A Vancouver handyman’s Google Ads, rebuilt to ring the phone
Our work for Microworks Handyman
Microworks Handyman fixes the small jobs most contractors turn down. The owner wanted more homeowners calling, every day. We rebuilt their Google Ads. When he moved the business to the phone, we rebuilt them again around calls. We also shot their video ad and photos, built their new website and write their service pages.
About 2x the leads a month
We rebuilt the ads around phone calls and put a call button on every page. Leads a month roughly doubled, by Microworks’ own count from every source.
4x the click rate on Google Ads
One campaign for each city, each with its own ads. About 2 in 100 people clicked the old ads. About 8 in 100 click ours.
5.4x return on Google Ads
Every dollar on Google Ads brought back about $5.40 in estimated value. Google Ads-reported, using the value Microworks puts on each call, not booked sales.
The goal: more homeowners calling, every day.
Microworks Handyman works across Vancouver, Burnaby, North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Coquitlam. Its technicians are background-checked employees, not strangers from an app. One visit can clear a whole list of small jobs.
The owner, Blake Voyer, wanted volume. Our plan set one goal: double his leads. We started with a marketing deep dive and an audit of his Google Ads. The audit found the problem fast. The ads counted page views as wins, so Google was finding people who looked, not people who called.
See the site: microworkshandyman.com
Google Ads, rebuilt city by city
We rebuilt the account with one campaign for each city. Each city has its own ads, so the spend follows the cities that bring work. We told Google to count only real leads. At Blake’s request, we cut the form to three fields: name, phone and what you need. And we set up tracking, so every lead from an ad shows up tagged in the company’s job software.
The clicks got better fast. About 2 in 100 people clicked the old ads. About 8 in 100 click ours. More of the people who see the ad act on it, which is the first sign it is talking to the right people. And in the first months, about 1 in 8 of those clicks became a lead.
Then Blake moved the business to the phone
Blake saw that his best customers called. A caller books faster and trusts sooner. So he chose to drop the forms. We rebuilt the ads as call campaigns: one for each city, and one that protects searches for the Microworks name. The website’s buttons became the phone number the same day.
Then we taught Google which calls matter. Each call carries an estimated value, so the bids lean toward the calls most likely to become jobs. The ads run in the hours the office picks up. And we keep adding searches to block, so the ads stay off jobs Microworks does not do.
What changed
- About 2x the leads a month, by Microworks’ own count.
- 4x the click rate on their Google Ads.
- About twice as often, their ad shows when someone nearby searches for the work.
- 5.4x return on Google Ads, in estimated call value.
Lead numbers are Microworks’ own, from every source, not only our ads. Click rate and how often the ads show are Google Ads-reported, comparing their own campaign before us with ours. Return on ad spend is Google Ads-reported over five months of the call campaigns, using the value Microworks puts on each call, not booked sales.
Microworks Handyman
The call-in-only booking system is working very well, so much so that we’ve been booking out our quota before noon every day! It’s a much faster, more efficient system that builds immediate trust with the customer.
A video ad and photos, shot on real jobs
We shot the video ad and the photos on location, with the Microworks crew, their branded vans and real homes. Blake wrote the script. We filmed and edited it. His reply when he saw the cut: “I have no notes on the video ad; it’s exceptional.” The photos now run across the website and the ads.
A website built to ring the phone
We designed the new website with Blake in Figma and built it in Webflow. Every page leads to one action: call. The phone number sits on a large button that stays on screen as you scroll. The services are laid out the way customers ask for them. Blake’s note when it went live: “The site looks awesome on both mobile and desktop!”
Service pages for every city
For SEO, we write service pages and city pages, about one a week. Each one answers what a homeowner searches, in the city they search from. The same pages double as landing pages for the ads.
Working together
We meet with Blake every two weeks. We look at leads city by city and agree what to change next. When he moved the business to the phone, the ads moved with him the same day. In his words: “Setsail has been matching that pace each and every time that we made that adjustment.”
Project FAQs
I tried Google Ads before. I got clicks, but the phone did not ring. Why would this be different?
Microworks had the same problem. Our audit found their ads counted page views as wins, so Google found people who looked, not people who called. We told Google to count only real leads and rebuilt the account with a campaign for each city. Their ads now get 4x the click rate and show on about twice as many local searches.
My customers just want to call. Can ads work for a phone-only business?
Yes. Blake, the owner, saw that his best customers called, so he chose to drop the forms. We rebuilt the ads around phone calls, and the website's buttons became the phone number the same day. Then we taught Google which calls matter, so the ads lean toward calls that become jobs.
I am on the tools all day. How much of my time will this take?
Not much. We run the ads, built the website, shot the video and photos, and write the SEO pages. Blake brings what only he knows: he wrote the script for his video ad, and he made the call to go phone-only. We meet every two weeks to look at leads by city and agree what changes next.
Can you make a small trades business look as good as the big brands?
Yes. We shot Microworks' video ad and photos on real jobs, with their own crew and branded vans. Blake wrote the script, and we filmed and edited it. His reply: “I have no notes on the video ad; it's exceptional.” We also designed and built their new website, with a call button that stays on screen as you scroll.
What happens on the call, and am I locked in after?
It is a free 30-minute discovery call with our sales team. You tell us about your trade, your service area and the jobs you want more of. We share how we would approach it and talk through pricing. If we work together, contracts are month-to-month with 30 days' notice.
