Case Study · Google Ads · Local Small Business · California
How a California gravestone company scaled $4k to $7k/mo while cutting CPL 32%.
A full Google Ads account rebuild — cleaner Search structure, proper Enhanced Conversions, controlled Performance Max expansion. Scaled spend 75%, dropped cost per lead from $63 to $43.
$63 → $43
Cost per qualified lead
+75%
Monthly ad spend scaled ($4k → $7k)
32%
Reduction in CPL while scaling
The Challenge
A high-ticket local category with painful margins.
The gravestone company sells a high-ticket, long-cycle, emotionally sensitive product — a four-figure average order value with a sales cycle that often spans weeks. Previously they were running Google Ads at a $63 cost per qualified lead, which was workable but tight on margin, especially given the longer close cycle meant lead-to-revenue conversion lagged ad spend by 30–45 days.
They wanted to scale ad spend meaningfully without the usual tradeoff where CPL creeps up as budget climbs. The existing account was functioning but had the usual issues: mixed match types inside the same ad group, no Enhanced Conversions, Performance Max running without negative keywords, and no feedback loop from the CRM back to Google.
What We Did
Clean account structure. Real conversion signal. Controlled PMax expansion.
Rebuilt Search campaigns by match type (exact and phrase separated so bidding stayed honest), negative keyword list built from the past 90 days of search terms, Enhanced Conversions wired to the CRM so Google got real purchase signal instead of just form fills. Those three moves alone dropped CPL from $63 to about $52 inside three weeks.
Then we expanded Performance Max as a secondary layer, with asset groups separated by product category, audience signals from the CRM customer list, and negative keywords imported from the Search account. PMax drove incremental lead volume without stealing from Search — and because the shared conversion signal was clean, both campaigns bid efficiently against actual purchases, not form submissions.
The Result
$43 cost per lead at $7k/mo in spend. Both numbers moved the right direction.
By end of month 2, monthly ad spend had scaled from $4k to $7k, while CPL dropped from $63 to $43 — a 32% reduction. Lead volume nearly doubled on a 75% spend increase, meaning the account was getting more efficient as it scaled, not less.
The business kept the structure in place and continued scaling into the next quarter. For a local-small-business Google account, this is what proper campaign structure actually unlocks: scaling budget without proportionally scaling cost per customer.
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