Case Study: From Cheap Leads to a $750,000 Project — How We Transformed Marketing for a Design-Build Company in the USA

There's a growth stage some businesses hit where they no longer need "as many leads as possible." They need the right leads: stronger intent, higher budgets, greater value to the company.

That's exactly where our client was — a Design-Build company in Naperville, Illinois.

By the time we started working on advertising, we had already been partnering with the client for about 1.5 years. Over that time, we had:

• built the website;

• completed foundational SEO work;

• laid the groundwork for paid traffic.

But as the business grew, the objective shifted. Thanks to our effective collaboration, the company was already booked out roughly six months in advance.

The owners had no desire or capacity to scale production. So the request was to grow in the direction of client quality and average deal size. In other words, the core challenge before us was to increase the company's revenue and net profit without increasing sales volume or expanding production.

The client didn't need more inbound inquiries. They needed a shift toward more expensive projects.

What Was Happening Before — and Why the Old Model No Longer Cut It

Most of the inbound leads had been coming through the more "accessible" and mass-market services:

• kitchens;

• bathrooms;

• small to mid-size renovation jobs.

From a utilization standpoint, that worked. But from a strategic growth standpoint — it no longer did.

Why:

• the company was capable of taking on larger projects;

• average deal size in the priority service lines was higher;

• the Naperville market allowed for premium-segment work;

• in the premium segment, net profit is approximately 3× higher;

• marketing was still pulling a significant share of demand from the less profitable end of the market.

This is a typical situation for a business that has outgrown its marketing positioning. Operationally, the company was ready for more expensive projects — but marketing was still delivering clients from "the old version of the company."

Why This Mattered for the Business

Naperville isn't just any location. It's an affluent market with high homeownership rates and premium residential stock.

According to the project's analytics:

• there were over 54,000 households in the Naperville area;

• approximately 74% of residents owned their homes (rather than renting);

• the market across four service lines — kitchens, bathrooms, basements, and whole-house remodeling — was approximately $41.6M per year;

• Full House Remodeling made up only about 5% of all projects but generated 28% of the total dollar volume in that segment.

Simply put, one strong client in the right segment could be worth more to the business than an entire series of smaller jobs.

That's exactly why the objective was framed this way: not to ramp up lead volume, but to raise lead quality.

The Goal

We had concrete targets in front of us:

• shift inbound demand toward Full House Remodeling and Basement Remodeling;

• use the ad budget more precisely;

• stop spreading thin across broad traffic;

• bring in not just "contacts," but people with high-budget, high-complexity project intent;

• prove that Google Ads could deliver not just contacts, but real high-ticket deals.

What We Changed

We didn't take the easy route of "add budget and collect more leads." Instead, we changed the underlying marketing logic.

1. Shifted Focus from Mass Services to High-Margin Lines

The key change was a priority reset.

Previously, marketing mostly supported demand for services that are easier to collect and sell at volume. We shifted the emphasis to:

• Full House Remodeling;

• Basement Remodeling.

Why:

• that's where average deal size is highest;

• that's where the strategic value of a lead is highest;

• those are the lines that best matched the company's current level.

We didn't just change a keyword list. We changed the answer to the question: which clients does this company want to attract at this stage of growth.

2. Narrowed the Channel to Google Search Ads and Focused on Existing Demand

We used only Google Search Ads.

This was a deliberate decision. We didn't need cold reach for its own sake. We needed people who were already searching for a contractor for a specific type of complex renovation.

Why search specifically:

• it's the most direct channel for working with already-formed demand;

• it's better suited to high-intent audiences;

• in a premium niche, one quality lead pays back months of ad activity;

• search allows tighter control over commercial intent.

Essentially, we weren't creating interest. We were intercepting existing high-value demand.

3. Used Local Targeting and Market Context

The ad strategy was built around a specific geography — Naperville and the surrounding suburbs and cities relevant to the business (within about 30 miles of Naperville).

This was necessary to:

• avoid diluting the budget;

• avoid collecting irrelevant inquiries from the wrong areas;

• strengthen the ads' alignment with the local market;

• target an audience where a high ticket is realistic.

For premium construction services, geography isn't just a technical setting — it's part of lead qualification. Wrong geography breaks campaign economics immediately.

4. Synced Ads with the Company's Updated Brand

By this point, the client had an updated website and stronger positioning. That's critical.

Running ads to a weak old brand means even strong search traffic converts into lower-quality inquiries.

We ran advertising alongside the already-upgraded digital presentation of the brand.

Why it worked:

• ads brought people not just to "a page about renovations";

• the landing page supported the image of a serious, capable contractor;

• premium clients saw more alignment between their project intent and the company's level.

That's why the result can't be reduced to just Google Ads setup. What worked here was the combination of positioning + website + search advertising.

5. Worked with Google's Dedicated Account Manager and Refined Campaign Combinations

Throughout the project we worked with a Google dedicated account manager (we always approach work flexibly, analyze the market, and engage directly with ad platform representatives).

This doesn't replace strategy, but it provides additional leverage:

• more precise configuration;

• real-time recommendations on ad combinations;

• access to platform capabilities well above a standard setup.

We used those recommendations as an additional optimization layer, but the decisions about focus and demand qualification were based on the client's economics — not on abstract "increase traffic" thinking.

Challenges We Ran Into

Challenge 1. The Business No Longer Needed a Simple Lead Flow

When a company is booked out for months, marketing has to work with greater precision. Any additional influx of the "wrong" inquiries overloads the sales team and doesn't move the profit needle.

We addressed this by shifting emphasis toward more expensive segments and a more affluent audience.

Challenge 2. High-Ticket Demand Is Always Narrower and More Demanding

The higher the price point, the fewer casual clients and the higher the expectation for presentation quality. You can't take a mass-market ad logic and expect a high-ticket result.

We addressed this through a narrow search-focused approach, local targeting, and tying ads to stronger brand packaging.

Challenge 3. We Had to Prove That a Modest Budget Could Deliver Strategically Significant Results

This project didn't have a massive ad budget. We were working with roughly $1,500–$3,000 per month. In a niche where the average market cost per lead is $250, that's a tight constraint.

We had to show that even such a budget can be effective — not if it's spread across the market, but if it's directed at the right demand and the right audience.

The Numbers

The project page tracked advertising performance metrics, including:

• 164 clicks;

• approximately 3,650 impressions;

• average CPC approximately $8.38;

• spend of approximately $1.37K over the tracked period;

• CTR on one Basement Remodeling ad approximately 4.05%.

Average cost per lead in this project was approximately $150 — and by "lead" we counted not an empty form submission, but a full contact with:

• name;

• phone number;

• email.

The Main Result

In the very first month after changing our approach, the client landed:

• 1 closed Full House project at $750,000;

• 3 additional strong prospects were still in the pipeline moving toward close.

That's exactly the outcome the marketing overhaul was built for.

If you look only at the lead metrics, this case might sound understated. But the business logic here is different: a relatively small ad budget was used not to collect "contacts in general," but to enter a segment where one deal pays back a massive volume of marketing effort.

Why This Didn't Happen on Its Own

If the company had naturally been attracting the right type of clients, there would have been no need to rebuild the website, positioning, and ad focus.

The result happened because we changed:

• the target demand segment;

• the advertising channel and its logic;

• geographic precision;

• the connection between ads and brand packaging;

• the success metric for marketing.

We stopped measuring success by lead count and started measuring it by project quality.

What This Delivered for the Business

For the client, this meant:

• higher quality of inbound inquiries;

• a shift in demand toward high-ticket projects;

• stronger market positioning;

• better return on ad spend;

• marketing that influences average deal size, not just calendar utilization.

At this stage of growth, that matters more than any "reduce CPL at any cost" metric.

Bottom Line

Before our work, the company's marketing primarily supported simpler, more mass-market demand. It kept the schedule full, but didn't maximize the business's economics.

After our work, marketing became a tool for selecting more expensive projects.

What we did:

• narrowed focus to the right segments;

• used Google Search Ads to capture existing, formed demand;

• connected advertising to the updated brand packaging;

• worked from the value of the high-ticket client, not from mass lead volume.

What the client got:

• a $750,000 project in the very first month;

• 3 more strong prospects actively moving toward close;

• a proven model in which marketing influences not just lead quantity, but the type of money coming into the business.

If your marketing is bringing in leads but not the right clients, reach out to IGM. We'll identify the growth levers and help you attract projects that actually move the needle on revenue and profit.