CASE STUDY · HIGHLEAD SUPERCHARGE
Stolbek: paid, organic, outbound and the system, built to work as 1 operation
Stolbek is an industrial sanding equipment manufacturer in Canada, and the flagship HighLead Supercharge engagement. HighLead took over paid media, search, outbound, the website, the CRM and the AI and automation layer behind them, and ran the whole thing as 1 operation rather than 6 separate services.
83% lower
Google Ads cost per conversion
70% less
Meta ad spend for the same 81 website leads (CA$)
94% more
First-page ranking combinations in 30 days
The situation
Stolbek builds robotic sanding equipment for woodworking manufacturers. It is a complex, technical product sold to buyers who compare machines on specification, throughput and finish quality, then ask for a demo before anything is signed. Nobody buys this on impulse, and nobody buys it in a week.
Advertising was already running. A previous agency held the Google Ads account, and the spend was going out every month against a cost per conversion that made the channel hard to justify.
The larger problem sat underneath the advertising. Marketing, lead handling and follow-up lived in separate places, and the work had been bought the way marketing is usually bought: as separate services, from separate providers, each reporting on its own numbers. Nothing was responsible for what happened between a technical buyer discovering Stolbek and a quote going out. Meanwhile the team was spending hours on work that did not need a person.
That is the shape of problem HighLead Supercharge exists for. The constraint was not 1 channel underperforming. It was that no single thing owned the path from first visit to quote.
What we did
The engagement covered acquisition, systems, AI, analytics, and operations. The scope below shows the major areas HighLead worked across during the engagement.
Strategy & Diagnosis
Analytics, Search Console, conversion tracking, CRM data and the actual sales process were examined together rather than channel by channel. Marketing strategy was set against how Stolbek's buyers really evaluate equipment, not against a generic funnel.
Customer Acquisition
Google Ads for buyers actively searching for equipment. Meta Ads for buyers who were not searching yet. SEO for the product, capability and application searches that run across several countries. Cold email outreach into markets that would never have found Stolbek through search. Website and landing-page work so that the traffic all of that produced had something to land on.
Systems & Conversion
A CRM and system implementation built around the real sales process rather than around the software's defaults. AI call handling and AI web chat so an inquiry got answered whether or not someone was free. Automated calendar booking so a demo could be scheduled without a round of emails.
Optimization & Intelligence
Reporting and analytics that showed the whole path from first visit to quote in 1 place. Automation and operational efficiency work that removed repeated manual steps from the team's week.
Google Ads
HighLead took over an account that had been managed by a previous agency. The table below shows both periods as reported in the ad account.
| Google Ads | Previous agency (January 1 to May 15, 2026) | HighLead (from May 30, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | $5,530 | $3,620 |
| Conversions | 9 | 35 |
| Cost per conversion | $615 | $104 |
What that works out to
- 289% more conversions
- 83.1% lower cost per conversion
- 34.5% less ad spend
- Approximately $17,905 in estimated savings versus generating 35 conversions at $615 each
How to read this comparison. The 2 periods are not the same length, and they are not presented as a like-for-like volume comparison. The claim being made is about efficiency: what 1 conversion cost under the previous agency, and what it cost under HighLead. The savings figure is an estimate derived from the previous cost per conversion applied to the 35 conversions HighLead generated. It is not a billed amount and not a refund.
See how HighLead runs Google AdsMeta Ads
Stolbek's Meta account bills in Canadian dollars, so every figure in this section is in Canadian dollars.
| Meta Ads (Canadian dollars) | Previous campaign | HighLead |
|---|---|---|
| Website leads | 81 | 81 |
| Cost per lead | CA$138.41 | CA$41.30 |
| Ad spend | CA$11.21K | CA$3.35K |
What that works out to
- 70% less ad spend for the same 81 website leads
- Approximately CA$7,860 saved
How to read this comparison. Lead volume is identical across the 2 campaigns, which is what makes this a clean efficiency comparison rather than a volume one. Website leads are tracked lead actions, meaning forms, calls and chats, with automated junk actions excluded. They are not customers, orders or machines sold.
See how HighLead runs Meta AdsSEO
Stolbek sells into several countries, so rankings are tracked as keyword-and-country combinations across the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Austria. A combination is 1 keyword in 1 country. The same keyword tracked in 4 countries counts as 4 combinations, which is why these numbers are larger than a single-country keyword count would be.
The table covers a 30-day period.
| Position band | Start | End | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 36 | 76 | +111% |
| Top 3 | 52 | 106 | +104% |
| First page (top 10) | 84 | 163 | +94% |
| Top 20 | 112 | 181 | +62% |
| Top 100 | 122 | 183 | +50% |
How to read this comparison. These are ranking combinations, not keywords, and not traffic. Rankings are a leading indicator: they show visibility improving, and they are reported here because they are what the rank tracking tool measures. No organic traffic, inquiry or revenue figure is being claimed from them.
See how HighLead runs SEOThe system behind it
Demand that arrives with nowhere to land does not become a quote. That is why the channel results above are not the whole engagement.
Behind the advertising and the search work, HighLead built the CRM around Stolbek's actual sales process, so an RFQ or demo request had a defined path instead of a shared inbox. AI call handling answers the phone when the team is on the floor or the inquiry arrives outside working hours. AI web chat answers questions on the site and captures the details of the person asking. Automated calendar booking lets a demo get scheduled without a round of emails. Reporting and analytics connect all of it, so the source of an inquiry is visible at the point where a quote is being written. Automation removed a set of repeated manual steps from the team's week.
Cold email outreach ran as part of the same engagement, reaching buyers in markets who would never have searched.
What we are not publishing yet. HighLead has not validated figures for calls handled, web chats handled, appointments booked, cold email results, or time saved by AI and automation. Those numbers exist inside the engagement, but they are not published here because they have not been validated to the standard the rest of this page meets. When they are, they will appear on this page with their definitions attached.
How to read these numbers
Where the figures come from
- Google Ads and Meta Ads figures come from platform reporting inside Stolbek's own ad accounts.
- Ranking figures come from a rank tracking tool, measured over a 30-day period.
- Comparison periods are stated on every table. The Google Ads periods are different lengths. The Meta comparison holds lead volume constant.
- Meta figures are in Canadian dollars because the account bills in Canadian dollars.
- Conversions and leads are tracked lead actions such as forms, calls and chats, with automated junk actions excluded.
What is not being claimed
- Not customers, orders, machines sold or revenue. A tracked lead action is an inquiry, not a sale.
- Not a claim that any single channel produced the business result. The engagement ran across all of them at once, which is the point of it.
- Not a projection. These are 1 company's results over stated periods, and another business will have a different starting point, market and product.
- Not a guarantee of any outcome.
- Not an endorsement, certification or partner status from Google, Meta or any other platform.
What this looks like for your business
Stolbek needed HighLead across acquisition, systems, analytics, AI and operations at once. That is not where most engagements start, and it is not the default recommendation.
If the constraint is opportunities, meaning not enough qualified inquiries, RFQs or demo requests are arriving, that is HighLead Growth: Google Ads, Meta Ads, SEO and cold email outreach, managed as channels with an offer behind them. HighLead Growth
If the constraint is what happens after the inquiry, meaning they arrive and get lost to slow response, manual follow-up or a sales process nobody can see, that is HighLead System. HighLead System
If the constraint spans both, plus the analytics, integrations, AI and operational work connecting them, that is HighLead Supercharge, which is what Stolbek engaged. HighLead Supercharge
Manufacturing something with a long sales cycle and a technical buyer? See how we help industrial companies
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