Digital Marketing for Town Planners That Filters Out Free Advice
Planning enquiries are full of people who want a quick answer for nothing. We target the developers, builders and operators who pay for planning work, and give everyone else a paid first step.
Everyone has a planning question. Not everyone is a client.
A developer weighing up a site and an owner wondering about a granny flat both call it a planning question. Only one of them expects to pay a planner to answer it.
Developers & acquisitions managers
Need a fast read on what a site can yield before they buy, then a DA or planning proposal that holds up. The good ones brief you on every site.
Builders lodging for clients
Lodge applications for their clients and call a planner for the hard ones: variations to controls, heritage, flooding, objections.
Business operators
Childcare centres, medical practices, gyms and venues needing a change of use, often with a lease or fit-out waiting on the answer.
Property owners
Granny flats, dual occupancies and small subdivisions. Worth serving, and the most likely to want free advice first.
From a free question to a paid feasibility report
Digital marketing for town planners works when the ad sells a defined first step with a fee. Serious clients identify themselves by taking it.
Ads aimed by role
Developers, builders and operators reached with 3rd party B2B data. Owners reached locally with an ad that’s upfront about fees.
A page per application type
DAs, rezonings, change of use and objections each get a page explaining the process, typical timeframes and what it costs to start.
A fixed-fee first step
A site feasibility review or planning pathway report at a set price, booked straight from the page.
Synced and followed up
Enquiries go to the planner’s phone for instant contact, with email follow-up for anyone not ready to commit yet.
An advice business swamped by people who wanted free answers
We haven’t published a town planning case study yet. Aussie-Link Visa Services is a Sydney visa consultancy. When its B2B relationships started to run dry after legal compliance changes, it began running Google Ads, and time-wasters, free advice seeking and unqualified leads made up most of what came in.
What we changed: our team researched which industries needed visa services as a key, required fit with justifiable cost, and identified the recruitment sector. We researched those firms’ problems and desired solutions, built ad creative around them, obtained 3rd party audience data on recruitment firm decision makers, and synced new leads to consultants’ mobile phones for instant contact.
“ALVI+AD advised us, after researching our business and learning more about our key services, to target the recruitment industry. We agreed, they conducted research, created ad creatives and published ad campaigns and we're seeing excellent results with multiple key b2b enquiries come inbound in the first 2 weeks!”
Hana K, Founder & Operator, Aussie-Link Visa Services
Which planning work is worth paying to find?
Start with your own files: which clients came back, which jobs ran to full fee, and which councils you know best. That usually points to one or two client types worth targeting directly, the same way research pointed Aussie-Link to recruitment firms.
For one practice it’s developers active in a growth area. For another it’s childcare and medical operators needing change of use. The research decides the targeting, the creative and the offer.
Ads that sell certainty, never an approval
Examples, not past campaigns. None of them promises an outcome only council can decide.
Town planning marketing questions
What does digital marketing for town planners need to get right?
Choosing the client types you want more of, then reaching them directly: 3rd party B2B data to target developers, builders and business operators by role, a page for each application type, a fixed-fee first step like a feasibility review, and instant lead syncing with follow-up. Local search can cover owners if you want that work too.
How can a planning practice charge for the first conversation?
Stop advertising free advice. Ads and pages that lead with a paid, clearly described first step, such as a site feasibility review at a set fee, put off people who only wanted a quick answer. A short form asking about the site, the council and the project also screens enquiries before they reach you.
Can planning consultants advertise their approval record?
Carefully. Any claim has to be accurate and not misleading, and past outcomes don’t guarantee the next one, because the decision belongs to council, a planning panel or a court. We’d show the kinds of applications you handle and how you approach them, and never run “guaranteed approval” style messages. Get advice if you’re unsure about a specific claim.
Should planners target developers or property owners?
For most practices, developers and commercial operators first. They brief planners more than once and expect to pay. Owners can still be served through local search and a clear fee page, but they’re rarely the best place to put most of the budget.
Can you reach developers before they buy a site?
We can’t know who is buying which site. What we can do is keep your practice in front of development and acquisitions roles, by role and industry with 3rd party B2B data, so when a site comes up they already know who to call for a feasibility view.
Which other consultants do you market?
The rest of the DA team. See our pages for environmental consultants, surveyors, landscape architects and civil engineering firms.
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