When Greenfield Landscaping came to us in January 2024, they were burning $18,000 a month on Google Ads and getting about 18 leads. That’s $1,000 per lead — for a service where an average job pays $3,200. The math barely penciled, and their booking team was closing less than a third of those leads anyway.
The Audit: What We Found
Their Google Ads account was a classic case of over-complication. Eleven campaigns, six of which hadn’t received a conversion in 90 days. Broad match keywords eating budget on irrelevant searches. No negative keyword list to speak of. Landing pages sending all traffic to the homepage — no dedicated service pages, no compelling offer, no form above the fold.
We ran a full keyword search term report for the previous 12 months. 68% of spend went to searches that had zero purchase intent: people looking for landscaping ideas, DIY guides, and landscaping software. Real money, zero leads.
The Rebuild: What We Changed
We paused everything except their top two geo-targeted campaigns and immediately reallocated that budget to Google Local Service Ads — an underused format that charges per verified lead, not per click.
Over the next 30 days, we built five dedicated landing pages — one per service (lawn maintenance, hardscaping, irrigation, tree service, seasonal cleanups). Each page had a single CTA, a before/after gallery, reviews pulled dynamically from their Google Business Profile, and a form that auto-populated a CRM workflow.
We rebuilt keyword targeting around high-intent, specific searches: ‘lawn care service [city]’, ‘hardscaping company near me’, ‘irrigation system installation cost’. Tight phrase match, not broad. Extensive negative list built from their own search term data.
Month 2: The Numbers Start Moving
By the end of week three, cost-per-lead dropped to $142. Still high, but the leads were dramatically higher quality — people who had already read a service page, seen a gallery, and were actively comparing quotes.
The LSA campaigns went live in week four and immediately became the highest-ROI channel. Google-verified leads at $22 each. Their close rate on LSA leads was 71% — versus 28% on traditional Search leads.
By day 60, blended CPL sat at $38. Total monthly spend was still $18K, but they were getting 124 leads instead of 18.
What This Means for Your Business
If you’re running Google Ads for a home service business and your cost-per-lead is above $150, you have waste. Specific culprits are almost always: broad match keywords without negative lists, sending traffic to a homepage instead of a dedicated landing page, and not running LSAs alongside Search.
The fix isn’t complicated — it’s just methodical. Audit your search term report, pause what isn’t converting, build landing pages by service, and add LSAs. That sequence alone will move the needle.
“We went from 18 leads to over 120 in two months — same budget. The leads are better quality too. Our closing rate went up because the people calling us already read our site and know what we do.”
Daniel GreenfieldOwner, Greenfield Landscaping
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