The Path Less Traveled
Posts
#20 I Spent $4.2 Million on Google Last Year. Here's What I Actually Know About Whether It Worked.

#20 I Spent $4.2 Million on Google Last Year. Here's What I Actually Know About Whether It Worked.

Most home service operators can tell you what they spent on Google. Very few can tell you what they actually got for it. The companies that win long-term aren't just the ones who spend the most on marketing — they're the ones who convert that spend into lasting relationships, and then build a membership base that makes the next call free.

Christopher Hoffmann
April 01, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

In Today’s Newsletter

Lessons from spending $4.2 million on Google ads
“Things you should do…
Founding Sponsors
Memberships + your business model
Favorite Tweets from the past week

All of your leadership problems. Solved with the right hire. Uncommon Elite.

My friend and former Army 160th pilot, Christian Ruf, is helping business owners build high-performing teams by placing special operations veterans - think Navy SEALS, Army Rangers, Green Berets - in senior operations roles inside of businesses like yours. Check out his business, Uncommon Elite, and let him know that Chris sent you.

What’s on my mind?

I Spent $4.2 Million on Google Last Year. Here's What I Actually Know About Whether It Worked

The honest answer is: less than I should.

And I suspect most home service operators are in the same position, even if they won't say it.

Here's the problem. Most companies can tell you their cost per click. Many can tell you their cost per lead. Very few can tell you their cost per booked job, tracked back through to a specific campaign, on a specific day, in a specific market. And almost no one can tell you whether the dollars they spent on Google produced revenue they wouldn't have generated anyway through other channels.

That last question, the incrementality question, is the one that actually matters. And it's also the hardest to answer.

What does good accountability actually look like in a paid media relationship?

It starts with the right metrics. Not clicks. Not impressions. Not even leads. Booked jobs and booked job cost. If your agency can't produce that number, you don't have a measurement problem. You have an accountability problem.

It continues with the right incentive structure. An agency paid a percentage of spend has a structural reason to spend more of your money. That's not a criticism. It's math. The fix is to build performance expectations into the relationship: what does success look like, and what happens if we don't hit it?

And it requires intellectual honesty on your side too. Sometimes revenue is down because the market is soft, not because the agency failed. Sometimes revenue is up because of a cold snap, not because the campaign worked. Separating signal from noise takes discipline and time.

We've gotten better at this. We're not where we need to be yet.

But the posture shift, from "how much did we spend" to "what did we actually get for it," is one of the most important operating upgrades a growing home service company can make.

Things you should…

1. Find Out How Many Membership Renewals You Lost Last Month. Retention is where the membership model either compounds or leaks.

2. Write Down the One Thing You've Been Avoiding. You already know what it is.

3. Call a Customer Who Left a 3-Star Review. They didn't hate you enough to leave one star. That means there's something worth saving.

Can you do me a favor?

To help me create the best content for you, can you answer this quick (4 question) survey? I promise it won’t take more than 30 seconds :)

The Path Less Traveled - Founding Sponsors

Founding Sponsors… that WE USE in our companies.

When I wanted to launch The Path Less Traveled, I didn’t just want to take any sponsor who would write a check.

On the contrary - I continue to turn down a ton of sponsor inquiries because of one reality: I want my sponsorships to be authentic, and be companies that I work with AND believe in.

Software: ServiceTitan - THE leading software platform for residential and commercial service providers; to be blunt - there is no alternative for scaled enterprise platforms - and that is why it is incredibly rare to find any company over $100M who is NOT using ServiceTitan.

Agentic AI: Netic - Netic has built transformative AI tools that execute end-to-end workflows across speech, text, and data, powering entire functions inside of HB Solutions Group. Elevating the customer experience while reducing friction and cost.

Consumer Financing: GreenSky Home Improvement - helps HB Solutions Group to delight our customers AND grow our business by giving us one of the most powerful tools we can possess: the ability to increase our customers’ buying power.

Final thought: we publish TPLT on/around the 1st and 15th of each month, and we will incorporate a deeper dive into our relationship with each of the partners above on the release on/around the 15th while including this abbreviated section on the release on/around the 1st of each month.

¹ The views and opinions expressed here are owned by The Path Less Traveled and its author and may not reflect the views of GreenSky®

CEO: Growth Mindset

The Membership Model Is the Best Hedge Against Everything

HPP members don't search Google before they call us.

They don't compare prices on a Tuesday morning. They don't read reviews to decide if they trust us. They call their HVAC company. That's us. And that call doesn't cost us a dollar of paid media to generate.

This is the part of the membership model that doesn't get talked about enough: it's not just a revenue stream. It's a hedge against every external variable that can disrupt a service business.

Weather softens? Members still call for their annual maintenance. The economy slows? Members still prioritize the comfort and reliability of their home's systems. A competitor enters your market and outspends you on Google? Your members already have a relationship, and relationships are harder to buy than search rankings.

Here is a flyer outlining the benefits of Hoffmann Brothers’ Home Protection Plan (HPP)

The math behind a well-run membership program is some of the best math in home services. Every member you add is a unit of revenue you don't have to generate from a search engine. Multiply that by retention rate, multiply that by the attached services and upgrades that follow a membership relationship over years, and you start to see what compounding looks like in this business.

Across Hoffmann Brothers and Blue Sky, we now have over 26,000 members. That's not an arbitrary number. It reflects a deliberate strategy to build a base of customers who have already chosen us, before they have a problem, before they're comparing options, before the urgency of a breakdown makes them vulnerable to whoever can show up fastest.

If I had to pick one metric that best predicts the long-term health of a home service business, it's membership growth rate.

Not revenue. Not even profitability. Membership. Because everything else, revenue, profitability, referrals, reviews, follows from the depth of the relationships you've built.

Grow your membership base. It's the best investment you can make in the stability of your business.

This Week’s Favorite Tweets

Friends of The Path Less Traveled

Who are the VENDORS that fuel our success?

ACCOUNTING & TAX SERVICES

I met Patrick on X (formerly Twitter), which continues to be one of the best communities for thoughtful operators sharing real insights. I’ve followed his work closely and have been consistently impressed by the quality of content he puts out around building strong finance and accounting foundations in small businesses. He brings both clarity and practicality to a topic that is often overlooked but critically important. If you’re a business doing anywhere from startup to ~$15M in revenue, Appletree is an excellent partner to have in your corner.

PAYROLL & HR

Inova Payroll & HR has been a partner to our companies for over 10 years. They have provided us with a payroll technology platform that has been able to keep pace with the demands of our fast-growing organization (now serving team members across 4 states). Inova’s platform works seamlessly with our CRM, ServiceTitan, and with our accounting back-end, Sage Intacct.

COACHING & TRAINING

If there is one organization - perhaps more than any other - that has fueled our growth over the last 10 years… that organization would be Nexstar Network. I like to say that Nexstar Network has built & refined a “process playbook” that touches on so many facets of our business. Don’t try and re-create the wheel… come and learn from the best. Reach out to my friend Kara Schuster at [email protected] and tell her that I sent you.

#grateful for the “Friends of TPLT” sponsors in this section

Hey…I could use your help connecting with like-minded business leaders:

If you know someone who should read The Path Less Traveled - please forward this email them: https://thepathlesstraveled.beehiiv.com/subscribe