Episode 002 - Generate an Extra $500K in Remodel Revenue - 4 Ways Remodeling Companies Use Google

October 01, 2026•27 min read

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Transcript

[00:02] All right guys, thanks for joining us today. We're going to talk about the top four ways that remodeling companies can use Google to generate an extra 500K in revenue in the next three to six months.

So first things first: shared leads, as you all know, are a waste. It does not matter how cheap they are. Whether you paid $10, $100 or $1,000, they are a waste. Why do I say they're a waste? Because you end up paying for the lead and then the homeowner never answers you. They ghost you. Or you pay for the lead, the homeowner answers you, but they went ahead and picked someone else. And then the third outcome is you win the job, but only after bidding, and you kind of win on price. You're the lowest price, right? So none of these three scenarios are ideal.

[00:57] This is where a lot of people get started and get stuck, and we're going to talk about some alternatives to this here today. I won't say the names, but there are some logos here on the screen that you guys have probably used or tried. They're very similar. They work a little bit differently, but imagine paying for a lead and then having to compete with five, six, 10 other people, right? It's kind of crazy.

[01:22] So how do people find remodelers? As you guys know, Google represents about 93% of all search traffic. They are the gorilla. What people do is they type "kitchen remodelers," right? And then "near me." So obviously that would be in Austin, Texas, or in San Francisco.

Now, if you're doing a Google search from your phone, that "near me" element is automatically going to be added based on your geolocation. Meaning if you're standing in, let's say, downtown Nashville, Tennessee, and you type "kitchen remodelers," it's automatically going to add that "near me," Nashville, Tennessee piece to it. Just automatically, right?

[02:07] So there's a couple of different things to think about. We did some basic searching, and depending on what part of the country or what market you're in — we're talking about the US and Canada primarily — mid-range remodel projects are in the 35 to 75K range. So to get to that 500K in the next three to six months, you don't need a ton of projects. But what you do need is some consistency, right?

[02:39] So let's go ahead and jump into the four ways that you show up.

Number one is a local favorite, which is Local Service Ads. You show up, but you only pay for real calls and texts. So again, think about those shared leads where you have to chase someone down. A Local Service Ad is an actual phone call with a live customer on the phone. This isn't a "call me back later" or a midnight contact-us form. This is an actual live customer on the phone. And ladies and gentlemen, it doesn't get any better than that. A live customer — not "hey, let's talk next week" and then they don't answer. Number one, it's an actual live customer. Number two, the calls are recorded. Number three, they're actually seeking you out, right? They're searching "kitchen remodeler near me," "home remodeler near me," "home addition." They're proactively looking for what you provide.

[03:37] The second way to show up is Google Ads. Most of you have probably looked at trying to do this yourself. And this is, I would say, 100 times more complicated than people realize. It gets really complicated really quickly. If you've ever tried to launch some ads and maybe threw 500 bucks at it and got little to nothing, trust me, this is way more complex than something you can do on your own. Maybe 10 years ago you could have pulled it off, but it's significantly more complicated than it needs to be. That's why you hire professionals to help with this.

[04:15] The third way is Google Maps. You've probably seen where a lot of people search "restaurants near me," right? There are tons of ways to use this, but if you're a remodeling company and you run your own studio or kitchen design center, obviously that "near me" is pretty important. Why? Well, people don't want to drive 200 miles to a kitchen design center. They want maybe half an hour to 45 minutes, and that gives you a radius you should target. Maybe a little more — your design team, your installers, your subs may drive a little further — but obviously this is a very localized service, right?

[04:58] And the fourth thing is local search engine optimization. We're going to share some specific things and dive deep into each of these. And if you stay to the end, we'll give you our four-part checklist with all the details: how you go about doing this, and the top things to be mindful of.

[05:22] So let's jump into Local Service Ads. This is literally what Local Service Ads look like. A few years ago it was called Google Guaranteed, and it gets you at the top. The idea is someone's searching for a contractor or remodeler near me. These are some examples serving Fort Myers, where we were originally founded and based, and it shows you some options related to Fort Myers, right? So this is that "near me" piece.

Now, you'll notice it does give you a couple of options: get phone number, book online and message. However, what you'll notice is there is no website here. Why? Well, that "get phone number" is an actual live phone call. When you click on that, Google records it. It'll tell you, "Hey, this is a Google Local Service Ad call," and it comes into a dashboard and tracks it. And we've got some cool tools we can show you for how that plays out.

[06:25] But how does it work? How do you get on here? We'll go over it in our checklist a little more, but you have to pass a license, insurance and background check. Every once in a while we'll get a client who gets stuck here, where their insurance doesn't really match their LLC, and that doesn't match their license. And that isn't anything we have any control over. Obviously, this is Google, and this is required to get that guaranteed badge, okay? If you have no license and no insurance, you appear to Google like a guy with a truck, right? And you're not going to be demanding premium pricing if you don't pass some of these basic checks.

[07:05] In this case you'd pick your service area, and you can spend more when your crews aren't busy and dial it up or down. That's one of the top reasons we like to recommend it.

And then they charge per lead. It averages around $100 to $150 per lead, and it varies based on where you are. California is a little more expensive than Mississippi, Arizona or Louisiana, right? It depends on where you are and how much competition there is — how busy your local market is. But that call belongs to you. It's not sent to six other people, or three other contractors. That's yours, and it's recorded and put in a dashboard.

[07:53] Now, the reason it really works is these are people truly searching you out. They're calling you for a reason, right? There's no contact-us form at midnight that you're trying to chase down. These are real people who literally typed "kitchen remodeler near me," or one of those categories, and your phone number came up, and they clicked it and called you.

[08:18] But the cool part, again — why we really like this — is that every call is recorded and saved, right? So if you have sales teams or a sales director, you can literally replay these and use them to train your sales reps. You don't have to decide whether it was a real call or not. Obviously, if someone calls wanting to sell you an extended car warranty, those are junk, and those usually get credited back as spam. Or if you're in California and someone says, "I need you to remodel my kitchen in Tennessee," Google would credit those, and you don't have to worry about them.

[09:06] The other place where this falls apart for most people is call handling. You have to be on the ball and have a really good process for this to work well. Maybe you had someone answer the call live, and then they say, "Oh, I'll have someone call you back." Well, you lose a lot of the benefit when you have someone call them back. The whole idea is someone's talking to you live. Why would you fumble that and say, "Let me have my grandmother answer the phone and then have her call you back"? You need a live person ready to go. Anyone who has a sales team, or has done anything in sales, probably knows that.

[09:44] So let's talk about the numbers. Let's talk about the specifics. How does this work? On average, it's around $100. I say around $100 because in some markets it might be $108, in others $92, in others $125. So I like to say between $100 and $150, something like that.

If you close 20% of the estimates you give now — 20% of them close and you get a signed contract — then you'd only need five of those leads to get a signed agreement. So in this case we're talking about $500 total for a booked job.

[10:29] That's pretty good when you consider the average job is in that 35 to 75K range, right? Would you spend $500? And let's say, "Matt, I'm not at 20%, I'm at 10%." Well, then double it. Maybe it's $1,000. Would you pay $1,000 to get a $35,000 or $75,000 job? Yeah, absolutely.

Now, most of you are probably thinking, "Well, I would, but I'd only pay after it closes, or only after it works." Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is between you and Google. Google will send you the lead if you pay for it. If not, that's fine. Typically you can put this on a credit card, so they bill you, and you get a little bit of lead time between when the leads are due and when you start collecting deposits as you close these. But you absolutely have to have a sales process, and ideally your closing rate is 20% or better. If it's less, each job becomes more expensive, because you need more leads to close an average job, right?

[11:34] Now again, with LSAs you're listed in a category. And when it's a phone call, as you guys know, there are limits to what you can and can't do. You can't show pictures over a phone call, right? So there are some limits. That's the basics of how it works.

The other thing is that it's an actual, literal live phone call that Google records and puts in your dashboard. We actually have some software tools that track the recording, from the initial call all the way through: "Hey, we got an appointment scheduled," and "We got a signed contract worth, I don't know, $47,250" — whatever the dollar amount. So you can track it all from start to finish. You can see every lead and track every conversation with the tools we've built that work with all of these solutions, okay?

[12:29] Awesome. So we're going to switch to Google Ads, which is the second piece. You've probably seen this as one of Google's older tools. It clearly says "Sponsored results." So it's a list of everyone who's willing to pay for an ad to get listed, right?

Google Ads can follow people around to different Google properties — Search, YouTube, Gmail. So one campaign can go to multiple places, right?

[13:08] What makes this work is you're able to use photos, even some videos. The results are only as good as the inputs — the inputs being your creative materials, right? You can target homeowners searching for a remodeler, your past customers, and certain areas: ZIP codes, counties. So you're not bidding on houses in Alabama if you only work in Tennessee, right? You don't want to throw your money out any and everywhere. You want to be very, very hyper-targeted. That is the best use of your funds.

[13:52] And of course you can set up some campaign tracking where you count only an estimate as a conversion — not just a click to the website, right? We can help you set up that full tracking.

And really, this just needs a little bit of money to set up, learn and adapt. Google has some pretty decent AI tools that take a week or two to learn — you want more of these and less of those, that kind of thing. And you need enough to start booking some jobs, right? Those of you who think, "Oh, I'll just throw $500 at it and see what happens" — I don't know that's enough. I'd think at least a few thousand dollars to get started on the ad side to really give it a true test.

[14:40] Otherwise, there's a lot that can happen in a week. Seasonality can affect things too. Everyone's getting their kids back to school right now. So maybe you tried it that week, it wasn't the best week, and you're like, "Oh, well, it obviously doesn't work, because I didn't get any leads and I spent $500." Remember, you have to give this a chance to run and give it a chance to really work.

[15:06] The one thing we see with a lot of people who try to do this themselves is negative keywords. Negative keywords are things you don't want — you're saying, "I want to show up on these searches, but not these," right? Things like job seekers: "I want a general contractor job," "I want to be hired," "I want a career," "What are salaries in remodeling?" Or "I want to learn how to do this myself." It's like, "I've got a sledgehammer and some Home Depot coupons, I want to remodel my own kitchen." And you're like, "Good luck, bro," right? They want a how-to video.

These are all things people usually skip when they try to do it themselves, and they end up spending significantly more on traffic that isn't the right kind of lead.

[16:02] Things like "I want to get certified" or "I want to get a license" — those are fine searches, but they're not the customer you're looking for. Similar type of search, not what you want. You're looking for homeowners who want to hire you, right? Things like "How much are certain brand cabinets, countertops or flooring?" — those aren't a good fit. Same with "I'm looking for furniture" or "interior decorating ideas." Those are all fine, but they're not what you're looking for, and you do not want to spend money on them. Why? Because that wastes your money. Same thing with cities and locations way outside what you're willing to service, right?

[16:47] So just as an example — and this is totally an example; budgets can go up or down — say you're spending $4,000 a month and about 25% of what you're doing yourself is wasted on those negative keywords, the things you're not filtering out. That's literally $12,000 a year spent on clicks that are totally wasted, right? You think it's expensive. You just don't know what you're doing, and you don't know what you don't know.

[17:19] So let's put it in your terms. If I told you, "Hey, I've got some Home Depot coupons and a sledgehammer, and I'm going to remodel my own kitchen," what would you, as a remodeler, as a contractor, say to me? Something in the neighborhood of, "Yeah, good luck, bro. It's way more complicated than you think," right? The sledgehammer and the demo part is pretty simple. That's kind of fun. But there's way more to it than you realize, especially when you start taking out load-bearing walls. It's a whole thing, right? It's not a simple thing. Way more complicated than you realize, okay?

[17:56] So let's shift gears to the third thing, which is Google Maps. You've probably used this for "restaurants near me" if you're on vacation or traveling. A lot of people use it for a lot of things. Here we have the Fort Myers area. You're able to look at the reviews, and there are things you can do to get listed here. Again: "kitchen remodeler near me," "bathroom remodeler," "whole home remodeler near me," depending on what services you offer. These literally show someone on a map where you are. So if you live right here, you've got several that are pretty close to you, right? Depending on which side of town you're on, different companies are closer.

[18:44] So again, if you have a design center, like a kitchen design center, the driving distance to that design center is something people keep in mind, right? Why drive 70 miles when the closest one is 20 miles? And if you don't even show up on Google Maps, you're literally invisible. You might do amazing work and have five-star reviews, but no one knows about you. If Google doesn't know about you, you're pretty much invisible. It doesn't matter if you've had a 30-year career and everyone in town knows your first name. If Google doesn't know about you, you're not finding new customers. That's just plain and simple, okay?

[19:26] So let's talk about how this works. This is tied to your Google Business Profile — we refer to it as your GBP. Obviously you want to find the right categories that match what you do. If you do a little new home construction, maybe property management, and kitchen remodeling, you want your category to match your primary service, right? So in this case we're talking about remodeling — kitchen remodeler, bathroom remodeler. You want your main, primary category to match what you're doing. So in this case, kitchen remodeler. Your secondary category could be bathroom remodeler, right?

[20:09] Then you want to add some details, like before-and-after photos — recent ones. I don't want to see stuff you did in 1985 that you can tell is dated. Show me something recent, because people are updating their kitchens and bathrooms because they're old and dated. They want to see new and fresh, right? And add a description of your service areas — what towns you work in.

[20:34] And something that's come up in the last couple of years: getting reviews on Google has become more important than ever, and getting a constant flow of reviews is even more important, right? What does that mean? It means getting one review every six months is better than 10 reviews from 10 years ago. Because Google wants to know you're alive and well. They don't want to think, "This guy apparently hasn't had any reviews in four years. He says he's been around 30 years, he's got five reviews, and he does two projects a month." You should have significantly more reviews. We have some tools we've built to help you collect reviews, and even suggest the kind of reviews your clients can copy and paste.

[21:28] So where does this work? Again, local contractors. If you're in a certain area, people want to hire local. They don't want to pay for someone to come from out of state, or someone not licensed in their state, right? They want to see your ratings — especially your Google ratings. Your Google reviews tell someone whether you're at a 4.8 average or a 3.2. I can tell you which one I'm calling: the one with the higher rating.

But if I see 10 reviews here and 37 there, I'm still going to call the guy with 37, right? Why? Because 37 people have had a great experience, even if some of that was years ago. That tells me something.

[22:18] As a homeowner looking for a kitchen remodeler, I've got a million companies to look at, right? So I'm going to whittle it down as quickly as I can based on the information in front of me. If I don't find you, you're off the list. If I find you have a low rating, you're off the list, right? Does that make sense? Or if I see photos from 1987 with really outdated styles — super dark kitchens — you're off the list. Those are quick, snap decisions people make. Why? Because we live in a world where you're inundated with messaging and videos, and it's overwhelming. So people shorten the list as fast as they can using whatever they can find, right? So that's Maps.

[23:07] The last three things I'll share that make you show up higher: that Google Business Profile, a steady flow of reviews, and building city pages — service pages or location pages. So "kitchen remodeler" would be one page. Then if you serve Austin, Texas, or Dallas, Texas — wherever your service areas are — you can have pages for each of the major cities you work in, and show jobs, reviews, quotes and all the details for each of those services in those cities, okay?

[23:46] Now, the fourth and final one we're going to talk about is local search engine optimization. Below all those paid, sponsored results we just looked at is the organic traffic that most people forget about. It does take time to build. We can help you with any or all of these. But the cool part is most people trust organic results more than paid results. Why? Think about it. Would you trust someone who has great organic rankings — who's there naturally, not on the paid list — or the first guy on the paid list?

[24:22] Well, there's value in doing both. I'm not saying pick one or the other. There's definitely value in doing both, and it's super important to make sure you can be on both lists, right? Because one is a slow build. It takes time. Google Ads is a faucet you can turn on and off. Local Service Ads are a faucet you can turn on and off. Google Maps, local SEO and the Business Profile are all a little slower to get up and running. So why pick one or the other? Why not just do both? One has a more long-lasting effect; the other is more short-term. So you're mixing short-term and long-term goals together.

We don't really ever recommend you do only one of these. If you want to grow your company and really take it to the next level — again, building half a million in revenue in the next three to six months — these are your options, okay?

[25:14] So let's jump into local SEO. These are the organic results — again, "kitchen remodeling Fort Myers," since we're based out of Fort Myers, Florida. And again, if you stay to the end, we'll give you our checklist and our slide deck in just a few minutes, okay?

[25:36] So all of these can work. You can capture a call, the recordings are saved — there's all kinds of things you can do. But you need to be able to track everything. Why? How do you know what came from paid search versus organic search? If you're not tracking it, it's just hit or miss, right? Part of marketing is knowing what works and what doesn't, quickly cutting what doesn't, and spending more on what does. That's just how it works, okay?

[26:07] So again, your ads and paid search get you attention today — this week, next week — but local SEO builds over time. A lot of people say, "I only want to focus on the short term." Well, there's a lot of value in thinking a little further than today and tomorrow, right?

When you set out to start your remodeling company, you probably didn't think, "Oh my gosh, I've got to run this business." You're really good at construction and the technical building craft, but now you have to figure out payroll, communicating with clients, proposals, working out problems, insurance, marketing — there's a lot to keep in mind. There's a lot of value in partnering with someone like United Foundry who can take this off your plate, okay?

[26:57] Again, capture: you want to know every lead. We actually have an opportunity board we can show you that tracks all your leads — whether it's a form, a Google paid ad or a Local Service Ad, it all goes to one dashboard, and we can track it all, okay?

[27:14] Now, the problem we see with a lot of our remodeling clients is that their sales process has some leaks, okay? Imagine getting some leads and then sitting on them for hours or days before you reach back out. "Oh my gosh, I'll call them tomorrow," right? Then tomorrow it's, "Oh shoot, I've got an emergency, I'll call them the next day." Then three, four, five, six days go by and you haven't called them back. Well, guess what? They've already moved on. You paid for the lead, and they've already moved on. That's just how this works, okay?

[27:49] Again, you should think about your conversions based on estimates. If you've driven out and met with someone to give them an estimate, you've qualified them, right? They're in your area, and you do what they want. They're not asking you to install a space heater and hang a painting — handyman kind of stuff, right? You do this work, they're in your service area, you've met with them and you've started building trust. So obviously a booked estimate is better than just a click, right? You've had an opportunity to build a relationship and start that whole process.

[28:27] We also have some best practices. Sending traffic to your homepage is not ideal. A lot of people do that. You actually want to send it to a very specific page. With Google Ads, there's something called a Quality Score. Remember what I told you — it's more complicated than you realize, right? Quality Score is how well the phrase someone is searching matches the page you're telling Google to send that traffic to.

Here's what most people don't realize: the higher the quality, the less you pay for that lead. I'll say that again. The people at the top of the search results are not automatically paying the most. Sometimes they're paying the least, because they have a better Quality Score. See all the things you learn when you try to do this yourself? It gets complicated really quickly, like I said.

[29:14] What we recommend is you start in a narrow area — a couple of cities around you, maybe a 30-mile radius. Then if you're not getting enough leads, we can expand that a little at a time to give you more leads. If you've got too many, we can shrink it, right? None of this is set it and forget it, like you might assume. There's a lot to manage and keep up with.

[29:37] So, are you guys ready to talk about the remodeling checklist? I'll fly through this, and if you're interested, we'll send it out.

This is a checklist for Local Service Ads — what you'd need to do. If you're going through it on your own, you can go, "Okay, yes, I did that, I did that, I did that," and you can set some of these up yourself. Obviously, we help you set this up. Things like your license, insurance and background check we'd need from you in order to assist, and we'd help set all of this up on an onboarding call.

[30:14] Google Ads — same types of things. Here's what you'd need. The thing most people fail at is negative keywords. Negative does not mean bad. Negative means what I don't want traffic from and what I don't want to pay for, right? So you want a pretty healthy negative keyword list. When I first got into this, I was like, "Well, I don't want to be negative, I want to be positive." It doesn't work like that.

You can also review what people are searching for — our system captures that. Ideally, in the first three months, you want to review it every week. After that first quarter or so, move to a monthly cadence. But you want to hyper-focus on what's working and what's not in those first 12 to 13 weeks, okay?

[31:08] Google Maps — same kind of thing. You're going to claim it. You're going to set your category, your service areas, your hours, your description, all of that. And you're going to post two to three times a week. Remember, Google wants to know that you're alive and kicking. They don't want to see that you posted a photo six months ago — because according to Google, you died six months ago, right? Two to three times a week helps establish a heartbeat rhythm that your remodeling company is alive and well, and getting frequent reviews reinforces all that, right? So it's not "set it and forget it, I did this one time." There's a lot of upfront work you do once, but there's a lot that's ongoing.

[31:53] And of course, you need to ask for a review after every job. Now, you have to be careful, because you have to provide five-star experiences to get five-star reviews. Just because you think you did an amazing job doesn't automatically mean the homeowner agrees, right? Maybe you finished on time, but your subs showed up smelling like a pack of cigarettes, the homeowner is allergic to cigarette smoke, and they had to deal with that for days and days. That's something to think about, right? It's not always easy. What could we have done differently, right? And if they say, "You did great," then you ask for a five-star review.

[32:32] Okay, local SEO — there are some things here we help you with. This takes hours and hours every week to do, and this is what we're good at. Well, actually, we're good at all four of these — these are the services we provide.

[32:47] So if you're interested in any of this, book a strategy call. We'll look at your website, your strategy and where you're spending your dollars, give you some suggestions, and build a 90- to 120-day strategy guide.

The Google checklist for remodeling companies

Every step from all four plays — Local Service Ads, Google Ads, Google Maps, and Local SEO. Work through it in order.

Local Service Ads

Pass Google's screening — license, insurance, background check — to earn the Google Guaranteed badge.
Pick the services, cities, and weekly budget you want.
Set up per-lead billing so you only pay for real calls and texts.
Answer every call fast — a missed call is money you already spent.
Listen to call recordings, dispute junk leads, and coach whoever answers the phone.

Google Ads

Use real project photos and short videos in your ads.
Target people already searching for a remodeler.
Only target zip codes you actually work in.
Count booked estimates as conversions — not clicks or form fills.
Build an account-wide negative keyword list: jobs, DIY, free/cheap, classes, parts, wrong services, far-off cities.
Check what people actually searched weekly for 3 months, then monthly

Google Maps

Claim and verify your Google Business Profile.
Pick categories that match your work: kitchen remodeler, bathroom remodeler, general contractor.
Add your service areas, hours, and a description that names your towns.
Add new project photos every month.
Post to your Google Business Profile 2-3 times a week.
Ask for a review after every job — and reply to each one.

Local SEO