Jelly Digital

19/05/2026

Your $2k a month is leaking. Here’s where.

Most tradies running Google Ads are leaking budget in four places, and they have no idea it’s happening. The ads are running, the dashboard says “active”, a few leads trickle in. So it looks fine. It isn’t.

1. Broad match keywords with no negatives. Google’s quietly spending your budget on “free”, “DIY” and “how to fix” searches. People looking up how to wire a switch themselves. None of them are calling you.

2. No conversion tracking. You’re paying for clicks, but you can’t tell which ones became jobs. So you’re optimising in the dark, or worse, your agency is.

3. Ads pointing at your homepage. Someone searches “emergency electrician Mt Eden”, lands on a page about you, your team, your story. They bounce. You paid for that click.

4. Phone calls aren’t tracked. 70% of trades leads come in by phone. If those aren’t tracked, the whole picture is missing.

Fix these before you spend another dollar. Pause the campaigns if you have to. Most tradies don’t need to spend more, they need to stop the leaks first.

→ Link in bio if you want a second opinion on where your spend is going.

18/05/2026

17/05/2026

Your phone goes quiet at the same time every year. It's not bad luck.

Most tradies I talk to have a pattern. Busy for a stretch, then the phone slows down. They put it down to the season, the economy, bad luck. But the pattern is almost always the same: they stopped marketing when work picked up.

Here's the problem. Whatever you do for your Google presence today takes weeks to show up. The tradies who slow down on marketing when they're busy are setting up their own quiet stretch two months out. By the time the pipeline runs dry, it's too late to stop it.

The ones who stay consistently booked year-round figured this out. They back marketing hardest when they're already busy. Not to get more work right now. To make sure the pipeline doesn't dry up in winter.

It's not a big shift. It's just not stopping.

→ Link in bio if you want a system that works year-round.

17/05/2026

The skills that make you a great tradie are not the same skills that make you a great business owner.

Most tradies figure this out the hard way, when the tools are down and the phone's not ringing and there's no system to fall back on.

Good read from TradeHQ on what that shift actually looks like in practice.

Unlock the secrets of transitioning from a skilled tradie to a thriving business owner. Discover essential growth strategies for success in your entrepreneurial journey.

17/05/2026

Most tradies market like this: work dries up, run some ads, get busy, stop spending.

James Hurman's research shows the businesses that grow consistently do the opposite. 60% of their marketing builds future demand, people who aren't ready to buy yet. 40% chases people ready now.

The ones stuck in feast and famine are 100% in the 40%.

Worth a read, NZ Marketing Magazine just published an extract from his new book.

This extract from James Hurman’s Future Demand explores how markets really work, how people decide and what advertising means.

13/05/2026

Three quick wins NZ tradies can do this week to show up more on Google. No ad spend, no agency, no technical knowledge needed.

01 — Fill out your Google Business Profile properly. Categories, hours, services, at least 5 photos. Most are half-empty. Google notices.

02 — Text your last 5 customers and ask for a review. Keep it simple. “Hey [name], would you mind leaving us a Google review? Takes 30 seconds.” Most people will if you ask directly.

03 — Add your service suburbs to your website homepage. Not buried in a footer. On the page. “Serving Takanini, Papakura, and Manukau.” Google uses this to decide where to show you.

None of these cost anything. Most tradies haven’t done all three.

Link in bio.

11/05/2026

Fewer reviews than you. Less experience. But he shows up first on Google, and that's the only thing that matters.

People choose who to call in 10 seconds. If you're not first, you never got a chance to quote.

Search your trade + suburb right now. See who comes up above you. That name is getting your calls.

jellydigital.nz

10/05/2026

Every tradie knows this feeling. Flat out in summer, wondering where the work went by June.

The feast or famine cycle isn't bad luck. It's what happens when your pipeline runs on word of mouth instead of infrastructure.

01 — Busy in summer. Dead in winter. It happens the same time every year because the phone rings when someone recommends you, and stops when they move on.

02 — When you're flat out, marketing is the last thing on your mind. So you don't do it. Then June hits and you need leads fast. There's no fast fix — SEO and ads take months to build. You needed to start in October.

03 — Word of mouth gets you started. It won't keep you consistent. Referrals spike when your last client is happy and dry up when they move on. That's not a pipeline — that's luck with a time delay.

The tradies who stay busy year-round started building their online presence when they were busy — so when winter came, the leads were already there.

If work dries up at the same time every year, the system is telling you something. Follow for more.

08/05/2026

3 signs your marketing is broken — and costing you leads.

01 — Patchy social media posting (no plan, just hoping)
02 — Ads and website managed by different people who've never spoken
03 — Three tools, three invoices, zero joined-up strategy

One team. One system. One strategy. https://jellydigital.nz/trade-services