How Ground Builders Cut Its Cost Per Call Nearly in Half With Google Ads

The Client

Ground Builders Landscaping Co. is a landscaping and outdoor living company in Omaha, Nebraska. We built their Google Ads campaigns, which cut the cost per call from about $95 to about $48 and produced 150+ phone calls in a year.

Landscaping is a local, seasonal service. Homeowners search in spring for a patio, a retaining wall or a full yard makeover, and they call the company that shows up first and looks established.

"9 calls from our campaigns in our first full month. 22 in July 2024."

The Challenge

Google Ads for landscapers comes with predictable problems:

• Seasonal demand. Most of the year's calls come between April and August, so the campaigns have to be ready before spring.
• Mixed intent. "Landscaping" brings DIY shoppers, rock and mulch buyers and job seekers along with homeowners hiring a crew.
• Local competition. Omaha has many lawn and landscaping companies bidding on the same searches.
• Expensive calls. In the three months before our campaigns, the account paid about $95 per call from its ads.

What We Built

1. A Main Search Campaign for Landscaping Services

Built in August 2023 on Maximize Conversions, around the searches that hire: "landscaping companies omaha", "landscaping omaha", "landscaping services" and "outdoor landscaping". It produced about half of our calls.

2. A Brand Campaign

A second Search campaign on the company's own name ("ground builders", "ground builders omaha", "groundbuilders"), so people looking for Ground Builders by name always found them first, not a competitor.

3. Experiments on Every Campaign

We ran Google campaign experiments on both new campaigns and on the account's existing Leads campaign, testing bidding and ads head to head. The Leads experiment alone produced over 50 calls.

4. Omaha ZIP-Code Targeting

The campaigns target Omaha and Elkhorn ZIP codes and Douglas County, so the budget reaches homeowners the crews can serve.

5. Tracking That Counts Calls Only

Calls from the ads are the counted conversion. Directions, map clicks and website visits are tracked but not counted, so the campaigns optimize toward people who pick up the phone.

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 tests and seasonal budget pacing.

The Results

• Cost per call cut nearly in half: from about $95 before us to about $48 across our campaigns.
• 150+ phone calls from over $7,600 in ad spend in a year.
• Peak season: about 18 calls a month from April to August 2024, with 22 in July.
• 2024 cost per call: about $46, down from about $54 in our first months.

Key Takeaways

1. Be ready before spring. The calls arrive April to August; the campaigns have to be tuned before then.
2. Own your name. Many homeowners search for the company directly, and those searches should land on your ad, not a competitor's.
3. Test everything head to head. Experiments on every campaign showed which bidding produced the cheapest calls.
4. Count calls, not clicks. The campaigns optimize toward people who pick up the phone.

About This Campaign

Landscaping lead generation on Google Ads, built with our proprietary Ad Campaign Concierge™ optimization system.

Industry: Home Services (Landscaping & Outdoor Living) Platforms: Google Ads (Search) Location: Omaha, Nebraska Account Duration: August 2023 to August 2024. The engagement has ended.

Calls are phone calls from the ads recorded in Google Ads for the campaigns we built, August 2023 to August 2024. Clicks to call, directions, website visits, store visits and other engagements are excluded, as are the account's other campaigns and all activity after our engagement. "Before us" is the whole account from May to July 2023. All amounts are in US dollars and rounded down.