CASE STUDY: PROVIDER OF PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS SERVICES

Objective: Increase number of search engine leads, decrease cost per lead

Strategies: Paid search

A provider of professional tax-related business services hired us to improve the number of leads and cost per lead that he was receiving through his Google AdWords account. He had previously managed the account himself and was looking for better results. We took several incremental steps to acheive very positive results:

• We expanded the number of keywords he was using.
• We eliminated content search ads, which were consuming a large part of his budget without showing much return on investment.
• We divided his campaign into logical ad groups so there would be better focus within each ad group.
• We created custom landing pages.
• We split-test many different ads to test for click-through and conversion rates. Interestingly, our client's original ads proved to be the most effective. This is a reflection of our client knowing his market very well, but not having the knowledge and experience with paid search to turn that traffic into clients.
• We turned off non-performing ad groups, once enough data had been generated to make those kinds of conclusions.

The table below shows the trend in impressions and clicks from the start of July to the end of August. This data, and the data in the other charts, only considers search ads, and not content ads. Content-related data was filtered out to account for the fact that content ads were turned off after the beginning of the examined time period. This chart shows a strong positive trend in both impressions and clicks.

The chart below shows the trend in average cost per click ("CPC") and click-through-rates ("CTR") for the examined period. Average CPC was up and down for the period, but there is a definite upward trend in CTR. This can be attributed to the fine-tuning of the ad groups so that keywords and ads are tightly coupled.

The chart below shows the trend in cost per conversion and total conversions for the examined period. As would be expected, there is an inverse relationship between the two - when conversions go up, cost per conversion goes down. There is a definite upward trend in total conversions, even though it swings wildly from week-to-week.

These charts provide strong evidence that the campaign is doing well. We are accomplishing our client's goal of generating more conversions at a lower cost per conversion. However, the ultimate measure of the success of a campaign such as this is how many leads actually convert into paying clients. Our client has stated that sales success in his industry is a numbers game - the more proposals he sends out, the more business he closes. He is pleased with our success as he is now generating more leads for the same amount of money he was spending before hiring us.