Facebook and Instagram ads for tree services: the crane footage is the campaign
The video that outperforms everything else in this trade, offers that work off-season, real budgets and cost per lead, and how to retarget cold estimates.
Nobody scrolls Instagram with a limb through their roof. That is worth saying first, because it explains where Meta ads fit for a tree company and where they do not.
Emergency removal is a search channel. Somebody has a problem right now and they type it into a phone. Meta cannot manufacture that moment.
What Meta does extraordinarily well in this trade is everything else: the homeowner who has been looking at a leaning ash for two years, the customer who needs winter pruning and does not know it, the neighborhood that just watched a storm and is suddenly aware of the pine over the driveway. And it does it with footage no other trade has.
Your product is inherently watchable
A crane picking a 4,000-pound section of oak over a two-story roof is genuinely compelling video. A helmet-cam shot from 60 feet up as a climber sets a rigging point is compelling video. A same-angle before-and-after of a yard that had four dead pines in it is compelling video. Nothing a house cleaner or a plumber can film comes close.
Most tree companies already have this footage sitting on a phone and never run a dollar behind it.
The cuts that perform:
The crane pick, 20 to 30 seconds. Start mid-lift. No intro, no logo card. Text overlay in the first second: "Ash removal over a sunroom, Bellwood." End on the clean yard.
The takedown from the top, 30 to 45 seconds. Helmet cam, sped up 2x for the middle. This gets shared by people who will never hire you and that is fine, because reach is cheap and your buyers are inside it.
The before and after, 15 seconds. Static tripod, same frame, cut between them. This is the highest-converting format for pruning and crown work because it is the only way a homeowner understands what pruning even does.
The talking head, 45 seconds. The owner in the yard: "I am an ISA Certified Arborist and here is how to tell whether that tree needs to come down or just needs a crown reduction." Educational, and it does more for trust than any offer.
Shoot vertical. Shoot with the phone locked on a tripod or a magnet mount. Ignore music and captions on the first pass; add captions second, because most of it is watched with sound off.
Offers that work, by season
Meta is where you sell the job people have not decided to buy yet, so the offer has to create a reason to act now.
- Dormant season pruning, January and February: "Pruning while the tree is dormant is easier on the tree and easier on your yard. Book before February 28 and there is no equipment fee." Winter is the slow season across most of the country and this is the message that fills it.
- Post-storm awareness, the week after a regional event: "Free hazard assessment on any tree within falling distance of your house. Certified arborist, 15 minutes, no obligation."
- Fall pre-winter: "Get the deadwood out before the first ice storm. Free assessment."
- Spring: "Storm season is coming. If a tree over your roof worries you, we will look at it for free."
Free assessment beats a dollar discount in this trade, because the homeowner's real problem is that they do not know whether the tree is dangerous or whether they are being upsold. Take that uncertainty off the table and the estimate books itself.
Budgets and what a lead costs
Start at $20 to $35 a day. That is enough in most metros to learn which video works within two weeks.
Expect $12 to $45 per lead for a free-assessment offer, higher in dense expensive metros, lower in suburban and rural markets. That looks cheap next to the $45 to $160 you pay on Google search, and it should, because the intent is much lower. A Meta lead needs a call within five minutes and often two or three follow-ups before it becomes an estimate. Budget for that on the sales side or the channel will look like it failed. The missed calls guide covers the follow-up sequence.
Targeting: keep it dumb and geographic
Do not build clever interest stacks. In a local service account they narrow the audience below what the algorithm needs and drive costs up.
Set a radius or a zip code list matching your real drive time. Age 35 and up. Homeowners if the option is available in your market. That is the whole targeting. Meta's delivery system finds the buyers inside a broad local audience better than any interest layer you can assemble.
One exception worth building: an audience of the specific neighborhoods hit by a recent storm. Draw the pins tight, run the hazard-assessment offer for ten days, and stop. Response in those windows is several times normal.
Retargeting is where the money actually is
Three audiences, each with its own message, each running at $5 to $10 a day permanently:
- Website visitors, 30 days. They looked at your removal page and did not call. Show them the crane video and a tap-to-call.
- Video viewers, 75%, 90 days. They watched most of a takedown. They are interested in trees and near you. Show them the free assessment.
- Estimate given, not closed. Upload the list from your CRM. Show them the before-and-after and a line about the schedule filling. In this trade, a meaningful share of estimates go cold simply because nobody followed up, and the ticket is large enough that recovering two a month pays for the whole ad budget.
Retargeting clicks in a local audience typically run under a dollar. This is the cheapest revenue in the account and most tree companies never turn it on.
Measuring it honestly
Meta will report leads. Your calendar reports estimates and your invoices report jobs. Reconcile them monthly. In a trade where a single crane removal can be $5,000, one closed job can justify a month of spend, and averages computed over a short window will mislead you badly in both directions. Give it 60 days.
Frequently asked
Should I boost posts instead? No. Boosting gives you almost none of the targeting, none of the retargeting, and no proper objective. Run it through Ads Manager with a leads or calls objective.
Do I need a professional videographer? No. Phone footage of real work outperforms polished production in this category, consistently. What you need is a crew member who remembers to hit record and a tripod that lives in the truck.
What about the graphic stuff, storm damage, a tree through a roof? It performs, and it is a judgment call. Never post it in a way that identifies the property, and never post a job where someone was hurt.
Meta ads are one of the services in the free 14-day trial. We build the campaigns and the audiences in your own ad account. Text or call (385) 832-6175. If your review count is under the trade median of 17, start with the reviews guide at the same time.