Short answer: Instagram works well for visual trades — kitchens, bathrooms, landscaping, decorating, joinery — and poorly for urgent-callout trades like locksmiths and emergency plumbing. If your work photographs well and customers choose partly on appearance, it is worth doing. If they call you in a panic, put the effort into Google instead.
Is Instagram right for your trade?
| Strong fit | Weak fit |
|---|---|
| Kitchen and bathroom fitting | Emergency plumbing |
| Landscaping and garden design | Locksmithing |
| Joinery and carpentry | Drain clearance |
| Decorating and plastering | Boiler repair |
| Driveways and paving | Pest control |
| Building and extensions | MOT testing |
The distinction is whether the customer is choosing a look or solving a problem right now. Instagram builds desire over time; it does not capture urgency. Google captures urgency.
Being honest about this saves a lot of wasted effort. A plumber who mostly does emergency callouts will get far more from an hour a week on their Google profile than an hour on Instagram.
What actually works
Trades accounts that grow tend to post a mix of:
- Before and after — the highest-performing format by a distance. Same angle, real transformation
- Process — short clips of work happening. People find craft genuinely satisfying to watch
- Detail shots — the joint, the cut-in, the mitre. This is where skill is visible to those who know
- Finished projects in good light
- Problem solving — the unexpected thing found behind the wall and how it was dealt with
- The person — occasionally. People follow people, not companies
What does not work: motivational quotes, stock imagery, sales posts, and anything that looks like an advert.
Reels do most of the reach
Short video substantially outperforms static images for reach on Instagram. For trades this is convenient, because process footage is easy to capture — a phone propped up while you work produces usable material with no extra time cost.
Practical approach: film short clips through the job, keep the good ones, assemble a fifteen-to-thirty second sequence showing the transformation. Add a simple caption explaining what happened.
You do not need editing skill. Rough, real footage of genuine work consistently outperforms polished production in this category.
A realistic posting rhythm
Two to three posts a week is sustainable for most trades and enough to build steadily. Daily posting is not necessary and is usually abandoned within a fortnight.
The habit that makes it work: photograph and film every job as a matter of routine, then post from the library rather than scrambling for content. Ten minutes on site produces a week of material.
Local reach matters more than follower count
A trades account with 800 local followers is worth considerably more than one with 15,000 scattered nationally. You cannot fit a kitchen in Aberdeen from Birmingham.
Things that build local reach:
- Location tags on every post — the town, not just the county
- Local hashtags — town and area names alongside trade terms
- Tagging suppliers and merchants you actually use locally
- Engaging with local accounts — other trades, local businesses, community pages
- Collaborating with related trades — the builder, the electrician, the designer on the same job
That last one is underrated. Cross-tagging with the other trades on a project puts your work in front of their local audience, who are exactly the right people.
Converting followers into enquiries
Instagram traffic is easily wasted. Make it easy:
- Bio that states clearly what you do and where — “Kitchen fitting, Solihull & South Birmingham”
- A working link to your website or a contact page
- Phone number in the profile
- Highlights organised by project type
- Reply to DMs promptly — enquiries arrive there and go cold fast
A great many trades accounts post good work with no indication of where they operate or how to contact them.
How it connects to local search
Instagram does not directly improve your Google rankings. What it does do:
- Builds brand recognition, so people search for you by name — a strong signal
- Provides content you can reuse on your Google profile and website
- Gives people researching you somewhere credible to look
- Occasionally surfaces in search results for branded queries
Treat it as a supporting channel, not a replacement for local search. The photographs you take for Instagram should be going onto your Google Business Profile too — same effort, two channels.
Frequently asked questions
How many followers do I need?
Fewer than you think, provided they are local. Enquiries matter, not follower counts.
Should I pay for ads?
Organic first. Paid promotion of a post that already performs well, targeted tightly to your area, can work — but it is not where a trade should start.
Do hashtags still matter?
Less than they did, but local ones remain useful for discovery. A handful of relevant tags beats thirty generic ones.
Is it worth it if I am already busy?
If you are booked out and happy, no. It becomes valuable when you want more control over the type of work you attract rather than taking whatever comes.
Instagram management is included in our Growth plan and above, alongside Google Business Profile and review work. See what is included or book a free audit.
Related reading: Google Business Profile photos · Google Posts strategy