Paid ads case study
Capturing Early Market Share with a 10x ROAS – Modern Buildings
Client overview
About Modern Buildings
Seattle Modern Buildings ADU Builder is a Seattle-based design-build firm specializing in detached ADUs, duplexes, and modern homes.
When Seattle lifted restrictions on Accessory Dwelling Units, homeowner demand surged. The firm partnered with Kova Team to move early and establish itself as the go-to ADU builder before the market saturated. By niching down hard and launching tightly targeted Meta and Google campaigns, we generated 115 leads in January alone and delivered a 10x return on ad spend.
The results.
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualified lead rate | 15% | 65% | after ~2 months |
| Leads in a single month | — | 115 | January |
| Cost per lead | — | $35–40 | |
| Return on ad spend | — | 10x |
Reported by Kova from the campaign.
Before After · bars drawn to scale
Additional wins
- 8 permit development agreements signed in the first three months
- 3 permits submitted
- 3 construction agreements signed, one of them three projects in one
- ~$5,000 / month in ad spend
The challenge.
The client had a short window to establish market leadership before competitors pivoted to ADUs. Existing advertising was spread across a broad range of general construction services, so it could not capture the specific, fast-forming demand for ADUs.
- A short window to establish market leadership
- Broad service offering watering down the ad budget
- Local contractors rushing into the ADU space
- Top-of-funnel interest forming quickly
- No separate campaigns for high-value buyers
- A strong project-video library missing from social feeds
Our strategic approach.
We rebuilt the paid program around three moves: niche down, lead with real creative, and make it effortless to raise a hand.
- 01
Aggressive service niching
Stripped away general construction campaigns to focus exclusively on the booming ADU market.
- Paused diluted, broad-service campaigns
- Budgets restructured solely for ADU acquisition
- Core ADU buyer personas identified
- Messaging aligned with the new local zoning laws
- 02
Creative-led social
Leaned into Meta’s Andromeda update with high-performing video creative built from real builds.
- Video output scaled to match Meta’s algorithm
- Real ADU builds shown to earn trust
- High-engagement content that interrupts the feed
- Budget shifted to maximize top-of-funnel reach
- 03
Rapid lead capture
A frictionless Meta lead funnel that turns engaged viewers into qualified project inquiries.
- Native Meta lead forms plus a landing page, tested head to head
- Audiences filtered by video engagement
- 115 qualified leads in a single month
- 10x return on ad spend
How we execute.
Here’s how we went from broad campaigns to a predictable ADU pipeline.
- Weeks 1–2
Strategy & creative prep
- Audited the existing broad construction campaigns
- Gathered project videos and images
- Defined ADU-specific Meta audiences
- Mapped frictionless social lead funnels
- Weeks 3–4
Launch & deployment
- Video-led Meta campaigns live
- Engagement retargeting audiences launched
- Baseline Google Ads for brand capture
- Cross-platform conversion tracking standardized
- Months 2–3
Scale & refinement
- Heavy budget shifted toward winning Meta creative
- Daily spend scaled on 10x ROAS feedback
- 115 leads in a single 30-day period
- A predictable social inbound pipeline
What makes this work.
- 01
Aggressive niching
Cutting broad construction campaigns and focusing on the surging ADU market captured a specific, motivated audience before local competitors could pivot.
- 02
Video-led storytelling
Real behind-the-scenes build footage interrupted social feeds and earned trust far faster than static image ads.
- 03
Working with Meta’s algorithm
While competitors fought over expensive search clicks, we let Meta find high-intent homeowners at scale for a fraction of the cost.
- 04
Intentional lead capture
We ran native Meta lead forms and a landing page side by side and optimized toward whichever performed better for this campaign.
- 05
Data-driven scaling
Once the 10x ROAS was clear, budget moved straight from underperforming assets into the winning video creative.
Want results like this?
Let’s discuss how we can create a custom strategy to drive measurable growth for your business. We’ll show you exactly where you stand first.
- A free visibility audit across Google, Maps, and AI
- A custom city and keyword plan
- A competitor and opportunity review
- Clear next steps, no pressure