Landscapers: STOP Wasting $50+ Per Lead on Facebook Ads (Do This Instead)

MATTHEW THIBEAU • August 22, 2025

If your cost per lead on Facebook is higher than you’d like, it’s a clear sign something in your campaign needs fixing. The truth is, Facebook is still the best platform for landscapers to generate a steady flow of leads at the lowest possible CPL. But when your campaigns aren’t set up correctly, you can easily find yourself paying $50, $70, or more for a single inquiry. At those rates, profitability disappears, your crews sit idle, and your pipeline dries up.

At Savant Marketing, we’ve managed hundreds of Facebook campaigns for landscapers across North America. Time and again, we’ve proven that with the right strategies in place, Facebook delivers more affordable and consistent leads than any other channel. The challenge isn’t the platform—it’s how you’re using it.

Here are the five strategies we use every day to help landscapers lower CPL, keep ads profitable, and book more jobs.

1. Use the Right Campaign Objective

One of the biggest mistakes landscapers make is running Facebook ads that send prospects to a website or landing page. While websites are useful for showcasing your portfolio, they add friction when it comes to capturing leads. A homeowner clicks your ad, lands on your site, and then has to take another step to fill out a form. Many drop off before converting, which drives up your CPL.

A simpler, more effective approach is to use Facebook Lead Forms. These forms allow people to submit their name, phone number, and job details directly inside Facebook or Instagram—without ever leaving the platform. The fewer steps, the higher the conversion rate, and the lower your cost per lead.

For example, one of our landscaping clients was sending traffic to their website for sod installation inquiries. Their CPL was hovering around $100. When we switched them to lead forms, their CPL dropped to $35 almost overnight. Of course, that wasn’t the only change we made to their ads. But removing that extra barrier will almost certainly drop your CPL.

2. Test Multiple Creatives to Avoid Ad Fatigue

If your CPL is creeping higher, there’s a good chance your ad creative is to blame. Creatives include the images, videos, and text that make up your ads. When you’ve been running the same creative for too long, people stop noticing it. This is called ad fatigue, and it’s one of the fastest ways to drive up your lead costs.

Instead of relying on one or two ads, landscapers should always be testing at least 8–10 creatives at once. This lets you quickly identify which visuals and messages resonate with your audience. The underperforming ads can be turned off, and the winners can be scaled.

Video ads in particular are performing extremely well right now, especially in Reels and Shorts placements. For example, a hardscape contractor we worked with filmed a simple smartphone video walking through a new backyard patio build. That raw, authentic video outperformed polished images and cut their CPL by nearly half. Homeowners love to see real projects in action—it builds trust and captures attention quickly.

3. Adjust Targeting and Audience Size

Targeting too small of an area is another mistake that drives up CPL. If your Facebook audience size is under 300,000 people, you’re often working with too narrow of a pool. On the flip side, going too broad dilutes the quality of your leads. The sweet spot we’ve found is usually 500,000 to 1 million people in your audience.

For landscapers, this often means expanding service areas slightly or layering in interest-based targeting. At Savant Marketing, we use what we call the 3D Targeting Strategy:

• Broad Targeting: Location + age range (no extra filters).

• Data-Driven Targeting: Lookalike audiences built from past customer lists and interest targeting in home improvement, outdoor living, gardening, or luxury homeowner interests.

• Remarketing: Showing ads to prospects who’ve already engaged with your business to some degree online.

For instance, a tree service company targeting just a 10-mile radius around their shop had a CPL of $80. By expanding to a 25-mile radius and layering in interests like “landscaping” and “outdoor design,” we helped them reach a wider but still relevant audience. Their CPL dropped to $32.

4. Refresh Your Offer

Even the best ad setup won’t perform well if your offer is bland. Many landscapers stick with generic “10% off” discounts, but when every competitor is doing the same, homeowners scroll right past.

Strong offers stand out because they feel unique, valuable, and time-sensitive. Examples we’ve seen work well include:

• Same-Day Estimates: Very few contractors can promise this, so it instantly grabs attention.

• Free Seasonal Maintenance Package: For high-ticket design-build jobs, including a few months of free lawn or garden maintenance adds perceived value.

• Early Bird Promotions: For holiday lighting or spring installs, homeowners who book early can access special pricing or perks.

One landscaping client offering paver patios shifted from “$500 off” to “Lifetime Warranty” on their stones. That single change doubled their lead flow while keeping margins intact. The right offer not only lowers CPL but also pre-frames the value of your service before you ever speak to the lead.

5. Align Your Campaign Concept with the Season

Finally, you can have perfect targeting, great creatives, and a strong offer—but if the concept doesn’t match the season, your CPL will still be high. Timing matters.

For example, we had clients who wanted to run holiday lighting ads in July. On the surface, that seems far too early. But by positioning the concept as a bulk order discount for early birds, the campaign made sense and performed well.

Similarly, if you’re promoting deck installs in December, you’ll likely struggle no matter how strong your ads are. But if you shift the concept to “Book Now for Spring Build Dates”, you can capture early demand while competitors sit idle.

Landscaping is a seasonal business, and your ad concepts need to respect homeowner buying cycles. Always ask: does this campaign make sense to the customer at this time of year? If not, adjust the angle until it does.

Final Thoughts

Lowering your cost per lead on Facebook isn’t about a single “hack.” It’s about dialing in the fundamentals—choosing the right campaign objective, testing creatives, targeting the right audience size, refreshing your offers, and making sure your campaign concept fits the season.

At Savant Marketing, we’ve seen landscapers cut their CPL in half just by implementing one or two of these strategies. Put them all together, and your ad campaigns can go from barely breaking even to consistently profitable.

The key takeaway is simple: Facebook Ads for landscapers work, but only when built on strategy, not guesswork. By applying these five approaches, you’ll fill your funnel with more qualified leads, lower your ad spend, and create predictable growth for your landscaping business.

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