HVAC ✵ GOOGLE ADS ✵ DIFFERENT KIND OF PROOF
They left. Spent double.
Got fewer leads at 5x the cost.
This one isn't a victory lap. An HVAC company worked with KaeRae Marketing, then moved to a different agency. Both sides pulled the same 3-month window from Google Ads and Google Analytics. Here's exactly what changed — because that comparison is proof too, and I'm not going to pretend it doesn't exist.
$51.82
COST PER LEAD, W/ KAERAE
5X
INCREASE IN COST PER LEAD
$289.56
COST PER LEAD, W/ NEW AGENCY
A note on this one: I'm not naming the agency they moved to, and this isn't here to embarrass anyone. It's here because the data is real, it's a clean like-for-like comparison, and hiding an inconvenient story would make every other page on this site less trustworthy.
THE LAST 3 MONTHS WITH KAERAE
$16,400 in spend, and a lead cost
that made the budget an easy call.
In the final three months of the partnership, this account spent $16,400.02 total across Google Ads and Local Services Ads. That produced 78 phone calls and 65 quote form submissions directly from Google Ads — 143 leads at $51.82 per lead. Local Services Ads added another 165 leads at $52.33 each, and Google Business Profile alone generated 174 phone calls on top of that.
SPENDING MORE THAN DOUBLE
More money produced fewer leads, at nearly six times the cost per lead. That's not a seasonal dip or a slow quarter — it's what a $16,400 account and a $34,000 account look like when only one of them is actually working.
THEIR FIRST 3 MONTHS WITH THE NEW AGENCY
More than double the spend.
Half the phone calls. A lead cost that quintupled.
After the account moved, spend jumped to $33,931.46 — more than double what it cost with KaeRae, for the same three-month window. That spend produced only 15 phone calls and 58 website form submissions from Google Ads — 73 leads total, at $289.56 per lead. Google Business Profile calls dropped 49%, from 174 down to 88.
One honest data point in the new agency's favor: Local Services Ads calls actually rose 40%, from 165 to 231, at a fairly similar cost per lead ($52.33 vs. $55.38). That's worth naming directly — LSA is largely automated by Google itself, which makes it a useful control. It shows the decline was concentrated specifically in the actively managed Google Ads campaigns, not a broader market downturn.
SIDE BY SIDE, SAME 3-MONTH WINDOW
The full numbers, no editing.
TOTAL
AD SPEND
PHONE CALLS
FROM ADS
FORMS FROM
GOOGLE ADS
TOTAL LEADS (GOOGLE ADS)
COST PER LEAD (GOOGLE ADS)
GOOGLE BUSINESS CALLS
LOCAL SERVICES ADS LEADS
COST PER LEAD
(LOCAL SERVICES)
WITH KAERAE
WITH NEW AGENCY
$16,400.02
$33,931.46
78
15
65 Quote requests
58 website forms
143
73
$51.82
$289.56
174
88 (- 49%)
165
231 (+ 40%)
$52.33
$55.38
Both windows are exactly 3 months, pulled from the same Google Ads and Google Analytics account. Nothing here is estimated.
IT SHOWS UP ON THE WEBSITE TOO
Overall site traffic fell across the board.
1,165
↓ 74%
Total Sessions
(was 4,539)
492
↓ 83%
Google Ads Sessions
(was 2,900)
353
↓ 51%
Direct Sessions
(was 715)
227
↓ 53%
Organic Sessions
(was 483)