Reduced Cost Per Lead By 85%!

In this PPC case study, we’ll demonstrate how we took an existing campaign and increased the number of leads by 6X while reducing lead costs by over 85% and saving the client thousands of dollars in ad spend.

Want to see the process we used?

I’m going to lay down the tactics we used to successfully turn around this campaign in this article, and I’ll also teach you how to use them for your Google Ads PPC campaigns.

Let’s start now!

Background

This customer operates in a lucrative business, selling high-end speciality home items with beginning pricing of $5k+.

All different kinds of things are listed on the website, which is set up almost like an online store. Due to the high price point of the industry, the majority of customers never merely make online purchases but rather interact with a representative to help them find the ideal product.

They turned to us for assistance in lowering their lead cost and providing them with a greater number of leads while preserving lead quality.

The Audit – Huge Opportunities Uncovered

Google Ads is sort of a land mine.

It is by far the most powerful ad platform in the world, but also has grown to be one of the most complex.

Make no mistakes about it – Google’s #1 goal is to get as much money from you as possible, seemingly without any incentive for you getting ROI.

…But that’s where we come in.

The first thing we always do is an audit of the account.

We’re looking for:

1. Current data to gain insights from (what’s working, what’s not).
2. Mistakes in the account or setup that lead to poor conversions.

100% of the time, no exaggeration, we find opportunities that can be improved.

To set the baseline, here’s what the account looked like when it was handed to us, before any work was done:

Cost: $2,020

Conversion Rate: 0.34%

Conversions: 5

Cost Per Conversion: $403

Right off the bat, we notice that the conversion rate is only .34% which is pretty low, and the cost per conversion is high for what’s expected.

Here are a few things we did right away to get this campaign restarted:

Know Exactly Where Every Cent Is Going With Proper Tracking

The foundation of a properly set up campaign is tracking and data.

Without it, you won’t know which campaigns are genuinely effective, and you won’t be able to decide what to keep, scale back, or reduce.

Without expertise, it’s simple to set things up incorrectly or not at all, which is a concern.

We discovered conversions in this account, such as “All Page Views,” and other settings, such as “Count Every Conversion,” that were put up and were producing a lot of erroneous data over time.

For instance, if you click an ad once and opt in three times, the “Count Every Conversion” setting will count all three leads even though there is only one lead. This is OK for purchase conversion campaigns, but not great for lead gen.

You see? There are landmines like this all over the place.

How we fix it:

Inside of Google Tag Manager, we set up all new triggers and tags, which then sent the data back to Google Analytics and Google Ads.

In order to ensure that all data is gathered in one location and then properly sorted, we use Google Tag Manager in every account we work with.

We simply need to add one tracking code, Google Tag Manager, to our pages, making it very simple to identify any issues.

Increasing CTR With Streamlined Ad Groups & Ad Copy

You may create “ad groups” in Google Ads, which contain a list of keywords you’re bidding on and the ad copy that will appear when users enter those terms in their searches.

Users that hunt for a certain keyword are looking for a very specific problem and the answer.

However, if they see a generic ad, it could not exactly match what they were looking for, which could raise your costs if your CTR (click through rate) is too low.

We discovered that several of the ad groups in this account were using the same generic advertisement.

This is a significant opportunity because one advertisement can’t adequately convey the distinctive features, advantages, or benefits of each product.

How we fixed it:

All of our new ads had headlines and descriptions that each contained the particular seed keyword.

Given the value of the user experience, this is among the most crucial aspects to a campaign that converts well.

You don’t want a tire rotation advertisement to appear when someone searches for “oil changes near me.”

It is utterly pointless and won’t drive much traffic.

Making this improvement improved the user experience for what they are seeking for while also raising the ad relevancy score.

These were the outcomes we noticed by the end of June 2019 as a result of these significant optimization actions and our daily management.

Cost: $1,690

Conversion Rate: 0.42%

Conversions: 7

Cost Per Conversion: $241

Just with these few strategies, you can see that the cost per conversion dropped over 40% since the beginning.

But we’re not done yet.

Increasing Conversions With Landing Pages

Successful campaign management requires a multifaceted strategy. It frequently involves both what is configured in the account and what transpires following the ad click.

People frequently drive traffic to their websites, but those websites aren’t as optimized as they may be for the conversion they desire, which is a regular problem that we notice.

When you run a lead generation campaign, your regular website may be cluttered with information and navigation choices that distract visitors from the task at hand.

You see, you have to be very clear about what you want a visitor to accomplish when they land on a page and remove any extraneous distractions.

The use of landing pages in this situation.

A landing page is a page created especially to increase conversions after an ad is clicked, and it can significantly affect how well a campaign does!

There is only one primary CTA (Call To Action) on a landing page, and the language is tailored to the customer persona and the precise keywords you’re competing on. There are also no links to other pages.

In this instance, this account was driving traffic to their website directly, but there was a ton of possibility for improving conversion rates.

A landing page will encourage immediate action, which is what we want users to do.

How We Fixed It

This campaign needs a dedicated landing page to take it up a notch.

We have spent millions of dollars on advertising over the past few years, and one thing is certain: most people are wasting money by not employing high-converting landing pages.

In order to examine their current inventory and pricing, we started with one of our hallmark landing pages.

In a well-designed, stunning landing page, we added a straightforward but succinct title, a well crafted advantages section, and a clear Call-To-Action.

The outcomes?

Cost: $1,820

Conversion Rate: 1.19%

Conversions: 32

Cost Per Conversion: $56.90

Conclusion

By setting up proper tracking, optimizing the campaign with our specific process, and implementing a focused landing page, we were able to drop their CPL (Cost Per Lead) by over 85%!

If we generated the same amount of leads we did in July for the same price as April we would have spent $12,896, vs the $1,820 that we spent.

Cost: $2,020

Conversion Rate: 0.34%

Conversions: 5

Cost Per Conversion: $56.90

The great thing is we’re still not done.

We have a multitude of methods to employ to advance this campaign as we gather more data because we manage it everyday and continue to optimize it.

Additionally, we can grow it to the moon while maintaining a healthy CPL and lead quality as long as the client can take the traffic.

Would you like our assistance with your PPC lead gen campaigns? Visit our PPC management service today.