The Client
Coastal Pure Air is a mold remediation and air quality testing company in Victoria, British Columbia. We built their Google Ads, which grew real leads from about 1 a month in 2021 to about 6 a month in 2023.
Mold is an urgent, local problem. Homeowners and landlords search the moment they see or smell it, and they call the company that looks like the local expert.
"1 lead in August 2021. 13 in March 2023."
The Challenge
Google Ads for mold removal companies has a few traps:
- DIY intent. "Mold in house" and "getting rid of black mold" bring people looking for a spray bottle, not a contractor.
- A small market. Greater Victoria is a few hundred thousand people. Every wasted click is a real share of the budget.
- No lead tracking at the start. Before us the account ran a Smart campaign with no recorded calls or forms.
- Two kinds of lead. Customers call or fill out a form, and both have to be counted.
What We Built
1. A Search Campaign Around Mold Services
Launched in June 2021 on Maximize Conversions and built around testing, removal and remediation: "mold removal victoria bc", "mold testing victoria bc", "free mold inspection", "mold remediation" and "air quality test for mold".
2. A Dedicated Landing Page
Every ad sent searchers to one page built for one offer, demolition-free mold remediation, instead of the home page.
3. Tight Local Targeting
The campaigns target Victoria, Saanich and Sidney and the surrounding postal codes, so the budget only reaches people the crew can serve.
4. Negative Keywords From Day One
Over 100 campaign-level negative keywords keep out DIY, product and out-of-area searches.
5. Call and Form Tracking, Then a Bidding Test
We tracked calls from the ads from the start, added website form tracking in February 2023, and ran a Google campaign experiment that year to test bidding against the original.
6. Daily Optimization via Ad Campaign Concierge™
The campaigns were reviewed daily through our proprietary Ad Campaign Concierge™ system: search-term mining, new negatives, bid strategy tests and budget pacing.
The Results
- Leads a month more than quadrupled: about 1 a month in 2021, about 2 in 2022 and about 6 in 2023.
- Best month: 13 real leads in March 2023.
- 90+ real leads in total from over C$25K in ad spend, from an account that recorded no calls or forms before us.
- Cost per lead fell by more than half from 2022 to 2023.
Key Takeaways
- Search for the problem, in the place. "Mold testing victoria bc" and "mold removal victoria bc" outperformed broad mold searches.
- Cut the DIY searches. Negatives kept spray-bottle shoppers out of a small market.
- One offer, one page. A dedicated demolition-free remediation page gave searchers one clear reason to call.
- Count calls and forms. Once forms were tracked, they made up close to half of the leads, so a campaign tracking only calls would have missed half the customers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take Google Ads to work for a mold removal company?
It builds. Coastal Pure Air's campaigns averaged about 1 real lead a month in 2021, about 2 in 2022 and about 6 a month in 2023, with 13 leads in March 2023 alone.
What do people search for when they have mold?
They search for the problem and the place. The keywords that drove the most clicks and leads were 'mold removal victoria bc', 'mold testing victoria bc', 'free mold inspection', 'mold testing' and the company's own name.
Do mold remediation customers call or fill out a form?
Both. Once form tracking was added in February 2023, close to half of the leads came through the website form, and the rest were phone calls from the ads.
How much should a mold remediation company spend on Google Ads?
Coastal Pure Air's campaigns ran on under C$1,100 a month through 2022 and about C$900 to C$1,500 a month in 2023. As the campaigns matured, cost per lead fell by more than half from 2022 to 2023.
About This Campaign
Mold remediation lead generation on Google Ads, built with our proprietary Ad Campaign Concierge™ optimization system.
Industry: Home Services (Mold Remediation & Air Quality Testing) Platforms: Google Ads (Search) Location: Victoria, British Columbia Account Duration: June 2021 to September 2023. The engagement has ended.
Real leads are calls from the ads and website form submissions recorded in Google Ads (form tracking began in February 2023). Clicks on the phone number or email link, directions, website visits and other engagements are excluded, as are duplicate Google Analytics form goals. Results cover only the campaigns we built, June 2021 to September 2023; later activity in the account is not ours and is not counted. All amounts are in Canadian dollars (C$) and rounded down.