Industry: Air Duct Cleaning, HVAC Cleaning & Dryer Vent Cleaning
Service Area: Six counties in Iowa, including Waterloo and Cedar Falls
Campaign Period: January 1 to September 30, 2026
The Challenge
Getting a steady flow of duct cleaning leads from Google is not easy, especially in a smaller market.
This Iowa duct cleaning company serves six counties. Their biggest market includes Waterloo and Cedar Falls, while the surrounding counties are much smaller.
That creates a simple problem. There are only so many people searching for duct cleaning each month, so every click matters.
The Search campaign averaged $16.76 per click, and the company was competing with national brands, regional businesses, and local HVAC companies.
The budget was also fairly tight.
The account had a combined daily budget of just $75, with $65 going to Search and $10 going to Performance Max.
In January, the account generated about 15.5 conversions at $124.15 each. The Search campaign alone was paying more than $205 per conversion.
The goal was simple.
Generate more leads from the same market without simply increasing ad spend.
Our Strategy
We focused the campaigns around the services people were actually searching for and then used the results to improve the account month after month.
Our strategy included:
- Separate Search ad groups for HVAC cleaning, air duct cleaning, dryer vent cleaning, vent cleaning, and branded searches
- A Performance Max campaign to generate extra leads outside of traditional Search
- Location targeting across all six counties
- Tracking cost per conversion, conversion rate, and lead volume by service and location
- Regular campaign adjustments based on which areas were producing the best results
Instead of chasing the cheapest clicks, we focused on getting more of the right people to contact the business.
The Nine-Month Google Ads Results
From January through September 2026, the account generated:
- 179 conversions
- 4,449 clicks
- 280,911 impressions
- $17,154.39 in total ad spend
- $95.82 average cost per conversion
Those totals are strong, but the biggest win was how much the account improved over time.
Monthly Leads More Than Doubled
In January, the account generated 15.5 conversions at $124.15 each.
By September, it generated 32.5 conversions at just $56.71 each.
That means:
- Monthly conversions increased by about 110%
- Cost per conversion dropped by 54%
- Monthly ad spend actually decreased slightly, from $1,928.67 to $1,842.99
The company went from roughly 15 conversions a month to more than 32 while spending slightly less money.
The final two months were especially strong:
- August: 25 conversions at $63.71 each
- September: 32.5 conversions at $56.71 each
September became the best month of the campaign.
Search Ads Reached People Ready to Hire
Search was the main source of conversions during the nine-month period.
It generated:
- 131.2 conversions
- 837 clicks
- 15.68% conversion rate
- $106.92 average cost per conversion
The improvement was easy to see.
In January, Search generated 6.5 conversions at $205.15 each.
By September, it generated 17.5 conversions at $90.95 each.
In August, the cost per conversion dropped even lower to $72.07.
Search spend did not need to explode for conversions to grow. The campaign simply became more efficient as we gathered more data and made better decisions.
Performance Max Added More Affordable Conversions
Performance Max gave us another way to reach potential customers across Google.
Over the nine-month period, it generated:
- 47.83 conversions
- 3,612 clicks
- $65.37 average cost per conversion
- $0.87 average cost per click
The campaign had a slower stretch during the middle of the year, but it finished extremely well.
In August, Performance Max generated 5 conversions at $30.28 each.
In September, it generated 15 conversions at just $16.75 each.
That strong finish played a big role in making September the best month of the campaign.
The Best Performing Services Became Clear
From July through September, HVAC Cleaning and Air Duct Cleaning stood out.
Together, those two ad groups generated about 72% of Search conversions during the quarter.
HVAC Cleaning produced 18.5 conversions at $101.43 each.
Air Duct Cleaning also produced 18.5 conversions, but at a lower average cost of $85.83 each.
Air Duct Cleaning had an especially strong August, generating 8 conversions at just $33.18 each.
Dryer Vent Cleaning added another 10 conversions during the quarter.
This gave us a much clearer picture of which services were worth pushing harder.
Smaller Counties Created Big Opportunities
Black Hawk County produced the most volume, which made sense because it includes the largest population in the service area.
From July through September, Black Hawk County generated 43.5 conversions.
But some of the smaller counties produced surprisingly affordable results.
For example:
- Butler County Search: $50.01 per conversion
- Chickasaw County Search: $32.23 per conversion
- Chickasaw Performance Max: $7.40 per conversion
This is why location tracking matters.
The biggest market does not always produce the cheapest conversions.
By watching performance county by county, we could see where the advertising budget had the best chance to go further.
Strong Visibility Against Bigger Competitors
By September, this local duct cleaning company had become one of the most visible advertisers in its market.
The Search campaign reached:
- 72.24% impression share
- 89.50% top of page rate
- 72.08% absolute top of page rate
That means the ads appeared on nearly three out of every four eligible searches.
When the ads appeared, they were at the top of Google almost nine times out of ten.
They also appeared in the very first ad position more than seven times out of ten.
The closest competitor had a 44.83% impression share.
Other competitors, including Americlean and ServPro, had much lower impression share during the same period.
For a local company working with a limited budget, that is a strong position to earn.
Results After Nine Months
After nine months, the Google Ads account had:
- Generated 179 conversions
- More than doubled monthly conversion volume
- Reduced cost per conversion by 54%
- Reached 32.5 conversions in September
- Achieved a 72.24% Search impression share
- Reached the top of Google nearly 90% of the time
- Identified the strongest services and counties for future growth
Wrapping Up
This campaign shows that better Google Ads results do not always require a bigger budget.
In a smaller market with expensive clicks and strong competition, this duct cleaning company in Iowa more than doubled its monthly conversions while cutting its cost per conversion by more than half.
The biggest difference came from learning what worked.
We found the strongest services, the best counties, and the campaigns that could produce conversions at the right price.
There is also room to grow. The Search campaign was limited by budget, which means there were still potential customers searching on Google that the company could not always reach.
That same approach can help other cleaning companies get more out of their Google Ads budget.
With nine months of real performance data, the future budget can now be focused on the areas that have already proven they can produce results.
If you want more leads without wasting money on clicks that do not turn into business, we can help.
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