Industry: HVAC & Mechanical Services · Market: Central Illinois · Timeframe: 90 days
This HVAC company had been running Google Ads on their own for about 18 months. They were spending roughly $900/month but fielding only 8–10 inbound calls per month from digital channels. Their cost per lead was around $90–$110 — high for their market. They weren't sure if Google Ads "worked" for HVAC or if they should cut the budget.
When we audited the account, the problems were immediate: broad match keywords were eating 40% of budget on completely irrelevant searches, there was no phone call tracking (meaning conversions were invisible to the algorithm), and their landing page was the homepage — not a dedicated HVAC page with a clear phone number above the fold.
Month 1: Calls dropped slightly from 9 to 7 as we cleaned out irrelevant traffic. Budget freed up by removing wasted spend was reinvested into high-intent exact match keywords. New landing pages launched. Conversion tracking confirmed recording calls correctly.
Month 2: Calls climbed to 19 as the algorithm adjusted to the cleaner conversion signal. Cost per lead fell from $95 to $58. Smart bidding started optimizing based on real phone call data rather than no data at all.
Month 3: Calls reached 28–32/month. Cost per lead stabilized at $38–$44. ROAS confirmed at 6.4:1 once we mapped average job value ($2,200) to conversion volume. Monthly ad spend was similar to before — the difference was where it went.
The most common Google Ads failure isn't a budget problem or a competition problem — it's a tracking and structure problem. This account was spending the right amount. It was just spending it on the wrong keywords, with no ability for the algorithm to learn, and sending clicks to a page that wasn't built to convert.
Three structural fixes — match types, conversion tracking, and dedicated landing pages — produced a 3x improvement in 90 days without increasing spend.
We'll audit your account and show you exactly what's wasting budget and what's convertible — in a plain-English report with specific recommendations, not a sales deck.
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