The best marketing agency for plumbing contractors

Scorpion sells plumbing companies an AI voice assistant, Convert, that can be set to answer only the calls the office misses, only nights, weekends and holidays, or every call all day. That product, together with Scorpion's statement that it collects customer, job and revenue data from ServiceTitan and sends its marketing leads into it, makes Scorpion our pick for plumbing contractors.

iMarket Solutions suits a plumber whose leads start on the website, because its own team members handle website chat on the days the contractor chooses. Leadhub suits a plumber already on ServiceTitan who is commissioning website, search and estimate follow-up work. ServiceTitan's certified provider directory lists Leadhub for Marketing, and Leadhub's Parker & Sons Plumbing case describes drip campaigns for unsold estimates built in ServiceTitan MarketingPro.

What should a plumbing contractor weigh in a marketing agency?

On a lead sent to several contractors at once, the first contractor on the phone usually takes the work, Contractor Magazine's guide to what a booked plumbing job costs says. So the first question for any agency is who or what answers on nights and weekends, and what happens to a call nobody picks up. Put that question once for the phone and once for the website, because the services in this comparison are described channel by channel.

The same guide explains how channels with different lead-to-job rates end up ranked one way on cost per lead and the opposite way on cost per paid job. An agency case study that reports leads is reporting the earlier of those two numbers. Scorpion's plumbing case reports a call booking rate, and the iMarket and Leadhub cases report lead growth, one for organic search by quarter and one for a first year with the agency, so the figures do not rank the agencies against each other. Have each agency define a lead, a booked appointment and a paid job, with the period every figure covers.

ServiceTitan says jobs booked through its own web scheduler go straight to the dispatch board, which is one path from a marketing source to a job record. Contractor Magazine notes that ad-platform lead counts and field-service job records are often kept in separate systems, so have the agency you are considering show how its report connects a marketing source to a job. A listing in a partner directory does not say which records an agency's reports join, and a walkthrough on a live account is the place to see which system connects, how a call or campaign is matched to a job, and which job statuses the report counts.

Scorpion's FAQ says the investment depends on the client's goals, and iMarket describes its chat as billed for qualified leads. Leadhub's Clutch profile adds a minimum project size and an hourly band with no service attached. Those are different units, so they do not add up to a monthly cost comparison. The quote from each agency should state the scope, the split between media spend and management fee, the term, the notice period and any cancellation charge.

Leadhub's own guide to choosing a local SEO company tells buyers to make sure the contract gives them ownership of their domain. The same check applies to everything an agency sets up: the website files, the ad accounts, the analytics property and the tracking phone numbers. Where tracking numbers appear on your website, find out who holds them after the contract ends and what is handed over if you leave before the term is up.

Scorpion, iMarket Solutions and Leadhub compared

Scorpion: an AI voice assistant for missed and after-hours calls with a ServiceTitan feed

Convert has two parts, a Voice Assistant and a Messaging Assistant, and Scorpion's plumbing page for the product says the Voice Assistant answers the call, qualifies the caller, collects the service details and schedules the appointment. The page names its settings Missed Call Only, After-Hours Only and All Day, Every Day, the last of which replaces the phone menu with full AI answering. The answerer in every mode is an AI voice agent, so a shop that wants a person on its overflow line should ask Scorpion what it offers beside Convert.

The Messaging Assistant, the same page says, texts a caller the office missed and replies to texts, website chats, Facebook messages, Local Services Ads leads and contact forms. Scorpion's Connect page for plumbers describes a separate website product: a 24/7 AI chat assistant that answers questions and books appointments, with one inbox for texts, calls and emails.

Scorpion's main Convert page says the Voice Assistant books appointments in real time when it is connected to the customer's scheduler, and books directly where that scheduler is supported. The setup Scorpion describes as working out of the box is its own RevenueMAX platform, website and tracking numbers. A plumber keeping a website built elsewhere should ask how Convert connects to it and whether the shop's scheduler is on the supported list.

Customer information, job details and revenue come out of ServiceTitan daily, Scorpion's ServiceTitan page says, and its own marketing leads go straight in. The page says combining customer, job and invoice data shows which marketing brings in the most valuable jobs. How a call or lead is matched to a ServiceTitan job, and which job statuses reach the report, are the details to see on a demo account.

A 6% increase in call booking rate is the result Scorpion's case study reports for Mr. Rooter Plumbing of the Twin Cities, a franchise location. That is a vendor-published figure for one location, so request the period it covers and a reference from a plumbing shop of your size.

Scorpion's FAQ says the investment depends on the client's business goals across marketing technology, marketing services and digital advertising. It says marketing technology and certain services such as SEO typically carry a twelve-month contract, and digital advertising such as Google Ads and Local Services Ads typically runs month to month. The quote should say which of those terms applies to Convert and Connect, and what each costs.

The same FAQ says the client's domains, content and imagery belong to the client, as does its Google Analytics, and that the client owns the website once the contract term is complete. After a fulfilled contract, Scorpion says, it transfers Google Analytics, Local Services Ads and social media accounts and hands over static files, design assets and content. The proprietary CMS stays with Scorpion, and another vendor rebuilds the site on a CMS such as WordPress. Before signing, get in writing what the handover includes if you leave before the term ends, and who holds the Google Ads account and the tracking numbers.

iMarket Solutions: website chat handled by its own team members

iMarket's live chat page describes custom chat scripts on the contractor's website, run on the days of the week the contractor selects and overseen by iMarket team members. The page says a real person from iMarket's team is on the other end of every chat. Each chat is recorded and transcribed, then emailed to the contractor or its customer service rep and logged in the reporting dashboard.

The same page says the contractor pays only for qualified leads. The quote should define a qualified lead and a converted lead, state the price of each, and explain how each definition relates to a booked or paid job. It should also state the hours iMarket staffs the chat on the days you select.

For Ken Neyer Plumbing, a Cincinnati plumbing company, iMarket's case study describes SEO, content marketing and social media work alongside a new responsive website. It reports a 95% increase in quarterly leads from organic search, year over year. Which quarters were compared, and what the case counts as a lead, are the two details to get from iMarket.

iMarket's page on how it works with clients describes a dashboard with call recordings, where the contractor evaluates leads and sees how many repair and replacement leads came in on a given day. A January 2024 iMarket post says its staff sync a client's marketing tracking to ServiceTitan jobs data when possible, and integrate marketing data into another CRM for clients who are not on ServiceTitan. A ServiceTitan shop should confirm that the sync applies to its account and which job data the report draws on.

Paid search at iMarket begins with an estimate of cost per click against the contractor's preferred budget, its paid search page says, and its website design page says the contractor signs off on the final design before launch. The fee, the term and notice period, and who holds the website, domain, ad accounts and tracking numbers after the contract all belong in the quote.

Leadhub: website, search and estimate follow-up for plumbers on ServiceTitan

ServiceTitan's certified provider directory lists Leadhub with Marketing under its certifications. Leadhub's plumber marketing guide says ServiceTitan was the CRM for most of its plumbing clients when the guide was written.

Parker & Sons Plumbing, a San Antonio company now called Mr. Plumber of San Antonio, joined Leadhub in November 2019, and Leadhub's case study follows the account through 2021. The work it lists is a new website and content, Google Ads, Local Services Ads, monthly email campaigns, and drip campaigns for unsold estimates built in ServiceTitan MarketingPro. Leadhub reports that leads rose 154% in the first year. The case records past work on one account, so ask Leadhub how estimate follow-up would run on your ServiceTitan account today and what it counts as a lead.

Tracking numbers ring the contractor's office line as usual while software records where the call came from, in the workflow Leadhub's article on tracking numbers describes. Its plumber guide says website forms and chat widgets need monitoring and a prompt reply. In that workflow the plumber's office picks up, so a shop without night and weekend cover should raise it with Leadhub or plan to staff those hours in house.

Leadhub's plumbing page says it measures plumbing work on top-line revenue, cost per lead and total leads, and its CRM integration page describes drawing on service calls, email campaigns and website forms. A walkthrough of one lead, from the ad or search result to the job in ServiceTitan, shows what its report joins.

A minimum project size of $5,000+ and an hourly rate of $100 to $149 appear on Leadhub's Clutch profile. Those are directory fields with no plumbing scope attached, so a monthly quote that separates media spend from fees is the number to compare. Its SEO guide's advice on domain ownership is worth applying to Leadhub's own agreement, and to the website files and ad accounts as well.

Which marketing agency should a plumbing contractor hire?

We crown Scorpion for plumbing contractors. We weigh call handling and job-linked reporting first for a plumbing shop, and Scorpion documents both as products: voice modes for missed, after-hours and all-day answering, and a stated feed of ServiceTitan customer, job and revenue data. The case figures the three agencies publish measure different things, so the crown rests on what Scorpion says its product does.

Scorpion's website runs on its proprietary CMS, and its FAQ says a client who leaves after a fulfilled contract takes its files and content to a rebuild on another platform. For a contractor willing to build on that platform, we put the documented voice modes and the ServiceTitan feed ahead of that rebuild in our weighting. A contractor who will not accept that condition should get each agency's handover terms in writing before comparing anything else.

iMarket Solutions is the better pick for a plumber whose leads start on the website and who wants the agency's people handling the chat on days the shop chooses. Settle the lead-based billing in the quote before the chat goes live.

Leadhub is the better pick for a plumber who runs ServiceTitan, answers its own phones and is commissioning a website, search advertising and follow-up on unsold estimates. It is listed for Marketing in ServiceTitan's directory, and its Parker & Sons case shows it has built estimate campaigns inside MarketingPro before.

Other marketing agencies for plumbing contractors