hipages
hipages is a two-sided trades marketplace. Red Valkyrie turned a loss-making paid search program into a growth engine, then pioneered trade registration marketing from scratch.
The situation
When Red Valkyrie engaged, hipages was losing seven figures per year on paid search. The team had tried doubling bids across the board and got zero additional jobs. Campaigns were matching to too many low-intent keywords, burning budget without results.
Trade (tradie) registration marketing did not exist as a function. There was one remarketing page spending about $100/month. Red Valkyrie had to fight for one day per month to work on it initially.
What we did
Fixed paid search structure
Separated high-intent queries from low-intent waste. Turned a loss-making program into a profitable growth channel. Paid search grew 4x in 3.5 years.
Pioneered trade registration marketing
Built tradie acquisition from scratch. Grew from 30 registrations/month to 3,000+/month (a 20x increase in 3.5 years).
Scaled paid social for tradie acquisition
Added approximately 1,000 additional trade registrations per month through paid social channels.
Grew organic visibility 2.5x+
Consultation on directory and SEO buildout for long-tail queries. Organic traffic grew 2.5x+ in 3.5 years.
Worked alongside internal team
Reporting, prioritisation, and strategic input to align all acquisition channels around measurable outcomes.
What changed
- Company revenue grew 4.5x in 5 years ($13M to $60M)
- Company valuation grew from $13M to $214M (ASX listing in 2020)
- Paid search grew 4x in 3.5 years (from a loss-making starting point)
- Trade registrations from direct marketing grew 20x in 3.5 years (30/month to 3,000+/month)
- Paid social added approximately 1,000 additional trade registrations per month
- Organic traffic grew 2.5x+ in 3.5 years
Why it worked
"The biggest lever was not more spend; it was fixing what the spend was pointed at. Once search structure matched intent and trade marketing existed as a real function, the business could scale."
The biggest lever was not more spend; it was fixing what the spend was pointed at. Once search structure matched intent and trade marketing existed as a real function, the business could scale.
Turning a seven-figure loss into a growth engine came from separating high-intent queries, cutting waste, and building proper measurement. Trade registration marketing went from a side project to the company's primary supply-side acquisition channel.
If your search account is losing money, the fix is structure
Book a call. We will tell you what we would clean up first.