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Being found for the kind of project you want
A client commissioning a factory searches for “industrial architect”; one building a villa searches for “residential architects in Whitefield”. A practice that ranks for the project types it actually wants gets enquiries that fit, and a practice with a portfolio site that ranks only for its own name gets enquiries from people who already knew it. The work is a page per project type, with real projects and the area named, and the technical basics done so the site loads fast on a phone.
The typical result, over six to nine months, is that a practice that had never been found by a stranger starts getting a steady trickle of enquiries for the work it wants — and, just as usefully, fewer for the work it does not.
A feed of real projects, not renders
Instagram is where a homeowner planning a house spends the month before enquiring. A practice that posts finished work, site progress and the occasional drawing — honestly, from real projects, to a plan — earns enquiries in the DMs, usually for the kind of project it posted most. The practices that get nothing from it are the ones posting renders and quotes about design.
The DM has to be answered like a phone call. An enquiry left for two days on Instagram went to the next practice.
Ads, for one brief at a time
Paid search and Meta ads work for a practice when they are run for one kind of project in one area — “villa architect, North Bengaluru” — to a landing page about that project type, with a form that asks about the plot and the budget. They bring enquiries within weeks, which is their point, and they bring wrong-fit enquiries in proportion to how broad the targeting is. Measure cost per qualified enquiry, not cost per click, and switch off what does not earn.
Writing down what the firm knows
Every practice answers the same client questions in the first meeting — what a house costs per square foot, how long approvals take, what a client should decide before hiring an architect. Written down, one question per page, those answers rank, get read at 11pm by exactly the person about to commission a project, and arrive in the meeting already trusting the practice. It is the slowest of the four and the one that keeps working longest.
The order, and what to expect
Search and the site first, because everything else sends people there. The feed alongside, because it costs time rather than money. Ads when a particular kind of work is wanted this quarter. Content throughout, as the meetings produce questions worth answering.
We have not put invented percentages in this piece. The real numbers from real engagements are in our case studies, with the client’s name attached, and they vary more by how fast a practice answers its enquiries than by which channel brought them.