Opportunity
A residential remodeling company approached us with the goal of expanding into commercial work. While many large commercial projects rely heavily on networking and established relationships, there’s a subset of opportunities we call “bridge jobs.” These projects — like small office renovations, retail buildouts, or light commercial remodels — can often be won through traditional lead generation tactics more common in B2C marketing.
Because most companies don’t apply B2C-style tactics to a B2B audience — and for good reason — there’s typically very little competition in this space. That’s what makes bridge jobs such a valuable kind of low-hanging fruit. We saw them as the perfect metaphorical bridge to help this client transition from purely residential to both residential and commercial remodeling.
Pains
When the client approached us, they knew it was time for a shift. They had launched their business during COVID, and everything — from their branding to their logo, which featured a house roof — was geared toward residential remodeling. While they had taken on a few commercial projects through personal connections, that was the extent of their experience in the space. They wanted to expand into commercial work but also recognized the importance of maintaining — and even growing — their residential pipeline to keep steady work flowing between larger commercial jobs.
Approach
While traditional lead generation tactics — like search engine optimization and Google pay-per-click advertising — were a top priority, we knew there was no point in driving traffic to a site if the messaging didn’t resonate. Before launching any campaigns, we had to address a common challenge many growing companies face: how do you update your brand to reflect where you’re headed, not just where you are today?
A segmented site for a personalized experience
The client had a robust portfolio of residential projects — bathrooms, kitchens, basements, and additions — all well-documented with photos. In contrast, their commercial experience was limited to a few references, with no imagery to support the work. We knew that building a single website with tabs for both services would make it obvious to potential commercial leads that the company primarily focused on residential work.
When we face challenges like this, our approach is always the same: less is more. The goal is to give prospects fewer reasons to disqualify you before ever speaking to you.
To solve this, we designed a gated website experience. Upon landing on the homepage, visitors are prompted to select whether they’re interested in residential work, commercial work, or a career. That selection then directs them to a distinct, gated section of the site. For example, if a prospect chooses “commercial,” they enter a separate experience that omits the residential portfolio entirely — removing the chance to subconsciously categorize the company as residential-first unless they deliberately backtrack and choose otherwise.
Getting bridge jobs through lead gen tactics
Most residential remodeling companies understand the importance of showing up on Google—homeowners often search for companies to compare quotes. But what about commercial remodeling? Larger commercial projects typically involve professionals who already have resources in place to identify the right contractor: architects, engineers, facilities managers, owner’s reps, or formal RFP processes.
The opportunity lies in what we call bridge jobs — smaller commercial projects led by business owners who don’t have those resources or industry connections. These decision-makers often turn to search engines like Google or tools like ChatGPT to find and vet contractors — and frequently use both. Capturing this demand requires showing up in the top three search results, whether through paid ads, organic rankings, or AI-generated recommendations.
Because both residential leads (which the client needed to sustain their business) and bridge job leads (which they wanted to grow into) could be acquired through SEO and PPC, doubling down on these strategies — and carefully balancing the two audiences — became our top priority.
Implementation
Maintaining residential while positioning for commercial
PPC is a short-term strategy because you pay every time someone clicks on your ad — but after a brief learning period (typically around three weeks), it can begin generating high-quality leads, sometimes even sooner. SEO, by contrast, is a long-term investment. It involves creating content that helps your site rank organically in search results and appear in AI tools, without the ongoing cost of paid clicks.
We launched PPC campaigns right away to drive leads for the type of work the client was already well-positioned to take on — residential remodeling. Meanwhile, we began building a long-term SEO strategy focused on commercial keywords and content. This dual-track approach allowed us to sustain the business with immediate wins while laying the groundwork for the kind of commercial leads the client wanted to attract over time.
SEO strategy
For our SEO strategy, we developed content pillars focused on the types of spaces that typically fall into the bridge job category—commercial office remodels, restaurants and bars, and tenant improvements. Each content pillar included a core service landing page supported by a cluster of top-of-funnel content, such as informational or inspirational blog posts, to capture early interest and improve organic visibility.
While search volume for bridge jobs is often much lower—sometimes as few as 10 monthly searches compared to hundreds for residential remodeling—the competition is also significantly lower, making it possible to rank quickly and capture qualified leads with minimal effort. Our efforts paid off: the client now receives commercial leads—including a $400K office remodel—from low-volume bridge job search terms.
Results
- Client now full on large jobs for next 3-4 months
- 14.8K website sessions annually, a 980% year-over-year (YoY) increase with 57% driven by organic channels
- 30 top 3 rankings and 58 first-page rankings on Google — including multiple variations of “commercial building renovation”, “commercial remodeling”, “office renovation contractors” and “tenant improvement contractors”