Cary PPC Campaigns Built to Turn Clicks Into Customers
More phone calls and booked work from Google search, and now from AI search too.
Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and Meta campaigns for Cary service businesses, engineered around the only metric that pays back: revenue per booked lead, not click volume.
Latest case study below: +76% Google Ads conversions on a 2.29% spend increase.
- Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta, LinkedIn. Every channel where the cost-per-lead math closes
- Conversion tracking wired to your CRM, not just Google Ads (GA4 + CallRail + offline imports)
- Dedicated landing pages per intent. The home page is not a landing page
- Monthly reporting tied to leads and revenue. Google Partner. 5.0 across 30+ Google reviews
Partner
How a 78-year-old Gulf Coast glass company drove 76% more Google Ads conversions on a 2.29% spend increase.
Cary service businesses sit inside the Research Triangle auction, with high household incomes, a tech-and-pharma professional base, and aggressive metro-wide PPC competition, where the cheapest click is rarely the cheapest lead. The Dixie Glass campaign shows what disciplined PPC management does to that math.
Dixie Glass, a third-generation Mississippi Gulf Coast glass company in business since 1946, came to Lithium with Google Ads campaigns that were spending without producing tracked conversions. We rebuilt the campaigns around proper conversion tracking, tightened the keyword and match-type strategy, deployed dedicated landing pages, and wired CallRail through to GA4. Over twelve months, on only a 2.29 percent ad spend increase, Google Ads conversions climbed 76 percent and the campaign conversion rate landed at 15.57 percent.
DIXIE GLASS — GOOGLE ADS REBUILD
Three things Cary PPC programs miss that we don't.
Cary campaigns bleed budget into Raleigh, Durham, and Apex without tight geo.
Cary borders Apex, Morrisville, Raleigh, and the broader Research Triangle Park core, and the default Triangle radius pulls clicks from competitors' home markets. We tighten geo by zip cluster around Cary plus Morrisville and the immediate Apex border so the spend actually lands on Cary buyers.
Cary buyers research like the engineers and pharma scientists they often are.
When the customer pool is heavy with SAS Institute engineers, Research Triangle Park scientists, and tech transplants from Boston and the Bay Area, generic 'best in the Triangle' ad copy gets dismissed. We write ads that name the service, the part of Cary or the RTP-adjacent corridor, and a real verifiable offer, then route them to landing pages built for buyers who read every line.
Cary PPC math closes on cost per booked lead, not impressions.
Triangle CPCs sit at or above the national average and Cary's affluent buyer pool attracts a heavy bench of competing agencies. We report leading indicators weekly during launch, then leads, cost per lead, and revenue every month against your CRM. The conversation is whether the campaign paid back, not whether the dashboard moved.
Ranking for queries that do not convert
In Cary, where Bay Area business-services CPCs run $7 to $12, every wasted click is a measurable dollar lost. Lithium’s PPC programs are built around the cost-per-lead math first, click volume second.
Technical debt blocking growth
Service-business buyers prefer to tap a phone number rather than navigate a menu to find one. A site missing a click-to-call link in the hero, and a sticky mobile bar that keeps it within thumb reach during scroll, loses the calls you paid to earn through ads.
Generic content that says nothing local
A PPC campaign without proper conversion tracking, dedicated landing pages, and negative-keyword discipline is invisible in your CRM dashboard. The clicks may be there, the impressions may be there, but the booked work is flat. That is where most of the Cary ad spend silently leaks.
No measurement tied to revenue
Buyers decide whether to keep scrolling in about five seconds. A site that shows no reviews, no project photos, no service-area clarity, and no trust signal in the hero loses every time to a competitor who placed a single five-star rating in the right spot.
Eight things we ship inside every Cary PPC retainer, not as upsells.
Every Cary PPC engagement starts with the same audit and gets the same build, whether you serve Downtown Cary, the master-planned neighborhoods like Preston and Lochmere, or the RTP-adjacent corridor. The work below is what produces a campaign that pays back in a high-income Triangle auction.
Conversion tracking, properly wired
GA4 events on every form and click-to-call. CallRail call tracking with call quality scoring. Server-side conversion imports for Google Ads. Offline-conversion imports from your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, GoHighLevel). The algorithm cannot optimize toward leads it cannot see.
Dedicated landing pages per intent
Landing pages built for the buyer behind the keyword, not the home page. Single offer above the fold, tap-to-call thumb-zone-friendly, one form, one CTA, and a load time under 2.5 seconds on a mid-tier Cary mobile network. Every high-intent keyword cluster gets its own page.
Keyword strategy + match-type discipline
Keywords mapped to buyer intent (research, comparison, decision) and tied to estimated revenue per lead. Match-type discipline that prevents broad-match drift from eating budget on the wrong queries. Monthly negative-keyword review from the search-terms report.
Ad copy + Responsive Search Ads
Ad copy that names the actual service, not “quality work.” Responsive Search Ads with the maximum asset count, manual headline pinning where intent demands it, sitelinks tuned to Cary buyer language, and structured asset extensions. Every variant tagged for A/B analysis.
Geo-targeting + audience layering
Geo-targeting at the suburb level, not the metro level. Bid modifiers tuned to your actual conversion data across the neighborhoods you serve. Audience layering with in-market segments, remarketing pools, and customer-match uploads from your CRM. The right click, the right place, the right time, at the right bid.
Bid management + remarketing
Manual control on high-intent keywords, Google’s tCPA and tROAS automation where the data supports it. Remarketing audiences segmented by funnel stage, with display, YouTube, and Discovery campaigns layered on top of search for Cary buyers who clicked but did not convert. The full funnel, not just the first click.
Reporting tied to revenue, not vanity
Looker Studio dashboard updating daily on impressions, clicks, conversions, conversion rate, and ROAS by campaign and ad group. Call quality scored and reviewed monthly. Monthly written report ties everything back to leads delivered, cost per lead, and revenue. The same numbers Lithium uses internally to manage your program.
Optimization cadence that pays back
Daily monitoring during the first 30 days, weekly after that. Bid adjustments, ad copy rotations, and budget reallocations happen on real data: search-terms reports, conversion data by ad group, landing-page conversion rate, device and audience performance. Every change is logged and tied to a measurable outcome.
The verticals where our Cary PPC playbook turns clicks into customers most reliably.
Cary’s economy runs on SAS Institute (Cary is the company’s headquarters), the broader Research Triangle Park technology and pharmaceutical employer base just minutes away, healthcare anchored by WakeMed Cary and Duke and UNC system reach, and the residential service market supporting one of the wealthiest and fastest-growing suburbs in the Southeast. These are the verticals where our PPC programs deliver the most consistent cost-per-lead math.
HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing trades in Cary serve a mix of newer master-planned neighborhoods (Preston, Lochmere, Amberly, MacGregor Downs) and the older Downtown Cary inventory. Southeast humidity and the long summer drive heavy AC failure volume from May through September, and severe-weather events from hurricanes and thunderstorms create roofing and tree-related surges. We build emergency-intent campaigns with call-only ads, geo-targeting tightened around Cary plus the Morrisville and Apex border, and tap-to-call landing pages. Cost per lead typically lands $80 to $150 once optimized.
Independent dental and medical practices in Cary operate in the orbit of WakeMed Cary Hospital, UNC Rex Healthcare, and the broader Duke Health and UNC Health system reach across the Triangle. Patient flow includes SAS Institute and Triangle pharma corporate-benefits pools, plus a high share of transplant patients with portable PPO coverage. We run procedure-specific ad groups, insurance-friendly landing pages naming the carriers actually accepted (BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina dominates), and conversion tracking through your booking platform. Not just form submissions.
Cary contractors and builders work some of the highest-end residential remodel and new-construction inventory in the Triangle. Preston and Lochmere remodels, MacGregor Downs renovations, Amberly and Carpenter Village new builds, and the steady flow of Downtown Cary historic-area work. We run project-type ad groups, image and YouTube creative shot at real Cary jobsites, and quote-form landing pages with realistic price-range expectation setting that filters tire kickers before the call. North Carolina contractor licensing details should be visible.
Cary attorneys handle a heavy mix of estate planning for the high-income homeowner base, family law, business formation and IP work tied to the SAS and RTP technology and pharma base, personal injury tied to I-40 and the Triangle Expressway, immigration tied to the heavy international tech and research workforce, and real-estate practice tied to the high-turnover transplant market. North Carolina State Bar advertising rules apply. We run practice-area campaigns tied to real buyer intent, consultation-booking landing pages, and conversion tracking that ties each high-CPC click to a booked call.
Cary’s restaurant scene runs through the Downtown Cary historic district, the Waverly Place and Park West Village corridors, the Crossroads Plaza area, and the RTP-adjacent dining cluster. The Indian and South Asian restaurant scene here is among the best in the South, reflecting the strong Indian-American presence in the local tech workforce. We build local-inventory ads, OpenTable and Resy conversion tracking, event-driven scheduling around Diwali, the Lazy Daze Arts and Crafts Festival, and the Koka Booth Amphitheatre concert calendar.
Auto repair, body shops, detailing, and EV service in Cary serve a high European-luxury and EV share tied to the affluent buyer pool, plus the steady commuter-vehicle service work driven by the I-40, US 1, and Triangle Expressway corridors. Tesla, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, and Toyota dominate the service mix. We run service-emergency call-only campaigns, OEM-targeted ad groups, parts-and-labor landing pages, and dynamic call extensions. Mobile and concierge service converts unusually well in the master-planned communities.
Cary’s specialty retail concentrates around the Waverly Place, Park West Village, and Crossroads Plaza corridors, plus the boutique cluster in Downtown Cary. The high-income transplant buyer pool over-indexes on specialty and design retail. We run Google Shopping campaigns with product feeds, local-inventory ads tied to current stock, store-visit conversion tracking, and remarketing audiences segmented by product category. Performance Max handles the awareness layer, manual search captures the high-intent decision.
Cary’s B2B service economy is dominated by services to SAS Institute and the broader Research Triangle Park ecosystem (engineering staffing, IT-services, cybersecurity, scientific consulting, pharma-services vendors supporting the GSK, IBM, Cisco, and biotech corporate base), plus the steady professional-services bench. Buying cycles run long and procurement-driven. We run LinkedIn-paired Google Ads campaigns, gated-content lead-gen funnels, ABM-style targeting against the named SAS, RTP, and pharma buyers, and long-cycle attribution wired through HubSpot or Salesforce. Cost per qualified opportunity matters more than cost per first-touch lead.
From audit to optimized campaigns, with weekly check-ins through the first month.
Profitable PPC is a compounding system, not a one-time launch. The Lithium process starts with an audit and conversion-tracking rebuild, then ships campaign optimizations on a weekly cadence with monthly reporting that ties impressions to booked work.
Audit and strategy
We pull your Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, GA4, CallRail, and CRM data and audit your current campaigns against impression share, conversion rate, quality score, and search-terms waste. We map your service mix, real Cary buyer journeys, and revenue per lead. You receive an audit deliverable in week one with priorities ranked by impact.
Conversion infrastructure
Before we touch ad copy, we wire conversion tracking properly. GA4 events on every form and click-to-call, CallRail through to Google Ads, server-side conversion imports, and offline-conversion imports from your CRM. The algorithm cannot optimize toward leads it cannot see, so this gets done first or everything else compounds slower.
Campaign build
Ad groups structured by buyer intent, ad copy with the maximum Responsive Search Ads asset count, dedicated landing pages built for each high-intent keyword cluster, geo-targeting at the suburb level (tuned to the neighborhoods you actually serve), and a baseline negative-keyword list. Every campaign launches with a 30-day optimization plan already mapped.
Launch and learning phase
We build your Cary campaigns from the ground up: ad groups by intent, ad copy with the maximum Responsive Search Ads asset count, sitelinks tuned to Cary buyer language, geo-targeting at the suburb level, and dedicated landing pages for the highest-intent keywords. Every campaign launches with a baseline negative-keyword list and a 30-day optimization plan already mapped.
Ongoing optimization
Daily monitoring during the first 30 days, weekly after that. We optimize on search-terms reports, conversion data by ad group, landing-page conversion rate, device and audience performance, and quality score drift. Bid adjustments, ad copy rotations, and budget reallocations happen on real data, not gut feel. Every change is logged and tied to a measurable outcome.
Measurement and monthly iteration
Monthly written report tied to leads, cost per lead, and revenue from paid search. Strategy call with DJ Van Zanten to set the next month’s priorities. The strategy adjusts every thirty days based on what is actually moving the phone in Cary. Not what looks good on a vanity chart.
What a Cary service-business owner actually gets, by PPC approach.
Transparent pricing. Management starts at $500/month, separate from your ad spend.
Typical Cary service businesses run $500 to $1,500 per month in management on top of $2,000 to $5,000 in monthly ad spend. Pricing scales with monthly ad spend, channel count (Google, Microsoft, Meta, LinkedIn), and how much landing-page production work the campaign needs. You will see the math on the first call. No haggling, no hidden upsells.
Service businesses Lithium runs PPC for.
Willard Power Vac
“Lithium Marketing has been amazing for our business. They have greatly increased our web traffic and helped us land hundreds of jobs.”
Drake’s 7 Dees
“Cost per lead is down, lead quality is up, and the monthly reports actually mean something. Lithium runs our Google Ads like they own the business.”
Rickabaugh Construction
“Working with Lithium Marketing has been awesome.”
Cary PPC, straight answers.
A properly built Cary campaign starts producing tracked conversions within the first week of launch. The first 30 days are a learning phase where the algorithm calibrates against the Triangle auction, with the heavy out-of-market spillover risk creating uneven early data until negatives tighten. Cost per lead typically stabilizes by month two and improves through month three as landing pages get conversion-rate-tested. We report weekly during the first month, monthly after that.
Triangle business-services CPCs run roughly $5 to $12 in trades and $10 to $25 in legal, sitting above the $5.58 national average because of the affluent buyer pool and aggressive agency competition. The Cary median household income exceeds $130,000, which keeps cost-per-lead targets reasonable even at higher CPC levels. Properly run Cary campaigns deliver cost per lead under $135 in trades and under $260 in legal and dental.
Management starts at $500 per month, separate from your ad spend. Typical Cary service businesses run $500 to $1,500 per month in management on top of $2,000 to $5,000 in monthly ad spend. The number depends on monthly ad spend, channel count, and how much landing-page production work the campaign needs for geo splits across Cary, Morrisville, and Apex. You will see the math on the first call. No haggling, no hidden upsells.
No reputable PPC agency guarantees a specific cost per lead, because both the Triangle auction and your offer move it. Cary especially varies by quarter, with summer HVAC demand, hurricane and severe-weather seasonality, tech-industry hiring cycles, and the heavy spring and fall homebuying windows tied to relocation each shifting demand. What we guarantee is the work. Conversion tracking shipped properly, dedicated landing pages per intent, monthly negative-keyword review, weekly bid optimization, and reporting tied to revenue per lead.
Quality Score is Google’s estimate of how relevant your ad and landing page are to the keyword. It directly affects your cost per click and ad position. We optimize Quality Score on three vectors: expected click-through rate (better ad copy, headline pinning where intent demands it), ad relevance (tight ad-group themes, one core keyword set per ad group), and landing-page experience (dedicated pages per intent, fast mobile load, message-match with the ad). A 7+ Quality Score on high-volume keywords often saves Cary clients 30 to 50 percent on cost per click compared to a 4 or 5.
Three layers. Leading indicators: impressions, clicks, click-through rate, Quality Score, and search impression share in the Cary and broader Triangle auctions (which we split for almost every account because the CPC differential is real). Mid-funnel: conversion rate by ad group, conversion rate by landing page, and call quality scoring on every CallRail-recorded inbound. Revenue: leads delivered, cost per lead, ROAS, and revenue attributed to paid via offline conversion imports from your CRM. The dashboard updates daily and the written report ships monthly with a strategy call.
Daily campaign monitoring during the first 30 days (weekly after), bid and budget optimization, ongoing ad copy and creative testing, landing-page conversion-rate optimization, monthly negative-keyword review tuned to filter Raleigh, Durham, and Apex spillover, audience segmentation refinement, call quality scoring, monthly reporting tied to leads and revenue, and a strategy call with DJ Van Zanten. Cary retainers above the base tier include landing-page production and CRM offline-conversion wiring.
Yes. PPC is the fastest channel for a new Cary business because it does not depend on the years of Triangle reputation that established competitors are coasting on. A new business with a real offer, a clean landing page, and proper conversion tracking can produce tracked leads within the first week. We typically pair an aggressive PPC launch with a measured SEO build over the next six months so the blended cost per lead drops as earned visibility compounds.
Your Cary PPC strategy call is run by DJ Van Zanten, not handed to a junior account manager.
DJ Van Zanten joined Lithium as co-founder in 2018 and leads the strategic side of every client partnership. His approach is real-talk consulting: map out a simple, actionable plan, identify the revenue opportunities that matter most, and translate the technical work into business outcomes you can measure. Behind DJ on every Cary PPC program, co-founder Kurt Schell directs the technical and content execution, drawing on more than twenty years of SEO, PPC, and conversion-rate work. The strategy call you book is the actual call you take, with the person who will be calling the shots on what to prioritize, what to ignore, and how to measure progress.
Get a free 30-minute Cary PPC audit.
On the call we look at your current Cary PPC campaigns against impression share at Triangle CPC levels, conversion tracking depth, search-terms waste (especially Raleigh, Durham, and Apex spillover), landing-page conversion rate, and the actual cost per lead your CRM is recording. You leave with a specific 30-day plan, whether or not you decide to work with us. There is no slide deck and no sales pitch.
- No-obligation 30-minute call with DJ Van Zanten, not a junior
- Written priority list of the top 5 to 10 changes that will move leads
- Google Partner with a 5.0 rating across 30+ Google reviews