The Results
- $25 Million in booked job revenue generated for clients in Q3 alone
- 40% Contact Rate achieved using AI auto-responders (up from ~8%), recovering leads that would otherwise vanish
- 5x ROAS (return on ad spend) on average across the agency’s client base
- 9x ROAS achieved for top clients
In the high-stakes world of home services, marketing budgets are substantial, and the feedback loop is often broken. A business owner might spend $20,000 a month on Google Ads, but when asked about performance, the response is often anecdotal: "It felt slow this week," or "We got calls, but they were all tire kickers."
For VIIRL Marketing, a transparent agency managing over 500 clients across the US, relying on feelings isn’t an option. They know that 100 leads are meaningless if they don't turn into revenue. Operating on a month-to-month contract model, the agency must prove the true return on investment (ROI) for client ad spend each cycle to ensure continuous retention and trust.
The Problem: High ad spend with zero visibility
The primary challenge VIIRL faces is the disconnect between ad spend and the cash register. A client sees $20,000 leave their account and sees 200 conversions on a report, but if they can't see the $85,000 in revenue that resulted, trust erodes.
Without granular tracking, agencies are defenseless against operational inefficiencies disguised as bad leads.
"A common thing marketing agencies hear is, 'You may have made my phone ring a hundred times, but they were all tire kickers... nobody actually wanted anything.' Well, since we record those calls, we can go listen... and we can actually get to the bottom of it." — Deric Frost, VP of Marketing at VIIRL
The agency realized that simply counting clicks wasn't enough. They needed to know who was calling, what they wanted, and why the sale was won or lost.
The Solution: Building the 'Lead Cloud'
VIIRL’s solution was to build a proprietary reporting engine called Lead Cloud, with CallRail serving as the non-negotiable data backbone.
Rather than using disparate tools, VIIRL integrates CallRail’s call and form tracking data directly into Lead Cloud, which then syncs with the client’s CRM, often ServiceTitan.
This tech stack allows them to track the entire lifecycle of a lead:
- The Source: CallRail tracks the specific Google Ad or Yelp campaign that drove the call.
- The Context: It then records and transcribes the call to determine intent.
- The Revenue: The integration matches the caller to a completed job in the CRM, displaying exact ROI.
However, technology is only half the equation. The agency’s success relies on a hybrid model that adds human oversight to the raw data. VIIRL treats the agency’s client locations like a high-stakes financial portfolio. The team doesn’t just set up the software – they actively manage the performance of every lead source, manually reviewing the calls when the numbers don't add up.
"VIIRL uses CallRail as a default for every client. Year to date we have tracked over 250,000 phone calls across all of our clients."
– Jed Winkler, President at VIIRL
The Transformation: Solving the Ghost Lead mystery
The modern home service customer requires immediate attention. If they message a service provider, like a plumber, and don't receive an instant reply, they quickly move on to the next available vendor. This rapid turnover meant VIIRL’s clients were losing promising leads — leads that were, in effect, disappearing into a competitor’s pipeline.
VIIRL implemented an automated AI response system triggered by incoming inquiries. The goal was straightforward: to engage the lead immediately and obtain a phone number. VIIRL tracked the data relentlessly.
The detective moment
When analyzing the data, the VIIRL team noticed a significant discrepancy in the Phone Number Capture Rate — the metric that predicts whether a job will close.
- The Control: Clients manually responding to messages only captured a phone number 8% to 20% of the time.
- The AI Implementation: Clients utilizing the AI Ghost Follow-Up saw capture rates jump to 40%.
To prove it wasn't a fluke, the operations team watched what happened when a skeptic turned the tool off.
Comparative data showed that when automated follow-up was removed, lead engagement plummeted and phone number capture rates dropped back to pre-implementation levels.
The data revealed the truth: The leads weren't bad – the speed-to-lead was simply too slow for human operators to handle. The technology closed the gap.
Data vs operations: The Trip Charge culprit
The data often reveals that the problem isn't the marketing — it's the offer. In one instance, call recordings revealed a client was losing conversions specifically because of a $500 trip charge mentioned early in calls. Because VIIRL could pinpoint exactly where the conversation failed, the client adjusted the operational fee, and conversions recovered. Without Lead Cloud providing this detective-level insight, that revenue would have continued to vanish unnoticed.
The Outcome: $100 million in accountability
By using CallRail to power their Lead Cloud system, VIIRL has evolved its tracking strategy to focus purely on bankable metrics.
- Revenue accountability: VIIRL can look a client in the eye and say, "You spent $14,000 and generated $33,000."
- High-volume impact: In Q3 alone, the agency tracked $25 million in booked revenue for its clients. They are on pace to drive $100 million in booked jobs over a 12-month period.
- Operational insight: Beyond marketing, they utilize call recordings to address business issues, identifying operational gaps such as unanswered weekend calls that drain revenue.
VIIRL redefined the standard for long-term client partnerships: When an agency can prove that $20,000 in spend resulted in $90,000 in booked revenue, the conversation shifts from 'What have you done for me lately?' to 'How can we scale this?'. The result is high-retention relationships built on financial facts rather than feelings.
"They know, 'I spent $20k and got $90k – a 4.5X return.' That's something our team can hang their hat on." — Deric Frost, VP of Marketing at VIIRL
What’s next: Moving from skepticism to AI adoption
While many in the trades are optimistically skeptical about AI, VIIRL is using its data to prove it isn't just a buzzword — it's a revenue driver.
The future for VIIRL involves deepening their use of AI to not just capture leads, but to qualify them. By using AI to handle the initial triage — checking zip codes and service types — they ensure that when a human technician finally speaks to a homeowner, the checkbook is already out.
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