We took the link on each bath company's live ads and opened it the way a phone does. 44 advertisers never leave Facebook. 169 pages showed a form and no calendar. Three showed a calendar as they first loaded.
You pay for the click. Then a page you have not looked at in a year decides whether it was worth it.
We count the bath companies we track on Meta, every month. On 14 September that was 216 companies running at least 4,389 live ads (Meta shows a big page only part of its ads). On 15 September our software took the link on each company's ads and opened it the way a phone does, once.
Their ads sent us to 224 places, one for each advertiser page (a company can run more than one page). Here is what we found.
44 advertisers point their ads at a Facebook or Instagram link: 42 at fb.me, 2 at instagram.com. Between them that is 971 live ads.
The homeowner taps and stays on Facebook or Instagram. No page of yours. What happens next we can't see from outside. It may be a form, a message, or, since June, a calendar inside a Meta form.
Sometimes that is the plan. Sometimes it is a page that was never built.
180 advertisers sent us to a real website. 177 of those loaded. Three never did.
We timed them too, and we are not publishing the times. Our timer included a pause our own software adds, so every number was too slow by the same amount. Time your own page instead: it takes ten seconds.
26 pages start by asking the homeowner questions. What room. What size. What budget. Then a name, then a phone number, then a promise that someone will call.
A quiz is not always wrong. It filters. But you built it to filter, and it also filters out people who would have bought.
64 of the 177 pages show no phone number at all. A homeowner who wants to speak to you right now has nowhere to tap.
This is the number we came for.
169 pages showed a form or a callback line and no calendar. The homeowner fills in a form and waits. Three pages showed a calendar as they first loaded. Our software found those three; we opened them again afterwards and each carries a date picker.
82 of the 180 are Re-Bath location pages built on one template, and none of the three is one. Without Re-Bath, it is 3 of 98.
Five more ran their form inside something we cannot see into, and three never answered at all. We count all eight as unknown, not as no.
Our check can miss a calendar that loads late or sits behind a quiz, so the true count may be a little higher. Most of these pages collect a name and call back.
160 of the 180 pages offer something free: an estimate, a quote, a consultation, a design or a visit. Three showed a calendar to book it.
Every hour between the form and your call is an hour the homeowner spends on the next three companies, and they are waiting on you until Tuesday.
We opened one page per company, once. A company may run other pages we did not see. A page that was slow on Sunday may be quick on Monday.
What we can say is what a homeowner met on the day we looked, on the link the company's own ads pointed at. The method is public, and we correct it in public when we get a number wrong.
Open your own ad. Tap your own link on your own phone, on mobile data, not office wifi.
Count the seconds. Then count the taps before a homeowner can say "Thursday at 2".
If the answer is that they cannot, you are buying clicks and paying for them to wait.
You hear the price on our second call, before you sign anything. Your ad account and every lead stay yours.
What comes with it depends on where you start, with ads running or with none. You get it on one page before you sign anything. The longer answers.
Lovro Lucic, on US hours from Zagreb. You deal with me, not a team. Your page, your number and your calendar stay in your time zone. Call me at +1 (866) 989-4568, answered by me 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Eastern, or pick a time on the calendar.