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Since 2005, Arbor Pride has been one of the biggest and best arboricultural services operating in Sydney's northern suburbs. For fifteen years, this established tree care company built their reputation through traditional methods that had served the industry well for decades.
The Traditional Approach That Stopped Working
Traditionally, the company relied on door-to-door sales, word-of-mouth, and repeat business to fill their pipeline. This approach had several advantages for an arboriculture business: customers could see the quality of work in their neighbourhood, sales representatives could assess properties in person, and the personal touch built trust for what is often a significant investment in property care.
However, by 2020, this traditional model was showing strain. The efficiency of door-to-door sales was decreasing as homeowners became less receptive to unsolicited visits, particularly in affluent northern suburbs where privacy and security are prioritised. Simultaneously, increased labour costs from their existing sales strategy were eating into profit margins, making each lead more expensive to acquire.
The arboriculture industry was also changing. Property owners were increasingly researching services online before making decisions, and competitors who had embraced digital marketing were capturing market share from businesses still relying solely on traditional methods.
The Decision to Embrace Digital Marketing
In June 2020, amid the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and changing consumer behaviour, the business decided to try paid advertising and explore opportunities to generate leads using paid search. This represented a significant shift for a company that had built its success on face-to-face relationships and local reputation.
The timing was strategic. With more people spending time at home during lockdowns, property owners were paying increased attention to their outdoor spaces and considering tree care services they might have previously overlooked. The challenge was reaching these potential customers in their new online research habits.
Clear Objectives for Digital Transformation
Arbor Pride set three specific objectives for their digital marketing initiative:
The $40 cost-per-lead target was based on the company's analysis of their traditional acquisition costs, including sales representative wages, travel time, and conversion rates from door-to-door efforts.
Strategic Platform Selection and Initial Analysis
Given the service offering, paid search proved to be the most suited platform for Arbor Pride's objectives. The search volume and cost-per-click data indicated that it was feasible to run search campaigns for a variety of services Arbor Pride offered, and search terms indicated high-intent from potential customers.
Arboriculture services benefit particularly well from search marketing because:
Our analysis revealed that homeowners typically searched for arboriculture services using specific, intent-driven terms rather than general browsing behaviour, making paid search more effective than display or social media advertising for this industry.
Website Optimisation for Lead Generation
While Arbor Pride's existing website was an effective tool for providing information about their services and showcasing their expertise, it wasn't optimised for conversion. The site had been designed primarily as a digital brochure rather than a lead generation tool.
As a result, we created a dedicated landing page specifically designed to improve their conversion rate. This new page included:
We also recognised that many potential customers in the arboriculture industry prefer phone conversations over form submissions, particularly for significant services like tree removal where they want to discuss specifics and get immediate answers.
Therefore, we set up comprehensive call tracking to accurately track conversions, ensuring we captured the full impact of our digital marketing efforts rather than just online form completions.
Comprehensive Paid Search Strategy
We identified a number of highly-relevant keywords for the arboriculture industry that had the necessary search volume and feasible cost-per-clicks, and focused on these opportunities.
Our keyword strategy encompassed several categories:
Alongside these industry-relevant terms, we ensured campaigns contained branded terms to mitigate the risk of losing traffic to competitors who might bid on Arbor Pride's company name.
The arboriculture industry faces unique challenges in paid search, including highly seasonal demand, emergency vs. planned services, and significant variation in service costs. Our campaign structure needed to account for these factors while maintaining efficiency.
Performance Evolution and Advanced Optimisation
Although the campaigns took two months to gain momentum—typical for service-based businesses building trust and reputation online—they have since been operating exceptionally and delivering leads for less than half of the cost initially set.
The initial momentum-building period was crucial for several reasons:
Since the initial implementation of campaigns, we've applied more advanced bid strategies to target better ROI outcomes and deliver ads to higher-intent users. These optimisations included:
Business Transformation Results
The digital transformation has been so successful that since starting with Acquisition Studio, Arbor Pride has ceased their door-to-door sales operations entirely, representing a fundamental shift in their business model.
More significantly, they have added an additional servicing team to handle the increased workload generated through digital marketing. This expansion demonstrates that the leads generated through paid search are not just cheaper to acquire, but also result in substantial business growth.
The elimination of door-to-door sales has provided additional benefits beyond cost savings:
Impressive Performance Metrics (2022)
The results speak to the effectiveness of strategic paid search for local service businesses:
These metrics represent not just marketing success, but business transformation. The 1,274 leads generated in 2022 represent more qualified prospects than Arbor Pride could realistically reach through traditional door-to-door methods, achieved at a fraction of the cost.
Industry-Specific Success Factors
Several factors specific to the arboriculture industry contributed to this exceptional performance:
Local Trust and Reputation: Arboriculture services require significant trust from property owners, and our campaigns leveraged Arbor Pride's established local reputation while expanding their reach.
Urgency and Seasonality: Tree care often involves urgent needs, and our campaigns were optimised to capture these high-intent moments when homeowners needed immediate assistance.
Visual Service Demonstration: The ability to showcase before-and-after images and demonstrate expertise through content marketing supported the paid search campaigns effectively.
Geographic Concentration: Serving Sydney's northern suburbs allowed for highly targeted geographic campaigns with intimate knowledge of local markets and customer preferences.
Arbor Pride represents a perfect example of how effective paid search can be for a small business looking to generate leads while transforming their fundamental business model. Google's offering of different campaign types, targeting, and bidding capabilities gives advertisers the ability to better control outcomes and ensure that campaigns deliver the results needed for sustainable growth.
This case study demonstrates that even traditional, relationship-based industries can successfully transition to digital lead generation when the approach is strategically planned and professionally executed. The key lies in understanding both the digital marketing landscape and the specific characteristics of the industry and local market.
For Arbor Pride, digital marketing didn't just provide a new source of leads—it enabled complete business transformation that improved profitability, predictability, and growth potential while maintaining the quality service standards that built their reputation over nearly two decades.
