162% more conversions at a 48% lower cost per conversion

How a Greater Toronto Area heating, cooling, and plumbing company went from a cost spike to its best results by rebuilding the Google Ads account, fixing its tracking, and simplifying the path from click to call.

Client

Heating, cooling, and plumbing contractor, Greater Toronto Area

Scope

$14.6M in ad spend, about 107,600 conversions, roughly $541K a month

Period

27 months, April 2022 to June 2024

Work

Google Ads rebuild, tracking, landing pages, forms

The problem

The account ran mostly on Google Search, and in early 2023 it stopped working as well. Search cost per click climbed to about $16, and cost per conversion hit $175.

• Broad-match keywords pulled in searches that had nothing to do with the services on offer.
• Loose ad groups mixed installs, repairs, and drain work, so ads and pages rarely matched what people searched for.
• Calls and forms weren’t tracked properly, which made it hard to see what the budget was buying.
• One generic landing page served every service.

What we did

Rebuilt the account around services. Ad groups follow what customers search for: AC installation, AC replacement, heat pumps, furnace repair, drains, and financing. Each has its own ad copy and its own landing page.

Tightened targeting. We moved to phrase and exact match, mined search terms, and built negative keyword lists.

Fixed tracking. Call and form tracking now runs through GA4 and Google Tag Manager, and every tag was verified.

Expanded beyond search. We added Performance Max, display, remarketing, and YouTube, moved bidding to Target CPA, and ran ad copy A/B tests.

Rebuilt the path to conversion.

• The form went from many fields to three: service type, phone, and email. We tracked starts, errors, and drop-off.
• A “Don’t pay ’til next summer” financing offer (0% interest*) went above the fold, next to the call button.
• Real team and truck photos replaced stock images.

The results

Comparing the first half of 2023, when costs spiked, with the first half of 2024:

Lighter bars are January to June 2023, darker bars are January to June 2024. All figures in Canadian dollars. Conversions include phone calls, form submissions, and other tracked actions.

Over the full 27 months the account spent $14.6M and drove about 107,600 conversions.

Why it worked

The demand was already there. What the account lacked was control over who clicked, a clear view of what happened next, and a page that made the next step easy. We fixed all three together, then scaled once the tracking could be trusted.