Case brief: Home services Google Ads

Best for: Week 4 (SEM) · Week 7 (CVR) · Week 8 budget defense
Source of truth: /case-studies/kathmandu-home-services-google-ads/ · Narrative: /blog/google-ads-cpa-reduction-case-study-nepal-2026/

Situation

Kathmandu Valley plumbing + electrical advertiser. Single broad campaign to the homepage, weak negatives, jobs/DIY waste. Client name withheld.

Numbers (as published)

Metric Before After (90 days)
Monthly spend NPR 85,000 NPR 72,000 (−15%)
Conversions (calls + forms) 18 28 (+56%)
CPA NPR 4,722 NPR 2,571 (−42%)
CVR 3.1% 5.8%
Wasted query spend ~35% ~8%

Avg job value cited on source: ~NPR 4,500 plumbing / ~NPR 6,200 electrical — post-change CPA profitable on first-visit jobs.

What they did (manager view)

  1. Stop waste — 180+ negatives; kill DIY/jobs intent.
  2. Structure — split Emergency plumbing / general plumbing / electrical with dedicated landing pages.
  3. Landing — click-to-call, WhatsApp, NPR price ranges, reviews; LCP 4.2s → 1.8s.
  4. Bidding — Target CPA only after enough conversions on the strongest campaign.

MBA discussion

  • Map this to your Week 4 deliverable: 2 ad groups, negatives, bid logic vs LTV:CAC.
  • Why did less spend produce more conversions?
  • Where would you put WhatsApp vs form in the conversion definition?

Concepts in Play

  • Cost per acquisition (CPA): spend divided by conversions (here, calls plus forms).
  • Wasted query spend: money spent on searches with no hiring intent, such as DIY fixes or job seekers.
  • Campaign structure: separating services with different urgency and value, so each gets its own budget, ads and landing page.
  • Unit economics: comparing CPA with the value of a job, to judge whether advertising is profitable.

Reading the Numbers

Work these from the published figures only; do not add new KPIs.

  1. Verify the published CPAs from spend and conversions: NPR 85,000 ÷ 18 and NPR 72,000 ÷ 28. Do they match?
  2. With an average plumbing job of ~NPR 4,500, was the old CPA (NPR 4,722) profitable on a single job? What about the new CPA? What would change if customers came back for repeat jobs?
  3. Wasted spend fell from ~35% to ~8%. Estimate the money saved per month at the new spend level, and explain why it is the waste cut, not the budget cut, that drives the lower CPA.

Limits of the Evidence

  • Ninety days is short; a seasonal spike (monsoon leaks, winter heating) could flatter the results.
  • “Conversion” counts calls and forms, not completed jobs. Ask how many conversions became paid work.
  • Target CPA bidding was added only after there was enough conversion data. Copying it into a new account too early can raise costs.

Apply It to Your Sandbox

  1. Pull or imagine the search terms for your sandbox and mark each as hire, research or irrelevant.
  2. Turn the irrelevant ones into a negative keyword list.
  3. Split your services into at least two campaigns by urgency or value, each with its own landing page.
  4. Calculate the maximum CPA you could afford, given your average order or job value.

Cite in pitches

“Published Kathmandu home-services Search case: CPA NPR 4,722 → 2,571 (−42%) in 90 days (source).”