How to Generate Consistent Appointments for Your Land Management Business (Without Relying on Word of Mouth)
I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.
Author: Brady Carlson | Co-Founder of Dirt2Dollars
Published Date: 25 November, 2025
Key Takeaways:
Where to find buyers: Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) win for land management businesses 99% of the time
Ad spend is fuel: It’s an investment that determines how far your campaigns can go
Content that converts: Simple drone shots, time-lapses, and owner photos work best
Lead handling: Set up Facebook lead forms to capture name, phone, and email
Cold vs. warm leads: Cold leads are 5/10 ready vs. referrals at 9/10 ready, your job is to warm them up
The 10-10-10 rule: Ten calls, ten texts, ten emails minimum before giving up on a lead
CRM is essential: You need a system like GoHighLevel to organize and track everything at scale
Table of Contents:
- The Real Problem: You’re Great at the Work, But Struggle With Bookings
- Where to Find Your Ideal Buyers (And Why Meta Ads Win Every Time)
- Ad Spend is Fuel, Not an Expense
- Creating Ad Content That Actually Converts
- What to Do When Someone Clicks Your Ad
- The Big Difference Between Cold Leads and Referrals
- The 10-10-10 Rule: Why Most People Give Up Too Soon
- Organize Your Leads for Scale With a CRM
- Seven Common Mistakes Land Management Business Owners Make
- Ready to Scale? What Working With Dirt to Dollars Looks Like
Most land management business owners are stuck in a cycle where their problem isn’t actually doing the day-to-day work.
The problem is landing jobs consistently to keep your machines, yourself, and your crews busy so you can stay booked out for three months, six months, or even twelve months at a time.
And it starts with consistently scheduling on-site appointments where you actually speak with your ideal buyer every day, every week, and just rinse and repeat.
That’s what most people miss: yes, you can be highly skilled at what you do, but the most important part is actually selling the work you’re good at.
And to do that, you have to be speaking with new people, new interested buyers, on a consistent basis.
Most of you are probably relying on word of mouth and referrals.
Maybe you have a website, maybe you don’t.
I’m sure you’ve used Angie’s List, Home Advisor, or something of the sort in some way, shape, or form.
And it doesn’t lead to any long-term sustainability within a business.
You need that asset, that acquisition system, to be built out within your business so it’s continuously generating more work for you every week, every quarter, on a consistent basis.
Let’s dive into it.
Where to Find Your Ideal Buyers (And Why Meta Ads Win Every Time)
So, where do you actually start looking for that ideal buyer?
Across the board, we’ve seen the biggest and quickest results for all of our clients is through Meta, specifically through Facebook and Instagram ads.
Those have proven to be around 99% of every business we’ve worked with, helping them tap into a new audience, get new eyeballs on their business quickly, and convert those eyeballs into buyers.
Now, if you heard me say Facebook and Instagram, I’m not talking about boosting a Facebook post or having Facebook automate a campaign.
I’m definitely not talking about posting on Facebook Marketplace, running an ad there, or anything of the sort.
It’s inconsistent and unreliable. There’s no targeting behind it. There are no presets.
There’s no funnel behind it that actually allows you to target and keep your content and your business in front of people who are interested and qualified to buy from you in the first place.
Getting Set Up in Meta Ads Manager
First things first, where you want to find yourself in Meta is actually within a Facebook ad account. This is what you should look for if you want to be in this place. If you’re in an ad account, you’re much closer than many people ever get – so, congratulations!
This is where you want to build out your campaign and set up manual targeting presets to reach your ideal buyer and control where your ad spend goes.
Ad Spend is Fuel, Not an Expense
The way ad spend works, most people see it as just another expense their business has to pay every month. They only view it as an expense when it should be considered an investment.
We see ad spend as a highly systematic approach.
So let’s say you have your vehicle, and your vehicle is your ad campaigns.
Your ad campaigns are what’s actually reaching and generating buyers for you on the front end, at the top of your funnel. With those campaigns as your vehicle, ad spend is the fuel for that vehicle.
Essentially, determining how far those vehicles get every single day, every single week, every single month, and so on. The more fuel you have in the vehicle, the farther the vehicle can go.
What Ad Spend Actually Determines
So, what is the ad spend going to determine?
It’ll determine a few things:
- How many people you can show your ads to on a daily basis: the more people you show your ads to on a daily basis, the more leads you’re going to get.
- How many leads you get, directly tied to your daily reach.
- How many on-site appointments you’re able to convert from those leads.
- How many closed deals you will be locking up, ultimately what we all care about.
Once you have those systems and campaigns dialed in, the more you spend, the more you get back.
If you learn to see ad spend as fuel for your business development, you’ll keep your pipeline full of leads and new opportunities you can convert into on-site appointments and, ultimately, into deals.
Tracking Your Numbers
Now, one last note on ad spend. When you’re spending it, track your data as closely as possible. You want to actually figure out how much you need to spend on ad campaigns, like Facebook and Instagram in our case, to get one job back in return.
And then how much does that average job cost, or how much new cash does that bring into the business?
That way, you can determine what your cost per acquisition is and your return on ad spend, your ROAS, on the ad spend that you’re actually dishing out.
Because that’s how you’re going to be able to determine the scalability of the campaign that you have in place.
According to HubSpot’s marketing data, 30.55% of marketers say data helps determine their most effective marketing strategies, 29.59% say it improves ROI, and 27.36% say it helps them reach their target audience more effectively. This is why tracking your numbers isn’t optional; it’s essential.
Creating Ad Content That Actually Converts
When it comes to ads, if this is your first campaign, I would keep it simple.
Just start with some easy creatives to get the ball rolling on your end.
Simple Creatives That Work
Drone shots work well if you have access to one.
But even if you just have your phone, get out on one of your job sites, set it up on a tripod, and do a time-lapse.
Hopefully, your machines have your decals on them and everything as well, so you can kind of showcase that. But time-lapse videos work very well.
Pictures of you, the business owner, standing in front of some of your machines with your crew, maybe with a homeowner you just did work for, or a contractor you just did work for, or whatever.
That type of stuff goes over really, really well. And as much of that as you can possibly get will be super beneficial for you because the more creatives that you have, Facebook’s going to recognize that, and it’s going to favor your campaigns essentially.
Variety Matters for Your Campaigns
You’ve got to think about what Facebook’s incentive is: they want to keep users engaged in the app as much as possible.
And the way they do that is by showing people new content over and over again.
So, when you’re running a variety of ads and someone sees something new every time, Facebook will favor campaigns set up that way.
And it’ll go over super well in the long run for retargeting, too.
When it comes to content, keep it simple. Use basic videos and pictures without trying to be overly creative. It’s straightforward to set up, just plug them into your ad account.
Use Manual Placements
If you are in the ads manager, I strongly recommend doing manual placements.
Don’t do Advantage Plus.
It’s a bit of a money grab on Facebook’s end if you ask me.
I would choose manual placements and make sure your ads are delivered to feed and reels. Those are going to be the two most important places.
Those are the two locations where you’ll get the highest conversions.
What to Do When Someone Clicks Your Ad
Okay.
So now that you have your campaign set up, what do you do with the lead when somebody actually clicks on the ad?
What is the journey that they go through now?
Setting Up Your Lead Form
One thing that you can set up that’s pretty easy in the ad account is setting up an instant form, a Facebook lead form right on there.
That way, when they actually click on your ad, they go right to a form where you can have them answer a certain number of questions.
But the important thing is to get a name, a phone number, and an email. At the very least, make sure you’re getting those three things.
And then, when they come in, you can either send them to Messenger to start a conversation with you, or set it up so you get a notification or something like that.
We’ll talk in a second about where you should be delivering your leads so you can keep them all organized and know where every single person is in the sales process, keeping everything scalable on your end.
You’re definitely going to need to have things organized once you see a huge uptick in volume coming into your business from new opportunities this campaign creates.
The Big Difference Between Cold Leads and Referrals
So, now that you have your form set up, you’re now receiving lead information in one way or another, whether it’s just through Messenger or you’re sending them into a CRM or something. What do you do with them now?
Don’t Treat Cold Leads Like Referrals
Most people think, “Oh, I’ll call them a couple of times, if they don’t answer, I won’t try calling again.”
Do not do that.
The difference between advertising leads and leads you might be used to right now, like word of mouth or referral leads, is that these referral or word-of-mouth leads are nine times out of ten likely to appear waving money in your face, ready to move forward with a project immediately.
These people are not going to be like that.
These are people who don’t know you. In most cases, they don’t know you.
They don’t know anyone you’ve worked for. They’re not aware of the great things you’re capable of doing because they simply don’t know you, or they don’t know anyone you’ve actually done work for in the past.
So, keep that in mind.
The Five Out of Ten vs. Nine Out of Ten Reality
Once you can convert cold traffic like this, let’s say your word-of-mouth referral lead, they’re a nine out of ten, ready to go.
This cold internet lead might be a five out of ten, ready to go. And it’s not that they’re uninterested in you; they are interested if they take the time to fill out the form you set up and opt in to speak with your business.
They are interested. There is some interest, but they are looking for the right person to lead their project.
They might not be totally sure you can actually do what they want, or they might not be overly confident yet.
Your Job: Warm Them Up from 5/10 to 10/10
Your job when they opt in, and that person is maybe a five out of ten, is to educate them and warm them up.
That way, your goal is to take them from a 5 to a 10 out of 10 and close the deal.
If you can master converting cold internet traffic into paid deals, your business will thrive.
You will crush your competition if you can do this well.
The 10-10-10 Rule: Why Most People Give Up Too Soon
So now you’re doing everything you can.
Like I mentioned earlier, don’t call them twice, and if they don’t answer, don’t call them again.
We have a rule in-house at Dirt to Dollars when we’re calling on behalf of our clients’ accounts and whoever else, the 10-10-10 rule.
Ten phone calls, ten texts, ten emails before you give up on a lead, bare minimum.
And sometimes we end up doing a lot more.
Why This Matters
These people are working.
They’re working during the week. You might catch them at the wrong time.
Don’t call them once and then text them, like, “Hey, waiting for you to call me back.”
Do not leave any of your leads sitting like that.
It’s super important that you realize this, because the numbers game is how you win.
The numbers game, that’s another common underlying theme that you’re going to see here, from the ad campaigns to when it comes to actually working on converting these people and playing the numbers game.
Implement the 10-10-10 rule for every cold internet lead you can get to opt in to your business.
Research from HubSpot shows that 80% of sales require 5-12 follow-up attempts before closing, yet 48% of sales reps never make a single follow-up call after the initial contact. Don’t be part of that 48%.
Your persistence will absolutely separate you from your competition.
Organize Your Leads for Scale With a CRM
Now, what do you do with all these leads?
How do you keep them all organized?
You’ll need to keep them all organized to implement a system like the 10-10-10. You’re going to want to use a CRM.
Why You Need a CRM
There are a lot of them out there.
GoHighLevel is a good one.
HubSpot, Salesforce, there’s a bunch of good CRMs out there. I recommend GoHighLevel for sending all of your leads here.
And basically, what you’re going to be able to do from here, for those of you who are unaware, is that it will essentially become like your front office.
And it’s going to serve as a unified inbox for all the leads you’re attracting.
How a CRM Works for Your Business
Everything that comes in from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or any platform you set up for your business will be populated in the CRM with their name, phone number, and email.
Then you can easily set up a phone number for yourself.
This also lets you call, text, or email them from your CRM. That way, you’re not using your personal phone or anything similar, which helps keep everything much cleaner.
You can set up a whole pipeline for yourself so you can track people from new leads to when you convert them into an on-site appointment, to when you have the bid out, how much the bid is worth, and when the deal is actually closed.
So there’s going to be a lot of different use cases for a CRM like that. But highly recommend implementing one as well when you’re launching new internet campaigns.
In this case, with social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, the main idea is to generate a large volume of leads for the business and be able to convert these deals at scale. You’ll want a systematic and streamlined approach to achieve this.
According to HubSpot’s research, 87% of marketers using HubSpot felt their marketing strategies were effective in 2024, compared to just 52% of marketers who don’t have a CRM.
The difference is massive, and the right tools matter.
Seven Common Mistakes Land Management Business Owners Make With Lead Generation
As a review of this post, and to help you going forward, let me save you from the traps I see constantly:
Mistake 1: Giving Up After Two Follow-Up Attempts
You’re leaving money on the table. The 10-10-10 rule exists because it works.
Mistake 2: Treating Cold Leads Like Referrals
These people don’t know you yet. They need education and warming up, not a hard close.
Mistake 3: Using Generic “Just Checking In” Messages
Add value with every touchpoint. Share resources, insights, or relevant case studies.
Mistake 4: Not Tracking Your Numbers
You can’t scale what you don’t measure. Know your cost per acquisition and ROAS.
Mistake 5: Boosting Posts Instead of Running Real Campaigns
This is the amateur hour approach. Get into Ads Manager and set up proper targeting.
Mistake 6: Not Having a CRM System
You’ll drown in leads once the campaigns work. Get organized before you scale.
Mistake 7: Treating Ad Spend as an Expense vs. Investment
Your ad spend is fuel. The more fuel, the farther you go. Stop thinking of it as a cost.
Ready to Scale? You Can Trust Dirt to Dollars
If your business is ready to take it to the next level and you’re prepared to accelerate, you might be interested in working with our team.
What You Get When You Work With Us
- You get a full-scale marketing team. We specialize in everything from Meta ads to Google ads, TikTok ads, cold email, organic, you name it. We’re essentially skilled in all aspects of digital marketing.
- You have an in-house sales team. We’re actually calling every single one of your opportunities on your behalf.
- You get full access to our entire team.
- You get full access to me, my business partner, and a unified communications channel, making everything seamless.
We’re really focused on communication so that your team has full access and complete 24/7 transparency with our team and vice versa. We’re really committed to that.
And we obviously love helping land management companies scale.
Is This Right for Your Business?
If you’re interested or want to check it out, feel free to visit that and schedule a call with our team if you believe you’d be a good fit to work with us.
