CASE STUDY: LOUISVILLE PLUMBER'S WEBSITE GENERATES $150K IN REVENUE YEAR ONE
A Louisville plumber invested in a real website and tracked every dollar it brought in. The result? $150,000 in year-one revenue from web leads alone.
$150,000. From a Website. In One Year.
When Ben Calloway from River City Plumbing in Louisville, Kentucky first got on a call with us, he asked a question we hear all the time.
"What's the ROI on a website?"
Fair question. Smart question, actually. Most plumbers just ask "how much does it cost?" Ben wanted to know what he'd GET for what he spent.
So we made him a deal. We'd build the site. He'd track every single job that came from a web lead for 12 months. And we'd share the results. Good or bad.
Well, here are the results. And they're not bad.
$150,287 in revenue. Directly attributed to leads that came through his website. Year one.
Drops mic. Picks it back up because we're not done.
Where Ben Started
Ben had been running River City Plumbing for 11 years. Solid reputation. Good reviews on Google (4.7 stars, 89 reviews). A crew of three technicians plus himself.
His website? Built on Wix by a family friend in 2017. It looked... fine. Not terrible. Not great. Just fine.
But "fine" doesn't cut it when you're trying to grow.
Here's what his analytics looked like before we got involved:
- Monthly website visitors: 180
- Monthly calls from website: 6-8
- Google rankings for "plumber Louisville KY": Position 18 (page 2)
- Revenue from web leads (estimated): $2,000-3,000/month
Ben was doing most of his business through HomeAdvisor (now Angi) and word-of-mouth. He was paying about $800/month for leads through Angi, and the quality was... let's say inconsistent.
"I'd get leads from Angi and half of them wouldn't answer the phone," Ben told us. "Or they were shopping around with 5 other plumbers. By the time I call back, they've already booked someone else."
Sound familiar?
The Build
We built Ben a new website in 6 days. Here's what made it different:
### The Lead Tracking System
This was the key. Every form submission, every phone call, every text message from the website was tracked and tagged. We set up call tracking numbers so Ben knew exactly which calls came from the website vs. other sources.
No guessing. No "I think they found us online." Hard data.
### 22 Optimized Pages
- Homepage with clear value proposition and Louisville-focused content
- 14 service pages (each targeting specific keywords)
- 6 area pages (Louisville, St. Matthews, Jeffersontown, Highlands, Shively, New Albany IN)
- Contact page with form AND click-to-call
### Speed and Mobile Performance
Ben's old Wix site loaded in 8.3 seconds on mobile. The new site? 1.9 seconds. You can test your own at PageSpeed Insights.
That difference alone is worth thousands in leads. Studies show 53% of mobile visitors leave if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load.
### Conversion-Focused Design
Every page had: - Phone number in the header (click to call on mobile) - A "Request Service" form - Trust badges (licensed, insured, 89 five-star reviews) - A clear call to action above the fold
No stock photos. Real pictures of Ben and his crew. Real pictures of their work. Because people hire people, not clipart.
The 12-Month Revenue Breakdown
Here's the data Ben tracked. Every dollar came from a lead that originated on the website.
| Month | Web Leads | Jobs Booked | Revenue | |-------|-----------|-------------|---------| | 1 | 22 | 14 | $8,420 | | 2 | 28 | 19 | $11,200 | | 3 | 31 | 21 | $9,850 | | 4 | 35 | 24 | $12,640 | | 5 | 38 | 26 | $13,100 | | 6 | 42 | 28 | $14,280 | | 7 | 39 | 25 | $11,900 | | 8 | 44 | 29 | $15,350 | | 9 | 41 | 27 | $12,800 | | 10 | 46 | 31 | $14,200 | | 11 | 43 | 28 | $13,420 | | 12 | 48 | 33 | $13,127 | | Total | 457 | 305 | $150,287 |
Let that sink in.
457 leads. 305 booked jobs. $150,287 in revenue.
And it grew almost every month. That's the beauty of SEO. It compounds. Month 1 is good. Month 6 is better. Month 12 is incredible.
The ROI Math
Ben paid us less than $2,000 for his website (check our pricing for current rates).
He generated $150,287 in revenue from that website in year one.
That's a 7,414% return on investment.
Even if you factor in some overhead, even if you assume only half that revenue was profit, the ROI is absolutely insane.
Compare that to Angi, where Ben was paying $800/month ($9,600/year) for lower-quality leads that were shared with 5 other plumbers.
He canceled Angi in month 4.
The Big Job That Almost Didn't Happen
In month 8, Ben got a call from a woman in St. Matthews whose main sewer line had collapsed.
She told Ben she found River City Plumbing by Googling "sewer line replacement Louisville" at 10 PM on a Tuesday. His site was the first result. She read the service page, looked at photos of previous sewer jobs, checked the reviews, and called the next morning.
That job? $18,500.
"That's my biggest job ever," Ben told us. "And she said she didn't even call anyone else. She saw our site, read the reviews, and just knew. That's the power of looking legit online."
One job. Almost paid for the website 10 times over.
What Ben Would Tell You
We asked Ben what he'd say to a plumber on the fence about investing in a website.
His response:
> "I wasted 7 years with a website that didn't do anything. I thought websites were just something you have, like a business card. I didn't know it could actually make me money. Real, trackable money. If I could go back, I'd have done this on day one. The Angi money I wasted alone could've paid for 10 websites."
Your Turn
Ben's not a marketing genius. He's a plumber. A really good one.
The only thing he did differently was invest in a website that was built to generate leads, not just look pretty. Everything else... his skills, his reputation, his work ethic... he already had.
You probably already have it too. You're just missing the website that makes it visible. Learn what to put on your plumbing homepage to start generating real leads.
Get your free website audit and let's see what kind of revenue your plumbing business could generate with a website that actually works.
Check out our reviews to see what other plumbers like Ben have to say.
P.S. $150,287 in year one. What would an extra $150K do for your business? For your family? For your peace of mind? Let's find out. The free audit takes 10 minutes. The results last for years.