Give the AI your own facts, not a request to "write some marketing". Feed it a one-page fact sheet (what you fit, areas you cover, current lead times, captioned job photos), ask for an autumn calendar and local pages only where you have real jobs, ban savings language, then scan every draft for money, percentages and scheme promises.
The risk is a confident number, not a clumsy sentence. Language models fill gaps with typical-sounding claims, so a draft for an autumn offer often arrives carrying a saving, a percentage or a payback period you never supplied. Area pages add a second risk: one page repeated with a different place name. Google's spam policies list using generative AI tools to produce many pages without adding value for users as scaled content abuse ("no matter how it's created"), and give pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel visitors to one page as an example of doorway abuse. The working rule is facts in, claims out, and a page only where you have something local to say.
Start with a fact sheet the AI cannot improve on
Every sentence the AI writes should trace back to one line on a sheet you own. Keep the sheet in a project (ChatGPT Projects and Claude Projects both do this; Gemini Gems are becoming a skill from November 2026) so you stop pasting it into each new chat. It needs six parts: what you do and do not fit, product names exactly as printed on the datasheets, the areas you work in with a count of finished jobs for each, today's survey and installation lead times with the date you checked them, your guarantee and accreditation wording copied from the certificates, and a never-say list. Job photos sit in a folder beside it, each captioned with the area, the date and what it shows.
Here is the sheet for a four-person firm that fits loft rolls, blown loose-fill and cavity wall fill. Anything in square brackets is text you copy from your own paperwork.
FACT SHEET, last checked 1 November
Firm: [firm name], four people (owner, two fitters, one office coordinator)
We fit: loft top-ups (mineral wool rolls, blown loose-fill), cavity wall fill, loft hatch seals, eaves ventilation baffles
We do not fit: spray foam, external wall systems, underfloor insulation
Products: [exact product names from the datasheets]. Thickness and rating figures come only from the datasheet folder.
Areas and finished jobs: Area A 41, Area B 17, Area C 9, Area D 3
Lead times (checked 1 November): survey within 5 working days; installation about 3 weeks after the quote is accepted
A survey covers: loft access and depth, eaves ventilation, light fittings, extractor fan ducts, wall cavity inspection where relevant
Guarantee wording: [copied exactly from our guarantee document]
Accreditation: [scheme name and number exactly as printed on the certificate]
Funded schemes: [the scheme's own approved wording, copied with the date and page] or none
Photos: folder "Job photos", each captioned with area, date and what it shows
Never say: money saved, percentages, payback, "up to", anything about fire or health performance, anything not on this sheetTwo lines do more work than they look. The job counts stop the AI inventing "hundreds of homes" and later tell you which areas deserve a page. The checked date on the lead times matters because a stale "we can start next week" is the easiest false statement to leave live.
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Buy nowClaims the AI drifts into, and what to write instead
Savings claims are the obvious problem. Eligibility, accreditation and urgency are the quiet ones, because a draft states them as plainly as it states a product name. Savings depend on the home, the heating system, the fuel and how the household lives, so no general figure is true for a particular house. This is the table I would paste into the sheet under the never-say heading.
| Claim the AI tends to write | Why it fails | Write this instead |
|---|---|---|
| "Cut your heating bills by up to a third" | A figure you cannot prove for the customer's own house | Describe the work: "We add insulation to the loft to the depth set on your survey." |
| "Pays for itself in three years" | Payback is a savings claim with a time attached | Leave it out and offer the written quote and survey |
| "Free insulation for everyone who qualifies" | A scheme sets eligibility, not you | The scheme's own wording, or "Ask us whether a funded scheme applies to your home" |
| "Government approved installer" | True only for a named scheme you actually hold | The exact accreditation name and number from the certificate, or nothing |
| "Prices rise on Friday" | Urgency needs a real date and a real reason | A genuine deadline with its reason, or no timing claim at all |
| "Rated 5 stars by our customers" | A review figure goes stale and is easy to round up | The live figure with its date, or one review quoted word for word with permission |
| "Fitted in a day" | Duration depends on the house | A time only if the sheet states it, plus "confirmed at survey" |
| "Fire-safe, healthy, eco-friendly" | Performance and safety descriptors belong to the datasheet | The datasheet's own wording, or leave it out |
Layer one of the check is mechanical. After each draft, search the text for the trigger words below. Every hit goes to a person, who deletes the sentence or finds the fact-sheet line that supports it.
save, saving, savings, bill, bills, cut, reduce, lower, slash, payback, pays for itself, up to, %, percent, per cent, free, grant, scheme, eligible, qualify, approved, guaranteed, fire, safe, healthy, eco, cheapest, best, number one, last chance, hurryLayer two is a second AI pass in a fresh chat, which has not seen your drafting instructions and so reads the text the way a customer or an advertising regulator would. Ask it only to find, never to fix:
You are a cautious advertising reviewer for an insulation contractor. Read the text below. List every sentence that states or implies money saved, a percentage, a payback period, eligibility for a scheme, an approval or accreditation, urgency, a guarantee, or a safety or health benefit. Quote each sentence and name which of those it is. Do not rewrite anything.Keep the fixing for yourself, because a reviewer that also rewrites can swap one unsupported claim for a smoother one. For the wider habit of proving what AI writes in marketing, see how to back up every claim AI writes in your marketing.
In some markets insulation advertising has its own rules. Under one of them, an ad that gives a thickness must also give the R-value at that thickness and a fixed sentence explaining R-values, an ad that quotes a price must give the type of insulation and its R-value at a stated thickness, among other details, and any claim that insulation cuts bills needs a reasonable basis plus a fixed "savings vary" statement. Television, radio and online formats too small to carry that wording are excused the disclosures but not the need for a basis. Ask your trade body whether anything similar applies where you trade. Posts that state no thickness, price or saving stay clear of most of it, which is another reason to leave those figures to the quote.
Six autumn weeks, laid out
The main example is a four-person firm that wants six weeks of autumn activity for about 14 hours of owner time in total, with nothing that needs a savings claim. If your cold season starts at another time of year, shift the six weeks to match. "Business profile" below means the Google Business Profile that appears in maps and local results.
| Week | What goes out | What it rests on | What the check looks for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A "how a survey works" post on the business profile and Facebook, plus a short section on the services page | The survey line; two captioned photos of a loft being measured | Outcome verbs such as "stops" or "keeps" |
| 2 | Area A page goes live, with a profile post linking to it | 41 finished jobs; six captioned photos | The swap test, described below |
| 3 | A post on why baffles go in at the eaves, with one photo of baffles fitted | The practice described on the sheet | Any performance claim beyond keeping vents clear |
| 4 | Email to past customers with the current survey wait and a request to pass the firm's name to neighbours | The lead-time line, dated 1 November | Urgency wording and "book now" |
| 5 | Area B page, then a post pointing to it | 17 finished jobs; three captioned photos | The swap test |
| 6 | Post and email on loft hatches, boarding and stored items to sort before a survey | The survey and access lines | Trigger-word scan |
The 14 hours split roughly as follows: two hours for the fact sheet, two for captioning photos, three for the two area pages including checks, two for four posts, an hour and a half for two emails, another hour and a half for claims checks and fixes, and two for publishing and admin. Week 3 is worth a note. Where a roof space is ventilated, baffles keep loose-fill and rolls from blocking the eaves openings, which is the kind of plain, checkable practice that makes a good post without promising anything. Ask the fitters for a photo with a tape measure or depth gauge in frame, because a visible depth says something true about the job without making a claim.
One prompt, one draft, and the lines I would cut
The calendar prompt is below. Its last instruction asks the AI to list what it was tempted to write but could not support, which turns the claims it would have made into a checklist for you.
Use ONLY the attached fact sheet. Draft a six-week autumn plan for a four-person insulation contractor: one row per week with channel, topic and the exact fact-sheet line the topic rests on.
Rules:
1. Never state or imply money saved, percentage reductions, payback periods or bill changes. No "up to" figures.
2. Never say a household qualifies for anything. For funded schemes, paste the approved wording from the sheet unchanged, or write "ask us whether a funded scheme applies".
3. Every number must appear on the sheet. If a fact is missing, write [MISSING: what is needed] instead of guessing.
4. Do not describe fire, health or safety performance.
5. No urgency unless the sheet gives a real deadline.
After the plan, list every sentence you were tempted to write but could not support.Here is illustrative output for two of the rows and the closing list, with my edits underneath.
- Week 3, post: "Most heat escapes through the loft, so airflow at the eaves matters." Rests on: baffles line; [MISSING: no source on the sheet for the heat statement].
- Week 4, email: subject line "Last chance to book before winter". Rests on: lead-time line (survey within 5 working days).
- Tempted but unsupported: "Cut your winter bills this autumn"; "Free grants for everyone who qualifies"; "Fitted in a day"; "Trusted by hundreds of homes".
I would keep the flagged [MISSING] marker and then remove the heat statement entirely, because a claim about where heat goes is a claim about outcomes by the back door. The week 3 post becomes a plain explanation of baffles. The week 4 subject line broke rule 5 even though the rule was in the prompt, which is why layer one exists: "last chance" is on the trigger list, and the line becomes "Survey slots this month" because the sheet does support a survey within five working days. The tempted list is the most useful part. Every item on it is correct to leave out, and it shows you what this particular model reaches for when it has nothing to say.
Once the plan is clean, the finished pieces come from the same sheet. Here are the week 3 post and the week 4 email as they might go out, with brackets for your own details.
Post, week 3: Why do we fit baffles at the eaves before the new insulation goes in? Where a roof space is ventilated, the openings at the eaves need to stay clear, and loose-fill or rolls pushed into the corner can block them. A baffle holds the material back and keeps the gap open. Photo: baffles fitted in a [house type] in [Area A], [date]. Want us to check yours on a survey? Survey slots are within five working days (checked [date]).
Email, week 4. Subject: Survey slots this month
Hello [first name], thank you for choosing us for your [work] in [year]. We are booking surveys within five working days at the moment (checked [date]). If a neighbour or relative has asked about their loft or walls, you are welcome to pass our details on: [number], [web address]. Every quote we write lists the material, thickness and area for each line, so there is nothing to decode.
[Your name]
Both pieces say only what the firm does and what the sheet records. That is the test every piece has to pass before it goes out.
Local pages: four provable facts or no page
The rule I use is a working threshold, not a law: a place gets its own page only when you can state at least four facts about your work there that you can prove. Proof means a job record, a captioned photo or a question a customer there actually asked. Anything weaker belongs on a single areas-we-cover page. Applied to the sheet above:
| Area | Finished jobs | Captioned photos | Provable local facts | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 41 | 6 | 5: two house types, tight eaves on one estate, two customer questions | Own page |
| B | 17 | 3 | 4: one house type, a common hatch size, a question, photos | Own page |
| C | 9 | 1 | 2 | Listed on the areas page only |
| D | 3 | 0 | 1 | Listed on the areas page only |
A page skeleton that suits a trade, in this order: a heading naming the work and the area; two or three sentences of real fact such as the job count, the house types and the commonest access problem; what the survey checks; recent jobs with photos and captions; three questions customers in that area have asked, with your answers; and how to book, with the dated lead time. Below is a trimmed draft for Area A, the kind of text the AI produces when it is handed only those facts. Brackets stand for your own details.
Loft and cavity wall insulation in [Area A]
We have finished 41 jobs in [Area A]. Most were [house type] built in the [decade], where the loft hatch is [size] and the eaves are tight on the [side] of the roof.
On a survey we measure the existing depth, check the eaves openings, look at light fittings and extractor fan ducts, and inspect the wall cavity where cavity fill is an option. You then get a written quote listing the material, thickness and area for each line.
Recent jobs: [Photo 1, with caption, date and what it shows]. [Photo 2, with caption].
Questions we have been asked here: Do we need to clear the loft first? [Your answer.] Can the hatch stay where it is? [Your answer.]
Survey slots: within five working days (checked [date]). Call [number] or use the form.
In drafts like this the AI will often add a line such as "Homeowners here have been getting in touch before winter", which is not on the sheet, and a friendly sign-off about "a warmer home". Delete both and finish on the survey line. Before publishing any area page, swap its place name for another area's. If the page still reads true, it is not a local page and should be merged or rewritten. For a mechanical check, give the AI both pages and ask it to list the sentences that are identical apart from place names; more than a couple means one page is wearing two names. The wider method is in ChatGPT local SEO: service-area pages without duplicate content, and the weekly profile posts that point to these pages are covered in how to write Google Business Profile posts with AI every week.
Grant-scheme wording: paste it, date it, never paraphrase it
If you take part in a funded scheme, its rules decide how you may describe it, not your copywriter's instincts. Five habits keep an AI draft inside those rules.
- Put the scheme's own eligibility and branding wording on the sheet, copied word for word, with the date you copied it and the page it came from.
- Tell the AI to insert that wording unchanged or to write "ask us whether a funded scheme applies", with nothing in between.
- Never let a draft say "you qualify". Eligibility is confirmed by the scheme or by your own survey process, not by a marketing sentence.
- Re-check the wording every month. Schemes change, and an old paragraph becomes a wrong claim without anyone editing it.
- If you cannot find the scheme's rules on advertising or logo use, ask the administrator in writing before you promote it, and keep the reply.
Before, a typical AI draft: "Free insulation grants are available now! Claim yours and slash your winter bills."
After: "Some households can get help with the cost of insulation through funded schemes. Whether yours can depends on the scheme's own rules, so we check eligibility before booking a survey. [Scheme's approved wording, copied from its page on 1 November.]"
The second version is less exciting and every clause in it is true. It also gives a visitor a clear next step, which is the point of the page.
Measuring the push by enquiries, not by savings
Judge the autumn block by three counts logged per source: enquiries, surveys booked and quotes accepted. Add a "where did you hear about us" field to the contact form, ask on the phone, and tag each enquiry with the page or post that prompted it. Google Search Console's performance report, filtered by page, shows impressions and clicks for each area page; give new pages several weeks before reading anything into them.
A quick sum with illustrative numbers. The 14 hours of owner time at an internal rate of $40 an hour comes to $560, and printed flyers add $120. Over the six weeks the firm logs 9 enquiries tagged to the new pages and posts, 6 booked surveys and 3 accepted quotes. The cost per accepted quote is ($560 + $120) / 3, about $227. If the average accepted job is $2,400, those three jobs bring in $7,200. Your figures will differ; the useful habit is seeing which area page or post produced the surveys, so next autumn's 14 hours go where the enquiries came from. The same enquiry counts feed the cost side of insulation leads: what they cost and how AI qualifies them.
Four slips from a plausible run, and how each was caught
The competitor paste. The owner pasted a rival's page into the prompt "for tone". Draft two then carried "typical customers save around $300 a year". The trigger-word scan caught "save" and the sentence went. Never paste other firms' copy into a drafting prompt, because the model will happily reuse its claims.
Two pages, one body. The first versions of the Area C and D pages differed only in the place name. The swap test failed both, and with one provable fact for D the sensible fix was to drop both pages and list the areas on the main page.
The invented deadline. A week 4 draft said prices were going up at the end of the month. No rise was planned. Urgency now has its own rule in the prompt and its own words on the trigger list: a real date with a real reason, or nothing.
The borrowed accreditation. The AI described the firm as an "approved installer" after seeing a scheme name on the sheet, though the sheet carried no approval wording. The fix was to store accreditation exactly as printed on the certificate, with the instruction that anything not on the sheet becomes [MISSING].
The same fact sheet pays off a second time in proposals, where the no-savings rule matters even more. Insulation proposals: explain options with AI without promising savings shows how to feed it the same facts for a single customer's quote.
Further reads
- Window Company Marketing: A Year of Local Campaigns Drafted With AI — A year of local campaigns for another home-improvement trade.
- Fence Company Marketing: Local Pages, Photos and Posts With AI — More on building local pages from job photos.
- Solar Installer Marketing: Local Pages and Case Studies Written With AI — Local pages and case studies where funding schemes also matter.
- Heat Pump Quote Template: Explain Options With AI, No Savings Promises — Another no-savings-promises method, applied to heat pump quotes.
- AI Marketing for Contractors: Reviews, Case Studies and Local Posts — Reviews, case studies and local posts for contractors.
- Septic Company Marketing: Seasonal Offers and Local Pages With AI — Seasonal offers and local pages for a different trade.
- Insulation Quote Template: Material, Thickness and Area Lines With AI — Line-by-line quotes with thickness, area and exclusions.
- Flooring Contractor Marketing: Seasonal Offers and Posts Drafted With AI — Plan four quarters of offers, job-photo posts and review requests for a flooring firm, with AI prompts, a worked budget and a tracking sheet.
- Painting Contractor Marketing: Seasonal Campaigns With AI Content — A seasonal marketing calendar for painters built from your own capacity gaps, with AI drafting Business Profile posts, job captions and customer emails.
- Paving Marketing: Turn Job Photos Into Local Content With AI — A six-shot routine, captioning prompts and permission wording that turn each paving job into posts, a project page and a profile update.
- Tree Service Marketing Ideas: Storm-Season Posts and Local Pages — A storm-season marketing plan for tree firms: scheduled posts, local service pages, before-and-after captions and calm emergency wording, drafted with AI.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Google Search Central spam policies (doorway abuse and scaled content abuse), the text of an insulation labelling and advertising rule (ads, savings claims and exemptions) and a public home-insulation fact sheet on R-values and air sealing, read in November 2026.