You probably don't remember clicking an ad for your last saw. But you remember the brand you went looking for.

Same with your truck. Your chipper. Your favorite supplier.

You didn't click. You just... knew.

That's how your customers work too.

And the funny part? Your best customers? The ones who don't haggle, don't price shop, and call you back every couple years? Almost never came from a Google ad click. They came from seeing you around town for months.

The guy who's been seeing your wrapped trucks for six months doesn't click an ad. He just Googles your name when his oak starts leaning. Google takes the credit. Your presence did the work.

Here's what nobody wants to say out loud: top-of-funnel advertising works. Really works.

But everyone's too addicted to tracking every click to see it. They need their spreadsheets to show the exact path: Ad → Click → Sale, or they can't sleep at night.

Meanwhile, memory is money.

And memory doesn't show up in a report.

Most tree services are only playing the bottom of the funnel.

Google Search Ads. Local Service Ads. Retargeting people who already visited your site. All the stuff that catches people who already know what they want.

That works. But it's also a bloodbath.

You're fighting every other tree service in your area over the same small pool of ready-to-buy customers. Prices go up. Margins go down. You're bidding against guys who don't know their numbers and will lose money just to stay busy.

The smart play? Combine both.

Run top-of-funnel to get people thinking about you first. Then use bottom-of-funnel to catch them when they're ready.

Think of it like this: You're building a faucet at the top of a mountain so there's actually water flowing when you set up your net at the bottom.

What does top-of-funnel look like for a tree service?

None of this is "trackable" the way Google wants. Nobody's clicking a yard sign and filling out a form.

But they're remembering you. And when the storm hits or the branch cracks, you're the name that comes to mind.

There's a landscaping and arborist crew in Texas, we’ll call Antonio’s Lawn & Tree, who stopped chasing Google leads about 2 years ago.

Truck wraps. Yard signs on every job. Sponsors the local high school football team. Runs a short radio ad twice a day during drive times.

None of it tracks in a spreadsheet.

But here's what happens: People type his name into Google. They search "Antonio’s Lawn & Tree", not "tree service near me." He shows up first because they already know who they want.

Google gets credit for a "brand search." But his presence did the work.

The point isn't that you need his exact mix. The fact is: if your 3 best neighborhoods don't recognize your logo, you don't have a marketing problem. You have an invisibility problem.

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If you're tired of fighting over scraps on Google against guys who'll underbid just to keep their crews busy, there's another way.

It's not about spending more. It's about being remembered before the search ever happens.

The tree services that win in the long term aren't just running ads. They're building presence. So when the storm comes, they're the first call, not the fifth bid.

We'll map out where you're already showing up, what it's probably doing for you, and where you're invisible. If it makes sense to work together, we'll show you what that looks like. If not, you still walk away with a clearer picture.

Written by Jacob Hastings
Head of Growth & Client Strategy at Growth Ring Media