Coleman Outdoors: from 1 crew to 3 crews in under a year.
$10,000 in ad spend turned into more than $450,000 in quotes issued, on a partnership where we only got paid per qualified estimate.
45x
ROAS, $10K ad spend to $450K+ in quotes
$450K+
in quotes issued within 3 months
65
five-star reviews with photo and video
1 > 3
crews scaled, plus subcontracted overflow
The problem
Coleman had already been burned by marketing.
Like most hardscaping companies we meet, Coleman Outdoors didn't come to us from a blank slate. They came from a graveyard of bad marketing experiences: monthly SEO reports nobody could connect to an estimate, and shared leads sold to four other contractors the same afternoon. Underneath it all they were invisible on Google Maps. Great crews doing premium work, stuck waiting on referrals.
- 01
Hired an SEO agency (a company that promises to get you higher on Google search) that burned months and budget with nothing to show for it.
- 02
Bought leads from lead-selling websites, the same homeowner gets sold to four or five other contractors, so almost nobody ever books.
- 03
No Google Maps listing, invisible when homeowners searched “hardscaping near me.”
- 04
No system for collecting reviews, no auto-replies when a lead came in, and no way to tell which clicks actually turned into estimates.
- 05
Cash flow stuck depending on referrals and slow-moving word of mouth.
The solution
A performance partner that actually speaks hardscaping.
The fix wasn't another generic monthly SEO fee or another pile of recycled leads. Coleman needed a partner who understood keeping crews busy, protecting margin, surviving the slow season and knowing how many estimates it really takes to fill a calendar, and who was willing to get paid on the same results Coleman cared about. We proposed a pay-per-estimate partnership: we build the system, run the budget, and only get paid when a real estimate lands on the calendar.
We only work with blue-collar trades: hardscaping, outdoor living, pools, landscaping.
We measure the one number that matters: real estimates booked on the calendar. Not ad views. Not leads that never answer the phone.
We only get paid when we perform, so we win when you win.
Google Ads, your Google Maps listing, your reviews and fast auto-replies run as one system, not three vendors pointing fingers.
What we built
A pay-per-estimate engine tied to real pipeline.
One goal: qualified estimates on the calendar. Every piece existed to feed that number and give Coleman a clear view of what was working.
Pay-per-estimate partnership
Coleman only paid us when we delivered a real estimate on the calendar. Leads were free. That kept us focused on the one number that actually grows a hardscaping business.
Google Maps listing built from zero
We created and grew their Maps listing from scratch. Within a few months it became their biggest free source of new jobs, bringing steady calls from homeowners in their service area.
Review system, 65 five-star reviews
Our review process pulled in 65 five-star reviews with photos and videos of finished jobs. That proof does the selling on every ad, every landing page, every Maps visit.
Google Ads, managed end-to-end
We build, test and manage the ads on a pay-for-performance basis, from headlines to budgets to tracking which clicks turn into calls. Most of Coleman's new jobs come from them today.
The pipeline
From a quiet winter to a record-breaking peak season.
We launched right before winter, the worst time of year for hardscaping. Even fighting that, the system produced real estimates within 90 days. Then the weather broke.
20
leads / month in the first 90 days (winter)
12-15
qualified estimates / month through winter
35-40
leads / month once peak season hit
20-25
qualified estimates / month at peak
Within 90 days we'd driven over $450,000 in quotes out the door, letting Coleman scale from one crew to three and start subcontracting smaller jobs to other local firms. That's not a lead count. That's real jobs in the works attached to real revenue.
The return
45x
every $1 spent on ads came back as $45 in estimates
$10,000 spent on ads turned into over $450,000 in estimates on the calendar. Every dollar Coleman put into ads came back as real jobs, a return no monthly SEO fee and no shared-lead website could ever match.
The honest part
Growth came with some rocky moments.
More leads exposed the cracks. When the phone actually starts ringing, every weak spot in a sales process shows up fast. We worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Coleman to fix each one.
Response time on new leads was too slow, so we set up auto-replies: every new lead gets a text or email back in minutes, not hours.
Estimate follow-ups were hit or miss, so we built a simple step-by-step follow-up and no estimate went cold.
Reviews were happening by accident, so we installed the review system that keeps new five-star reviews rolling in every week.
The BlueDog model
Pay only when we perform.
Throughout the entire engagement, Coleman only paid us when we performed and brought in legitimate estimates. Leads were free. That alignment is what lets us push hard, move fast and stay obsessed with the metric that grows a hardscaping business.
Same deal on the table for you: we'll beat any other performance campaign on ROAS by 30% or more, or we work for free.
What's next
The next phase of growth.
With the calendar filling up and the sales process tightened, we're moving into the next stage: a custom booking page that lets homeowners lock in estimate times themselves, ads aimed at bigger projects, and new ways to get in front of homeowners earlier. The goal is the same, more qualified estimates, better project fit, booking themselves while the crews are working.
Want results like this?
If you run a hardscaping, pool or outdoor living company and you want a partner paid on performance, let's talk.