Home Services
In windows, the lead is not the product. The kept appointment is. A booked survey nobody attends costs an installer a morning, a tank of fuel and a slot they could have sold, which makes it considerably worse than no lead at all. We build acquisition for window installers and national replacement brands who measure success at attended appointment and signed order.
Windows sits in an awkward spot. The purchase is expensive enough to require real consideration, but the advertising is cheap enough to attract everyone.
The single biggest source of waste is tenure. "Replace your windows" appeals to anyone living in a draughty house, and a substantial share of those people rent. They cannot commission the work no matter how much they would like the noise to stop. Without a homeowner filter, they arrive in volume.
Job size is the second problem, and it is the one installers complain about most. A homeowner wanting one replacement unit in a back bedroom is a legitimate customer for somebody, but if your minimum order is five windows, that appointment was a waste of a surveyor's afternoon before it was booked.
Third is the appointment economy itself. Windows is sold on the in-home visit, and the industry has a long, well-documented history of using that visit badly. Consumers know it. That awareness makes people cautious about booking, and cautious bookers become no-shows.
The result: healthy lead volume, an appointment diary that looks full, and a conversion rate that collapses on the day.
Calls, strongly, because the conversion event in this category is a booking rather than a form.
The appointment is the product. A form that captures interest still requires somebody to call, reach the homeowner, qualify them and find a mutually workable slot. Every stage loses people. An inbound call collapses that into a single conversation while the person is engaged and has their diary in front of them.
IVR qualification handles the two killers cheaply. Homeowner status and approximate number of windows can both be confirmed before an agent picks up. Those two questions remove most of the unworkable volume in this vertical, and they take about fifteen seconds.
Hot-key transfer suits impulse-adjacent demand. Window replacement is often triggered by something specific: a failed unit, condensation between panes, a winter energy bill, a neighbour having theirs done. That trigger fades. Connecting immediately converts far better than a callback once the moment has passed.
Forms suit the researchers. Homeowners planning a full replacement over months, gathering three quotes and comparing finance options. Data capture with genuine follow-up serves them well, and pushing them to book too early tends to lose them entirely.
Because calls bill on connected duration past a buffer, filtering is commercially as well as operationally sensible. A four-minute conversation with a tenant is money spent for nothing.
Paid search. Captures the trigger moment. "Double glazing quote", "replacement windows cost", "uPVC windows near me", "misted double glazing repair". That last category matters: repair searches and full replacement searches are different buyers with very different values, and blending them wastes both.
Pay-per-call networks. The primary volume channel for appointment-led installers, and where homeowner and job-size pre-qualification does the most work.
Owned comparison properties. We operate comparison and review properties, so window demand can be met on our own estate. A homeowner comparing installers has already accepted they are spending the money, which is a materially better position than persuading someone they should.
Paid social. Demand generation, strong on visual before-and-after creative and effective for geographic precision around active job sites. Requires homeowner gating in the ad flow rather than on the phone.
Native and display. Retargeting and education. Energy efficiency ratings, what the guarantee actually covers, how finance works. Weak cold, useful warm.
Email and consented data. Effective for re-engaging quote-stage homeowners who did not proceed, particularly ahead of winter when the problem becomes noticeable again.
The fifth row is the one installers care about most and marketers most often ignore. In owner-occupied households the decision is usually joint, and a survey conducted with one partner present frequently ends in "I need to talk to my wife". Confirming both will be there at booking stage is one of the highest-leverage questions in the whole category.
Home improvement has a difficult history in this respect and the rules reflect it.
In the UK, replacement windows are notifiable building work, and installers should be registered with a competent person scheme such as FENSA or CERTASS. Claims about certification, guarantees and insurance-backed warranties need to be accurate, because homeowners rely on them when they sell the property years later.
Pricing practice attracts particular scrutiny. Discounts presented as time-limited when they are permanently available, and heavily inflated "was" prices, have both been the subject of regulatory action in this sector. Where finance is offered, credit promotions fall under FCA rules with specific requirements about representative examples.
Our position: no manufactured urgency, no discount theatre, no guarantee claims that are not backed, and clear finance disclosure. The industry's reputation is the main reason homeowners hesitate to book, so marketing that reads as straight is a conversion advantage rather than a compliance cost.
Leads booked is the wrong headline metric, because the diary can be full of appointments nobody attends.
We report on:
Cost per contacted lead. The first honest figure
Cost per booked appointment. Homeowner confirmed, job size viable, slot agreed
Appointment attendance rate. The number that separates a good source from a source that books anything with a pulse
Cost per attended appointment. The one that reflects what a surveyor's day actually cost
Cost per signed order, and average order value. A five-window job and a full-house replacement should never be counted identically
Attendance and order outcomes are fed back to the platforms rather than form submissions, so campaigns learn what a homeowner who actually keeps an appointment looks like.
Calls, generally. The conversion event is a booked appointment, and an inbound call collapses interest, qualification and booking into one conversation while the homeowner is engaged. Forms suit long-consideration buyers gathering quotes.
Homeowner status is confirmed in the ad flow or by IVR before an agent is engaged. It is the highest-impact filter in this vertical, because tenants cannot commission the work regardless of interest.
Yes. Approximate number of windows is captured at enquiry, so installers with a minimum order are not sent single-unit jobs. It is a fifteen-second question that saves a surveyor's afternoon.
Usually because the homeowner was booked without proper qualification, only one decision-maker agreed to the visit, or the appointment was set too far out and the trigger faded. All three are addressable at booking stage.
Less useful than cost per attended appointment. A cheap lead that books and then no-shows has cost you a lead fee plus a wasted survey slot, which is the most expensive failure mode in the category.
Yes, though they should be separated. Misted unit repair and full replacement are different jobs at very different values, and merging them into one campaign distorts both.
Property restrictions are captured at enquiry where possible. Consent requirements can make a job unviable or substantially change specification, and discovering that on site is expensive.
Ideally yes, and confirming it at booking meaningfully improves close rates. Surveys conducted with one partner present frequently end in a deferral rather than a decision.
Finance widens the market considerably, but credit promotions carry FCA requirements including representative examples. Creative advertising monthly payments needs to meet those obligations.
Consumer Genius operates across 11 markets. Building regulations, certification schemes and consumer protection rules differ, so campaigns are built per market rather than translated.
Book a growth strategy call and we will map where your window funnel leaks, what your no-show rate is costing in survey time, and what to change first.
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