five months of aeration and lawn care ads, $79,000 collected with another $45,000 in estimates pending.
a north carolina full-service landscaping company generated 205 leads plus additional inbound calls over five months, closing 78 jobs at roughly $900–$1,000 each on about $9,400 in ad spend.
the starting point
full-service landscaping sells a long menu — aeration, mowing, seasonal maintenance, cleanups — and the instinct is to advertise all of it at once, which produces ads nobody can act on. the account also had the two habits that quietly cap most landscaping campaigns: narrow interest-based audiences that fatigue within weeks, and stock photography that looks like every competitor in the county.
what we did
we went the other way on all three. targeting was widened to a broad age range inside a defined service radius rather than interest groups. messaging named a single service — aeration — instead of generic landscaping. and every stock image was replaced with the company's own before-and-after shots, crew action photos, and selfie-style video. offers led on value, like same-day estimates and a free mow, rather than on price cuts.
one named service, one service radius
a wide age range inside a defined radius kept cost per lead down and volume up, while promoting aeration by name gave homeowners something specific to say yes to. value offers replaced discounts, so margin stayed intact on the jobs that closed.
- leads
- 205
- cost per lead
- $46
authentic media, 38% lead-to-close
before-and-after images, crew action shots, and selfie-style video replaced stock photos and lifted engagement. across five months the campaign closed 78 jobs at roughly $900–$1,000 each and collected $79,000, with a further $45,000 in estimates still pending at reporting.
- jobs closed
- 78
- cash collected
- $79,000
full-funnel breakdown
- ad spend
- ≈ $9,400
- leads
- 205
- cost per lead
- $46
- jobs closed
- 78
- lead-to-close rate
- 38%
- avg. job value
- $900–$1,000
- cash collected
- $79,000
- estimates pending
- $45,000
- est. roas
- 8.4x
before vs. after
- targeting
- narrow interest groups
- ad messaging
- generic landscaping
- creative
- stock photos
- offer type
- discounts
- targeting
- broad, inside the service radius
- ad messaging
- named services like aeration
- creative
- before/after, crew, selfie video
- offer type
- same-day estimates, free mow
broad targeting, one named service, and the company's own photography held a 38% lead-to-close across five months — a rate that survives scrutiny in this category. next up: leaning further into selfie-style video, and rotating the offer into fall cleanups and gutter add-ons to keep the pipeline full year-round.
notes: leads, cost per lead, and closed jobs are tracked campaign figures; the $79,000 collected and $45,000 pending are client-reported. ad spend is approximate (205 leads × $46), which makes the 8.4x an estimate — it rises to roughly 13x if the pending estimates close. the return is in-period and calculated before fulfilment, sales, agency, and cancellation costs.
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