Case study · Roofing · Google Search
The dashboard said twenty dollars a lead. There were no leads.
Charlotte Premier Roofing, a residential roofer in Charlotte, NC. What the account was counting, what I changed, what a lead really cost afterwards, and what it costs now.
Elijah Nawrot · Google Partner · Updated October 5, 2026
The numbers
Before and after, with the window on each.
The before number is one week in January 2026. The after number is the first thirty days of non-brand Search once the account only counted people. Thirty days to Oct 1, 2026, a lead cost $198.93.
Charlotte Premier Roofing
Cost per lead the account reported
$20.06
One week, Jan 10 to 17, 2026.
11 conversions that week. Every one of them was a page view.
What a real lead cost in the first 30 days after the rebuild
$265.64
30 days, after the rebuild.
What a real lead cost from Google Search
$198.93
30 days, Sept 2 to Oct 1, 2026.
- Google Search. Source: Google Ads UI screenshots.
- Non-brand Google Search, calls and form fills only. Source: $265.64, the Google Ads account, re-counted; $198.93, the Google Ads account: 12 calls and form fills on $2,387.14.
Summary
| Client | Charlotte Premier Roofing, a residential roofing company in Charlotte, NC. |
|---|---|
| Channel | Google Search |
| Before | One week, Jan 10 to 17, 2026: 11 conversions at $20.06 each |
| After | Thirty days of non-brand Search after the rebuild: $265.64 per lead |
| Now | Thirty days of non-brand Search, Sept 2 to Oct 1, 2026: $198.93 per lead |
| What counts as a lead | A phone call or a form submission from a person. Nothing else |
| Source | Google Ads screenshots of the account, before and after, and the account's own conversion columns for the current number |
What the account was counting
Eleven conversions in one January week, at $20.06 each. It looked like an account that was winning. Every one of those conversions was somebody loading a page.
Nobody had set the account up to tell the difference between a visitor and a phone call, so it did what Google Ads does: it optimised toward the cheapest thing it could produce, and the cheapest thing was page views.
03
What else was wrong
Budget was leaving Search
The Search campaigns were also set to run on the Display network, so money meant for people searching for a roofer went to banner ads on other sites.
The account was changing itself
Auto-applied recommendations were switched on, quietly editing keywords and settings with nobody deciding to.
04
What I changed
Conversion tracking
Rebuilt conversion tracking so only calls and form submissions count.
One Search campaign
One Search campaign, Google Search only: no Display and no search partner network.
Auto-applied recommendations off
Auto-applied recommendations off, so every change to the account is one somebody decided to make.
What happened
The number on the dashboard got about thirteen times worse, from $20.06 to $265.64 a lead, and the business got its first booked appointments. A real number is one you can plan a budget around. A flattering one only tells you the account is counting the wrong thing.
The best single week afterwards came in far below that rate, with every lead that week booked and one closed. But a week is a week, and I don't quote a best week as the rate. Thirty days of non-brand Search is the rate.
What did not work, and what this does not show
This is a tracking rebuild, not a lead-volume story. The account produced few leads in the window, and some of that is the county and the budget, not the build. It also does not show what a lead costs in your market: that depends on your trade, your county and your page, which is what the estimate call works out.
If your account reports a cost per lead that looks too good, check what it is counting before you check anything else. Questions to ask any agency.
Elijah Nawrot, founder of Red Orca Digital. Three years on roofs, four running paid ads for roofing companies. Red Orca is a Google Partner. More about me.
Last updated October 5, 2026
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