CASE STUDY: INDIANAPOLIS PLUMBER STOPS CHASING LEADS AND LETS HIS WEBSITE DO THE WORK
How an Indianapolis plumber stopped cold-calling, dropped HomeAdvisor, and built a website that brings leads to him. 25+ calls per month on autopilot.
Derek was tired.
Not tired from plumbing. He loved the work. Sixteen years in the trade, and he'd do it for another sixteen.
He was tired of chasing leads.
Cold-calling property managers. Begging for referrals. Paying HomeAdvisor $40+ per lead for customers who'd already called three other plumbers.
He felt like a hamster on a wheel. Running hard, going nowhere.
Sound like your life?
The Lead Generation Hamster Wheel
Here's what Derek's lead generation looked like before we worked together.
HomeAdvisor: Paying $30 to $50 per lead. Shared leads. The customer was usually calling 3 to 4 plumbers at the same time. Price shopping. Low close rate.
Thumbtack: Similar deal. Paying per lead. Racing to respond first. Competing on price.
Cold outreach: Derek spent 3 to 4 hours every week calling property management companies, realtors, and contractors trying to drum up referral work.
Total monthly spend on lead gen: Around $1,200 to $1,500 between HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, and gas money driving to networking events.
Close rate on these leads: Maybe 20 to 25%.
Revenue per dollar spent on marketing: Barely breaking even some months.
Derek's website? A 3-page template on WordPress that he set up in 2019 and hadn't touched since. It got about 30 visitors per month. None of them called.
The Shift
"I realized I was renting leads instead of owning them," Derek told us. "Every month I'm paying for leads that disappear the second I stop paying. I needed something that actually belonged to me."
That something was a real website.
What We Built
### The Foundation
- Professional homepage with Derek's photo, his story, and a trust bar showing 16 years experience, 500+ jobs completed, and his 4.9-star rating
- 10 service pages targeting specific services with location keywords
- 7 neighborhood pages targeting Indianapolis suburbs (Carmel, Fishers, Greenwood, Noblesville, Avon, Zionsville, Lawrence)
### The Content Engine
We started a blog. Two posts per month targeting searches like:
- "Water heater replacement cost Indianapolis"
- "Best plumber in Carmel IN"
- "Emergency plumber Fishers Indiana"
- "How to fix a running toilet" (yes, DIY articles work... they build trust and often end with the person calling anyway)
### The Review Machine
Derek committed to asking every single customer for a Google review. We set up a simple text message template he could send in 10 seconds after finishing a job.
### The Conversion Engine
Every page had: - Click-to-call button in the header - Lead form above the fold - Multiple CTAs throughout the content - An urgency element ("Same-day service available")
The Timeline
### Month 1-2: Foundation Phase
Website launched. Google indexed the pages. Derek started collecting reviews.
Not much changed yet. He kept his HomeAdvisor account running as a safety net.
Online leads from website: 2 to 3 per month.
### Month 3-4: Signs of Life
Blog posts started ranking. The "water heater replacement cost Indianapolis" post hit page 2 of Google.
Three neighborhood pages cracked page 1 for their target keywords.
Google reviews went from 11 to 24.
Online leads from website: 8 to 10 per month.
Derek reduced his HomeAdvisor budget by 50%.
### Month 5-8: The Crossover
This is when Derek's website leads surpassed his paid lead sources.
His website was generating 15 to 20 calls per month. And these were different from HomeAdvisor leads. These people had already read his reviews, seen his work, and basically pre-sold themselves.
Close rate on website leads: 60 to 65%. Compare that to the 20 to 25% on HomeAdvisor.
Derek canceled HomeAdvisor completely. Stopped Thumbtack. Stopped cold calling.
That hamster wheel finally stopped spinning.
### Month 9-12: Autopilot
| Metric | Before | Month 12 | |--------|--------|----------| | Monthly marketing spend | $1,200-$1,500 | ~$150 | | Monthly online leads | 2-3 | 25-30 | | Close rate | 20-25% | 60-65% | | Hours spent chasing leads/week | 3-4 hours | 0 hours | | Google reviews | 11 | 58 | | Monthly revenue | ~$9,000 | ~$19,000 |
The Numbers That Matter Most
Let's talk about what changed financially.
Before: Derek was spending $1,200 to $1,500/month on lead generation. His cost per acquired customer was roughly $150 to $200.
After: Derek's website costs him about $150/month. His cost per acquired customer dropped to roughly $8 to $10.
That's a 95% reduction in customer acquisition cost.
And the leads are better. Way better. Website leads come in pre-qualified. They've read about Derek's services. They've seen his reviews. They're not price shopping 4 other plumbers at the same time.
Better leads. More leads. Cheaper leads. The trifecta.
What Derek Stopped Doing
This is almost as important as what he started doing.
Stopped: Paying HomeAdvisor for shared leads. Stopped: Competing on Thumbtack for price-sensitive customers. Stopped: Cold-calling property managers. Stopped: Spending evenings at networking events he didn't enjoy. Stopped: Stressing about where the next job was coming from.
The phone just rings now. Every day. Multiple times. From people who already want to hire him.
What Derek Says
"The biggest change isn't even the money. It's the freedom. I used to spend my Sundays dreading Monday because I knew I'd have to hustle for leads again. Now I spend Sundays with my kids because I know Monday's already booked. That's worth more than any revenue number."
Damn, Derek. Making us all emotional over here.
Why This Works
Derek's case isn't magic. It's math.
Owned traffic beats rented traffic. Every time. Learn more about why in our post on Angi and HomeAdvisor vs. your own website.
When you pay HomeAdvisor or Thumbtack, you're renting access to leads. Stop paying, leads disappear.
When you invest in a website with SEO and reviews, you're building an asset. It compounds over time. Track your progress using Google Search Console. Every blog post, every review, every page makes it stronger.
After a year, Derek's website is generating $19,000/month in revenue. Even if he stopped investing completely, it would continue generating leads for months, maybe years, on existing content and rankings.
Try that with HomeAdvisor.
Could This Be You?
If you're: - Paying for leads on HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, or similar platforms - Spending hours cold-calling for referrals - Relying on word of mouth alone - Frustrated that leads are expensive and low quality
Then yes. This could absolutely be you.
It takes patience. The first few months are slow. But by month 4 to 6, the snowball starts rolling. And by month 12, you're wondering why you didn't do this sooner.
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Ready to get off the lead generation hamster wheel? See our packages or get a free website audit and we'll show you exactly what it takes to build your own lead generation engine.
P.S. Derek almost didn't cancel HomeAdvisor. He was scared. What if the website leads dried up? They didn't. They kept growing. Sometimes you gotta let go of the safety net to fly. Let's build your wings.