From 4 Jobs a Month to 17 — Without Checkatrade

A solid tradesman with no online presence

Marcus had been fitting bathrooms across Enfield and the surrounding areas for just over eight years. Good reviews on Checkatrade, a handful of repeat customers and word of mouth had kept him steady enough — but steady was not where he wanted to be.

When we first spoke to him he had four jobs on the books for that month. He had spent £180 on Checkatrade and converted two of the leads. The others had gone to someone cheaper. He was frustrated but did not know what to do differently.

He had no website. Typing "bathroom fitter Enfield" into Google showed three competitors above him and he was nowhere to be found. That was the starting point.

Building the foundation first, then turning on the ads

The first thing we built was a proper website — not a flashy agency site with stock photos, but a clean, fast-loading page built to convert local homeowners. Photos of his actual work, his service area clearly listed, a click-to-call button above the fold and a short contact form. Simple, credible, fast.

We then set up Google Ads targeting people actively searching for bathroom fitting in Enfield, Barnet, Palmers Green and Southgate — high-intent search terms, the kind of phrases someone types when they have already decided they want the work done.

Call tracking was crucial. Marcus had no idea where his enquiries were coming from before. Within the first two weeks we had already removed several keywords eating budget without producing calls.

Seventeen jobs a month by the end of month two

The first few weeks were steady — seven enquiries, five of which converted to booked jobs. Marcus said it felt different to Checkatrade because the people calling had found him directly, had already looked at his website, and were not shopping around in the same way.

By the end of month two the cost per enquiry had dropped from just over £60 in week one down to £42. The weekly optimisation was paying off.

Marcus went from turning over roughly £4,500 a month to consistently clearing £7,000 within three months. More importantly his pipeline was predictable. He could plan his diary and stopped losing weekends worrying about where the next job was coming from.

He cancelled his Checkatrade subscription at the end of month three. He has not been back.

Expanding to Waltham Cross this month

What Marcus has now is something Checkatrade could never give him — a pipeline he controls completely. If Google Ads gets more expensive he adjusts. If he wants to push a different area he can. If he wants a week off he pauses the campaign. None of that was possible when his entire business depended on a third-party platform.

He is currently on our Growth plan and we are expanding the campaign to cover Waltham Cross and Cheshunt. His goal is to take on one part-time assistant and move toward larger bathroom renovation projects rather than just standard fits.