How we reduced cost per lead by 74% while improving lead quality from tire-kickers to qualified homeowners booking $3k-5k garage coating projects.
Industry:
Home Services
Services Provided:
Google Ads Management
Local Lead Generation
Timeline:
5 months
Location:
USA
The Situation
A garage coating company with over 10 years in business came to us in July 2025. They were spending $3,000 a month on Google Ads through another agency and getting 20–30 leads per month at around $320 each.
The problem wasn’t the volume. It was what was in it.
Most of those leads were price shoppers, quote collectors, and homeowners with no real intention of moving forward. The phone was ringing but the jobs weren’t closing.
And to make it worse, their previous agency had locked them out of their own account. They had no idea where their money was going.
The Problem
The campaign had been built to generate leads but not customers.
There was no filtering for serious buyers. No qualification built into the landing pages. No negative keywords to block out DIY researchers and price shoppers. Just volume, optimised for volume’s sake.
For a premium service business doing $3,000–$5,000 jobs, 30 unqualified leads a month is worse than 10 good ones.
It wastes the sales team’s time, creates false confidence in the campaign, and erodes trust in paid advertising entirely.
What we did
Over five months we rebuilt the entire strategy around one question: how do we attract homeowners who are actually ready to hire?
Account Access & Initial Audit
The previous agency had locked them out of their own Google Ads account. We rebuilt it from scratch under their ownership, established baseline metrics, and identified every source of wasted spend.
Targeting Refinement
- Locked geographic targeting to their actual service area.
- Excluded demographics unlikely to own homes or carry renovation budgets.
- Added negative keywords to filter out low-intent searches — price comparisons, DIY queries, anything signalling a browser rather than a buyer.
Landing Page Strategy
- Stopped sending all traffic to the homepage.
- Built service-specific landing pages that included pricing indicators and project timelines so visitors could self-qualify before submitting a form.
- Emphasised quality, warranty, and professional installation to attract buyers who valued the work, not just the price.
Conversion Optimization
- Rebuilt conversion tracking to distinguish real enquiries from form fills.
- Shifted bid strategies to optimise for qualified leads, not just clicks.
- Tested ad copy that led with quality over price.
- Refined audience signals based on people who actually booked jobs.
The Results
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
| Cost Per Lead | $320 | $81 | -74% |
| Monthly Ad Spend | $3,000 | $2,000 avg | -33% |
| Lead Quality | Mostly unqualified | 50-75% qualified | 4-6x improvement |
| Conversion Rate | 5% | 9-10% avg | +80-100% |
Lead Quality Transformation
Before: 20-30 leads/month, mostly tire-kickers, quote shoppers, and homeowners with unrealistic budgets
After: 21-32 qualified leads/month—homeowners in service area with realistic $3k-5k budgets, ready to move forward within 30-60 days
Why this matters
The client went from chasing down unqualified leads to focusing exclusively on serious buyers:
- More booked jobs from fewer total leads
- Higher average project values (customers willing to pay for quality work)
- Less time wasted on tire-kickers and quote shoppers who were never going to book
- Increased revenue despite fewer total inquiries
- Full visibility and control of their own Google Ads account
Getting leads that don’t go anywhere?
Book a free 30-minute call. We’ll look at your current campaigns and tell you where lead quality is being lost.
Clients We Worked With
Here’s What Happens Next:
We talk about your business and where leads are falling short
You get a clear picture of what’s possible and what it costs
If it’s a fit — we get started within a week