JA Valeting & Detailing: 111 Leads in Two Months at Under £4 Each

The Challenge

JA Valeting & Detailing is a mobile car valeting and detailing business based in St Helens, north west England. Despite a strong offline reputation - 81 five-star Facebook reviews, a loyal client base, and a professional portfolio of before/after images - they were generating virtually no new business online.

They had attempted Google Ads previously without success. When we audited their setup, the story was familiar: one campaign, one ad group, broad match keywords, and Maximise Conversions selected from day one on a brand new account with zero conversion data. Their Squarespace website scored just 34/100 on Page Speed Insights, featured dark text on dark backgrounds, and offered no meaningful trust signals to first-time visitors.

Our Approach

We started from scratch on both the website and Google Ads, using keyword and competitor research as the foundation for every decision.

We identified 20 location keyword groups and 25 service keyword groups - 45 in total - covering terms such as "mobile car wash Wigan," "headlight restoration St Helens," and "interior cleaning Rainhill." Each keyword group became both a dedicated Google Ads ad group and a corresponding landing page on the new website, ensuring the entire user journey from search to enquiry was tightly relevant.

The new website replaced the slow Squarespace build with a fast, mobile-first design that scored 90/100 on Page Speed Insights (up from 34). Key improvements included prominent display of 81+ five-star reviews, multiple contact options (phone, WhatsApp, email, and contact form), a rolling service ticker, and a 15% promotional offer developed in collaboration with JA Valeting. Packages were removed from the primary call to action - instead the focus shifted to opening a conversation, making it easy for any potential customer to get in touch regardless of what they needed.

The page speed improvements were equally dramatic. The old Squarespace site scored 34 on performance - the new site scores 90, with Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO all at 100.

The Google Ads campaign was structured with 45 ad groups mirroring the 45 landing pages. Generic service ad groups used negative keywords for every tracked location to force Google to serve the more specific service-plus-location ad whenever a user included a location in their search. Campaign settings were locked to Google Search Network only, location targeting set to "people in or regularly in" the target area (not "interested in"), and bidding started on Maximise Clicks with a £1.00 max CPC cap to gather clean data before switching to smart bidding.

Conversion tracking was set up via Google Tag Manager to capture form submissions, WhatsApp contacts, phone clicks, and email clicks - giving the algorithm a complete picture of every lead action.

After two months and 111 recorded conversions, we switched to Maximise Conversions with a target CPA of £3.50, at which point the algorithm had sufficient data to optimise effectively.

For a deeper look at the methodology behind this campaign - keyword clustering, ad group structure, bidding strategy, and landing page principles - see our guide: Google Ads for Car Detailing and Valeting Businesses.

The Impact

Month 1 delivered 54 conversions at an average cost per lead of £3.63. Month 2 delivered 57 conversions at £3.58 per lead. By month 3, following the switch to smart bidding, the cost per lead dropped further to £3.52.

88% of all conversions came from mobile devices, validating the mobile-first design approach.

61% of conversions came from the granular service-plus-location ad groups - with standout performers such as the Leyland Mobile Car Valeting ad group achieving a 66.67% conversion rate.

JA Valeting reported that the quality of leads was exceptional, with enquiries coming from genuinely ready-to-book customers rather than casual browsers.