Plumbing in Richmond, VA
A lead source their new competitor can’t outbid.
Ad costs kept rising and a new competitor started bidding on their name. Regular posts in the local groups gave them a channel nobody could outbid.
Established plumbing company, 16 staff. Told by Janet, office manager.
- Leads from the groups
- 146
- over 10 months
- Leads a month, once running
- 17.4
- Cost per lead
- $68
- was $104 from ads
- Close rate
- 58%
- 84 jobs closed
- Closed revenue
- $101k
- $9,970 spent
- Return on spend
- 10x
- revenue ÷ fees
The business
Eight trucks, a dispatcher and Janet, who has run the office for 12 years. Service calls, water heaters and a steady stream of repipes in older homes near the Fan.
- In business
- 21 years
- Average ticket
- $1,150
- Tracked
- Jan 2025 to Oct 2025
- Service area
- Midlothian, Short Pump, Mechanicsville, Chesterfield and the Fan
Before
Google and Yelp both kept going up. In late 2024 a private-equity-backed competitor started bidding on the company’s own name.
- Where leads came from
- Google Ads
- Yelp ads
- Repeat customers
- Google Ads and Yelp
- $6,500 a month
- Typical cost per lead
- $104
What we did
We got the owner into 167 local groups and posted about 16 times a week across them: tips, offers and finished jobs, with every comment and message answered the same day. A few of the groups:
- Midlothian Moms
- Short Pump Neighbors
- Mechanicsville Community Forum
- Chesterfield County Neighbors
What worked for plumbing
- Posts about galvanized and polybutylene pipes in homes built before 1995, with photos from real repipes near the Fan.
- Sump pump inspection offers before spring storms, with a form to pick a day.
- Replies in “who do you use?” threads where past customers had already mentioned the company, so the name showed up twice.
Results
Leads per month from group threads, Jan 2025 to Oct 2025
| Month | Leads |
|---|---|
| Jan | 4 |
| Feb | 8 |
| Mar | 12 |
| Apr | 15 |
| May | 17 |
| Jun | 16 |
| Jul | 19 |
| Aug | 21 |
| Sep | 18 |
| Oct | 16 |
August reached 21. October eased back to 16 as the dry fall cut into drain and sump calls.
| Measure | Before | With the groups |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly spend | $6,500 | $997 |
| Cost per lead | $104 | $68 |
| Leads that became jobs | 41% | 58% |
| Cost per closed job | $254 | $119 |
Along the way
- Week 6
First repipe lead, from a polybutylene post in Short Pump Neighbors.
- Month 5
Cut Yelp ads entirely.
- Month 8
Best month so far: 21 leads and 13 jobs.
“I was skeptical because I’ve heard every marketing pitch there is. What sold me was month five, when a woman filled out the form and wrote that she’d been reading his posts in the Midlothian group for weeks.”
More from plumbing
Plumbing · Nashville, TN
The plumber people remembered when the pipes burst.Plumbing · Mesa, AZ
One truck with open days every week. Now booked four days out.Pressure washing · Greenville, SC
Used to shut down every winter. Now booked three weeks out.
One company per trade per city
Is your trade still open where you work?
We take one plumbing company per city, with a 25-mile territory. $997 a month flat, no ad spend, and 15 leads a month by month four, or we work free until you get there.