What's actually working for home improvement video ads right now?

Been writing ads for home improvement contractors for a few years now, roofing, siding, decking, painting, masonry, that whole world. Most of my clients are in Massachusetts (Cape Cod, the South Shore, Metro West, the Boston area, even Martha's Vineyard).

For a long time you could grab some decent b-roll/stock footage, put a clean voiceover on top, and it'd pull leads no problem. Lately that exact formula is just… dying. CTR drops, cost per lead creeps up, people scroll right past. Feels like the audience got wise to the polished but generic look and now it reads as an ad instantly.

So a couple of things I'd love your take on:

what's actually working for these trades right now? Raw phone footage, owner-on-camera, before/afters, UGC, text-heavy statics? What's holding up and what's already burnt out?

when you hear "roofing," "new siding," or "we should repaint the house," what actually goes through your head? What makes you stop on an ad vs. tune it out? And what would make you trust one contractor over the ten others clogging your feed?

Genuinely just trying to get out of my own copywriter bubble. Appreciate any honest takes. Thanks!

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Silvergal_•1 day ago•2

Raw phone footage and real before/after clips have beaten polished stock for me, especially when the first two seconds show the problem and the finished space. I’d test a few hooks in CapCut, keep the price range/timeline on screen, and let the contractor talk instead of forcing a script. My workflow is Canva, Notion + Drive, and PixaSocial after I ditched Buffer; the lip-sync is still a little weak, but keeping one consistent creator face has been worth it.

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