Trades marketing agencies for social media management: a UK shortlist

Three kinds of social media work

Organic management is posting photos of finished jobs, replying to comments and keeping the profile looking alive. It builds trust when a prospect checks you out, but it rarely generates enquiries on its own. Paid social is Facebook and Instagram ads targeted at homeowners in your area, which does generate enquiries and costs ad spend on top of any fee. LinkedIn work is a different discipline aimed at contracts managers and procurement, relevant only to firms chasing commercial work.

A tradesperson deciding on social media should first decide which of those three they actually want. The agencies below are grouped by that answer rather than by size or price.

Where an agency publishes fees we state them; where it does not, we say so.

1. FJ Digital

Best for: Builders wanting organic social media and an Instagram presence managed by a construction specialist

FJ Digital is a social media specialist for construction and trades businesses, listed in St Albans, Hertfordshire, through its Federation of Master Builders associate membership. It was founded in 2022 by Megan (surname not stated) and is a local award winner in St Albans. Services are social media management and content creation, profile refresh and optimisation, and hourly marketing consulting.

Electricians, plumbers, builders and roofers are mentioned as client types. Proof is client Instagram examples and a results page rather than formal case studies. Pricing is by monthly package, one-off service or hourly consulting, with no figures published.

2. Riley Marketing

Best for: Smaller trades firms who want paid Facebook and Instagram ads bolted onto a complete website, Google profile and review foundation

Riley Marketing does not sell organic social media management. Its relevance to this list is on the paid side: Facebook and Instagram ads are offered as an add-on to its foundational growth system, which costs £149 a month at the time of writing and covers an SEO-focused website with service and location pages, Google Business Profile optimisation, Google review automation including reactivation of past customers, missed call text back, and a CRM with lead status tracking and branded quote pages on the trade's own domain.

The reasoning for placing it here is practical. Social ads send homeowners to a page, and the enquiries they generate need capturing, following up and quoting. A firm that runs Meta ads without a decent site, a review-backed profile and a way to track leads tends to pay for clicks that go nowhere. Riley Marketing's model builds those pieces first, before the client pays, with unlimited revisions, no setup fee and cancellation at any time, and adds the ads on top.

The agency is in the North East and works UK-wide. Founder 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, and clients deal with him directly. Published builds include Anglia Decor and SET Building & Brickwork. Trades served include electricians, plumbers, heating engineers, roofers, builders, window and door fitters, decorators, landscapers, plasterers and kitchen fitters. Google Ads and local SEO are the other add-ons.

3. Digital 4 Trades

Best for: North West tradespeople wanting social media management from a small local team alongside web and SEO

Digital 4 Trades works from Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool as a small in-house team. Social media management is one of six services alongside website design, logo and brand design, SEO, lead generation and Google Ads, under the message 'you stay on the tools, we do the marketing'. It avoids lock-in rental contracts and says it will not hold a website hostage.

Content management is priced from a couple of hundred pounds a month, and websites are bought outright or paid over roughly a year. Trades named are electricians, plumbers, roofers, joiners, locksmiths, heating engineers, garden services and groundworkers. Case studies cover a roofing firm and a taxi firm, with a portfolio across joinery, locksmiths, groundworks and heating.

4. Market Maestro

Best for: Contractors wanting LinkedIn outreach and management to win commercial contracts

Market Maestro is listed in Epsom, Surrey, and works UK-wide. Its social media work is LinkedIn-only and B2B: outreach and management for construction firms chasing contracts worth £50,000 or more, run through a four-stage 'Hi-Vis Method' in which clients approve all content. Construction SEO, website building and lead generation are also offered.

Pricing is published: LinkedIn outreach from £850 a month and wider management from £1,100. The case study is a decorating contractor that tendered for and won commercial work. Sectors are contractors and construction specialists generally.

5. JDR Group

Best for: Larger home improvement companies wanting paid social within a HubSpot-driven inbound programme

JDR Group is a Derby agency that calls itself the UK's leading inbound agency for home improvement businesses and a top HubSpot partner, having grown out of business coaching. Paid social is one element of a wide service list: inbound and content marketing, SEO, Google Ads, email marketing and automation, HubSpot CRM implementation, website design, conversion rate optimisation, and sales training and workshops.

Sectors are kitchen and bathroom designers, window and door specialists, garden room providers, landscapers, hot tub and spa companies, renewable energy installers and builders. It cites thousands of businesses helped and publishes traffic and revenue results for a B2C home improvement company plus garden room and uPVC window and door content. A free consultation is the entry point; pricing guides are linked but no figures are shown.

What each one actually does

Which to pick

A builder who wants to look the part on Instagram should talk to FJ Digital, or to Digital 4 Trades if they are in the North West and want the website handled by the same people. Neither will promise enquiries from posting alone, and neither should.

A tradesperson who wants social media to bring in work is really buying paid Meta ads, and the question is what the ads land on. Riley Marketing's approach of building the website, profile, reviews and CRM first and adding ads afterwards is the most defensible order for a smaller firm. The lead generation shortlist covers Meta ads specialists who assume you already have that in place.

Contractors chasing commercial work have Market Maestro for LinkedIn, and showroom businesses have JDR Group. For deeper reading see the FJ Digital profile, the Market Maestro profile, the video marketing shortlist for the content side, and how trades agencies price their work.

Frequently asked questions