Marketing a business in Barnstable, MA

The market's people

The median home is worth $629,000, 89 percent above the national figure, which shapes what homeowners will spend on repairs and upgrades. The typical household income is $95,241, 18 percent above the national figure.

The median resident is 55.4 years old, 16.5 years above the national median. Among adults 25 and over, 48.2% have at least a bachelor's degree, 12 points above the US share. Ownership: 81.1% of households own their home, 16 points above the US share. The civilian labor force numbers 117,962 people with unemployment at 5%, about the same as the US share.

Against the state as a whole, the median income is 8 percent lower than the Massachusetts figure, the median home value is 12 percent higher than the Massachusetts figure, and the number of businesses per resident is 48 percent denser than the Massachusetts figure; see the Massachusetts page for the full figures.

Who is already competing here

8,957 businesses with employees operate in Barnstable, MA. That works out to 38.7 businesses per 1,000 residents, 55 percent above the national figure (the national rate is 25 per 1,000). The single largest category in the table below is restaurants, with 813 locations. Home-services trades account for 921 of them (10.3% of all establishments, 6 points above the US share).

Ratio above 1.00: the trade holds a bigger share of the local business base than it does nationally; below 1.00, a smaller one.

Barnstable, MA is dense with landscaping services, plumbing and HVAC contractors, electrical contractors and grocery stores compared with the US pattern. Landscaping services stand out with 478 locations, 3.8 times what the national mix would predict. Less common here than nationally: general freight trucking, physicians' offices, self-storage operators and child day care services. General freight trucking show the largest gap, 34 locations, about 27% of what the national mix would give. Neither crowded nor thin: general automotive repair, legal services and personal care services.

The most numerous of the listed trades: restaurants with 813 establishments, then landscaping services (478) and plumbing and HVAC contractors (205). Per resident the densest are restaurants at 350.9 per 100,000 people, then landscaping services and plumbing and HVAC contractors. Grouped, the home-services trades hold 2.1 times the share they hold nationally, while medical and dental practices sit at about half of.

What this means for advertising here

Advertisers in landscaping services, plumbing and HVAC contractors and electrical contractors should assume high competition on Google Ads and put equal weight on the free real estate: an accurate Business Profile, steady new reviews, and pages that match the local searches word for word. Where the base is thin (general freight trucking, physicians' offices and self-storage operators), reach beats refinement: cover the service-plus-place searches across the whole area, because there are few competitors to split them with. Incomes 18 percent above the national figure give room for premium service tiers; ads that lead with quality and speed rather than price tend to fit. Homeownership of 81.1% is above the national share; more of the households that search for home services are also the ones that decide and pay. A median age 16.5 years above the national median means a larger share of customers who still start with a Google search and read reviews before calling, so the search-plus-reviews stack earns its keep.