Customer Spotlight: Pacific Northwest Cleaning Services LLC
by Jake Ramer and Diane Lovine
Generating local cleaning leads is more challenging than ever because of the level of online competition. The team at 99 Calls found success by combining organic and Local Services Ads (Google Guaranteed) to help Estera Rumpel do just that.
Exploring Lead Generation Options
It is important to understand the goals and expectations of our customers and take the time to understand a business’s strengths and challenges. For example, Estera established Northwest Cleaning with a wealth of knowledge and experience. Her parents also owned a cleaning company and she learned at a very early age that customer service is critical for building and maintaining a successful business. She already had a work ethic, some happy customers and industry knowledge. Her challenges were that she needed a steady stream of inbound leads in order to grow her business and that she did not have a large budget to work with.
When chatting with Estera early on, we learned that she had a very tight budget and she really needed help with maximizing the number of leads she could get with it. We knew that getting her started right away on an organic campaign was a great option for an inexpensive long-term strategy and that Pacific Northwest also had a budget and a need for faster results.
Shared Leads – The Expensive “Cheaper” Option
Pacific Northwest wanted to generate leads at an affordable rate. But in the Seattle area, that can prove quite challenging. There are some companies selling shared leads for similar costs at about the same price that can be generated organically, but they sell them to 4-5 different companies and a bidding war often ensues. Buying shared leads may seem to be a deal, as they tend to be less expensive than leads generated via Google Ads PPC. However, the cost of acquisition is often higher and we find the return on investment is much higher when the leads are exclusive.
Ruling Out Google Ads PPC
The lead generation team often finds that running Google Ads Pay per Click campaigns produces a large volume of leads very quickly, which is great for business growth, but they come at a cost. For Estera, a company looking for growth while holding to a conservative advertising budget initially, the costs of running campaigns using Google Ads were not an option. She was willing to put in the time to cultivate a solution that was more in line with her business needs.
Google Guaranteed Made Sense for Cost-Effective Cleaning Leads
After ruling out Google PPC as an option and understanding Pacific Northwest’s excellent online reputation, it became clear that Estera probably had what it takes to pass Google’s rigorous verification process to become a “Google Guaranteed” contractor.
For perspective on how the cost of leads generated via LSA compared to those generated via Google Ads in her region, we did a bit of research using Google’s tools. A single click for “house cleaning near me” in Seattle using Google Ads averages about $12 to $15. Given 99 Calls robust conversion rate of 20%, this translates to an average lead cost of $75 to $105. For reference, the average conversion rate for PPC campaigns nationwide is about 6%. Finding a lead generation company that produces high conversion rates means lower acquisition costs for contractors. However, even with those conversion rates, we wanted to see how leads garnered via Google Guaranteed would compare. When we did our research, it became clear that we could generate leads for about 40% of the PPC average price using LSA and organic lead generation products.
Excellent ROI on Cleaning Leads
On a follow up call with Estera, we learned many of the cleaning leads generated from her Google Guaranteed campaign led to recurring opportunities that will keep her business busy for the rest of this year and into the next. At an average price per lead of just $44, LSA provides incredible value over the life span of these newly won accounts.
It’s important to state that Google Guaranteed lead cost can fluctuate. During some months of our program, we saw lower than average costs per lead including a couple of months with leads as low as $33 each. Of course, other months were more expensive than average, so it’s important to look at results over the span of several months when evaluating results.
One thing that helps with lead costs is that Google supports us by providing credit on invalid leads when we dispute them. Evaluating and disputing poor-quality leads is included in our monthly service fee.
Businesses that continually ask their customers for reviews and keep adding to the number of 5-star reviews they have for their services see substantially higher lead volumes than those that do not. We see these companies catapult over the competition in the LSA rankings when they actively work to increase their reviews.
LSA and Organic Lead Generation Results
Since May of this year, the team at 99 calls has generated 38 leads for a total cost of $1695.78 using Local Services Ads. That is an average cost per lead of $44.62. Another 12 leads were generated via organic lead generation, with a flat per-lead cost of $25 for house cleaning leads and $49 for recurring commercial leads. Organic lead generation has become a challenge for service contractors because of the stiff online competition and fewer spots available on the first page of Google. Gaining leads early on was a big win for Estera.
By following LSA’s best practices and leveraging Pacific Northwest Cleaning’s outstanding reputation in the local community, we were able to generate leads at an affordable cost.
Organic Lead Generation Results April – October:
Example of LSA Lead Generated in a Month:
For more information on how to generate leads for service businesses using Google Ads PPC, Google LSA or organic lead generation, click here.