Home Services Case Study: 2X Revenue and -34% Ad Costs With Google Ads
Challenge
One of the largest home services companies in the U.S., covering plumbing, electrical, HVAC, appliance repair, and handyman services across most major cities with over 4,000 technicians, was facing a serious profitability issue. Despite significant ad spend, their campaigns only broke even. The account was managed with a narrow CPL goal that didn’t align with true business value, and they still relied heavily on non-scalable revenue sources to stay afloat. Scaling wasn’t possible under these conditions.
Solution
We knew that small optimizations on the surface wouldn’t fix the problem. Instead, we had to completely realign the advertising strategy with the company’s actual business goals. That meant building a system where Google’s algorithms were trained not just to deliver leads, but to deliver the right kind of leads—profitable jobs that could be scaled nationwide. Enhanced Funnel Tracking Instead of treating every form submission as equal, we introduced deeper conversion tracking. We sent back events like job acceptance by a technician, customer confirmation, and even quote approvals. By doing this, Google’s automated bidding system learned to optimize toward actions that directly tied to real revenue, not just cheap clicks or low-quality leads. Profit-Based Campaign Restructuring Not all jobs were created equal. Some services had much higher profit margins, and certain cities were far more cost-effective than others. We rebuilt campaigns to reflect these realities. Services were grouped by profitability, and locations were broken down into sub-regions based on average cost per lead and revenue per job. This gave us the flexibility to push harder in the most profitable areas while controlling costs in less efficient ones. Smarter Bidding Strategy With the new data flowing in, we transitioned bidding strategies to focus on high-value conversions. Instead of Google chasing volume, it was now chasing profitability. By gradually feeding more precise conversion signals, we essentially re-educated the bidding algorithm to prioritize customers who were far more likely to turn into paying jobs. Creative and Targeting Improvements We also refreshed ad copy, improved quality scores, and eliminated wasted spend on irrelevant searches. By making ads more relevant and focused, click-through rates improved, cost per click dropped, and the overall efficiency of every campaign went up.
Results
Results The impact of these changes was dramatic and measurable across every key metric. Revenue Doubled By focusing ad spend on the most profitable services and regions, the company was able to generate twice as much revenue from the same budget. This created immediate breathing room for the business, allowing them to cover not only advertising costs but also technician wages, office rent, and staff salaries—all while leaving more margin than before. Ad Costs Reduced by 34% With smarter campaign structure and improved quality scores, the cost of clicks fell significantly. This meant every dollar spent reached further, allowing more jobs to be booked with less investment. ROI Jumped from ~100% to 300%+ Prior to our involvement, ad spend was essentially break-even—every dollar in brought about a dollar out. After restructuring, every dollar spent was returning more than three. This transformed advertising from a cost line item into one of the company’s most powerful profit engines. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Plummeted While the exact pre-engagement CAC varied by service, it was unsustainably high because of wasted spend and low-quality leads. By cutting costs and doubling revenue simultaneously, the effective CAC dropped by more than half. In practical terms, the company could now acquire three customers for the same spend it previously took to acquire just one. Stronger Operational Balance With higher-quality leads coming in, the sales and dispatch teams could better match technician supply with customer demand. Instead of wasting time on unqualified jobs, they were consistently fielding real customers ready to book services. Overall, what had been a break-even channel became a scalable growth engine. The company not only stabilized but also gained the confidence to plan future expansion, knowing their advertising was finally built to support sustainable growth.
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