Why “25% off” ads are quietly killing your shutter margins
Scroll Facebook in any UK town for five minutes and you’ll see it. Three different shutter companies, three near-identical ads, all shouting about 25% off. Same stock photo of a white plantation shutter. Same countdown. Same “limited availability”.
Those ads do generate leads. That’s the trap. The leads come in, the dashboard looks busy, and it feels like it’s working. Then you start quoting.
You attract the buyer your ad describes
If the first thing a homeowner learns about you is that you’re cheap, price is the lens they judge you through for the rest of the sale. They’ll get three quotes. They’ll ask you to match. And when someone else drops another 10%, they’ll go with them.
You haven’t built a customer. You’ve rented one until the next discount.
Everyone is competing on who can run the cheapest offer, so price will keep dropping unless you position yourself as different.
What to run instead
The companies we see winning do three things differently:
- They show their people. Video of the owner or fitter in a real customer’s home beats any stock image. Homeowners are inviting someone into their house, so let them meet you first.
- They sell the outcome, not the discount. Light control, privacy, a room that finally feels finished. Price comes later, once value is clear.
- They retarget with proof. Someone who watched your first video should next see an install, then a review. That sequence does the selling before your surveyor arrives.
The maths of margin
Knocking 25% off a £2,000 job costs you £500 every single time. Spending some of that on better creative and faster follow-up, while protecting your price, almost always wins over a quarter. It also gives you a brand that keeps working after the ad stops.
If your ads look like everyone else’s, your customers will treat you like everyone else. Be the one they remember.