The Client
Coursey Graves Estate Winery is a boutique mountain-top winery in Sonoma County, California. We have run their Google Ads since September 2023, growing tasting reservations from 1 in the first month to 31 a month, with 437 reservations, calls and online orders from the ads so far.
The estate makes Bordeaux-style wines, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Syrah, and hosts tastings by reservation, a members-only wine club and an online wine shop.
1 reservation in September 2023. 31 in September 2026.
The Challenge
Google Ads for wineries is a small-budget, high-competition game:
- Hundreds of wineries, one region. Sonoma and Napa wineries all bid on the same "wine tasting near me" searches.
- Napa gets the searches. Visitors search for Napa far more than Sonoma, even when a Sonoma estate is minutes away.
- Visitors plan from far away. Many tasting guests book from out of state, weeks before the trip.
- Tastings are by reservation. A click only matters if it turns into a booked visit or a call.
What We Built
1. Local Search Around the Visit
The core is a conversion-focused Search campaign built around wine tasting, winery and wine country searches in Sonoma, Napa and the surrounding towns. It has produced the most conversions in the account.
2. A Nationwide Campaign for Trip Planners
In March 2025 we added a nationwide Search campaign for people planning a wine country trip from anywhere in the US. It has the lowest cost per conversion in the account.
3. Local Performance Max
In July 2025 a local Performance Max campaign joined the mix, reaching visitors across Search, Maps and YouTube. It has added 142 conversions.
4. Controlled Tests
Manual-bidding A/B tests ran beside both Search campaigns, and a competitor campaign tested conquest searches for nearby wineries. The winners stayed and the rest were paused.
5. Daily Optimization via Ad Campaign Concierge™
Every campaign is reviewed daily through our proprietary Ad Campaign Concierge™ system: search-term cleanup against winemaking, jobs and real-estate queries, bid and budget changes, and budget moved toward the campaigns filling the tasting calendar.
The Results
- 2023 (September to December): 13 real leads
- 2024: 46 real leads
- 2025: 210 real leads, 4.6 times the year before
- 2026 so far: 168 real leads from January to September, with the ads paused in December and January
- Real leads a month: from 1 in September 2023 to 43 in May 2025, and 30 or more in August and September 2026, all of them tasting reservations
- Year over year: 31 reservations in September 2026, up from 17 in September 2025
What Improved
| Metric | First 12 months | Latest 12 months | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tasting reservations | 38 | 179 | 4.7x |
| Clicks from the ads | 4,493 | 9,313 | +107% |
| Click-through rate | 3.99% | 5.77% | +45% |
| Clicks that became a lead | 0.87% | 1.92% | 2.2x |
| Cost per lead | $188 | $111 | 41% lower |
The ads now reach more of the right people, more of them click, and more than twice as many of those clicks turn into a booked tasting or a call.
Every Lead Since Launch
437 real leads since September 2023: 375 tasting reservations, 60 phone calls and 2 online orders. Across 2025, a lead cost $64 in ad spend.
Key Takeaways
- Count reservations, not clicks. Bidding on booked tastings and calls is what turned a small budget into a full calendar.
- Sell the trip, not just the tasting. A nationwide campaign for trip planners became the cheapest source of leads.
- Google Ads for wineries scales with the budget. When the budget grew, reservations grew with it.
- Test, keep the winners. Manual-bidding and competitor tests showed what to keep and what to pause.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should a winery spend on Google Ads?
Coursey Graves has spent $41,846 since September 2023. The budget grew from about $600 a month in 2023 and early 2024 to about $2,000 to $3,000 a month in 2026, and real leads grew with it: 46 in 2024 and 210 in 2025.
What does a tasting reservation cost from Google Ads?
In our first three months a lead cost $152 in ad spend. Across 2025 it cost $64. From July to September 2026 it cost $104, on more than four times the early monthly budget. Over a full year, the cost per lead fell from $188 in our first 12 months to $111 in the latest 12.
How long does it take Google Ads to fill a winery's tasting calendar?
The first year was the learning year: 39 real leads from September 2023 to August 2024. The latest 12 months, October 2025 to September 2026, brought 179 tasting reservations, 4.7 times more, and September 2026 had 31 against 17 in September 2025.
Should a winery advertise locally or nationwide?
Coursey Graves runs both. The local Search campaign is the largest, with 169 conversions. The nationwide campaign, aimed at wine lovers planning a trip to Sonoma, produced 111 conversions on $5,245, the lowest cost per conversion in the account.
About This Campaign
This account is managed daily through Ad Campaign Concierge™, our proprietary optimization system for lead generation.
Industry: Winery & Wine Tourism Platforms: Google Ads (Search, Performance Max) Location: Sonoma County, California Account Duration: September 2023 to present (ongoing)
Leads are tasting reservations tracked through GA4, calls from ads, calls from the Business Profile and online orders as tracked in Google Ads. Mailing-list signups are excluded. Amounts in US dollars.