Queens plumbing: 287% lift in emergency calls at flat ad spend

The Problem

An 8-truck plumbing company in Astoria, Queens was running broad-match Google Ads on 'plumber' and 'plumbing' terms — burning $5,800/mo at $241 per call with 38% of calls under 30 seconds (junk). Mobile landing page took 6.2s to load with a 5-field form above the fold instead of a tap-to-call button.

Budget Parameters

Google Ads management: $1,400/mo. Landing page rebuild: $1,800 one-time. Call tracking platform: $190/mo. Media held flat at $5,800/mo. 90-day total: $6,570 + media.

Technical Steps Executed

1. 1

   Restructured into 5 SKAGs: emergency leak, drain clog, water heater install, sewer line, boiler repair — phrase + exact only, geofenced to Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Jackson Heights, Forest Hills.

2. 2

   Built call-only campaigns for emergency keywords ('plumber near me', 'emergency plumber Queens', '24 hour plumber') with a 60-second qualification threshold.

3. 3

   Rebuilt the mobile landing page: above-fold tap-to-call button, 30-second response promise, license number, 4 review badges, dynamic headline insertion matching ad group.

4. 4

   Added 1,800-entry negative keyword list killing 'plumber salary', 'plumbing apprentice', 'how to fix', DIY queries, and out-of-area town names.

5. 5

   Integrated CallRail with the dispatch system: offline conversion import based on calls that booked a job ≥ $200.

Week-Over-Week Timeline