CASE STUDY · HOME SERVICES · PAID MEDIA
Built to Perform from Day One: Launching and Scaling Paid Media for a National Home Services Brand
CLIENT OVERVIEW
A national home services brand, growing fast and building from scratch
Our client is a nationally operating home services company with a high-volume, appointment-driven business model. With strong demand, multiple service lines, and an expanding geographic footprint, they needed a digital marketing partner who could build not just manage their entire paid media and data infrastructure. They came to adHamster before their first ad ever went live.
adHamster has been with them since launch and continues to manage, optimise, and scale their paid media operation today.
THE CHALLENGE
Starting from zero and doing it right
Launching paid media from scratch presents a unique set of challenges. There is no historical data to lean on, no campaign structure to inherit, and no benchmarks to measure against. Every decision from account architecture to conversion tracking to reporting has to be made intentionally, because mistakes at the foundation cost more to fix later than to get right from the beginning.
For this client, the key requirements before a single pound of budget was spent were clear:
- Build a Google Ads and Microsoft Bing campaign structure designed to scale not just to launch
- Implement reliable end-to-end conversion tracking before any spend went live
- Connect ad platform data with CRM and operational data into a single coherent system
- Build reporting infrastructure that served two distinct audiences investors and operations
- Keep the operation lean through automation, so the team could focus on growth, not admin
The real challenge wasn’t just generating leads it was building a system that could generate, track, report on, and scale them efficiently from month one onward.
ADHAMSTER'S APPROACH
Three pillars, built in the right order
Before any campaign went live, adHamster designed the entire paid media and data infrastructure built to perform immediately and to scale without needing to be rebuilt. The strategy rested on three pillars:
Campaign architecture
Google and Bing campaigns structured for national scale segmented by service line and geography, with budget allocation logic designed to flex as the business expanded.
Tracking & data integration
End-to-end conversion tracking implemented before launch. BigQuery pipelines connecting ad data, CRM records, and operational metrics into one source of truth
Dual reporting system
Two Looker Studio dashboards built from day one one for investors focused on ROI and high-level KPIs, one for operations focused on daily lead flow and efficiency metrics.
EXECUTION
What we actually built
- Designed and launched full Google Ads and Microsoft Bing campaign structures from scratch tightly segmented by service type and geography from day one.
- Implemented complete conversion tracking across all key actions phone calls, form submissions, and booked appointments validated and tested before any budget was activated.
- Built BigQuery data pipelines integrating ad platform data, CRM records, and operational metrics into a single, reliable, queryable data environment.
- Automated routine reporting and data workflows, including performance anomaly alerts, to eliminate manual overhead and reduce reporting latency.
- Delivered two Looker Studio dashboards one investor-facing with clean, real-time KPI visibility; one operational with granular daily performance, lead flow, and cost efficiency data.
- Scaled Google Ads as a second channel from August onward, running it in parallel with Bing and managing combined spend growth from $16K to over $273K per month.
- Ran continuous monthly optimisation cycles across both platforms refining keywords, audiences, bidding strategies, and budget allocation across 14+ months of live data.
PERFORMANCE DATA LEADS & CONVERSION
From 184 leads at launch to 2,979 per month
14 months of continuous optimisation across Google Ads and Microsoft Bing.
TOTAL LEADS GENERATED
25,381
across Google & Bing
PEAK MONTHLY VOLUME
2,979
vs 184 at launch (+1,520%)
+121%
3.08% → 6.81%
$69
vs $88 at launch (−22%)
Monthly ad spend Bing vs Google
- Bing Leads
- Google Leads:
- Bing Leads
- Google Leads:
CPL trend combined
- Combined CPL ($)
- Combined CPL ($)
Conversion rate by platform
- Bing CVR (%)
- Google CVR (%)
- Bing CVR (%)
- Google CVR (%)
RESULTS
Measurable impact, month after month
Over 14 months of continuous optimisation, the numbers tell a clear story: a paid media operation built correctly from the start compounds in performance over time. Lead volume scaled dramatically, conversion rates improved on both platforms, and cost efficiency was maintained even as total spend grew from $16K to over $273K per month.
25,381
Total leads generated across Google Ads and Microsoft Bing since lau
+1,520%
Monthly lead volume growth from 184 leads at launch to 2,979 per month
+121%
Bing CVR improvement 3.08% at launch to 6.81% through ongoing keyword and audience refinement
8.05%
Google CVR achieved launched at 3.81% in August and scaled to over 8% within months
$69 CPL
Lowest combined CPL achieved down from $88 at launch, a 22% improvement in cost efficiency
Real-time
Investor and operational reporting delivered via automated Looker Studio dashboards zero manual effort
PERFORMANCE DATA AD SPEND & SCALE
From $16K to $273K per month scaling with confidence
Spend growth managed across both platforms as lead volume and performance data compounded.
LAUNCH MONTH SPEND
$16K
March (Bing only)
TOTAL SPEND MANAGED
$2.06M
across 14 months
$278K
March (Bing + Google)
Month 6
August scaled to $166K/mo
Monthly ad spend Bing vs Google
- Bing spend ($K)
- Google spend ($K)
- Bing spend ($K)
- Google spend ($K)
Bing vs Google: CPL comparison
- Bing spend
- Google spend
- Bing spend
- Google spend
Google Ads: leads vs spend growth
- Organic Traffic
- Organic Unique
- Organic Traffic
- Organic Unique
KEY WINS
What changed and why it matters
- Full paid media launch on Google Ads and Microsoft Bing structured correctly from day one
- End-to-end conversion tracking live and validated before first ad spend
- 25,381 leads generated across both platforms over 14 months
- Bing CVR more than doubled 3.08% to 6.81% through continuous optimisation
- Google Ads launched in month 6 and scaled to 1,845 leads/month within 9 months
- CPL reduced from $88 at launch to a low of $69 even as total spend grew 17x
- BigQuery infrastructure connecting ads, CRM, and operational data into one environment
- Automated Looker Studio dashboards for both investors and the operations team
- Over $2M in ad spend managed with full transparency and real-time reporting
- 14+ months of continuous optimisation and still going
WHY IT WORKED
The strategic reason behind the numbers
Most paid media engagements focus on the campaigns. adHamster focused on the system behind them. By building the right foundation before spend went live correct campaign architecture, reliable tracking, integrated data, and automated reporting every optimisation decision made in the months that followed was sharper, faster, and better informed.
Foundation first
Conversion tracking, data pipelines, and reporting infrastructure were built before a single ad went live. No retrofitting, no patchy data, no decisions made on guesswork
Compounding optimisation
14 months of continuous monthly refinement means every improvement builds on the last. CVR, CPL, and lead volume all reflect accumulated learning not a one-off result.
Dual-channel strategy
Launching Google Ads in month six, once Bing data had established clear performance baselines, meant the second channel scaled quickly and efficiently rather than being tested from scratch.
CONCLUSION
A marketing operation built to last
This national home services brand came to adHamster before their first ad ever went live. Instead of inheriting a broken system, we built the right one from the start and then spent 14 months (and counting) making it better. The result is a paid media operation that has generated over 25,000 leads, managed over $2 million in ad spend, scaled from a single channel to two, and delivered full visibility to both investors and the operations team through automated, real-time reporting.
The numbers are the outcome. The system is the reason.
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