Lead Gen Turnaround
UK local service business · Google Ads (Search, geo-targeted)
Took over an account spending £2k+ a month at £30+ CPA. Rebuilt it, cut spend by 39%, increased leads by 52% and drove cost per lead down 60% year-on-year.
By the numbers
Where we started
When we took over, the account was leaking. Spend had climbed from under £1,000 a month in early 2024 to £2,200+ by year-end, but lead volume had actually fallen and cost per lead had doubled from £19 to £34. Worst month (August 2024) hit £34.39 CPA — the previous setup was losing efficiency the more it tried to scale.
The brief was to stop the bleed first, then rebuild a smaller, sharper account that could generate more qualified leads for less money.
The approach
Paused and audited before rebuilding
The account sat dormant for most of February and March 2025 while we ran the full audit, interviewed the client on their actual catchment and priority services, and mapped out a clean campaign structure from scratch. No cosmetic fixes — a full rebuild.
Cut geo-targeting to the real catchment
The account had been targeting 'Manchester' as a broad region. We narrowed it to postcode-level radius targeting around the workshop — the realistic drive-time catchment — and killed the wasted clicks from searchers who were never going to drive 40 minutes for a quote.
Killed the head terms, leaned into long-tail intent
Expensive broad terms pulled mixed-intent traffic — DIYers, suppliers, curious searchers. We moved spend to specific service-level queries where the searcher already knew exactly what they needed. Lower volume, higher close rate.
Service-specific landing pages matched to ad groups
Instead of one generic landing page, we built separate pages for each core service and matched each ad group to its own page. Ad copy, page headline, CTA — all reinforcing the same specific offer. Much higher on-page conversion than a generic homepage.
Fortnightly search term and negative keyword reviews
On a small budget, wasted clicks matter more. Every two weeks we reviewed the search terms report and added negatives. The compounding effect over 15 months turned into a highly efficient filter — every search term that reached the account was close to the intent we wanted.
What happened
- March 2024 (before): £1,405 spend → 73 leads → £19.25 cost per lead.
- August 2024 (worst month under previous setup): £2,786 spend → 81 leads → £34.39 cost per lead.
- March 2026 (latest full month): £854 spend → 111 leads → £7.69 cost per lead.
- Year-on-year, the account delivered 52% more qualified leads on 39% less spend — cost per lead dropped 60%.
- Compared to the 2024 peak-spend month, cost per lead is down 78% and lead volume is up 37%.
- The rebuilt account is running on less than a third of the previous budget and delivering more qualified enquiries. The cost saving alone has effectively paid for our management fee.
- Lead quality shows in the end result: the client holds a 5.0 Google rating across 220 reviews — the traffic we send is matched to intent, and the business converts it into consistently great customer experiences.
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All figures pulled directly from the client's Google Ads account. Client name anonymised pending permission; real data available on request.