The Client
Gutter Guard Experts installs gutter guards on homes along Colorado's Front Range and in the Sacramento area of California. We ran their Google Ads for a decade, from November 2015 to April 2026, and grew real leads from 190 a year to 390.
They sell one product, a premium gutter guard with a lifetime warranty, to homeowners who are tired of cleaning their gutters. It is a high-ticket, once-in-a-lifetime purchase, so every lead is worth a lot, and every wasted click costs real money.
"190 real leads in 2020. 390 in 2025. $450K+ managed over ten years."
The Challenge
Google Ads for gutter guards is a competitive, expensive category:
- National brands own the auction. Large national gutter guard brands bid on every search in every market, with budgets a regional installer can't match.
- Expensive clicks. "Gutter guards" and "leaf guard" searches are some of the costliest in home improvement.
- Research before buying. Homeowners compare brands and prices for weeks before booking an estimate, so the ads have to stay in front of them.
- Two kinds of lead. Homeowners call or fill out the estimate form in almost equal numbers. A campaign that counts one and misses the other learns the wrong lesson.
What We Built
1. Search campaigns that started it all
In November 2015 we launched Gutter Search Ads - LPA, a Search campaign around a 60-mile radius of Northern Colorado, on gutter guard and leaf guard searches, including searches for the national brands. It ran for over six years and produced 450+ real leads on its own. In 2020 we rebuilt it as Main Search Campaign 2.0 - LPA, targeted county by county across the Denver metro, and A/B tested it against itself in 2022.
2. Tracking that counts calls and forms, once
Over the years we set up calls from ads, calls from the website, form leads and thank-you page conversions, and imported first-time calls from the client's call tracking, kept separate from repeat callers. Clicks on the phone number and page events were never counted as leads in this study.
3. Video, remarketing and local campaigns
YouTube and video campaigns to stay in front of homeowners during their weeks of research, a remarketing Search campaign for people who had already visited the site, and a Local campaign for map searches.
4. Performance Max and AI Max in two markets
In 2024 we built separate Denver and Sacramento campaigns: Performance Max in each market, and Search campaigns targeted to more than 100 ZIP codes in each market, later run with AI Max, with ongoing A/B tests on bidding. Performance Max beat every Search campaign in the account on cost per lead.
5. Negatives and assets
More than 1,100 unique negative keywords across our campaigns, plus 200+ images, 80 callouts, 55 sitelinks, promotion assets and call assets.
6. Meta Ads in both markets
In 2025 we added Facebook and Instagram lead campaigns for Denver and Sacramento: a prospecting campaign and a remarketing campaign in each market, optimized for website leads. Together they turned $10K+ into 560+ leads at about $19 each.
7. Daily Optimization via Ad Campaign Concierge™
Every campaign was reviewed every business day through Ad Campaign Concierge™, our proprietary optimization system: search terms, negatives, bids, schedules and budget pacing.
The Results
The numbers below cover our campaigns only, November 2015 to April 2026.
- $450K+ in ad spend managed over ten years.
- 1,300+ real leads: 690+ phone calls and 650+ form submissions.
- 3.3M+ impressions and 71,000+ clicks.
- 2020: 190+ real leads, the first full year with both calls and forms tracked.
- 2022: 360+ leads, with the best quarter of the decade, July to September, at 140 leads.
- 2025: 390+ leads across Colorado and Sacramento, double 2020.
Leads Since the First Campaign
Performance Max in Two Markets
The Denver and Sacramento Performance Max campaigns produced 430+ real leads at about $150 each, less than half the account's average cost per lead over the decade.
Meta Ads: 560+ Leads at About $19 Each
- 560+ website leads from $10K+ in Meta ad spend in 2025, about $19 a lead
- Sacramento remarketing: 240+ leads at about $17 each
- Sacramento prospecting: 100 leads at about $10 each
- Denver: 210+ leads across prospecting and remarketing
Key Takeaways
- Long engagements compound. Ten years of search terms, negatives and conversion data meant every new campaign started from what already worked.
- Count calls and forms, and nothing else. Gutter guard leads split almost evenly between the two. Counting phone-number clicks as leads would have inflated the numbers and taught the bidding the wrong thing.
- A second market is a second account. Denver and Sacramento got their own campaigns, budgets and ZIP code targeting, not a shared one.
- Performance Max earns its place with real conversions. Fed only calls and form leads, it beat every Search campaign in the account on cost per lead.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a gutter guard company spend on Google Ads?
Gutter Guard Experts started with us at about $15K a year in 2016 in one Colorado market. As the leads proved out, spend grew to about $60K in 2020 and $100K+ in 2025, by then across two markets, Colorado and Sacramento. Over the decade we managed $450K+ in ad spend.
How many leads can a gutter guard installer get from Google Ads?
In 2025 the account produced 390+ real leads across Colorado and Sacramento, double the 190 of 2020, its first full year with both calls and forms tracked. The best quarter of 2025, October to December, brought 120+ leads.
Do gutter guard customers call or fill out a form?
Both, almost evenly. Of the 1,300+ real leads, 690+ were phone calls and 650+ were form submissions. A gutter guard campaign that tracks only one of them misses half the business.
Does Performance Max work for gutter guard installation?
It did here. The Denver and Sacramento Performance Max campaigns we built in 2024 produced 430+ real leads on $65K+ of spend, about $150 a lead, a lower cost per lead than any Search campaign in the account.
About This Campaign
Gutter guard lead generation on Google Ads, built and managed with our proprietary Ad Campaign Concierge™ optimization system.
Industry: Home Services (Gutter Guard Installation) Platforms: Google Ads (Search, Performance Max, Video, Smart), Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram, 2025) Location: Colorado Front Range and Sacramento, California Account Duration: November 2015 to April 2026. The engagement has ended.
Leads are counted Google Ads conversions from our campaigns only: calls from ads, calls from the website, imported first-time calls, form submissions and thank-you page conversions. Where two form trackers counted the same month, only one is counted. Phone-number clicks, a 2022 event tag that combined phone clicks with form events, repeat calls and directions are excluded. Conversion tracking started in 2017 (calls) and 2019 (forms), so 2015 and 2016 show spend but no tracked leads. No campaigns of ours ran from December 2022 to July 2024. All figures are rounded down and in US dollars. Meta figures are website leads reported by Meta Ads Manager for our four LPA campaigns in Denver and Sacramento, 2025.