A Wisconsin operator was paying up to $450 per lead from third-party vendors in the Milwaukee Metro market, one of the top five most competitive motivated-seller markets in the country, where vendor leads run as high as $1,000 each. 80% of his vendor leads never answered the phone. The ones who did denied filling out a form. He was closing every real seller, but the vendors couldn't produce enough volume to hit the budget. We added another vendor, and noticed they weren't able to get us any search leads at all. The math wasn't working.
When the vendor couldn't get us enough leads to meet our budget, we realized we needed more control over our lead flow. Much more control.
The Setup
That savings funded the PPC build the operator had been wanting for years. I built the website to do real work: a two-step form that asks for the address first, the commitment, before asking for anything else. Original copy. SEO and AEO optimized from the foundation up.
Tuesday, February 3
My vacation started January 27th. My one mission, while I had free time, was to make this campaign work. We had followed a lot of Google recommendations because, well, they're Google. We still weren't hitting our goals. I read books on PPC. Dove into Reddit. Studied what all the experts wrote. Most of it I was already doing. On a Monday night, I jumped out of bed with an idea running through my head that I had to try.
I stopped thinking like a marketer and started thinking about every motivated seller conversation I'd ever had. What they wanted. What made them trust someone enough to fill out a form. I rewrote 40% of copy.
The Breakthrough
The leads started rolling in. We climbed to the top of the auction insights, ahead of long-standing accounts with much more history. National brands we all recognize. When I saw where we stood at the end of March, for a full month, I knew the strategy was working.
I had put so much energy into this. I was making custom images, making professional grade videos, every action had clear intent, and a projected outcome that not only hit, but hit big.
In April I doubled down and applied the changes to the entire campaign. Day one: 80% impression share. It was just a signal.
Today
The operator gets high-intent search leads seven days a week, at a fraction of the vendor cost. Same business, multiplied output, infrastructure he owns. Every dollar spent now builds equity in his brand instead of someone else's lead inventory. People want to buy his domain now, that I got him for $9.
I showed my stats to friends from my time in corporate. People who helped build one of the fastest growing tech companies in the US to over 100K customers. People I would have paid $400 an hour just for a consultation.
When they saw my stats, they said I should start my own agency. Coming from them, it meant a lot. When I learned the industry conversion rate benchmarks, and the fact that this has always been my dream, ever since college, I decided to pursue it.
I needed a lot of reinforcement from people in the business. I had built my logo a few years ago. I've always known that the best way I can serve people in business is by helping them get the best leads possible, at the best price.
Now I have more proof than it should have taken me to take the leap and branch out.
Sell My House Wisconsin is now my top client. Who's next.
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