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"Doc" Dancer — Fort Wayne, IN | HVAC & Home Services

How a Fort Wayne Home Services Institution Turned a Website Rebuild into $1.4 Million in Trackable Revenue

"Doc" Dancer has been keeping Fort Wayne homes comfortable for more than 75 years. HVAC, plumbing, electrical; they do it all, and they do it well. Three generations of Fort Wayne families have called "Doc" when something breaks. That kind of trust takes decades to build.

But trust doesn't automatically transfer to the next generation of homeowners. The younger families buying homes in Fort Wayne weren't finding "Doc" the way their parents had. They were searching Google, comparing reviews, and calling whoever showed up first. And "Doc" wasn't showing up first.

The phones weren't broken. The reputation wasn't damaged. The marketing just wasn't keeping up.

Contents

What We Found

"Doc" came to V+M in 2019. Before we touched a single ad or rewrote a single page, we delivered a ThinkFirst™, a full audit of their service areas, existing marketing, website, and where customers were actually coming from.

Two problems showed up immediately.

The website was outdated and struggling to rank in search. Fort Wayne homeowners Googling for HVAC repair or plumbing help were finding “Doc’s” competitors. Years of built-up credibility weren't translating into visibility where it counted.

The paid ad strategy wasn't pulling its weight either. Money was going out. Measurable jobs weren't coming back at the rate they should have been.

Both were fixable.

The Solution: A New Website and a Sharper Paid Strategy

First, we rebuilt the website from scratch, focusing on getting found. We structured it around the keywords Fort Wayne homeowners search when something goes wrong in their house, built it to load fast on mobile, and optimized every page to rank.

The results showed up in the first year: a 366% increase in market visibility and a 300% increase in first-page keyword rankings. Pages that used to sit buried on page four were now showing up where decisions get made.

Second, we overhauled their paid ads. We rebuilt their Google Ads campaigns and layered in Google Local Services Ads, the listings that appear at the very top of search results with a "Google Guaranteed" badge. 

We also launched email marketing to their existing customer base, a list built over 75 years.

First Year Results

  • $1.4M in revenue traced directly back to marketing
  • 17:1 return on every marketing dollar spent
  • 366% increase in market visibility
  • 300% increase in first-page keyword rankings
  • 24% year-over-year growth

Every number above is marketing attributable revenue; we can trace the dollar from the ad or the search result to the booked job to the invoice. Not clicks. Not impressions. Jobs.

Where "Doc" Dancer Is Now

The younger demographic "Doc" was missing? They're finding them now. The trust that took 75 years to build is reaching the next generation of Fort Wayne homeowners.

Ready to Grow?

Your marketing should be as reliable as the service you provide. Valve+Meter's data-driven approach starts with understanding your business and ends with results you can actually trust. Schedule your marketing assessment and find out what measurable growth looks like for your company.

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