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Transforming Online Presence & Marketing for a Local Painting Company
Mathew, owner of Clear View Painting, approached us for help with his website and search engine marketing strategy. At the time, he was working with an overseas team managing his SEO and Google Ads. There was little transparency as to the actual work being done on CVP’s campaign.
While this issue was not noticeable during the post-COVID business boom, with plenty of customers engaging CVP from other sales pipelines, the slowdown of 2024 amplified how little CVP’s search engine marketing campaign was achieving in generating work.
Step 1: Website Redesign & Content Optimisation
We began by redesigning CVP’s website to improve conversion rates. The original site was slow due to an overload of unnecessary WordPress plugins.
We rewrote the website content to align better with customer search intent and help reduce the cost-per-click (CPC) in Google Ads.
Step 2: Google Ads Strategy & Campaign Setup
We started on a $1,500/month Google Ads budget, set up conversion tracking — in this case, phone clicks and form submissions for free quotes.
We launched with one campaign and six ad groups based on his services:
We monitored the performance daily and applied negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic. This helped us gain five conversions in the first month — one phone call and four form submissions.
However, through our conversation with the client, we quickly realized some leads were low-quality. For example, many plastering-related searches led to small, one-off jobs like painting a single wall. While this inflated our conversion count and lower cost per conversion, most of these leads did not generate sufficient new revenue — therefore we paused the plastering ad group.
Similarly, we paused the water blasting ad group. A large portion of searchers were DIY enthusiasts looking for equipment or tutorials, not service providers. As the cost of living rises in New Zealand, many homeowners attempt these tasks themselves.
Roof painting was the next to go. The search terms were mostly about paint types or involved expensive competition with roofing companies. After two months with no conversions, the data supported our decision to pause it.
This allowed us to focus our budget on the core services: residential and commercial painting.
Step 3: Local Targeting & Smart Budget Allocation
Initially, we had just a 10% impression share — meaning we were only appearing in 1 out of every 10 relevant searches. To dominate the space, we would’ve needed 5x the budget or $7,500. Since that wasn’t feasible, we concentrated on local areas with higher conversion potential, like St Heliers, Mission Bay, and Kohimarama.
In just four months:
As we approached winter, we shifted our focus from exterior to interior painting keywords, aligning our campaigns with seasonal demand. We also continued optimising the website by:
Mathew is now seeing tangible business results. This project is a great example of how transparency, smart targeting, and ongoing optimisation can completely transform a local service business’s online performance.
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