Launching a Lead-Gen Video Campaign for a Multi-Location Home Services Company
Crestline Home Services provides HVAC and plumbing repairs in three metro areas and spends $7,200 per month on Google Ads search, producing about 120 leads at a $60 cost per lead. Its sales cycle is two to four weeks, and 55% of leads become booked jobs. The marketing director wants YouTube to add 80 leads per month within 90 days while keeping blended cost per lead below $75. Conversion tracking is verified for form submissions and calls from ads, but the company has never run video. It has one 30-second TV spot, a 15-second cutdown, and no YouTube channel banner. Landing pages are location-specific and load in 4.2 seconds on mobile. The target is homeowners aged 35-65 in the three metros. The CFO is skeptical of branding spend and wants every dollar tied to leads. The account has no audience lists beyond website visitors from the past 90 days.
1. Which Google Ads video campaign subtype should Crestline use for the 90-day lead-generation test, and which account settings must be correct before launch? Explain the trade-offs.
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Use a Video action campaign as the primary test. Crestline needs traceable leads, not reach, and Video action campaigns are built to drive clicks and conversions from YouTube and partner inventory. Video reach and Video view campaigns optimize for impressions or views, which would not satisfy the CFO's requirement that spend be tied to leads. Demand Gen is a reasonable secondary test because it can use short video and image assets across YouTube and Discover, but Crestline has no social-style creative and needs tight lead attribution, so it should not be the first test.
Before launch, confirm: conversion actions include the form submission and the qualified call action, not just page views; the campaign is set to the correct conversion goals; location targeting uses presence, not interest, so homeowners outside the metros are not counted; the conversion window matches the two-to-four-week sales cycle; and call reporting is enabled long enough to capture qualified calls. Set a frequency cap so the single TV spot does not fatigue the small three-metro audience. Exclude the 90-day site visitors from prospecting and place them in a separate remarketing campaign. The trade-off is that Video action may produce more views and clicks than booked jobs, so Crestline must judge success on qualified lead cost, not view rate.
2. How should Crestline set budget and bid strategy for the first 90 days?
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The math sets the ceiling. Search delivers 120 leads at $60, or $7,200 per month. If video adds 80 leads at $75, total spend is $13,200 for 200 leads, a $66 blended cost per lead, which clears the $75 limit. A video budget near $6,000 per month, about $200 per day, is therefore the right starting envelope. Do not launch at $6,000 with a $75 Target CPA immediately; start with Maximize conversions for roughly two weeks to collect conversion data, then move to Target CPA at $70 or slightly lower once there are enough conversions to learn from.
Expect a learning period of one to two weeks and resist daily bid changes. Keep the target CPA below $75 because the blended goal depends on video not drifting above it. Use the qualified-call conversion as a secondary signal, but optimize toward form and call conversions that the sales team accepts. If spend is constrained by rank rather than budget, raise the target CPA in small steps instead of adding budget. Review search and video together weekly; if video cost per qualified lead exceeds $90 after four weeks, shift budget back to search rather than letting the blended cost rise.
3. What should Crestline do with the 30-second TV spot and 15-second cutdown, and how should landing pages support the campaign?
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The TV spot is not ready for YouTube as-is. It was built for a captive audience, while skippable in-stream and Shorts viewers decide in the first few seconds. Use the 15-second cutdown as the primary Video action asset, but re-edit it so the service need, location, and offer appear in the first two seconds. Put a clear call to action on screen and in the companion banner, add captions because many viewers watch with sound off, and create a 6-second bumper that shows the brand and one message immediately. The 30-second spot can remain as a secondary asset for in-feed or non-skippable placements, but it should not carry most of the budget until it proves it can hold attention.
Landing pages must match the ad's location and service. Sending all three metros to one generic page wastes the targeting and lowers conversion rate. Build location-specific pages with the phone number, service area, and form above the fold, and fix the 4.2-second mobile load time because paid video traffic is less patient than search traffic. Add a click-to-call button and keep the form short. Rotate at least three creative variants and judge them on conversion rate and qualified lead cost, not just view rate.