Ad Performance Across Markets: What Separated Top and Bottom Performers

One market booked nine showings. Another drew plenty of views and only 10 conversations. A third ran a single photo ad and was the weakest of all. When an operator advertises in several markets, the spread between them tells you more than the average does.

This operator rents suites to independent beauty professionals in several markets, and it had no daily view of its acquisition numbers. Here is how we read the spread, what we changed and what we built to keep watching it. The approach applies to any group of home service businesses advertising in more than one area.

The situation

At the weekly acquisition review, we put every market side by side. Performance varied widely. The top market had booked nine showings. A second market produced 14 leads on a small budget. A third drew large view counts but only 10 conversations.

The weakest market was the only one using a photo instead of a video, and it performed worst. Cost-per-lead data was part of the picture.

What was broken

Four gaps showed up in the review.

• One market had large view counts but few conversations.
• One market was running a single photo ad while the others ran video.
• Nobody had a daily view of acquisition numbers.
• The CRM and the property management system needed to be reconciled so that lead status could be checked against actual leasing.

What we built

We handled the creative first, then the visibility.

• We put more budget behind the top market and the market that produced 14 leads on a small budget, based on the cost-per-lead data.
• We replaced the weakest market''s photo with a video creative that had already worked elsewhere.
• We rewrote the caption and the call to action for the high-view market, then ran it again.
• We set up an acquisition dashboard in Claude. It takes the post links and audience data for each running ad and produces spend guidance and a summary of the best-performing targeting. It only works with complete data from every location, so keeping it filled in became an ongoing task.
• We started a daily Slack automation that delivers a prioritized hit list of who to follow up with, and it was being finalized when we reviewed.
• We planned a reconciliation between GoHighLevel and the property management system, with a short call to verify the fields and the linking.

What changed

The numbers above are the readout from the review, not results of the changes. The changes were only being applied. Nobody should read the video swap as a proven fix, because we do not yet know whether it lifts the weakest market.

What changed in the system is the cadence. The operator moved from a weekly look at the spread to a dashboard that can be updated daily, plus a list of people to contact each day. The reconciliation, once finished, will let the team check lead status against actual leasing.

What to take from this

Compare markets on conversations and showings, not views. A market with big view counts and few conversations is telling you the message or the call to action is off, not that you need more reach.

Check format before budget. If one market runs a different creative type than the rest, you are not comparing like with like. And decide who is responsible for keeping any dashboard filled in, because a dashboard with missing locations gives bad guidance with great confidence.

Frequently asked questions

Why compare ad performance across markets side by side?

Side by side, the outliers become obvious. In this account the top market booked nine showings, another produced 14 leads on a small budget, and the weakest ran the only photo ad. You cannot see that spread in an account-wide average.

Why would a market with many views get few conversations?

Views measure reach, not intent. In this account one market had a lot of views and only 10 conversations, so we rewrote the caption and the call to action instead of buying more reach. We cannot yet say whether the rewrite worked.

What goes into a daily hit list?

A short, prioritized list of who to contact today, delivered to Slack so the team sees it where it already works. The automation was being finalized when we reviewed, so we cannot report how it performs.

Should a photo ad be replaced with video?

In this account the weakest market was the only one running a photo, and we planned a swap to a video creative that had worked elsewhere. One account is not proof, so test the swap in your own markets before you generalize.

If your markets are spending without a clear read on which ones work, book a 30-minute AI follow-up and reporting audit. We line up your numbers by market and show you where the spread is.