The 2026 Marketing Playbook: 3 Shifts That Will Make or Break Your Business
I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.
Author: Brady Carlson | Co-Founder of Dirt2Dollars
Published Date: 25 December, 2025
Key Takeaways:
- The Andromeda update changed Meta advertising; you now need 2-4x more creatives or Meta shows competitor ads instead of yours
- AI SEO is the new frontier; buyers are using ChatGPT and Gemini to research companies, and you need to control what AI says about you
- AI agents can automate your initial sales process, catch leads at peak interest, disqualify tire kickers, and book appointments automatically
- Creative volume matters more than ever; there’s no limit to how many ads you should be running on Meta
- Everyone’s buyer is on Facebook and Instagram, from $5K jobs to $2M projects
- This is early, most contractors aren’t implementing these strategies yet, which means massive opportunity for early movers
- If you’re running your business the same way as two years ago, you’re falling behind
Table of Contents:
Why 2026 is Different
If you’re running your business the same way you were a couple of years ago, you are falling behind. You will continue to fall behind unless you implement the latest, up-to-date marketing strategies to consistently attract inbound leads and new jobs.
The contractors implementing these three shifts right now are seeing tremendous short- and medium-term growth and are seriously outpacing their competitors heading into 2026.
Here’s what’s changing and what you need to do about it.
Shift One: Doubling Down on Meta
The first and arguably biggest lever that we see companies pulling is doubling down and tripling down on Meta advertising.
The ones doing this are seeing tremendous growth and are seriously outpacing their competitors going into 2026.
The Misconceptions About Facebook and Instagram Ads
There are many misconceptions about Facebook and Instagram ads. Many people think it’s just boosting posts, having Facebook automate a campaign, or posting organically to your page.
When you’re boosting a post or just having Facebook automate it, you’re spending money and throwing things at the wall to see if something sticks. There’s no direction, no rhyme or reason to where those ad dollars are going.
You want full control over where your ad dollars get spent and who actually sees your content.
Two Ways to Control Your Ad Spend
You’ll have full control in two ways:
- Use a proper Meta ad account (not just boosting posts from your business page)
- Control your creatives, the videos and photos you actually run
This is where the game changed in 2025.
The Andromeda Update: Everything Changed
Meta updated its ad algorithms and targeting in mid-2025. It was called the Andromeda update.
This update now requires ad runners and media buyers to run 2-4x the amount of creatives that they would have otherwise needed to run and scale a campaign successfully.
How the New Algorithm Works
Here’s what’s happening:
When someone sees one of your ads in their feed, they scroll one, two, three, or four posts down and see another ad. If you don’t have a large volume of different creatives running, Meta will show a competitor’s ad to your potential buyer instead.
Meta’s incentive is to keep people on the app scrolling as long as possible. They do that by showing continuously new content, new videos, new photos, new ads.
What Happens If You Don’t Have Enough Creatives
If you only have a select few ads running, Meta will eventually push you off to the side. When people see your ad repeatedly, they’ll just scroll right past it. They won’t pay any attention to it.
Meta wants to keep an ad in front of them that they will actually engage with, watch, and eventually opt into.
If you can’t provide enough creative variety, Meta will show your competitor’s ads instead.
The Creative Volume You Actually Need
Making sure you have a huge library of creatives, videos, and photos with multiple backgrounds, people, machines, and sites will make a massive difference.
That’s how the algorithm is diverting content to different areas and different pockets of people: by the content and messaging in your ads, and letting the algorithm find the right type of buyer.
What Kind of Creatives Work
Video creatives:
- Time-lapse footage of your equipment running on different job sites
- Before and after walk-throughs (60-second videos with narration)
- Live work in progress showing your crew and equipment in action
Photo creatives:
- Crew photos in front of machines and equipment
- Customer photos with happy clients in front of your trucks/equipment
- Before and after stills from different angles
- Multiple variations of the same job site from different perspectives
You Can’t Have Too Many Ads
You can’t go wrong with having more ads these days. There’s no limit to the number of creatives you should have and should be running.
This lets your ad spend find the right ads and the right pockets of people, then spend on the appropriate creative to keep getting leads to opt in.
This is the most efficient way to run Meta ads in 2026. And if you’re not doing this and your competitors start doing it, you’re going to see super-inflated costs, super-inflated lead costs, poor conversion rates, low click-through rates, everything will be inflated to the negative side.
What Metrics to Look At When Scaling
When scaling a Meta campaign, look at:
- Cost per lead
- Cost per appointment
- Conversion rate from lead to appointment
- Cost per bid (how much ad spend to get one bid out)
- Cost per acquisition (how much ad spend to acquire one job)
- ROAS (return on ad spend)
The Simple Math of Scaling
If you know you have to spend $1,000 to close a job that returns $10,000, your cost per acquisition is $1,000. To scale, you simply spend $1,000 faster to get that job and cash back faster.
That’s the basic approach to scaling Meta campaigns without getting into all the technical details.
Shift Two: AI SEO (Control What AI Says About You)
The second biggest shift going into 2026 is not just SEO anymore, but AI SEO.
Buyers Are Using AI to Research You
You’ve probably had buyers tell you they looked you up on ChatGPT or Google Gemini to research your company. Maybe that’s how they found you.
We want that to be how they find you and how they perceive your business based on what they find.
Exercise: Look Yourself Up on ChatGPT
Here’s a quick exercise: go to ChatGPT and look up your company name. See what comes up about it. Try searching “Is [Your Company] legit?” or “Who are the top three land clearing companies near me?” and see what ChatGPT finds.
You want to have full control over that narrative.
Why This Matters Now
As time goes on and more businesses implement these practices, you want to stay ahead of the curve by controlling the narrative on what LLMs (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT and Gemini say about your business.
You don’t want:
- Negative things coming up about your business
- Anything that de-sells people
- Competitors being recommended before you
- Bad reviews being highlighted
When someone searches for “What are the top three roofing contractors near me?” or “Who should I hire for land clearing?”, you want your company to come up.
How to Control What AI Says About You
The way to control this is through blogs on your website.
Having a proper blog with a good routine and schedule that answers:
- Frequently asked questions that your clients normally ask
- Client case studies and testimonials
- Project stories, detailed write-ups of jobs you’ve completed
For example, if you completed a 5-acre clearing job, write a detailed blog about it: what you cleared, what you graded, challenges you faced, how you solved them, the results.
How AI Scrapes Your Content
All AI does is scrape the internet. It scrapes Google and different browsers for the information the user is looking for.
So if you have a blog about a 5-acre clearing job, and somebody searches “I have five acres that I need cleared, who should I work with?” or “Who’s the best company in my area for land clearing?”, the AI will see your blog and refer that person to you.
Start With an Audit
First, audit yourself:
- Go to ChatGPT
- Ask it about your business
- See what it says
- Check if it finds bad reviews
- Check if it recommends competitors before you
The Fix: Flood It With Positive Data
The fix is simple: give the AI positive data to analyze.
This could be:
- Blog posts on your website
- Case studies
- Project write-ups
- FAQs
- Customer testimonials
- Even conversations you have with ChatGPT itself (it may use that to update its memory)
Buyers Are Getting More Sophisticated
People are moving to LLMs like ChatGPT and Google Gemini. ChatGPT specifically is where they’re starting to do research now.
Buyers are becoming way more sophisticated. It’s super important for the longevity of your business to stay on top of this and stay ahead of the curve.
And here’s the thing: this is early. You haven’t seen many people talking about AI SEO yet. But it is big, and it’s going to become a very big deal in the coming years.
Shift Three: AI Agents for Sales Automation
The third shift going into 2026 is more advanced: automating part of your sales process with AI agents.
When This Makes Sense
This is for when you have:
- A solid inbound flow of leads coming in consistently
- A predictable acquisition system built out
- Leads coming in every day, every week, every month like clockwork
- A crew managing projects
- A big portion of your day spent talking with new buyers and closing deals
At this point, you can add efficiency with an AI agent.
The Simple Version: Immediate Text Response
The simplest version is having an AI agent that texts inbound leads immediately.
Catching Peak Interest
Here’s how it works:
Someone visits your website and fills out a form to request an appointment. An AI agent (they don’t have to know it’s AI) immediately starts a conversation with them.
At that point when they’re at peak interest, they stay engaged with your business.
The AI agent asks:
- “What are you looking to get done?”
- “When are you looking to get it done by?”
- “Are you the property owner?”
- “Where are you located?”
This helps qualify: Is this person in range? Do we service their area? Are they serious?
What This Does for You
All of the texting back and forth, the messaging, can be totally automated by an AI agent. You focus on taking phone calls the AI agent books for you, showing up to appointments, and closing deals.
You have higher leverage conversations because the AI agent is at the very least disqualifying and deterring the bottom of the barrel leads, the absolute tire kickers you don’t want to spend time on anyway.
Tools to Build AI Agents
There are many places where you can integrate an AI agent or build one yourself. One CRM we use is GoHighLevel. You can make your own AI agent in there and it’ll respond to people inquiring on Facebook, Instagram, through your website, and hold a conversation to get the necessary information.
This sets you up for a higher leverage, actual sales conversation with qualified leads.
The Bottom Line: The Three Big Shifts
Here’s what you need to implement going into 2026:
1. Double/Triple Down on Meta
Very important. There are so many buyers there for all types of contractors. We see jobs coming in from the lower end of $5K to the higher end of $1.5-2 million.
Everyone’s buyer is on Facebook and Instagram. You need solid campaigns up there, keeping people engaged and opting in all the time while maintaining low lead cost, high conversion rates, and a strong return on ad spend.
The Andromeda update changed everything. You need 2-4x more creatives than before or Meta will show competitor ads instead of yours.
2. AI SEO
This is huge. Make sure you’re at least conscious of it because this is early, you probably haven’t seen many people talking about it, but it is big, and it’s going to become a very big deal in the coming years.
Start by auditing yourself on ChatGPT. Then flood it with positive data through blogs, case studies, and project write-ups. Control the narrative before your competitors do.
3. AI Agents
This one’s a bit further out, but staying ahead of it, teaching yourself, getting yourself up to speed, and implementing it in your business now will make a massive difference.
Automate initial lead engagement to catch peak interest, disqualify tire kickers, and book appointments with qualified prospects.
What This Means For Your Business
If you’re running your business the same way you were a couple of years ago, you’re falling behind.
These three shifts separate the businesses that will thrive in 2026 from the ones that will struggle:
Meta advertising: The creative volume game has changed. Adapt or get pushed aside by the algorithm in favor of competitors.
AI SEO: Buyers are researching companies on ChatGPT. If you don’t control that narrative, you’re leaving your reputation to chance.
AI agents: Automating initial qualification and appointment booking frees you to focus on higher-value sales conversations.
The contractors implementing these strategies now are outpacing their competitors. The window to gain an advantage is open, but it won’t stay open long.
2026 is just around the corner. The question is: will you be ahead of the curve or scrambling to catch up?
