in sales and customer service training.
The issue is not simply whether the phone gets answered — it is whether teams have the skills, consistency, and systems in place to handle conversations well once a lead is on the line. Without clear talk tracks, coaching, and visibility into what works, high-intent calls can turn into missed opportunities even when response times are fast.
"Follow-up is a major operational challenge.
Without CRM integration, leads fall through the cracks. Once we intentionally re-engaged past leads, we closed an additional $200,000 in new business in the first month alone."
Ivan Perov
Marketing Manager, Good Life Construction
In competitive, price-sensitive markets, small execution gaps add up quickly. An untrained rep, an inconsistent message, or a missed opportunity to address objections can be enough for a homeowner to move on to the next provider.
This is where visibility into real conversations matters. By capturing and analyzing calls, generating instant summaries, and highlighting coaching opportunities, CallRail helps teams improve how leads are handled, not just how quickly they are contacted. Strong sales execution turns marketing confidence into actual revenue.
Top operational and marketing challenges for home services businesses
Even with better tools and more leads, conversion breaks down when follow-up lacks consistency or the messaging doesn’t land. As one CallRail customer in the home services industry described the challenge, “The hardest part of follow-up is finding the balance between full automation and human execution. If you automate everything, you’re not sure the messaging is landing. If you rely only on people, you lose the consistency that actually converts.”
For teams operating in competitive, price-sensitive markets, even small lapses — a missed detail, an inconsistent message, an untrained rep — can cost a job. Strong marketing may get the phone to ring, but organized, consistent follow-up is what ultimately closes the deal.
CallRail helps teams tighten that handoff by capturing key details from every call, generating instant summaries, and organizing follow-up tasks so nothing slips through the cracks. It gives businesses the consistency and coverage they need to turn conversations into booked appointments by automating some parts of the follow-up process, but still allowing for human connection at the right moments.
Trend 5: Responsiveness is now a top competitive advantage
Competition is rising fast. In most local markets, homeowners have their pick of companies that can repair an HVAC unit, handle an electrical issue, or clear a clogged drain. When they see several options with strong reviews and similar pricing, the decision often comes down to one simple metric: speed.
Modern homeowners prioritize efficiency. If you don't answer immediately, they simply call the next number on the list. In 2026, responsiveness doesn't mean calling back within 24 hours — it means answering in real-time.
Top factors influencing which business a homeowner chooses
“When marketing gets aggressive, and leads start flooding in — whether from Google Local Service Ads, word of mouth, door hangers, or Facebook — there isn’t always staffing to keep up. The solution is following up fast — ideally within the hour the inquiry comes in.”
Paul Jamison
Host of Green Industry Podcast
The urgency is even clearer after hours. Only 48% of home services businesses respond to after-hours inquiries right away, while 34% wait until the next morning — long after many homeowners have already contacted someone else. In 2026, speed isn't just an operational metric — it’s one of the most important competitive advantages a business can have.
Prepare your home services business to compete in 2026
2026 will bring bigger budgets, smarter AI, and stronger competition. But growth won’t come from marketing alone — it will come from what happens next. The businesses that win will be the ones that pair great marketing with fast, organized follow-up and clear visibility into every lead.
CallRail helps home services teams stay on top of those moments. With one platform, businesses can see which ads and channels make the phone ring, understand what happens in every conversation, and organize follow-up automatically so no opportunity slips through the cracks. It gives teams the coverage and clarity they need to respond faster, personalize outreach, and turn more of the leads they’re already paying for into jobs.
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