The Client
Fit Removals is a local removalist in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. We audited and optimized their Google Ads in June 2021, and over the next four months real leads went from 23 to 63 on about the same ad spend, with cost per lead down 60%.
Fit Removals focuses on local moves around its depot: Paddington, Woollahra, Bondi, Randwick, Coogee and the suburbs nearby. A move from across the city means paid travel time the customer does not want, so a lead from the wrong suburb is barely a lead at all.
"About A$240 a lead before our audit. About A$95 after it."
The Challenge
The owners came to us with a clear problem: traffic was arriving, but not the right enquiries.
- Enquiries from too far away. Leads came from across Sydney, from Melbourne and from people planning interstate moves, which the company does not specialize in.
- A bigger budget without better results. Spend had gone up, and the leads had not followed.
- Expensive clicks. Clicks in the months before the audit cost about A$12 each.
- A busy, price-driven market. Sydney removalists compete hard on the same searches, and many searchers only want the cheapest quote.
What We Did
1. A Full Audit of the Account
In June 2021 we audited Fit Removals' Google Ads against their goal: calls and quote requests from local customers. We reviewed the search terms, keywords, targeting, ads and conversion tracking.
2. Optimization of the Search Campaign
We then optimized the existing Search campaign. The account today targets a 7 km radius around the Paddington depot and carries 400+ negative keywords, and the keywords that won after the audit were local and specific: "removalists Sydney", "removalist sydney", "cheap removalists Sydney" and "two men and a truck" style searches.
3. Counting Real Leads Only
Real leads here are calls from the ads and "Get a Quote" form submissions. Clicks on the phone number and other soft actions are left out of the numbers below.
The Results
The numbers below compare the five months before our audit (February to June 2021) with the four months after it (July to October 2021).
| Metric | Before the audit | After the audit |
|---|---|---|
| Real leads | 23 | 63 |
| Leads a month | about 4.5 | about 15 |
| Cost per lead | about A$240 | about A$95 |
| Ad spend | about A$5,500 | about A$6,000 |
| Clicks | 460 | 919 |
| Cost per click | about A$12 | about A$6.50 |
- Cost per lead down 60%, from about A$240 to about A$95.
- Nearly three times the leads on about the same total spend: 63 in four months after the audit against 23 in the five months before it.
- Best month: August 2021, with 25 real leads.
- Clicks nearly doubled and the cost per click fell 45%, while impressions dropped by more than half, so the budget went to fewer, better searches.
Key Takeaways
- An audit pays for itself when it starts from the business goal. Fit Removals did not need more traffic. It needed local movers, and the account was tuned to find them.
- In local services, where the lead lives matters. A tight radius around the depot keeps the budget on moves the crew can actually take.
- Fewer impressions can be better. When the ads stop showing to the wrong searches, the click-through rate and the cost per lead both improve.
- Count calls and quote forms, not clicks. Phone-number clicks inflate a removalist's numbers without adding a single booked move.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a removalist lead cost on Google Ads in Sydney?
For Fit Removals it was about A$240 a lead in the five months before our audit. In the four months after it, the same campaign brought in leads at about A$95 each, 60% less.
Can a Google Ads audit improve results without a bigger budget?
Here it did. The campaign spent about A$5,500 in the five months before the audit and about A$6,000 in the four months after it, and real leads went from 23 to 63.
What do people search for when they hire removalists in Sydney?
The searches that produced the most leads after the audit were '2 men and a truck' style searches, 'removalists sydney', 'cheap removalists sydney', 'best removalists sydney' and the company's own name.
Why did clicks go up while impressions went down?
The ads showed to fewer, better searches. After the audit, impressions fell by more than half while clicks nearly doubled, and the click-through rate rose from under 1% to over 3.6%.
About This Campaign
A Google Ads audit and optimization for a Sydney removalist, built on the same review process as our proprietary Ad Campaign Concierge™ optimization system.
Industry: Moving Services (Local Removalists) Platforms: Google Ads (Search) Location: Sydney Eastern Suburbs, Australia Engagement: Audit and optimization, June 2021. The engagement has ended.
Real leads are calls from the ads and "Get a Quote" form submissions recorded in Google Ads. Clicks on the website phone number, directions and other engagements are excluded. "Before" is February to June 2021 and "after" is July to October 2021; later activity in the account, including campaigns built from 2024 on, is not ours and is not counted. All amounts are in Australian dollars (A$) and rounded down.