2026 Marketing Trends for Painting Contractors: What’s Working (And What’s Not)

If you own a painting company, you’ve probably felt it…

2025 has been a tough year for most painting contractors across the country.

Marketing costs keep climbing while homeowners keep waiting to pull the trigger on projects.

Here are the hard numbers: 84% of the painting contractors we serve saw at least 15% growth this year, while the other 17% fell below that target, or remained flat YoY.

Ok, so what moved the needle for the majority of those we serve?

Here’s the 30,000-foot overview:

This guide covers exactly what worked, what didn’t, and what’s coming in 2026.

Let’s get into the weeds…

Let’s be honest about what happened this year.

Most painting contractors barely broke even.

Some even saw revenue drop.

This isn’t just coming from marketing agencies.

Paint suppliers like Sherwin-Williams reported the same thing.

Less paint sold and flat sales across most markets.

When suppliers hurt, it’s industry-wide.

Here’s what this means for you: If you kept revenue flat in 2025, you did better than most.

If you grew by 10-20%, you’re in the top tier.

👉 If you grew by more than 20%, you’re LUCKY to be located in a booming market 👈

The stock market looks good on paper.

But most of that growth comes from tech and AI companies (over 40% to be exact).

The average person isn’t feeling rich. They’re feeling squeezed.

Nobody feels confident about spending big money.

When people feel uncertain, they delay projects.

Even people who need their house painted are waiting to see what happens next.

This year inflation hit the middle class hardest.

Also the median age of a first-time homebuyer just hit 40.

Drive through your local retirement community. You’ll see something you didn’t see five years ago: Young adults living with parents and grandparents. They can’t afford their own place.

So fewer homeowners means fewer painting projects.

Marketing costs went up for two reasons.

There are only so many people in your town who need painting work.

When demand goes down but competition stays the same, prices go up.

Simple supply and demand.

This is the new normal.

Advertising will keep getting more expensive as long as competition stays high and demand stays low.

Facebook and Instagram advertising still works.

But there’s a catch: you need to be involved.

This is due to Meta rolling out a big update called Andromeda this year.

You can’t just throw money at ads and hope.

The short version?

Videos now matter more than ever, and you’ll need A LOT of them.

No diversified video content at scale, no performance.

Set-it-and-forget-it Facebook ads are over.

Old-school SEO tricks don’t work anymore.

What does work?

Helpful content that AI systems can find and trust.

When someone asks ChatGPT “who’s the best painter near me,” you want your name to show up.

To make that happen, you need a strong presence on Google.

Reviews on multiple sites.

Your business listed everywhere Google looks.

The buzzword is omnipresence. It really just means showing up everywhere customers might look.

AEO = Answer Engine Optimization. It’s how you show up when someone asks ChatGPT for a painter recommendation.

The old way of sending emails doesn’t work anymore.

Modern spam filters are smart.

Blasting thousands of emails from your domain will get you marked as spam.

But follow the new rules, and email delivers incredible results.

Why?

You can target two different types of customers.

Commercial projects follow a different timeline.

That helps balance out slow winter months.

As Google ads get more expensive, Bing became surprisingly useful.

Think of Bing as a secondary channel.

It won’t replace Google or Facebook.

But it can add 10-20% more leads at a better price.

Plus, since Microsoft has a vested interest in OpenAI, we are expecting Bing’s algorithm to eventually serve ads on the ChatGPT platform.

Early adopters typically see great results.

Some channels that used to be rock-solid started cracking in 2025.

These aren’t completely dead, but they require different expectations now.

Google Search Ads (PPC) still work great in Canada.

But in the U.S., results depend entirely on your market.

Some cities got priced out by big companies like Angi and HomeAdvisor.

Inexperienced advertisers make it worse.

They waste money on bad ads.

And that drives up costs for everyone.

Compete with amateur advertisers, and your costs go up even when your ads are good.

Here’s the rule: Don’t start Google Search Ads unless you can commit to the first 90 days as an investment.

This channel takes time. Need fast results? Spend your money somewhere else.

Google Local Services Ads still perform in most markets.

But there’s a problem.

Google used to show three painters at the top.

Now they show two.

More painters join this platform every month.

That means more competition, higher costs, and fewer leads to go around.

And here’s the frustrating part: success depends on two things only you (as the Business Owner) can control:

These factors matter more than how much you’re willing to spend.

Big changes are coming.

And they will happen fast.

AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity will take over local search.

When someone asks these AI tools for a painter recommendation, they’ll get an answer instantly.

The AI will recommend specific companies by name.

If your business isn’t set up to be found, you’ll be invisible.

Prepare now.

If more than 50% of your business comes from one channel, you’re at risk.

Investment bankers call this single-channel risk.

When that channel changes, your whole business suffers.

The painting contractors that grew in 2025 did something different.

Advertising isn’t a quick fix.

It takes investment and patience.

And right now, it requires more participation than ever before.

Many markets consider flat revenue a win in 2025.

But painting contractors that spread marketing across multiple channels saw 10-20% growth.

That’s the difference between surviving and thriving.

If you rely too much on one channel, change that now.

Don’t bet everything on Facebook. Don’t bet everything on Google. Spread your investment across at least 3-4 channels.

The contractors who win in 2026 will start preparing today.

They’ll have a presence on every platform.

They’ll show up in AI search results.

They’ll have multiple channels bringing in leads so they never panic when one slows down.

You can’t control the economy.

And you can’t control inflation.

But you can control how you market your painting or concrete coating business.

Ready to stop relying on one channel and start building a real strategy?

We can help.

We work with painting and concrete coating contractors across the US and Canada to create marketing plans that work, even when markets are slow.