Webrunner Case Study: How Ridge Top Exteriors Generated $30 Million in Sales in 12 Months
Who they are

Ridge Top Exteriors

Founded in 2002, Ridge Top Exteriors celebrates their 20 year anniversary this year! Their team brings more than 30 years’ experience in roofing, siding, gutters, and window installation to the table. Having served over 25,000 satisfied homeowners over the last 20 years, these folks know a thing or two about providing exceptional service. They believe that a thriving business is built by treating people right, understanding their needs, and never compromising quality.

This ethos has been the cornerstone of Ridge Top’s success, and has propelled them into the market leaders they are today. Since opening for business in Madison, Wisconsin, Ridge Top has also expanded into additional state regions of Milwaukee and Fox Valley, plus a location based out of Clearwater, Florida. Even with such enormous growth, Ridge Top remains humble and never forgets its roots.

Whether it’s an unforgiving Wisconsin winter or brutal tropical winds in Florida, homeowners can always trust Ridge Top to ensure their home looks, and functions, better than ever before.

Webrunner Results :

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Forecasted campaign revenue
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Cost of marketing
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In sales generated

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The Problem:

Lack of Control and Transparency

We have to hand it to Ridge Top – they were already experimenting with paid advertising before they reached out to our team. Their in-house Facebook efforts seemed to be gaining traction, particularly video content, but Google wasn’t as easy. After some trial and error, they decided to opt for Google Smart Campaigns.

Google Smart Campaigns

In Google Smart Campaigns, users simply set up their account, build a single ad, select their business’s category, and set a budget. Then Google handles the rest – everything from keyword bidding to campaign optimization. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right? Not exactly.

As the folks at Ridge Top would learn, Google Smart Campaigns may not be the greatest decision for a marketing strategy long term. In exchange for easy set-up and minimal involvement, users forgo the ability to view the inner workings of campaigns, let alone optimize. This means no budget or keyword adjustments.

Users are at the mercy of whichever keywords Google selects. In Ridge Top’s case, that meant generating leads that were not as profitable or consistent, without any control to stop it from happening. Furthermore, the only action leads can take from a Google Smart Campaign are Map Directions, which drive nowhere near the results of a contact form or landing page.

Ultimately, without having any control of Google Smart Campaigns, Ridge Top was not reaching its maximum lead potential. In exchange for convenience, factual and insightful campaign metrics are left out of the equation.

That doesn’t sound like much of a marketing strategy for profitable contractors, now does it?

No, we didn’t think so either.

The Solution:

Ridge Top Exteriors came to us following some recommendations from other industry players at Breakthrough Academy. While they were still interested in outsourcing their paid ad strategy, they didn’t want a solution that was so hands-off that they had no control or insight into where their investment was going.

That’s where we came in.

Once we had a good understanding of their past and learned more about their specific goals, we rolled out a strategy that would help Ridge Top Exteriors develop measurable paid ads that could be routinely optimized to consistently generate exclusive leads.

We knew Ridge Top had the potential to become a fierce market leader, and we were excited to introduce them to our data-driven system to scale their business and optimize their marketing investment.

The number one issue on their to-do list was to get control of their cost per lead issue below $350. But that was only the beginning.

The Process:

  • Step 1 : New Google Ads Account

  • Step 2 : Divide and Conquer

  • Step 3 : Leveraging the Right Tools

Ridge Top Case Study - New Google Ads Account
Step #1

New Google Ads Account

First things first, a total revamp of Ridge Top’s existing Google Ads play. A brand new account that would give our PPC and Facebook experts the ability to craft tailored ads for their target demographic.

Prior to working with us, Ridge Top was seeing a $168 CPL and a 14% conversion rate. While these results looked good, we knew there was an opportunity to maximize their investment by enhancing lead quality. When lead quality is poor, CPL and conversion rate won’t matter because it takes a lot more leads to close a customer. We were determined to get Ridge Top to a point of consistent, profitable lead quality, instead of relying on larger amounts of poor-quality leads.

We initially focused on their Clearwater, Florida, location – which opened 6 years ago, and has been growing quickly. These PPC campaigns focused on residential roofing, specifically asphalt and rubber. Their initial monthly budget was $8,000.

Unlike their previous Google Smart Campaigns, our PPC campaigns featured specific targeted keywords to increase clicks and lead quality. Within these first few months, we were able to test different campaigns to discover what resonated with local homeowners, best. This included testing factors such as copy, CTAs, and landing pages.

During the first 30 days of going live in Tampa, Ridge Top’s cost per lead issued was $440, with a CPL of $197. A starting point, but certainly not ideal.

However, after two months of fine-tuning and optimization, we were able to get their cost per lead issued down by 21% to $344, and CPL to $175.

And it gets better. By the end of the 4th month, tracking the revenue generated from all leads, our PPC campaigns were generating $10 of revenue for every $1 invested.

That’s a cost of marketing of 10%.

Building upon this momentum, we were ready to take our partnership with Ridge Top to the next level. Or should we say, location?

Ridge Top Case Study - Divide and Conquer
Step #2

Divide & Conquer

After seeing such encouraging results in Florida, we built upon that traction with the goal for similar, if not better, results for their Fox Valley location in Wisconsin. This location, in particular, had always been a tough market to crack. Yet to establish themselves as a well-known brand in the region, Ridge Top struggled to generate consistent, profitable leads in Fox Valley.

Like Florida, we started solely focusing on roofing – Ridge Top’s bread and butter. With a monthly budget of $10,000, we got to work strategizing Google, Bing, and Facebook ads.

Based on our initial information regarding Fox Valley residents, we changed their original promotional offering. However, after a few weeks of poor results, we reverted to the same offer that was working well in Tampa. Ridge Top also hadn’t invested as heavily into branding on TV or radio in Fox Valley, which had a direct impact on the search terms local homeowners were using online. Fox Valley saw more hits for “roofers near me”, in contrast to locations like Tampa which had more “Ridge Top” searches. We also learned that Fox Valley residents had a liking to Bing, more so than Google.

Once our team had solidified an offer that resonated with locals and uncovered influences that shaped keyword searches, Ridge Top was in the perfect position to make a big splash in the Fox Valley market.

With this powerful information in hand, we got to work regularly optimizing and adjusting bidding strategies to help increase conversions. We experimented with landing pages and ad copy. We also added negative keywords to ensure clicks and conversions were coming from the best quality leads possible.

With encouraging results in Fox Valley, Ridge Top gave us the official green light to run campaigns for all locations and all services. It wasn’t long before we were running paid ad campaigns for their Milwaukee and Madison locations, extending into windows, siding, and gutter services.

By October, only 8 months since launching their campaigns, now promoting all services and locations, Ridge Top sold 1 million in revenue from leads generated by our data-driven approach. Plus, they were also able to keep their cost of marketing to no more than 10%.

Ridge Top Case Study - Leveraging the Right Tools
Step #3

Leveraging the Right Tools

One of the major pain points Ridge Top was looking to address was the lack of transparency and control in their current marketing process. Our marketing dashboard was the perfect solution.

Our innovative marketing dashboard displays how each service in each location is performing. With this visibility, our team was able to redistribute money and invest their funds more profitably. Ridge Top was now empowered with the insights and data from their marketing investment, rather than being left in the dark when it came to campaigns.

Ridge Top also adopted the presentation tool, Ingage, in conjunction with their new paid ads strategy to further attract and win homeowner leads to grow their business.

Ingage is the industry leader in interactive content creation through its unique combination of software and storytelling. This is an essential tool for every contractor’s sales toolbox, helping home remodelers with interactive sales presentations and customer engagement.

What made Ingage stand out to Ridge Top compared to other presentation tools? Ease of use and design. Unlike previous solutions, Ingage is designed specifically with contractors in mind to accurately reflect and streamline the sales process with homeowners.

Since adding Ingage to their existing workflow, and investing more into training, sales, and marketing, Ridge Top is on track to see 40% revenue growth across all locations. Their ticket size has also increased by 12% and closing rates by 4%.

The Results: $1 Million in Sales in 8 Months with Webrunner

By leveraging real time data and insights to craft targeted search and social media ads, we helped Ridge Top Exteriors generate $1 million dollars in sales, contributing to their total global revenue of $30 million, in less than one year.

Control and transparency worries have been replaced with profitable marketing investments, generating the highest quality leads possible.

As for their initial cost per lead issue concerns in Tampa, they’re currently sitting at $256. Plus, their lead issue percentage, the number of leads that ultimately book a demo, is at an encouraging 62%.

What’s Next:

Next on the agenda is to elevate the Ridge Top brand through online ads. This includes not just optimizing existing campaigns but also experimenting with display networks and other ad formats.

Empowered with more control and insight into their marketing investments, Ridge Top Exteriors continues to scale all 4 locations with a data-driven approach to grow their business profitably.

Their smashing success is a true testament to the saying, “knowledge is power”.

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