The Challenge
Spend was high, cost per lead kept climbing, and most of the calls were homeowners looking for a fridge fix, not the commercial accounts the business actually wanted. Every wrong call cost money and tied up staff who should have been quoting restaurants and facilities. The owner was ready to quit Google Ads entirely.
We audited the account, and it was clear where the budget was going. A handful of structural problems were bleeding it dry:
- Broad match keywords with almost no negative keyword list
- Residential and commercial intent mixed together in one campaign
- No conversion tracking on phone calls, so bidding was flying blind
- Ads pointed to the homepage instead of a commercial page
- Roughly half the budget was buying clicks from the wrong customers
The Solution
We rebuilt the account from the ground up so every dollar chased commercial work. Split intent, a deep negative keyword list, tighter match types, commercial-specific ad copy, a dedicated landing page, and proper conversion tracking so bidding could finally optimize on real leads. See the Google Ads work below.
- Split commercial and residential intent into separate campaigns
- Tightened match types to stop broad, irrelevant clicks
- A deep negative keyword list that blocks homeowner searches
- Call and form conversion tracking wired into bidding
- Commercial-specific ad copy that speaks to restaurants and facilities
- A dedicated commercial landing page instead of the homepage
- A bidding shift to maximize conversions on real leads
- A weekly search-term review to catch new waste early
The negative keyword list that stopped the bleeding
Most of the wasted spend came from one thing: broad match with no negatives, so the account paid for every homeowner searching to fix a fridge at home. We built a deep negative keyword list and kept adding to it every week.
- Block residential intent: terms like home, apartment and DIY were added as negatives so homeowner searches stopped triggering the ads.
- Tighter match types: we moved off loose broad match so the account only bid on genuinely commercial queries.
- Weekly search-term review: every week we mine the actual search terms and add new negatives, so waste never creeps back in.
- Budget goes to the right buyers: with the wrong clicks filtered out, the same budget reached far more restaurants and facilities, which is how wasted spend fell 60%.
Conversion tracking so bidding stops guessing
Most of these leads come in as phone calls, and the account was not tracking a single one. We set up call and form tracking through CallRail and Google Tag Manager so Google could finally bid toward real qualified leads.
- Call tracking: CallRail records and attributes every call, so a booked commercial job is counted as the conversion it actually is.
- Form tracking: form submissions fire as conversions too, giving a complete picture of what each dollar produced.
- Smarter bidding: with real conversions feeding the account, the bidding strategy could optimize toward qualified leads instead of raw clicks.
- Clear attribution: the owner could finally see cost per qualified lead by campaign, so decisions were based on data, not gut feel.
How We Did It
01. Account audit
A full audit that found broad match, missing negatives and no call tracking draining the budget.
02. Conversion tracking setup
CallRail, GA4 and Google Tag Manager wired in so every call and form counted as a conversion.
03. Campaign restructure
Split commercial and residential intent into separate campaigns with tighter match types.
04. Negatives and landing page
Built a deep negative keyword list and a dedicated commercial landing page for the ads.
05. Bidding and review
Shifted to maximize conversions and set up a weekly search-term review to keep waste out.
The Results
Cost per qualified lead fell by roughly half while the share of commercial inquiries rose sharply. The same monthly budget produced about twice the qualified commercial leads, because the spend stopped landing on homeowners and started reaching restaurants and facilities. The channel the owner nearly killed became the best one.
| Cost per qualified lead | -48% |
| Commercial lead share | 30% to 72% |
| Wasted spend | -60% |
| Build time | 2 Weeks |
Services & tools used: Google Ads, CallRail, GA4, Google Tag Manager, a dedicated landing page, and negative keyword research.
google ads“We were about to fire Google Ads. Instead Gilmedia fixed it and now it is our best channel.“
Owner, Commercial Appliance Repair company
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Services in this project: Google Ads Management · Conversion Rate Optimization

