How a growing energy company went from 16 reviews and no marketing system to a full pipeline, tried an agency, and came back.
generated over two years
THOUSANDS OF LEADS
cost per lead by the end
80% LOWER
in Google Reviews
250% INCREASE
The Situation
A residential energy company in Western Canada had strong work in the field: quality installations, satisfied customers, and a growing reputation in the community.
But the marketing didn't match.
They had 16 Google reviews. The Google Business Profile was incomplete. A previous agency had set up Google Ads campaigns and left them running without management, so money left the account every month with no one watching the results. The agency had also claimed to be doing SEO work. Upon review, nothing substantive had been done. The company had been paying for a service they weren’t receiving.
The website existed but wasn't converting. There was no content strategy, no review generation system, no proposal structure designed for how homeowners actually make decisions, and no way to tell which marketing was working and which was wasting money.
For a purchase homeowners research for weeks before they call, the things they look for online were weak, missing, or inconsistent.
The work was excellent. The online presence just didn't match.
What We Found
The diagnostic revealed three structural problems:
1. An abandoned ad system. Google Ads campaigns were running on autopilot. No bid management, no conversion tracking, no performance accountability. The previous agency had set it up, collected their fee, and moved on. Every month, money was being spent with no way to know if it was producing anything.
2. Nothing online that held up to comparison. Sixteen Google reviews for a company selling five-figure installations. An incomplete Google Business Profile. No buyer-education content. No proposal structure that helped homeowners understand what they were buying or why they should choose this company over the next one. When buyers searched and compared, which they always do for a purchase this size, competitors simply looked more established.
3. No visibility into what was working. No properly configured analytics. No lead source attribution. No way to answer the most basic question: where are our customers actually coming from? Without that, every marketing decision was a guess.
The previous agency hadn't diagnosed any of this. They'd sold tactics: ads and "SEO", without understanding the business, the buyer, or the real constraints.
What We Built
The engagement has been running for over two years. It started with a full diagnostic and build, and it continues today with ongoing strategic support. The sequencing was deliberate: fix the foundation first, then turn on the ads. Not the other way around.
The trust foundation came first.
A review generation system was implemented, not a hope but a process. The company went from 16 reviews to 56, maintaining a 5-star rating throughout. Every review was responded to. The Google Business Profile was completed, optimized, and regularly updated.
The website was rebuilt for conversion and credibility.
The site was restructured around how buyers actually search and decide, with individual service pages, clear calls to action, documented proof of work, and messaging that led with the homeowner's outcome instead of the company's story.
The SEO footprint was built into the site architecture, not bolted on afterward. Service pages and location pages were keyword-mapped to reflect how buyers actually search.
Buyer-education content was created to do the selling before the call.
Six substantive articles were published over 12 months, covering pricing, how to compare quotes, financing options, and how to evaluate providers fairly. Each piece answered a real buyer question at the decision point. The goal: reduce the sales team's explanation burden by making buyers smarter before they ever pick up the phone.
Proposals were rebuilt from the homeowner's perspective.
The proposal system was redesigned, with decision-support tools, plain-language financial explanations, and a structure that guided the homeowner through the decision instead of dumping information on them. The proposal became the final trust document in the sale, not an afterthought.
Then, and only then, the ads scaled.
Google Ads and Meta campaigns were built to work with the foundation, not independently of it. When a homeowner clicked an ad and then searched the company, they found 50+ reviews, a professional website, educational content that answered their questions, and a proposal that made the decision clear. The ads worked because the foundation made every dollar go further.
Email marketing was built as a conversion layer.
Over 25 email campaigns were developed, not generic newsletters but targeted messages: financing transparency, cost education, quote-comparison logic, incentive deadlines, and real customer stories. The campaigns consistently outperformed industry benchmarks and generated meaningful revenue by re-engaging leads already in the pipeline. Most leads don't buy on first contact. The company that stays useful between the first inquiry and the final decision is the one that gets the job.
The operating infrastructure was professionalized.
Analytics, tag management, search console, and CRM were implemented or strengthened. Lead capture was connected so inquiries from every channel flowed into one system. Repeatable marketing rhythms were established: content cadence, social posting, campaign launches, and ongoing optimization.
The Results
The company grew from a small regional operation into a business with substantially larger volume, broader service segmentation, and a marketing system that runs.
The growth wasn't driven by a single channel. It was the system working together.
Reviews & Reputation
Google reviews: 250% growth
5-star rating maintained throughout
Consistent review velocity established
Organic Visibility
Organic search traffic grew approximately 5–6x
Keywords ranking expanded nearly 7x
Six buyer-education articles published, all ranking for target search terms
Paid Performance
Consistent monthly lead flow at or below industry-average cost per lead
Campaigns built on the foundation, not running independently of it
Traffic Growth
Paid search new users up over 100% year-over-year
Organic search up nearly 90%
Referral traffic up over 600%
Organic social up over 400%
Email Performance
25+ targeted campaigns developed and sent
Engagement consistently above industry benchmarks
Meaningful revenue from pipeline re-engagement
Infrastructure Delivered
Complete proposal conversion system across multiple service segments
Full analytics and platform stack built and documented
Annual marketing plan built and refreshed each year
Documented systems the team can run without me
That pattern, lift across every channel at once, is what happens when the foundation is right. It's not one tactic working. It's the system compounding.
“He took the time to understand how we operate... delivered exactly what he said he would... the improvements have made a noticeable impact.”
Why It Worked
The work started with diagnosis, not tactics. Instead of running louder ads or posting more content, the first step was understanding what buyers actually experience when they search for this kind of service, and fixing the things that were costing the company business before a single new dollar was spent on marketing.
Proposals, website, content, reviews, and campaigns all reinforced the same thing because one person connected the thinking across all of them. That's the difference between disconnected marketing activities and a system that compounds.
Then they hired me back. The first engagement ran two years and ended with a plan and a clean handoff, because the goal was to make the company operationally independent. They moved to an agency for the next four months, then ended that arrangement and brought me back, with more of the business in scope than the first time. That’s the part I’d point at. Not the growth. A business with a direct comparison in hand chose to come back.
The first thing I did was run another diagnosis instead of another campaign. It found something the growth had been hiding. Leads were arriving at record volume and fewer of them were turning into proposals. The bottleneck wasn’t the sales team. It was the first hour after an inquiry arrived, and most inquiries arrive in the evening, long after anyone is at a desk.
So the recommendation was to hold the ad budget instead of scaling it. More leads on top of a leak just makes a bigger leak.
That work is running now. The numbers behind it belong to the client, and they’ll be here when the client is ready to share them.