Rule: be explicit about what marketing cannot do — 6% margins won't become 20% via marketing
Rule: State plainly, in published Candid content and in sales conversations, what marketing cannot do for a residential GC. Anything bigger will be heard, correctly, as the kind of claim the FTC ordered HomeAdvisor to stop making ([[ftc-homeadvisor-angi-jan-2023-7-2m-order]]).
Construction net margins are 6–11% ([[nahb-remodelers-cdb-2024-6-3pct-net-margin]], [[nahb-single-family-2023-8-7pct-margin]]). Marketing is not going to make a 6% margin business a 20% margin business.
What marketing can defensibly do:
- Shift customer mix toward higher-value projects.
- Reduce cost-per-lead over time as owned-asset compounding takes effect.
- Replace dependence on paid-lead platforms with owned distribution (Contractor owned-trust-signal stack: HCRA / Tarion / RenoMark / WRHBA / OHBA / CHBA / COR / WSIB / Gold Seal / insurance / ENERGY STAR / Net-Zero / LEED AP / GuildQuality / Google Business Profile — verifiable, portable, free-or-low-cost — HomeStars cannot replicate any of these).
- Build a portfolio asset that survives the founder's eventual exit — i.e., a transferable enterprise value.
These are the honest claims.
Why: Over-claiming inherits the FTC HomeAdvisor odor at the category level ([[ftc-homeadvisor-angi-jan-2023-7-2m-order]], [[vermont-ag-angi-100k-settlement-oct-2025]]). Conservative honest claims are not a marketing weakness; in a credence-good market they are the strongest available signal of competence ([[marketing-services-as-credence-good-for-gc]]).
How to apply: Publish a "what marketing cannot do" piece as part of Candid's evergreen content stack. Sales decks include a "what we will not promise" slide. Contract scope sections have an explicit out-of-scope list.