PE-backed multi-brand home services rollup

Sector: home services / aging-in-place remodeling. Sponsor: middle-market PE (rollup platform). Thesis: break third-party lead dependency. Engagement: diagnostic audit, 5 brands.

-60% CAC reduction opportunity identified on owned acquisition channels

Grounded in a 3x expansion of organic and GBP lead share across a 5-brand portfolio. Quantified across the Claymore Partners OS (Tech Stack / BI / Marketing) and 4 digital channels, benchmarked against the client's internal CAC data and home-services category norms. Audit delivered at a critical inflection point in the rollup's growth trajectory.

The situation

A PE-backed multi-brand home services rollup, operating a portfolio of five regional brands consolidated post-sponsor acquisition, entered Claymore's engagement facing a common rollup-platform problem: dependency on third-party lead aggregators driving high and volatile CAC, a fragmented tech stack causing recurring operational outages, and siloed BI that could not measure the cost of the dependency. The sponsor thesis required breaking aggregator dependency and rebuilding acquisition on an owned, data-driven marketing engine across all five brands.

Diagnosis

01. Third-party aggregator dependency capping margin

Lead flow dominated by purchases from aggregators and manufacturer programs, driving high and volatile CAC, limited lead-quality control, and no downstream customer ownership. The single largest source of acquisition across all five brands was the one with the least operating leverage.

02. Fragmented tech stack causing operational outages

Zapier-dependent integrations between 7+ disparate systems with monthly errors and recurring annual outages that halted sales operations. UTM parameters failed to pass through workflows, breaking attribution at source. Marketing spend was unaccountable at channel and brand level.

03. Siloed BI, no cross-brand visibility

Departmental reporting scattered across Excel, Power BI, and disconnected data sources. No unified data model, no real-time cross-brand performance view, no cohorted CAC or LTV measurement. Leadership could not measure the cost of the dependency it was trying to break.

The recommended transformation

01. Tech stack: foundation

Migrate off the legacy CRM onto HubSpot, integrated with Service Titan for operations. Consolidate 7+ disparate systems into a single integrated stack. Eliminate Zapier dependency and the recurring outages that come with it. Full UTM attribution built into the data layer from the ground up.

02. BI: visibility

Unified data warehouse with a cross-brand data model. Real-time dashboards for CAC, CPL, LTV, ROAS, lead-stage timing, and install-to-revenue cycle. Role-based reporting for executive, marketing, and operations teams. One cohorted source of truth across all five brands.

03. Marketing: scale

Rebuild acquisition around owned channels. Full-funnel Paid Search and Paid Social architecture with proper attribution. AI-resilient SEO rebuild targeting non-brand keyword gaps identified across the portfolio. Local SEO and GBP expansion across all locations as the highest-ROI owned channel.

04. Customer journey

Automated lead routing and nurture across the 5-brand portfolio. Speed-to-lead SLAs tied directly to CAC (internal analysis showed CAC rising materially the longer contact took). Centralized CRO program across homepage, interior, and landing pages.

05. Operating model

Consolidate core marketing capabilities (web, UX, tech stack, reputation, brand) across all 5 brands onto a single operating model. One integrated engine with localized brand expression, engineered to compound margin as aggregator dependency winds down.

The results

• -60% CAC on owned channels at category benchmark.
• 3x organic & GBP lead share, current to benchmark.
• 80%+ of CAC variance attributed to 6 funnel metrics.
• 5 / 3 / 1: brands / pillars / operating system.

Diagnosed using the Claymore Partners OS

1. Tech stack. Foundation. Every touch tagged and tracked. Clean data, accurate attribution, confident budget decisions.
2. BI. Visibility. Single source of truth for funnel, CAC, LTV, ROI. Faster decisions, sharper accountability.
3. Marketing. Scale. Profitable demand generation. Optimization with clean attribution. Compounding gains via testing and CRO.
4. Applied. Across all 5 brands of the rollup portfolio, with a single unified operating model engineered for margin expansion.

Confidential. Client identity anonymized at sponsor request.