Electrolibre · Appliance retail & repair · Google Ads — Search & Local · 2026
How a 1976 appliance store turned search into 498 new phone calls
Electrolibre has sold appliances in Montreal since 1976. What paid search added was not brand — it was 498 conversations with people who had never called before.
498
first-time phone calls
nine reported months, from launch
The results, up top — every number is in the strip below
498
first-time phone calls
nine reported months
162
calls from ads
eight reported months
CA$20,305
media spend
launch period
~CA$41
per first-time call
spend ÷ first-time calls
214
map-direction actions
second account, three months
01 — The challenge
Fifty years of reputation, and a search page full of national retailers.
Electrolibre sells new and used appliances — refrigerators, ranges, washers, dryers, dishwashers — plus parts and repair, from a Montreal shopfront it has run since 1976. Its advantage is inventory, price range and the fact that a human answers the phone.
None of that survives a search results page dominated by national chains bidding on every appliance term with far bigger budgets. Competing on "buy refrigerator" is a losing auction. Competing on "used washer Montreal", "appliance repair near me" and specific model searches is a winnable one.
“I am not going to outbid the big chains on a fridge. But if someone needs a used washer this week, or their dryer just died, that customer is mine to lose — I just need them to find my number first.”
Illustrative quote — written by Web Tonic to put the results above in an owner’s words. It is not a statement provided by the client.
So the account was built entirely around calls, not carts.
02 — Our approach
Concede the generic auctions. Own the local and the specific.
Campaigns were built around what a national retailer cannot easily serve: used and refurbished inventory, parts, repair, and same-city availability. Generic high-competition appliance terms were deliberately left alone.
Because the sale finishes in the shop or over the phone, calls were made the primary conversion from day one — call assets in the ads, and location and directions signals for the physical store, which produced 214 map-direction actions in the second account's reported window.
This is a launch, so it is reported as absolute performance. There is no comparable prior year and we are not going to invent one by comparing partial windows.
03 — What we did
Local and specific demand, call-first structure, absolute reporting.
A launch account with a real phone number attached to it.
Category selection
Chose the auctions a local store can win
Used and refurbished inventory, parts and repair, and model-specific searches — not the generic terms the national chains own.
Recreated Google Ads campaign table
Call-first conversions
Tracked first-time calls separately from repeats
First-time and repeat calls are distinct actions in this account. Only first-time calls are headlined, because repeat calls are not new demand.
First-time calls trend
Local signals
Put the shopfront into the ads
Location assets and directions tracking added, producing 214 map-direction actions in the second account's three reported months.
Local action breakdown
Launch reporting
Reported absolutes, not invented growth
Nine reported months with no comparable baseline. Percentages would be manufactured, so there are none.
Monthly call volume
The stack we ran it on
Google Ads
Paid search
Google Ads Editor
Paid search
GA4
Analytics
Google Tag Manager
Tracking
CallRail
Call tracking
Google Search Console
Search
AgencyAnalytics
Reporting
Looker Studio
Dashboards
“Web Tonic did in six weeks what our last two agencies couldn't in a year — and for the first time we could see every dollar of it”
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