Count an offer by how many companies say it and you get one board. Count it by how many live ads carry it and you get a different one. The second is the one your buyer sees.
You looked at what your trade offers and matched it. You matched the wrong thing.
We count the bath companies we track on Meta, every month. On 14 September 2026 that was 216 companies running at least 4,389 live ads (Meta shows a big page only part of its ads, so big advertisers count low). We count each offer two ways: how many companies say it, and how many live ads carry it.
Read those two columns against each other and the board changes shape.
| The promise | Companies | Live ads | Ads per company |
|---|---|---|---|
| A free consultation or estimate | 154 | 1,224 | 8 |
| A percentage off | 43 | 1,351 | 31 |
| One-day install | 68 | 1,333 | 20 |
| A lifetime warranty | 46 | 1,064 | 23 |
| "Looking for N homeowners" | 17 | 422 | 25 |
| Financing or no interest | 42 | 333 | 8 |
| A dollar amount off | 29 | 323 | 11 |
Base: 216 companies, the 4,389 live ads we could read, counted 14 September 2026. A company counts once however many of its ads carry the offer.
154 of 216 companies promise a free consultation, estimate or quote. That is 71% of your trade saying the same words.
Between them they put it on 1,224 ads. Eight ads each.
43 companies run a percentage off. They put it on 1,351 ads. Thirty-one each.
So a fifth of the trade runs more ads behind a discount than seven in ten of the trade run behind a free estimate.
A free estimate is the price of entry. It is not a reason to pick you, because 153 other companies offer it too.
29 companies name a dollar amount. They run 11 ads each.
43 companies name a percentage. They run 31 ads each.
A percentage travels. One ad works for the small shower and the whole bathroom. A dollar amount has to be rebuilt for each job size.
That is most of the gap. It is a production decision, and it shows up as three times the ad volume.
On 14 September we also read the picture on every live ad we collected from the companies we track. 2,466 different pictures.
615 of them show a price or a discount. On that day the median one had been live 19 days, counted from its oldest ad. Every other picture, 28.
6% of the price pictures had been live 90 days or more. For every other picture it was 18%.
A promotion has an end date, so the ad has an end date.
An age on one day is not a lifetime, but it points the same way. Say a quarter of your creative carries a number. Expect to rebuild that quarter more often, and to pay for it whether the offer moved or not.
46 companies promise a lifetime warranty, on 1,064 ads. 68 promise a one-day install, on 1,333.
Neither has an end date. Both are claims about the work and not about this month.
They are also the two things a homeowner asks about in the kitchen, after the number.
We read the words on the ad, not the deal. A company that never writes a number may still discount at the table. Nothing here is spend or results.
What it is, is what your buyer saw on 14 September. The method is public, and we correct it in public when we get a number wrong.
Write down your offer in one line. Then count how many of the 216 could write the same line.
If the answer is over a hundred, your offer is not doing any work, and your ads are paying for the difference.
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.