The Five Door Method: How Smart Home Service Companies Are Fixing Broken Marketing Campaigns
If your leads are low and your cost per conversion is high, your marketing problem might not be the ads—it might be the system behind them.
Home service business owners are no strangers to broken promises. You’ve hired agencies. You’ve boosted posts. You’ve run Google Ads. And at some point, you’ve probably asked yourself: Why does this stuff never seem to work for us the way it works for everyone else?
That question is exactly why we built the Five Door Method—a framework designed specifically for home service companies to diagnose, fix, and scale paid ad campaigns that have gone stale or never worked in the first place.
“The Five Door Method wasn’t built in a lab—it was built in the trenches, after watching good home service businesses lose money to lazy marketing.”
— Drew Larison, Visionary And CEO at Five Door Media
What Is the Five Door Method?
The Five Door Method is a marketing diagnostic framework that helps identify exactly where your paid ad campaigns are breaking down—and how to fix them.
Whether you’re running ads on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Google, every prospect you’re targeting has to walk through five metaphorical “doors” before they become a paying customer. If they get stuck at any one of them, your campaign underperforms—or worse, burns your budget.
The five doors are:
Platform - Are you on the right platform?
Creative - Is your creative stopping the scroll?
Targeting - Are you talking to the right people?
Ad Engagement - What happens after the click?
Sales - Are you closing the deal or blowing the deal?
Each door represents a key stage in the customer acquisition process. Miss one, and the whole system wobbles. But when all five are dialed in? Your ads become machines—generating qualified leads and actual revenue.
Why This Matters for Home Service Businesses
Home service companies—cleaning, lawn care, HVAC, and similar trades—rely heavily on local intent and fast conversions. People searching for services like “AC repair near me” or “weekly house cleaning” aren’t browsing; they’re buying.
But most digital marketing agencies treat these companies like e-commerce brands or generic B2B leads. They push traffic, collect vanity metrics, and ignore the local buying behavior that drives real sales.
We’re here to change that. The Five Door Method is custom-built for home service marketing—fast-moving, intent-based, and outcome-driven.
Door 1: Platform
Key Question: Are you advertising on the right platform for your audience?
Not all platforms are created equal—and not all audiences hang out in the same place. If your ideal client is a 28-year-old homeowner with two kids, Facebook may be less effective than TikTok or YouTube Shorts. If they’re searching with intent, Google is probably your best bet.
Metrics to Monitor:
Click-through rate (CTR)
Cost per click (CPC)
Impression share (Google)
Demographic reports
Example:
An HVAC company targeting emergency AC repairs should focus on Google Local Services Ads and high-intent search campaigns, not Instagram Reels.
Door 2: Creative/Art
Key Question: Does your ad actually grab attention and resonate?
This is where most home service ads fall flat. A logo slapped on a stock photo doesn’t stop thumbs. You need visuals and messaging that interrupt, engage, and compel.
Metrics to Monitor:
Engagement rate (likes, shares, comments)
Video completion rate
Ad relevance score (Meta)
Bounce rate on landing pages
Conversion rate
Example:
A cleaning company using a bold before-and-after video with a simple callout like “Ready to come home to this?” will outperform generic service lists every time.
Door 3: Targeting
Key Question: Are you reaching the right people in the right area?
Even great ads fail when they’re shown to the wrong people. Local targeting, keyword intent, audience segmentation, and exclusion filters all play a role in campaign efficiency.
Metrics to Monitor:
Audience overlap
Conversion rate by segment
Cost per result (CPR)
Keyword performance
Frequency (ad fatigue)
Example:
A lawn care company should build a radius around high-income neighborhoods with large lots and target “new homeowners” rather than renters.
Door 4: Ad Engagement
Key Question: Are users taking the next step smoothly?
People may click, but if they’re met with slow-loading pages, clunky forms, or unclear next steps, they bail. Engagement is about friction reduction—removing every barrier between the click and the lead.
Metrics to Monitor:
Form completion rate
Landing page load time
Click-to-lead rate
Mobile usability
Abandonment rate
Example:
An HVAC company offering “Get a Quote” should use a fast-loading, mobile-optimized landing page with a simple form and optional contact preferences.
Door 5: Sales
Key Question: Are your leads converting into paying customers?
This is the most overlooked door—and often the one that causes agencies to blame you. But the truth is, even the best campaigns fail if the sales process is slow, scattered, or inconsistent.
Metrics to Monitor:
Lead response time (under 10 minutes is ideal)
Lead-to-sale conversion rate
Follow-up frequency
Customer communication preferences
Sales cycle length
Example:
A home cleaning business should text new leads within 5–10 minutes, offer online booking if possible, and follow up 2–3 times with friendly reminders.
“Marketing doesn’t stop when the lead form gets filled out. We’re just as invested in what happens after that click—because that’s where revenue is made.”
— Drew, Visionary at Five Door Media
Putting It All Together
When home service companies struggle with digital marketing, it’s almost never just one thing. It’s usually a combination of mismatched platforms, underwhelming creative, vague targeting, clunky user experience, and inconsistent sales follow-up.
The Five Door Method exists to shine a light on exactly where things are breaking down—so we can fix them, rebuild smarter, and scale faster.
Want to Know Which Door Is Holding You Back?
If your ad campaigns aren’t converting the way you know they should—or you’re tired of agencies that only deliver clicks and excuses—it’s time to run a real diagnostic.
Book a Discovery Call with our team today and we’ll walk you through your own Five Door Assessment. We’ll show you exactly where your bottlenecks are and how to fix them.