Quarterly revenue up 53%, on $1,337 of ad spend
Stillwater Escape Co. A real client engagement: the website rebuild lifted bookings 82% with zero ads, then Google Ads aimed at the towns around Minneapolis compounded it.
Why it mattersThe website rebuild lifted bookings 82% before a single ad dollar was spent. The ads then compounded it, averaging $8.35 back per $1 across seven months.
Where they started.
Stillwater Escape Co runs an escape room in Stillwater, Minnesota, for a crowd that skews 18 to 35 plus families. The website was owner-built and read as low effort, more pop-up shop than local attraction, and there was no effective paid presence behind it. Nearby Minneapolis holds about a dozen competing escape rooms with bigger ad budgets, the kind that win the auctions they enter. The goal: fix the thing losing bookings first, then buy demand where the big budgets weren't looking.
What we did about it.
The 30-Day Plug-In audit started with a Microsoft Clarity install, which proved the website problem with real behavioral data instead of opinions. We rebuilt the site, launched Google Ads (Search plus Performance Max) on January 3, 2025, kept Minneapolis out of the targeting on purpose, and pushed budget into school-break demand peaks. It is the kind of work we run for local businesses.
The rebuilt website alone took bookings from 91 to 166, November to December 2024, an 82% lift with zero ad spend, and monthly revenue from $15,849 to $27,808. The ads then compounded it: 451 transactions and $69,701 in revenue in the three months after launch, against 269 and $45,562 in the three months before, over $24,000 in additional revenue on $1,337 of total ad spend. Across seven months of ads the average return was $8.35 back per $1 with $29,455 in attributed revenue, July ran at about $12.97 back per $1, and August 1 to 14 alone turned $327 of spend into $3,130 across 20 conversions. Every number comes from Stillwater's Resova booking system and Google Ads reporting.
“The website had to come first. Same rooms, same booking system, 82% more bookings the next month, before we spent a dollar on ads.”
Real engagement. Numbers from Stillwater's Resova booking system and Google Ads reporting. How we present results
More of the work: Benchmark Insurance Group and Go Swag
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