Cases: work that brings its own figures
Four brands, four programmes, and behind them the whole client list without dressing. Per brand you see who it is, what work we do for them, in which region that plays out and whether the programme is running or finished. Budgets, cost per enquiry and revenue stay out, because those are that client's business figures and their competitor is reading too. They open up in a call, with the starting position that gives them meaning.
What this page is, if you are not in the Netherlands
What that means practically: the work is delivered remotely and always has been, so the location of these brands says something about where our clients found us and nothing about where we can work. Strategy is delivered abroad as well, with the day at your own office and the fixed weekday left out and the same person, in English, put in their place. What each service costs is on the pricing page.
Four brands, four programmes
| Code | Brand | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| SRV.01 · SEO · own brand | Swap.coupons | A coupon platform of our own that had to grow organically in a field full of large players. SEO from the start: keywords, technology and content as the foundation. Because it is our own platform, more of the approach can go on the table here than with a client account. |
| SRV.02 · Ads · running | Miraflores Thuiszorg | Home care in the Utrecht region, with Nieuwegein and Houten in the service area. Campaigns per care type and per region, connected to landing pages that match the search. |
| SRV.02 · Ads · running | Witte Tanden Oisterwijk | Dentistry in Oisterwijk. Campaigns per treatment with location targeting within a radius of 15 kilometres, and landing pages where an appointment can be made directly. |
| SRV.03 · Website · finished | GOMIJAS | Booking platform, national. A bespoke WordPress site that carries the brand rather than merely existing: design, technology and findability in one, with the Ads management alongside. The programme is finished, the build decisions are still fully described. |
Who sits behind these names, without the flattering selection
A row of logos stretches easily. So here is the list as it stands in our client register, including the brands we have no logo file for and including the programmes that are finished.
Running, we work for Miraflores Thuiszorg and Miraflores Homecare (home care, Utrecht region), Witte Tanden Oisterwijk (dentistry, Oisterwijk), Tempodak (roofing, Nieuwegein and surroundings), H3 Facility (cleaning, De Meern and surroundings), EHBO aan Huis (first aid courses, national) and Harmony de Mijas (holiday lets, Malaga).
Alongside them, three brands of our own run in the mix: Swap.coupons, Pawwss and The Wooden House. We name them explicitly as ours, because an own platform is not a client who chose us. They are where we try an approach on ourselves before it lands on a client account.
And there is work that is done. GOMIJAS is a finished programme, with the build decisions for the site still fully described. Earlier clients from the years before that we name in a call, not on a page: those relationships have ended and it is not for us to advertise with them without cause.
A brand without a logo is not a brand of lower standing, we simply have no file for it yet.
Nine brands, three kinds of work
What follows is not a results overview but a work distribution: which brand gets SEO from us, which brand gets Google Ads, and for whom we also built the site. The dots come from the client register that records which services are running per brand, not from the folder with logo files.
# The counter at the bottom walks the three columns and counts the dots in this grid; the bar runs from zero to nine brands.
Six of these nine brands take one thing, and that stays that way. That is not shyness but a choice per market: for a coupon platform in a field with large players, advertising budget does little without an organic base, and for a home care organisation with demand that exists today it is exactly the other way round. Anyone who takes only SEO and gets talked into advertising alongside it is paying for reach they already had.
The two brands with three dots, Tempodak and The Wooden House, are where site, keywords and campaign go through the same hands. That saves no money but it saves time: a change to a landing page there does not have to pass three parties who have to agree with each other first. What separate services and a combined approach cost is on the pricing page.
Four markets, and why that matters to you
The question that comes most often after a row of logos is not what we did for them, but whether we work in your area too. So here is the map without a map: four markets as bands, with the brands in them. The place names come from the businesses' own registered details.
With local services it is not the provincial border that sets the service area but the distance at which a job is still profitable. A roofer who has to drive an hour for a leak earns nothing on it, so that is where the campaign stops too.
Two bands deserve an explanation. The Utrecht region is the densest: four brands, three different trades, and that is exactly why we keep a record per trade and area of who we already work for. We do not take on a direct competitor in the same service area, so if your market is already taken there you hear it in the first call and not at the quotation stage.
The band Outside the Netherlands has one brand on it, and that is not a selling point but a fact: Harmony de Mijas is a website and SEO programme in Mijas, Malaga, not proof that we have an international network. If you are reading this from London or Dublin, that band is the honest answer to the question you were about to ask.
Figures belong with context, not on a banner
Percentages without context say little: a doubling from almost nothing is not an achievement, and a small rise in a hard market can be one. So we do not put results loose on a page but explain them in a call: what was the starting position, what did we do, what did it cost and what did it bring in.
What a case file looks like when we make it public
Above the line is what a client sees lying in the street without objection. Below it is what belongs to them. This is the real dividing line we hold, with Miraflores as the example.
The closed lines are not secrecy but ownership: they are the client's numbers, and their competitor reads this page too. In a call they open up, with the context that gives them meaning. Internally we do keep the whole file per client, with a timeline of what was done and why.
How you do get to see those five lines
Figures that only open up in a call are worth nothing as long as it is unclear what that call involves. This is the order, with what you bring and what you get back per step. Step three cannot happen without step two, and that is also where the honest limit sits.
| Step | You bring | We do |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Your trade, your service area and what comes in now in enquiries. No more is needed; you do not have to open up an account. | We look for the case closest to your situation in trade, order size and radius. If there is nothing next to it, we say so. |
| 02 | Nothing. This is the step you wait on and where it sometimes falls over. | We ask that client for permission to name their figures in this call. If they say no, they do not open up and you get an anonymised version without the brand name. |
| 03 | Your own numbers: how many jobs you can take, what an average job brings in and how much you are missing now. | Budget, cost per enquiry and number of enquiries open up, with the starting position alongside: where that account stood at the start and what changed along the way. |
| 04 | You get a calculation on your own numbers, and an honest answer to whether this can pay in your market. Including when that answer is no. | We keep the client's figures inside the call. You do not take them away as a document, exactly as we will not pass your figures on later. |
There is no case document you download in exchange for your email address. That is not on principle, but because such a document can only exist if the figures in it have been worked over until there is nothing left to learn.
What we deliberately leave out about a client
A case page is the easiest place on a website to make something look better than it is. Three things we therefore leave out, and here is the reason for each.
No percentage without a starting position
Plus 340 per cent enquiries means nothing if you do not know there were three. We name a rise only together with the starting point, and that starting point is nearly always client data. Which is why numbers like that belong in a call and not in a bar.
No quote that we wrote ourselves
The fastest way to fill a case page is to invent a flattering sentence and put a headshot next to it. We only publish quotations a client wrote and approved themselves, and we do not have those from everybody. So for now there are none here.
No logo of a business that has no engagement and never had one
That sounds obvious, but a row of logos is the place where something stays longest without anyone looking at it again. So this list has been checked against the client register and not against the folder of images: every name here belongs to an engagement we can point at, running or finished.
What buyers ask us about these cases
Why are there no results in figures with these cases?
Because our client's competitor walks in here just as easily. Budget, cost per enquiry and revenue are that client's business figures, not our advertising material. In a call they open up, with that client's permission and with the starting position alongside. That route is four steps and takes about half an hour.
Can I speak to one of your clients?
We ask, and the answer is not always yes. A home care organisation is not waiting for reference calls with strangers. What is usually possible is showing an anonymised version: the same account, the same charts, without the brand name.
Do you work for my competitor?
Not in the same service area. We keep a record per trade and per area of who we already work for, and where that clashes we say it in the first call and not at the quotation stage. At this size that is also practical to do: nine brands in nine different trades.
My trade is not on the list. Are you any use to me?
The nine brands we name are not all the trades we run campaigns for. If your trade is not there either, the first question in the call is whether your market can be captured in search traffic at all. Sometimes the answer is no, and then we say so.
I am not in the Netherlands. Does any of this transfer?
The method transfers, the market does not. Everything except strategy is delivered remotely, so the work itself is the same. What is not the same is what Google allows in your country, and that is not a detail: advertisements for locksmiths cannot run in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Sweden and Belgium, while in the United Kingdom and Ireland the same advertisement runs without restriction. For plumbers the ban applies in the Netherlands only. Source: Google Ads Help, other restricted businesses: local services. So a case from a Dutch trade can be worth more or less to you than it looks, and working out which is the first thing we do in the call.
How long before there is anything to see?
With Google Ads the first week already produces data, only that is not yet a conclusion: you need enough impressions and clicks before a cost per enquiry means anything. With SEO you are talking months, and in the first months you mostly see movement in positions and not in enquiries. Anyone promising otherwise is selling you something else.
Who does the work if I become a client?
Gianluca, with fixed monthly reporting. There is no account layer between you and whoever does the work. It is the reason we take one business per trade and area and not three: at this size attention is the scarce good, not capacity on paper.
Shall we put a case from your sector on the table?
A first call is free and without obligation. Name your trade and your service area, and we look for the account closest to it and work it through on your own numbers.
Written by Gianluca, founder of TheSEO. Building visibility since 2017, in Google and in AI answers. More about the institute on about us.