Maximizing Return on Investment for a Leading Worldwide Manufacturer’s Pay-Per-Click

Our client is a leading worldwide manufacturer and sales maintenance organization for reliability testing equipment across a wide variety of industries. Throughout the past couple years, the client has gone through some major organizational changes. As a result, they’ve required increased attention on their online marketing to ensure the transition goes as smoothly as possible. One of these areas that required attention throughout the transition was their pay per click (PPC) management. We were tasked with managing the client’s PPC to ensure a smooth transition and maximum return on investment (ROI). The client in this case study will remain anonymous due to privacy reasons.

Key Issues

When we were brought on board to optimize the client’s PPC management, there was a great deal of opportunity to grow and improve their paid advertising strategy. Their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) indicated that their existing campaigns were not serving their goals or generating the results their company needed. Their total ad impressions were low, which meant they were struggling to get their ads in front of their target audiences. When they were able to get to a visible ad position, they were spending thousands of dollars on low quality clicks that weren’t converting on their site. This situation was frustrating and worrisome for the client because they were watching their money go to waste and trying everything to fix it without results. They needed someone to actively manage their PPC campaigns, reign in the excess spending, and drive leads.

Our Strategy

We conducted a thorough audit of the client’s current PPC performance to determine areas for improvement within their campaigns. We also analyzed paid search trends within their industry to identify unique opportunities to outperform competitors on paid searches. Using the insightful information gathered from our audit and analysis, we developed new PPC campaigns for the client. These campaigns were better aligned with the client’s goals and incorporated best standards for PPC to ensure their money was being used effectively. Our first goal when setting up the new campaigns was to reduce wasteful spending. We achieved this goal by improving their budget allocation to ensure ad spend was being spread out evenly throughout the month according to the campaign priority levels. We updated their location targeting to ensure their ads were only appearing to audiences located in the geographic locations that presented the greatest business opportunities. We also restricted their ad schedule to ensure we were effectively targeting people during times of day when they were more likely to convert on the website. We also worked with the client to identify what a quality lead meant to them and updated their conversion tracking to accurately reflect these goals. Our next goal was to improve their ad quality scores so we could increase their visibility on search engine pages and reduce cost per click (CPC). We created ad groups within the campaigns that were more granular and strategically aligned with user search queries. Using the data gathered from our keyword research, we wrote new ad copy that aligned better with search terms and resonated better with user goals. After launching, we actively audited the search queries that their ads showed up on to ensure they were aligned with our target keywords, adding negative keywords if they didn’t. Finally, we updated the landing pages so that users would arrive at valuable information immediately after clicking the ads and be compelled to take action.

Results

After completing this optimization process, we launched the new campaigns on August 5th, 2019. Since then, we’ve actively managed the new campaigns and dramatically improved the client’s KPIs and account performance. In analyzing the data, we’ve compared the 90 day period since launch to the same period as last year. This time frame allows us to account for seasonality while providing valuable insight into the value our PPC management has brought to the client. The results have been significant. We reduced total ad spend by 6%, saving the client almost $1,000. Although we’ve decreased total ad spend, we’ve increased their total conversions by almost 44%, or about 50 more conversions than the previous year. They’re spending less for each of these leads as indicated by the 35% decrease in their cost per acquisition, or $50.43. We’ve also increased total impressions by 114% and total clicks by 64% meaning that more people are seeing their ads and taking action. Also, their ads have high click through rates between 3% and 5% which is higher than the average click through rate for search ads on Google of 1.91%.

Return on Investment

These positive results have generated a significant return on investment for the client. By optimizing their campaigns, we’ve been able to achieve the client’s PPC goals at a lower cost per acquisition. By increasing the number of ad impressions, we’ve expanded their reach which has enabled them to connect with more of their target audience. Through ad optimization, we’ve reduced the amount they spend for each conversion. These improvements mean they are getting more conversions within the same budget which translates into more potential customers at a lower cost. By reducing their cost per acquisition, we’ve improved their click quality which means the client is no longer wasting money on low quality clicks that won’t convert. Overall, the client’s PPC is performing better and generating more leads for less money indicating a positive return on investment.

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This graph is comparing data from August 5th, 2019 (campaign launch) to November 3, 2019 to the same 90 day period in 2018. We are comparing the data to the same period from last year to account for seasonality.