Results/CASE STUDY · SEO + PAID + BRAND
Hillside.
One admit on $15–30K. Then 4–6 a month.
Same spend band. Dedicated teen-residential search, tagged phones, and a site parents can trust.
OUTCOME FILE
SEO + Paid
- admits
- ~1 → 4–6 / month · Hillside’s count
- search
- 2,928 → 4,852 peak clicks (GSC)
- top 10
- 140 → 1,119 keywords
- insurance
- 79 verifications from ads
- calls
- 221 → 345 / month
client
Hillside Horizon
market
Orange County, CA
THE BRIEF
The spend was already there.
The admits were not.
Hillside Horizon for Teens is a boutique residential program in Orange County for ages 12–17. Sweet Media started in fall 2024 with tracking, listings, and the parent-facing site. Organic broke in August 2025. Dedicated Hillside Search did not spend until December 2025 — until then ads sat in a shared Adolescent Mental Health account, and their sister IOP kept its own campaigns.
We did not ask them to spend more. We opened a Hillside-only Search account around teen-residential intent, put a tracking number on every line, and wrote the site the way the campus actually sounds. Dedicated Search produced 79 insurance verifications and 609 first-time calls. Google Search Console clicks peaked at 4,852 in March 2026. They average 4–6 admits a month — Hillside’s census, not a number imported into Google Ads.
4–6
admits a month now
WHAT WE RAN
Google Ads — teen residential search
A Hillside-only account from December 2025: teen-residential search, a small brand-name campaign, and bidding aimed at first-time calls and insurance verifications.
Call tracking
A unique number on the website, Google listings, and ads so every call has a source. Google is scored on first-time calls and verifications, not cheap clicks.
Parent-research SEO
A blog that ranks the questions parents type before they type the brand — plus program pages, the team page, and campus listings.
Local / Google Business Profile
Campus listings became the largest phone source — more than 3,000 attributed calls from parents already looking nearby.
Parent-facing site copy
Homepage, About, team, and residential pages rewritten around a boutique campus — family-owned, 12–17 only, parents in the room.
Site structure + location pages
Male and female residential pages, admissions, the team page, and location pages so search and ads have a specific URL to land on.
Teen residential mental health · ages 12–17
THE CHALLENGE
They were paying national prices for almost no census.
Teen residential is one of the most expensive queries in behavioral health. Hillside was buying those clicks and sending families to a generic site, and to campaigns that were not built for this campus.
Admit / month, prior agency
1
$15–30K for almost no census
The previous agency had the budget. Spend sat in the mid-five figures. Admissions did not. Hillside’s own read of that period is one admit on a $15–30K month.
- Prior ad spend in the $15–30K range
- Roughly one admission a month
- Search was not split from the sister IOP account
A 12–17 campus that read like every other program
The differentiator is the campus — boutique, family-operated, parents involved. The old site did not say that. Families shopping residential for a teenager cannot tell a small program from a large one if the copy is generic.
Almost no organic footprint on parent questions
July 2025, before Search Console coverage: 557 estimated monthly organic visits and 140 keywords in Google’s top 10. Parents researching runaway laws or teen medication were landing somewhere else.
Calls with no quality system
Volume existed. Knowing which call could admit did not. Without scoring first-time calls and insurance checks, Google optimized for the cheapest conversation, not the one that verifies benefits.
THE STRATEGY
Fix the unit economics.
Then let the campus do the rest.
Six moves. One residential system. Click a line to see how it ran.
Hillside search, not a leftover IOP campaign
Adolescent Mental Health kept its own ads. In December 2025 we opened a separate Google Ads account just for Hillside residential. The live campaign is teen-residential search — weekday hours, people in the service areas, budget sized to compete. A small branded campaign protects the name. A general-teen test was paused once residential search was carrying the account.
- 01Teen residential search$195K · 72 verifications · 549 first-time calls
- 02Brand-name search$5.9K · 7 verifications · 53 first-time calls
- 03General teen testPaused once residential search took over
THE RESULTS
Same spend band.
A different census.
They are still in a $20–31K Google month. The difference is what that month buys: insurance verifications, first-time calls, organic demand, and 4–6 admits instead of one.
Census
4–6
Prior agency
1
2026
4–6
Admits moved from roughly one a month to 4–6
Hillside’s number, not a Google metric. The prior-agency baseline is $15–30K for barely one admission. Recent Google months are $22K–$31K. The census is 4–6.
Organic
4,852
Google Search clicks peaked at 4,852 in March 2026
Search Console, January through July 2026: 2,928 → 4,852 peak → 1,650 in July. Totals 24,100 clicks and 6.0 million impressions. We publish the peak and the cooling. Ahrefs estimated visits (the pre-GSC series) moved 557 in July 2025 to 6,074 in June 2026, then 2,386 in July.
Rankings
1,119
Keywords in Google’s top 10 moved from 140 to 1,119
Ahrefs US, July 2025 versus June 2026. Top-3 terms went from 38 to 506. “Hillside horizon for teens” sits at #1 with 534 clicks in 2026. Brand queries carry most of the clicks; parent-research pages opened the door.
Paid
79
79 insurance verifications and 609 first-time calls from Google Ads
From the Hillside-only search launch through mid-August 2026: $203,729 spent, $2,579 per insurance verification. Teen-residential search produced 72 of those verifications. First-time calls peaked at 131 in May 2026.
Calls
345
Average monthly inbound calls moved from 221 to 345
August 2024–January 2025 versus February–July 2026. 6,549 tracked calls, 5,057 answered. Peak month: 388 in March 2026. Listings are the largest source. Ads are the paid layer. The website sits between them.
Pages
1,080
The Canyon Lake location page added 1,080 organic clicks
Team earned 196 organic clicks in 2026. About, admissions, and both boys’ and girls’ residential pages are live. Paid and organic land on copy that tells a parent they are sending their teenager to a specific campus.
Quality
244
244 calls tagged qualified; 87 paid and 68 organic VOBs in CallRail
CallRail tags and Google Ads conversions are not the same 79. Ads recorded 79 verifications. CallRail marked 87 paid and 68 organic insurance checks on the call recording. Both sit under the 4–6 monthly admits.
Hillside did not need a bigger budget. They needed search to buy teen-residential intent, a site that sounded like the campus, and a phone system that could tell an insurance check from a wrong number. The admits followed the system.
THE LEDGER
Before vs. after.
Documented.
BEFORE / AFTER
| Metric | Prior agency | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly admits (Hillside’s count) | ~1 on $15–30K ads | 4–6 / month |
| Monthly organic clicks (GSC) | 2,928 (Jan 2026) | 4,852 peak (Mar 2026) |
| Google Search impressions (Jan–Jul 2026) | — | 6.0M |
| Est. monthly organic visits (Ahrefs) | 557 (Jul 2025) | 6,074 peak (Jun 2026) |
| Keywords in Google top 10 | 140 | 1,119 |
| Keywords in Google top 3 | 38 | 506 |
| Insurance verifications from ads | — | 79 · $2,579 each |
| First-time phone calls from ads | — | 609 |
| Avg. monthly inbound calls | 221 | 345 |
| Engagement start | Fall 2024 | Ongoing |
Monthly admits (Hillside’s count)
Prior agency
~1 on $15–30K ads
2026
4–6 / month
Monthly organic clicks (GSC)
Prior agency
2,928 (Jan 2026)
2026
4,852 peak (Mar 2026)
Google Search impressions (Jan–Jul 2026)
Prior agency
—
2026
6.0M
Est. monthly organic visits (Ahrefs)
Prior agency
557 (Jul 2025)
2026
6,074 peak (Jun 2026)
Keywords in Google top 10
Prior agency
140
2026
1,119
Keywords in Google top 3
Prior agency
38
2026
506
Insurance verifications from ads
Prior agency
—
2026
79 · $2,579 each
First-time phone calls from ads
Prior agency
—
2026
609
Avg. monthly inbound calls
Prior agency
221
2026
345
Engagement start
Prior agency
Fall 2024
2026
Ongoing
Estimated monthly organic visits (Ahrefs US) — includes the July 2026 cool-off
Aug '24
288
Jul '25
557
Jun '26
6,074
Jul '26
2,386
CALLRAIL · Aug 2024 – Aug 2026
Inbound calls scaled with Google listings, the website, and ads.
Every inbound call is tracked back to the campus listing, website page, or ad that produced it. CallRail tags (87 paid and 68 organic insurance checks) are not the same 79 verifications Google Ads recorded — two systems, one phone layer under the 4–6 monthly admits.
6,549
inbound calls
221 → 345
monthly avg
+56%
monthly growth
Source: Hillside Horizon (CallRail)
87
PPC VOB
Verification of benefits tagged from paid Search
68
SEO VOB
Verification of benefits tagged from organic / site
244
Qualified
Admissions-intent conversations marked qualified
THE PROOF WELL
The same screens an owner already has.
Charts are rebuilt from the August 2026 Search Console and CallRail exports. Site frames are the live parent-facing pages.
Monthly organic clicks — Google Search Console (property begins Dec 30, 2025)
Jan '26
2,928
Mar '26
4,852
May '26
3,844
Jul '26
1,650
Monthly inbound calls — CallRail (complete months)
Aug '24
242
Jul '25
222
Mar '26
388
Jul '26
324
01
6,549 tracked calls
CallRail · Aug 2024–mid-Aug 2026
02
5,057 answered
The rest rang out or went to voicemail
03
244 tagged qualified
Admissions-intent conversations
04
87 paid + 68 organic VOBs
CallRail tags — not the Ads 79
05
79 Ads verifications
Google Ads conversion action · $2,579 each
06
4–6 admits / month
Hillside’s census · not imported to Ads
Homepage — family-owned residential is the first line a parent reads.
hillsidehorizon.com
Girls residential page — a specific URL for a specific search.
hillsidehorizon.com/levels-of-care/teen-female-residential-treatment/
Parent-research post that moved from page 8 to #1.
hillsidehorizon.com/blog/signs-of-a-toxic-teenager/
The campus the copy is selling — boutique residential, not a brochure stock photo.
Hillside Horizon campus
Spending like a national brand
and admitting like a brochure?
A senior strategist will look at your Search, local, and site the way we looked at Hillside — and tell you what a residential program should actually be buying.
30 minutes · free · no commitment
- 01
Market read
Where you sit on residential search, Google listings, and parent-research queries.
- 02
Unit economics
Spend versus insurance checks versus admits — not a blended Google number.
- 03
Brand + site
Whether the page sounds like your campus or a generic program.
- 04
90-day path
A plan — whether we work together or not.