Closet Factory — Google Ads Audit
Cross-Market
Comparison Dashboard
Three markets. One diagnosis. A side-by-side analysis of Virginia Beach, Cleveland, and Richmond — revealing the systemic patterns that connect them all.
The Big Picture
Three Markets, One Disease
Imagine three houses on the same street, all built by the same contractor, all suffering from the same cracked foundation. The cracks look a little different in each house — one has water damage in the basement, another has a sagging porch, the third has doors that won't close — but the root cause is identical. The foundation was poured wrong.
That is exactly what is happening across Closet Factory's Google Ads accounts in Virginia Beach, Cleveland, and Richmond. Three different markets, three different contacts, three different budgets — but the same structural failures running through every single one of them.
"The budget is inverted. The best campaign is starved. The worst campaign is gorging. Conversion tracking is a mess. And broad match keywords are opening the floodgates to every irrelevant search query Google can find."
In every market, Performance Max is the hero — delivering the lion's share of conversions at the lowest cost per lead. And in every market, it is being starved of budget while AI Max Search, the most expensive and least efficient campaign, consumes the majority of the spend. Virginia Beach gives PMax just 32% of the budget but gets 72% of its conversions from it. Cleveland gives PMax 26% and gets 61%. Richmond gives PMax 36% and gets 41%.
This is not a coincidence. This is a pattern. And patterns can be fixed — not one market at a time, but all at once, with a single playbook applied across the entire Closet Factory network.
The numbers tell the story clearly: Virginia Beach is the most expensive at $464 CPL, bleeding the most from a YouTube TV campaign that burned $18K with zero conversions. Cleveland runs leaner at $228 CPL but has zero negative keywords and broken phone tracking. Richmond is the healthiest at $193 CPL — but "healthiest" is a low bar when the same junk traffic, the same bloated conversion tracking, and the same wrong bid strategy are present in all three.
The combined monthly spend across all three markets is $54,481. The combined monthly leads: 223. The combined CPL: $244. With the systemic fixes applied, the projection is 450 leads per month at $125 CPL — doubling the lead volume while cutting the cost nearly in half. Same budget. Different results. Because the foundation gets fixed.
Market Overview
Side-by-Side Snapshot
Virginia Beach
Jan 2025 – Feb 2026 (14 mo)
Account CPL
$464
Cleveland
Nov 2024 – Feb 2025 (~90 days)
Account CPL
$228
Richmond
Jan 2025 – Feb 2026 (14 mo)
Account CPL
$193
Campaign Performance
Cost Per Lead by Campaign
Performance Max is the hero in every market. AI Max Search is the villain. The pattern is unmistakable.
- Virginia Beach
- Cleveland
- Richmond
Virginia Beach
PMax
32% budget → 72% conv
$130
CPL
AI Max
52% budget → 34% conv
$438
CPL
Demand Gen
10% budget → 4% conv
$597
CPL
YouTube TV
6% budget → 0% conv
∞
CPL
Cleveland
PMax
26% budget → 61% conv
$99
CPL
AI Max
60% budget → 35% conv
$395
CPL
Demand Gen
14% budget → 4% conv
$694
CPL
Richmond
PMax
36% budget → 41% conv
$169
CPL
AI Max
63% budget → 58% conv
$207
CPL
Demand Gen
2% budget → 1% conv
$421
CPL
The Core Problem
Budget Inversion Analysis
In every market, the best-performing campaign receives the smallest share of budget while the worst-performing campaign consumes the most. This is the single most damaging pattern.
Virginia Beach
PMax gets 32% of budget but delivers 72% of conversions. AI Max gets 52% of budget but delivers only 34%.
Cleveland
PMax gets 26% of budget but delivers 61% of conversions. AI Max gets 60% of budget but delivers only 35%.
Richmond
PMax gets 36% of budget but delivers 41% of conversions. AI Max gets 63% of budget but delivers only 58%.
If all three markets simply flipped their budget allocation — giving PMax 60% and AI Max 25% — the combined CPL would drop by an estimated 40–50% overnight with no other changes.
Search Term Quality
Where the Money Burns
All three markets hemorrhage money on search terms that never convert. The waste rate hovers between 34% and 56% — confirming this is a systemic problem, not a geographic one.
Virginia Beach
Search spend wasted
Cleveland
Search spend wasted
Richmond
Search spend wasted
Common Junk Traffic Categories (All Markets)
Conversion Tracking
Broken Signals, Broken Bidding
All three accounts have bloated, redundant conversion tracking setups with too many Primary actions. Google's Smart Bidding is trying to optimize for 8–9 different goals simultaneously — which means it is optimizing for none of them effectively.
Virginia Beach
41
Total Actions
9
Primary Actions
39 conversion actions, 26 with zero conversions
9 Primary actions sending conflicting signals
Only 'Opportunity - New' is meaningful (63 conv)
Cleveland
26
Total Actions
8
Primary Actions
Only 2 phone calls in 90 days — tracking is broken
Submit lead form marked as Secondary (wrong)
Maximize Conversion Value instead of Max Conversions
Richmond
28
Total Actions
8
Primary Actions
YouTube follow-on views marked as Primary
3 Business Profile actions with 0 conversions marked Primary
CHEQ flagged 750 invalid users
5 separate phone call tracking actions (duplicates)
Shared Diagnosis: Wrong Bid Strategy
All three markets use "Maximize Conversion Value" — a strategy that optimizes for ROAS, not lead volume. For a home services business where the goal is to generate leads, this is the wrong strategy. All should be using "Maximize Conversions" with a Target CPA constraint.
Pattern Recognition
Systemic vs. Market-Specific Issues
Seven issues appear in all three markets — confirming a management pattern, not bad luck. Four issues are unique to individual markets.
Systemic Issues (All Three Markets)
7 issues| Issue | VB | CLE | RVA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget Inversion | PMax 32% budget → 72% conv | PMax 26% budget → 61% conv | PMax 36% budget → 41% conv |
| 100% Broad Match | All 74 keywords broad | All keywords broad | All 95 keywords broad |
| Bloated Conversion Tracking | 41 actions, 9 Primary | 26 actions, 8 Primary | 28 actions, 8 Primary |
| Wrong Bid Strategy | Max Conv Value | Max Conv Value | Max Conv Value |
| Demand Gen CPL > $400 | $597 CPL | $694 CPL | $421 CPL |
| Same Junk Traffic | DIY, retail, furniture | DIY, retail, furniture | DIY, retail, furniture |
| AI Max Overfunded | 68% budget, $438 CPL | 60% budget, $395 CPL | 63% budget, $207 CPL |
Market-Specific Issues
4 issues| Issue | VB | CLE | RVA |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube TV Campaign | $18K, 0 conv | N/A | N/A |
| CBD Direct Threat | Not in auction insights | 47% pos above rate | CBD converts at $210 CPL |
| Broken Phone Tracking | Not flagged | 2 calls in 90 days | Marchex stale |
| Negative Keywords | 358 negatives | Zero negatives | 358 negatives |
The Opportunity
Projected 90-Day Impact
Same budget. Different results. By fixing the systemic issues across all three markets simultaneously, the combined performance transforms dramatically.
Combined CPL
$244
Current
$125
Projected
Monthly Leads
223
Current
450
Projected
Waste Rate
~40%
Current
<10%
Projected