This piece translates lessons from the 2025 Search Engine Land Awards into actionable tactics for home services contractors, emphasizing calls and booked jobs over vanity traffic. It highlights that award finalists won by pairing disciplined AI with clean goals, precise geo-targeting, robust conversion signals, and feed intelligence. Recommended moves include importing qualified-call conversions, feeding CRM revenue back into bidding, tightening query and location controls, and increasing asset density to improve Google’s matching. Technical SEO, clean service taxonomy, and hyperlocal proof are positioned as force multipliers that lower CPC and improve conversion rates.

What Contractors Can Steal from the 2025 Search Engine Land Awards: Calls Over Clicks

TL;DR — The award finalists leaned hard into AI, local intent, and ruthless data use. Translate that to HVAC/plumbing/electrical by tightening your service-area targeting, feeding better data into Google, and optimizing for phone calls—not vanity traffic.

Why this list matters to contractors

Awards are highlight reels, not operating manuals. But they show where the market is shifting—and what’s working at scale. This year’s finalists leaned into AI-assisted PPC, feed intelligence, and local search discipline. If you run home services, that maps directly to more booked jobs when you deploy it with guardrails. Your play isn’t “let Google figure it out.” It’s “give the machine clean goals, clean geography, clean offers—and hold it accountable to call quality.”

Who’s winning—and why you should care

• Adviso is a standout with finalist slots in six categories for the second year straight.
• Razorfish and LOCALiQ each landed five finalist placements.

Translation: disciplined use of AI and data is beating guesswork. The home services angle shows up clearly too—CAMP Digital reported a 15x ROAS in the sector, and LOCALiQ drove a 323% lead increase for Rehabs UK. Big numbers don’t mean easy wins—they mean tight targeting, clean conversion signals, and relentless iteration.

PPC/SEM lessons you can use by Monday

• AI Technology in Search: Adviso’s Mondou project and CAMP Digital’s 15x ROAS in home services underscore a core point—AI works when it’s fed high-quality signals. For contractors, that means importing qualified call conversions (duration + call outcome) instead of simple form fills.
• Best Overall PPC (Small Business): LOCALiQ’s 323% lead lift didn’t come from broader targeting alone. Expect aggressive use of first-party data, geo controls, and conversion modeling. Your version: feed your CRM job values back to Google and bid to revenue, not just leads.
• Best Overall PPC (Enterprise): Adviso’s AI-powered overhaul for Simons signals a pattern—structure for the machine, not against it. Consolidate where it helps learning, but keep query quality tight with negatives and exact-match anchors around your highest-intent services.
• Best Commerce Search Marketing: Adviso’s Royal Distributing win highlights “feed intelligence.” Not ecom? Treat your “feed” as your service catalog: financing, same-day, emergency hours, brand certifications, service areas. Push that into assets, headlines, and lead forms so Performance Max actually finds buyers.
• Local Search Marketing: Adviso’s Belron work reportedly hit 238% above lead targets using AI. For contractors, that means smaller, smarter geo-radii, location assets dialed in, and budget shifted toward ZIPs with proven close rates.

SEO takeaways that backstop ad spend

• Amsive + MSN: 825 million clicks through technical SEO alone—no content edits. For you: speed, crawlability, schema, and service area pages that don’t cannibalize each other. That reduces your CPC burden.
• Razorfish + Prezzee: 229% YoY growth in commerce SEO. Again, “feed intelligence” matters—clear categories, accurate data, and clean internal linking. Your version is a clean services taxonomy and consistent NAP across locations.
• Digital Hitmen: Hyperlocal SEO drove standout ROI. Translate this into tight city/ZIP pages with unique proof: dispatcher ETAs by area, technician reviews per suburb, and locally priced promos.

The real tactics behind the trophies

• AI isn’t autopilot: It’s leverage. You still need negative keywords, search term audits, and spam filtering on lead forms and call tracking.
• Data-driven budgets: Shift spend to times and ZIPs with the best booked-job rate. Use call outcomes to prune waste fast.
• Asset density: Feed Google more: service pages, location extensions, callouts (warranties, financing, emergency), and image/video assets. More signals, better matching.
• High-intent first: Protect brand and core service terms with exact and phrase anchors; let broad/PMax fill incremental volume only after your core CPL is stable.
• Local proof: Put dispatcher coverage maps, truck counts, and “technician near you” proof in ads and landing pages. It raises conversion rates without raising bids.

Contractor-ready checklist

1. Track calls properly: duration thresholds, duplicate suppression, and manual outcomes (booked, price-shopper, spam) synced to Google as conversions.
2. Geo-tune weekly: exclude low-booking ZIPs; raise bids where CSR close rates are highest. Don’t chase county-wide if 80% of jobs come from 12 ZIPs.
3. Structure for learning
   

   Search Engine Land Awards 2025: Complete finalists list