Dirt2Dollars vs Hiring Your Own Marketer: What It Really Costs
I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.
Author: Brady Carlson | Dirt2Dollars
Published: 30 October, 2026
A contractor told me last month he was thinking about having a guy already on payroll handle his marketing instead of paying us. I told him to run the real cost before he decided. Here it is.
What You Are Comparing
Dirt2Dollars is a done-for-you marketing agency. We are not a coaching program. This is not a course. We run your ads, build your website and landing pages, and handle all of your marketing. Our in-house sales team books qualified on-site appointments directly on your calendar. All you have to do is show up and close the deal.
So the comparison is not “Dirt2Dollars versus doing it yourself after a course.” It is “Dirt2Dollars versus building your own marketing department.”
What a Real Marketing Department Needs
To do what we do, you need four roles. A media buyer who knows how to run Facebook and Instagram campaigns for contractors and can read the numbers daily. A web person to build and maintain a landing page that converts. Someone to call every property owner fast and qualify the project. And someone to manage all three and own the results.
That is not one hire. That is a department.
What That Department Costs
A competent media buyer who has actually run contractor campaigns runs $5,000 to $8,000 a month in salary, and that is if you can find one. A part-time caller who shows up and follows up on every lead is another $2,500 to $4,000. Add web and management time and you are at $10,000 to $15,000 a month before you spend a dollar on ads.
Then you add ad spend on top. Then you add the three to six months of learning while they figure out what works in your trade. Then you add the cost of being wrong.
What Dirt2Dollars Costs
Most contractors invest between $1,500 and $15,000 per month with Dirt2Dollars. Where you land in that range depends on how many markets you run, how much ad spend you put behind it, and how fast you want to scale.
That includes the media buyers, the landing pages, the website, the call center, and the management. It includes ad creative we have already tested across 250 contractors and $2.5 million in managed ad spend. And it includes a guarantee of 30 on-site appointments in 90 days on our flagship program, or we work for free until we hit it.
No in-house hire comes with a guarantee.
The Hidden Cost of the Cheap Option
When that contractor said he had a guy on payroll who could “handle marketing,” I asked him one question. Has that guy ever run a profitable Facebook campaign for a land clearing company?
The answer was no. So what he was really comparing was our price against a free experiment with an unknown result. That experiment costs him months of idle equipment while his guy learns on the job.
It is going to cost more upfront to hire the people who already know what they are doing. It is going to save you money in the long run. That is true for an excavator operator and it is true for marketing.
Why the Call Center Alone Changes the Math
Most contractors who try to run their own ads get the same result. Forms come in, nobody calls them back for two days, and half of them are already gone.
Our in-house sales team runs the 10-10-10 rule on every inquiry. 10 calls, 10 texts, 10 emails until they book or tell us no. That follow-up is why our clients close around 50% of their estimates and why some of them bid double their competition and still win. The property owner already trusts them before the truck shows up.
You cannot hire that for the price of one person.
What the Contractors Who Chose Us Got
Devon got 40 appointments in 60 days and closed 20. Andy went from four bid opportunities a month to 25 in his first week and closed $140,000 in three months. Isaac did $183,000 in 10 weeks.
None of them had to hire anyone. They kept running equipment and bidding work while we ran the department.
The Right Way to Think About It
You are not choosing between paying us and paying nothing. You are choosing between paying us for a system that already works and paying someone else to learn how to build one. One of those has a guarantee attached.
Ready to See Results Like Devon?
If you’re a land clearing, excavation, or forestry mulching contractor and you’re tired of relying on word-of-mouth or competing on lead-sharing platforms, we should talk.
We’ve generated over $100M+ in on-site estimates for contractors just like Devon and we’re just getting started.
Book a Demo Call with Our Team: https://link.toolboxx.co/widget/bookings/intro-blogs
Brady Carlson / Dirt2Dollars
