The Truth About Digital Ads You Need to Know: Why Big Plumbers Never Stop Advertising
Alright, let’s get right to the good stuff. I recently saw a post from some guy on TikTok—and bless his heart—who claimed that you only need to advertise in the very early days of your business. As soon as you’re established, he claimed, you can just turn off the ad spend and coast.
Hard. Disagree.
I run an advertising agency, Mammoth Marketing for Plumbers, so yeah, you could say I’m biased. But before you dismiss me, you could also just hear me out and go, “Well, maybe it’s experience instead.” I’m not selling snake oil here; I’m talking about how the most successful, multi-million-dollar businesses operate. And guess what? They never stop advertising.
The simple fact is that the instant you stop advertising, you start decaying. You start giving up ground. You start becoming forgettable. And in today’s hyper-competitive world, being forgettable is a death sentence.
The whole goal of this article is to lay out The Truth About Digital Ads You Need to Know. It's not just about leads—it's about staying top of mind and building roads directly to your company. Let’s dive into what the big guys are actually doing.
Peeking Behind the Curtain: What the Biggest Companies Are Doing
I love a good fact check, and luckily, the big digital ad platforms have made it easy for us to do some spying. It’s all public, and it’s a goldmine for understanding what works.
The Facebook and Instagram Transparency Test
Let’s start with Facebook. Did you know Facebook has an Ad Library? It's a public place where you can go look at virtually all the active ads for any company running campaigns. It was launched as a transparency thing, and it’s a brilliant tool for us marketers (and savvy business owners!) to see what the competition is up to.
I recently took a peek at a massive, well-established plumbing, cooling, and heating company—let’s call them Air South (names are slightly changed, but the point remains). This is a behemoth in their market. They are the name you think of. And guess what I found?
I saw multiple ads that launched back in August 2025 (or whenever you’re reading this) and have been active ever since. Now, they probably have disabled tons of other ads, but the fact that these core campaigns have been running nonstop for months tells you everything you need to know. They’re having the desired effect, or they wouldn’t be spending the money.
You can scroll through hundreds of ads this huge company has launched since then. Hundreds! That tells me that, hey, this large, very well-established company that has been around forever is still marketing. They're testing different creative, different messaging, and different audiences to see what is going to work for the market. And that’s just on Facebook and Instagram.
The Google Ads Transparency Test
But we can’t stop there, because we all know that Google is where the serious home service calls happen.
For those of you who don’t know, Google also has a Transparency Center where you can look at the ads a company has launched. This will show you search ads (the little text ones that pop up when you search “plumber near me”), display ads (the graphic banners you see all over the internet), and even video ads.
This is an absolute treasure trove for ideas and concepts, by the way. It’s basically free market research!
When I checked the same massive company on Google’s center, the results were just as staggering. A literal ton of ads. They are running campaigns across the whole Google ecosystem—Search, Display, YouTube, and more.
If companies this massive, this established, and with this much brand equity are spending serious cash on sustained, diverse digital ad campaigns... why would anyone suggest that a smaller or even mid-sized plumbing business can afford to stop? The answer is simple: They can’t.
Advertising is an Awareness Game, Not Just a Lead Game
Okay, let’s talk about the why. Why are these giants throwing money at marketing when they already have a million trucks and a recognizable logo?
It all comes down to a concept I call the Awareness Game.
Advertising is the thing that keeps your company top-of-mind. It’s the reason why I advertise my own company, Mammoth Marketing. I know my metrics. I know that I need to spend at least $1,000 to get a customer into my business (that’s my Customer Acquisition Cost, or CAC). You, running a plumbing service, will have different metrics, but the principle is the same.
The Power of Top-of-Mind Awareness (TOMA)
When you run consistent advertising, you boost your TOMA. You increase the ability for a customer to recall your name the instant they have a need.
Think about it:
A pipe bursts.
The homeowner panics.
They either Google "plumber near me" OR they go, "Oh, I keep seeing that Air South commercial/ad... I’ll call them first."
The consistent advertising—the awareness campaign—is what educates the customer about what you do, what need you fill, and why they should choose you.
The minute you stop advertising, that awareness doesn't vanish immediately, which is nice. But it does what marketers call decay. It slowly fades. Like a radio signal getting weaker the farther you drive, your brand awareness starts to drift until someone else’s signal (read: ad campaign) becomes stronger.
Building Roads Directly to Your Business
Here is the really important piece of The Truth About Digital Ads You Need to Know.
Most small businesses only focus on lead generation. This means they only reach the person who has a need right now, at this exact moment. Where do they reach them? Usually on Google Search, which is the most competitive and expensive zone in digital advertising.
When you’re only focused on lead generation, you’re constantly fighting an expensive, high-stakes battle for the few customers who are ready to buy today. You’re spending a fortune on keywords like "emergency plumber."
But when you run awareness campaigns—the kind of stuff we saw in the transparency centers—you're going to create a whirlwind and a chatter and a general, sustained awareness around your company.
What does that do? It draws and builds roads directly to you.
We all know that Google is an extremely competitive and expensive place to be, both with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay-Per-Click). But if you can get people to look to your company the minute they see a need because they already know you, well, then it’s way cheaper.
Instead of fighting for expensive, general keywords, you’re visible for your own name. People search for "Mammoth Plumbing" because they’ve seen your logo, heard your message, and recognize you as the local authority. That traffic is cheaper, has a higher conversion rate, and means you’re not constantly in a price war.
I want people to be seeking you out because you are so well known in the market that they cannot ignore you, and they will not forget you because you keep talking to them. This requires consistency. You need to be reaching the same audience, the same number of times, for a long time, before you reach that tipping point where they have a need and finally use your services.
It’s All Part of the Bigger Mix
Now, don't get me wrong, this isn't only a digital advertising game.
My job is to run digital campaigns for plumbers, but I will be the first to tell you that this awareness strategy requires offline marketing as well. This is not about choosing one or the other. It’s about creating a unified front.
We're talking about:
Billboards: Can people see you on the highway?
Mailers: Are you in their mailbox?
Door Knocking: Are you physically in the neighborhood?
Community Events: Are you sponsoring the local high school team?
All of this is part of the bigger, beautiful, chaotic mix of marketing that builds a huge, unstoppable business.
So, yeah, I get a little passionate—as you can tell—when people say advertising doesn’t need to happen after the first few months. It's simply the opposite of what all the successful companies are doing. Advertising is the oxygen of your business. Stop breathing, and well, you know what happens.
The biggest, most successful plumbing companies in the country run consistent, sustained digital and traditional advertising campaigns not just to generate leads, but to maintain and grow Top-of-Mind Awareness. This is The Truth About Digital Ads You Need to Know. It’s the engine that builds reputation, lowers customer acquisition cost, and makes you the obvious choice when a homeowner’s toilet backs up.
Don't let your business decay. Don't let your competitors become the name everyone remembers. Be everywhere, consistently.
If you’d like the Tyler Williams crew to take a look at what you need to focus on to grow your business from an engine-stalled economy car to a roaring, unstoppable mammoth, please feel free to schedule a consultation right now at my website: https://tylerwilliams.net/.
