If you’re spending thousands on ads but not seeing deposits in your business account, listen up: your marketing is working harder than your sales team.
This was the brutal reality check during the SearchLight Digital demo and live review.
They pulled back the curtain on real HVAC marketing data and exposed a truth most contractors (and even some agencies) don’t want to hear.
👉 The takeaway? Getting leads isn’t the hard part. Closing them is.
Marketing can bring customers to your driveway. Operations has to get the pen to the paper and the money in the bank.
Let’s break down how SearchLight blew up the old way of thinking and why every contractor who actually cares about making money needs to hear this.
How SearchLight Digital Kills Fluffy Reports and Tracks Real Money
Old-school marketing reports have been lying to you for years. Agencies bragging about impressions and clickthrough rates while your call board stays depressingly empty? That’s the norm — and it’s garbage.
SearchLight Digital flips that entire model on its head. Here’s how:
💰 Real Revenue Attribution: No more tracking “vanity metrics” that don’t pay your bills. SearchLight tracks actual booked revenue, customer acquisition costs, and return on ad spend — not just leads.
🔒 Zero Human Manipulation: Data gets pulled directly from your ad accounts, CRM, and website. No one can massage the numbers to make themselves look good.
🔍 Full-Funnel Transparency: You’re not just seeing how many people clicked an ad — you’re seeing how many booked a job, how much they spent, and how much it cost you to get them.
This isn’t just another dashboard cluttered with vanity metrics you’ll never use. SearchLight is a live, brutal truth serum for your business.
If your operations are sloppy, it’s obvious.
If your sales team keeps dropping the ball, it’s right there in black and white.
And if your marketing is actually performing but nobody is following up to close the deals, you’ll see it crystal clear.
🧐 There’s no hiding behind fluffy numbers or slick presentations — SearchLight exposes exactly where you’re winning and where you’re bleeding money, so you can finally stop guessing and start fixing what matters.
The $1.3 Million Problem That You Probably Have Too
During the demo, SearchLight dug into a real HVAC client’s numbers over the last 28 days. What they found should scare most contractors straight.
Here’s what went down:
The company spent just under $60,000 on marketing across all channels. In return, they generated $1.3 million worth of estimates. On paper, that looks like a win, right? Wrong. Only $467,000 of that 1.3 million actually closed into booked jobs.
That means nearly a million dollars was left dangling in open estimates. No contract. No invoice. No paycheck.
And here’s the kicker: the marketing worked. The ads got the right people to call. The leads came in. But the sales process broke down after that.
Marketing can drive the leads, but marketing can’t go into the customer’s home and close the deal.
In this case, SearchLight’s founder put it simply:
“Marketing got you in the driveway. Operations needed to close — and they didn’t.”
When they zoomed specifically into Google Ads, the story stayed the same. The client spent $40,000 on PPC, and generated $485,000 in revenue — a solid 12x return if you include open estimates. But only about 5.5x was actually realized in cash because of poor follow-up.
Their lead booking rate (how many leads turned into appointments) was 42%, which is actually normal for the industry. So it wasn’t a lead quality issue. It wasn’t a marketing problem.
It was a follow-up and closing problem. The money was made, but it never got collected.
Branding Isn’t a Luxury — It’s a Money Machine
If you think branding is just for big corporations, you’re dead wrong. Contractors who build brand awareness dominate their markets long-term. SearchLight proved it with hard data from branded ad campaigns.
Take a look:
- The client’s branded search campaign (ads targeting people searching their business name) delivered a 14x return on ad spend.
- Cost per customer acquisition dropped to $239, while the average job ticket soared to $3,600.
- They closed $107,000 of revenue directly from brand name searches with barely $8,000 spent.
That’s what happens when people know your name. They don’t search “AC repair near me.” They search your company directly because they trust you already.
If you want that kind of brand power, you’ve got to do the work that most businesses aren’t willing to do:
- Wrap your trucks with professional branding that stands out.
- Sponsor local events, show up at home shows, and meet people face-to-face.
- Invest in high-quality logos and photography that people emotionally connect with.
- Hit traditional media — radio, TV, local papers — to stay in front of your community.
The result is simple: you become Five-Mile Famous. Your vans, your ads, your people become the first thing locals think of when they need help. And when they search your name instead of a category, you win — big.
The Ugly Truth: If You’re Not Closing, You’re Wasting Your Marketing
Here’s what SearchLight made painfully obvious: if your open estimates consistently outweigh your closed sales, it’s an operations failure — not a marketing one.
The lead was created. The technician showed up. The time and ad dollars were spent. But if your team doesn’t follow up and close that estimate, you just paid for nothing.
If you want to squeeze more out of your marketing without blowing your budget, focus on this:
- Follow up faster: Call back, text, and email prospects until you close or they say no.
- Train your sales team: Teach them how to overcome objections and close deals on the spot.
- Systematize your pipeline: Make sure no estimate ever sits untouched in your CRM.
- Hold operations accountable: Track how many estimates are followed up within 24 hours. Push for higher close rates.
You don’t need more leads. You need to stop tripping at the finish line.
The truth is contractors love SearchLight even more than agencies do. Why? Because they show the real path to more revenue — not just more leads. Marketers like it too, but they have nowhere to hide. The transparency is total.
Ready to Stop Bleeding Money?
If you’re tired of guessing whether your marketing is actually working, SearchLight Digital gives you the kind of real, automated data that makes everything clear fast. No fluff, no games — just honest numbers showing what’s working and what needs fixing.
At Hook Agency, we’re not afraid to put our work under the microscope. We believe real growth comes from facing the data head-on, learning from it, and constantly getting better — not just trying to look good on paper. We work best with companies that value transparency, action, and real results over vanity metrics.
If that sounds like what you’re looking for, let’s talk. We’d love to hear more about where you’re at, what you’re aiming for, and how we can help you close the gap between marketing activity and real revenue.
