Market Selection for Home Services Businesses
Market selection is deciding which geographic areas a home services business targets through its marketing, and how much emphasis each one gets, based on where the work is worth winning. A service-area map shows where the business can work. A market-selection map shows where it wants to win work.
The marketing covers the area the business serves, but it doesn’t weight every part of it equally:
Where the business can work vs. where it wants to win work
Wider metro market: 60 ZIP codes. Areas outside the service area are left out of the targeting.
Service area: 40 ZIP codes. Covered by the marketing at a base level, budget permitting.
Core market: 12 ZIP codes. Weighted up, based on the client’s sales records.
Illustrative figures only, not a benchmark.
Trying to market everywhere the business could go, at the same weight, spreads the budget across areas where it may not want more work. At Riley Summers, budget permitting, we cover the market the business serves, then use the client’s sales records to put more of the budget into the areas that produce the most sold work.
On this page
- What Market Selection Is and Isn’t
- What Makes an Area Worth Targeting
- The Worth the Drive Framework
- How the Kind of Work Changes the Market
- How Channels Handle Geography
- Measuring What Each Area Returns
- Market Selection Mistakes We See
- Related Resources
What Market Selection Is and Isn’t
Market selection is a planning decision. It comes before the work of marketing in any one place.
What market selection is:
- A choice of where to win work. It decides which parts of the service area the marketing puts the most weight on.
- A weighting, not just a boundary. Some areas are covered at a base level, and others are weighted up.
- Grounded in sales records. Where the client can provide them, we use the ZIP codes from past sales to see which areas produce the most jobs and which produce the highest-value jobs. That outranks assumptions about what an area looks like.
- Revisited over time. It shifts as results, capacity and seasons change.
What market selection isn’t:
It isn’t the service area itself. The service area is everywhere the business will take a job. Market selection decides where inside it the marketing works hardest. It also sits alongside several neighboring decisions, each with its own guide:
| The question | Where it’s covered |
|---|---|
| Where should we pursue work? | Market Selection (this guide) |
| What work should we pursue? | Service Mix |
| How do we market across the areas we serve? | Service Area Marketing |
| How do we enter and build a new market? | Local Market Expansion |
| Who are we competing against there? | Competitive Market Analysis |
What Makes an Area Worth Targeting
No single figure makes an area worth the budget. We look at each one across four areas:
Demand
How much search activity there is for the business’s services in the area, and how many jobs have already come from it. Demand can also shift with the season or after a storm.
Economics
The value of the jobs the area produces, and what it costs to win a sold job there. Where the client shares it, close rate and margin by area also count.
Operations
Drive time, how closely jobs cluster together, and whether the crews or technicians can take on more work there. Ten customers spread across a wide area cost more to serve than ten in neighboring streets. In discovery, we also ask the owner which areas they’d rather not send crews to, even inside their service area.
Competition
How crowded the area is with other businesses competing for the same work. Competitive Market Analysis covers this in depth.
Sold-job data outranks assumptions. An area’s income level or appearance can suggest it’s worth targeting, but the client’s own sales show whether it actually produces work.
How Riley Summers helps: An area that looks attractive on a map can be expensive to win and slow to serve. We evaluate each area on all four together, starting from the client’s sales by ZIP code, so the budget goes where the work is both available and worth the drive.
The Worth the Drive Framework
The Worth the Drive Framework is how we decide where a client’s marketing works hardest. It has four stages: map where the work is, weigh each area, set the market tiers, and measure what each area returns.
- Map Where the Work Is
- Weigh Each Area
- Set the Market Tiers
- Measure What Each Area Returns
1. Map Where the Work Is
We start with two views of the service area. Past sales by ZIP code, where the client can provide them, show where jobs have come from. Market demand shows where the work could come from. In discovery, the owner adds what neither shows, such as the areas they’d rather not send crews to.
2. Weigh Each Area
Each area is evaluated on demand, economics, operations and competition together. Volume and value don’t always line up. One area might produce the most jobs, while another produces fewer jobs worth far more. Both can earn a place in the plan, for different reasons.
3. Set the Market Tiers
- Core areas: proven areas the business actively wants more work from. These are weighted up.
- Growth areas: promising areas worth developing or testing. These are covered at a base level, with room to grow.
- Fringe areas: serviceable areas where the economics or operational fit are weaker. These are kept at a minimal level, or left out where the owner prefers.
How long a growth area gets depends on the owner’s tolerance for investment. Sometimes it’s a quarter, sometimes more than a year. We agree that window with the owner up front, so an area is evaluated against the time it was given.
Tiers aren’t set by distance alone. A profitable cluster 30 minutes away can be core, while a weak ZIP code next door is fringe.
4. Measure What Each Area Returns
We track sold jobs and their value by area against what was spent there, not just leads. The results decide whether an area holds its tier, moves up or moves down.
How Riley Summers helps: Market tiers aren’t permanent. A growth area that starts producing sold work earns more of the budget, and a core area that slips gives some back. We rebalance with the owner as the sales records show where the work is moving.
How the Kind of Work Changes the Market
The right market isn’t the same for every kind of work. How urgent a job is, what it’s worth and how often it repeats all change how far the marketing can reasonably reach.
| Demand type | Geographic consideration | Example trades |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency service | Tight areas, because response time often decides who gets the call | Plumbing, HVAC |
| Urgent repair | Usually close in, because availability in the next day or two matters | HVAC, electrical |
| Routine service | How closely jobs cluster can matter more than how far the area reaches | Pest control, lawn care |
| Planned repair | Customers may compare more providers, so a wider area can work | Plumbing, roofing |
| Replacement | Higher job value can support a wider area | HVAC, water heaters |
| High-ticket project | The economics can justify longer drives | Roofing, windows |
| Recurring service | Dense customer clusters keep routes efficient | Pool service, lawn care |
| Maintenance & membership | Members spread too thinly can be costly to service on schedule | HVAC, plumbing |
| Seasonal service | Emphasis can shift as demand peaks in different areas | Lawn care, HVAC |
| Storm-driven service | The target area can move temporarily with the storm’s path | Roofing, tree service |
These are examples of how geography changes with the kind of work, not recommendations for a particular business.
How Channels Handle Geography
Market selection decides where the business wants work. Channel strategy decides how to pursue it there. The same tiers don’t have to be applied the same way in every channel.
| Channel | How geography is set | What it means for market selection |
|---|---|---|
| Paid search | Location targeting by ZIP code, city or radius | Core areas can carry more of the budget than growth areas, and areas outside the service area are left out |
| Local Services Ads | The advertiser chooses its service areas by county, city, neighborhood or ZIP code, set on a map in the LSA interface | Leads come only from the areas selected, so the list should match where the business wants work |
| Local search and maps and organic search | Built through content, location pages, structured data and the Business Profile | This moves slowly, so the long-term investment fits core areas first |
| Paid social | Location targeting by area or radius | It can build awareness in a growth area before demand shows in search |
| Remarketing | Follows people who have already visited the site | It gives the least geographic control, supporting areas the other channels have already reached |
How Riley Summers helps: Paid search can be pointed at a new area quickly, while local content takes months to build. We use what paid search shows about the searches that produce work to inform the SEO priorities, so the slower investment builds on proven demand.
Is your budget going where your best jobs are?
We’ll review where your current marketing is reaching. If you share your recent sales by ZIP code, we’ll also show you how that compares with where your best jobs come from.
Measuring What Each Area Returns
Equal spend doesn’t mean equal results. In this example, three areas each receive the same budget for a month:
| Area | Spend | Leads | Sold jobs | Cost per sold job | Sold-job value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area A | $5,000 | 50 | 15 | $333 | $30,000 |
| Area B | $5,000 | 65 | 8 | $625 | $20,000 |
| Area C | $5,000 | 30 | 12 | $417 | $40,000 |
Illustrative figures only, not a benchmark.
Area B produces the most leads and is the weakest of the three. Area A wins on volume, with the most sold jobs at the lowest cost. Area C produces the fewest leads but the most valuable work. Read by leads, Area B looks like the place to spend more. Read by sold jobs and value, it’s the place to spend less.
For route-based and recurring work, how closely sold jobs cluster matters too. Ten customers in neighboring streets are worth more to the schedule than ten spread across the service area.
Our regular reporting covers the account as a whole, and when a client wants results by area, we break them out. Either way, the client’s sales by ZIP code guide where the budget goes. Cost per Booked Job and Revenue Attribution cover how those figures are built.
Market Selection Mistakes We See
These are the mistakes we most often find when we review a home services business’s marketing.
-
Marketing the whole service area at the same weight. Every ZIP code gets the same share of attention, whether it produces work or not.
What we do instead: Budget permitting, we cover the service area, then weight the budget toward the ZIP codes where the client’s sales come from.
-
Reaching past where the business will drive. Targeting is set to a whole metro area or a wide radius, and ads reach people the business won’t serve.
What we do instead: We limit targeting to the service area and leave out the areas the business doesn’t cover.
-
Evaluating areas by leads instead of sold jobs. The area with the most leads gets more budget, even when its leads rarely turn into work.
What we do instead: We look at where sold jobs and their value come from, using the client’s sales by ZIP code where they can provide it.
-
Assuming nearby or affluent areas are better. Distance and how an area looks stand in for real results.
What we do instead: The client’s sales records outrank assumptions about what an area should produce.
-
Ignoring drive time and how jobs cluster. Jobs are won in areas that cost too much time to serve, or are spread too thinly for efficient routes.
What we do instead: In discovery, we ask the owner which areas they’d rather not send crews to, and weigh how closely jobs cluster, especially for route-based work.
-
Expanding before the core is working. New areas are added when the real problem is weak performance where the business already markets.
What we do instead: We look with the owner at how the core areas are performing before recommending new ones.
-
Setting the areas once and leaving them. Areas stay in the same tier long after results have moved.
What we do instead: We rebalance with the owner as the sales records show where the work is moving.
Related Resources
About The Author
Mark Riley is a marketing executive and the founder of Riley Summers Marketing Group, where he leads customer acquisition strategy for home services businesses across paid search, Google Local Services Ads, local SEO and paid social media. He rose to VP of Digital at a national legal-marketing agency, where the digital programs he led generated a significant share of its revenue. Over a 15+ year career, he has managed more than $70 million in digital advertising spend, much of it in one of the most expensive and competitive advertising categories in North America. He measures marketing by what it costs to win a booked job, not by traffic or lead volume.