How We Reduced Cost Per Lead by 85%
This client sells high-end specialty home goods with prices starting at ~$5k+, so this is a lucrative market.
The website is set up as an e-commerce store, with all types of products listed. Because this is such a high-end market, most people don’t just buy online; they always speak with someone to match them with the perfect product.
They came to us to help reduce their lead cost and deliver a higher volume of leads while maintaining lead quality.
The Audit - Huge Opportunities Uncovered
Google Ads is a land mine.
It is the most powerful ad platform globally and has become one of the most complexes.
Make no mistakes about it - Google’s #1 goal is to get as much money as possible, seemingly without any incentive for you to get ROI.
...But that’s where we come in.
The first thing we always do is audit the account.
We’re looking for
- Current data to gain insights from (what’s working, what’s not).
- Mistakes in the account or setup that lead to poor conversions.
100% of the time, no exaggeration, we find opportunities to improve.
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. The cost per conversion is high for what’s expected.
Here are a few things we did right away to get this campaign restarted:
Tracking and data are the backbones of a properly setup campaign.
Without it, you can’t find out what campaigns are working, so you’ll never be able to decide what to keep, cut, or scale!
The problem is that unless you’re an expert, it’s easy to set this up incorrectly (or not set it up at all!)
In this account, we found conversions like “All Page Views” and other settings like “Count Every Conversion” were set up and led to a lot of false data over the years.
For instance, with the “Count Every Conversion” setting, if you click an ad once and opt-in three times, it is counted as all three leads when we only have one lead. This is OK for purchase conversion campaigns but not great for lead gen.
Do you see? There are landmines like this all over the place.
How we fix it:
We set up all new triggers and tags inside of Google Tag Manager, sending the data back to Google Analytics and Google Ads.
We use Google Tag Manager in every account we touch so that all data goes to one place and then is appropriately sorted.
It is straightforward to trace if there are any problems, and we only have to put one tracking code, Google Tag Manager, onto our pages.
Increasing CTR With Streamlined Ad Groups & Ad Copy
In Google ads, you have “ad groups,” which include a set of keywords you're bidding on, and the ad copy displayed when people use those keywords in their searches.
When users search for a particular keyword, they’re looking for something specific and want the solution.
But when a generic ad pops up, it won’t necessarily match precisely what they are looking for, which can increase your costs since your CTR (click-through rate) is too low.
In this account, we found that many ad groups were using the same generic ad.
This is an ample opportunity because one ad can’t show the differences in each product, highlight benefits, or specific product's characteristics.
How we fixed it:
We created new ads with headlines & descriptions that included the particular seed keyword in each.
This is one of the essential steps to a high converting campaign because of how valuable the user experience is.
You don’t want someone searching for “oil changes near me" and an ad for “tire rotations” coming up.
It is entirely irrelevant and won’t generate a lot of traffic.
This change increased the ad relevance score and made the user experience seamless for what they’re searching for.
These significant optimization steps and our daily management are the results we saw by the end of June 2019.
Cost: $1,690
Conversion Rate: 0.42%
Conversions: 7
Cost Per Conversion: $241
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
Running profitable campaigns takes a multi-faceted approach. It’s often not just what is set up in the account but also what happens after the ad click.
A common problem we see is that people often drive traffic to their website, but that website isn’t as optimized as it can be for the conversion they want.
When you have a lead gen campaign going to your normal website, it’s often crowded by all sorts of distractions like navigation menus and content, and it’s unclear what you want them to do.
When a visitor lands on a page, you have to make it extremely clear what you want them to do and eliminate all other distractions.
That’s where landing pages come in.
A landing page is a page designed specifically to get conversions after an ad is clicked...
...and it can make an enormous difference in how a campaign performs!
A landing page has one primary CTA (Call To Action), the page copy is written around the customer avatar and the keywords you’re bidding on, and there are no links to other destinations.
In this case, this account sent traffic directly to their website, but there was a ton of room for conversion rate optimization.
We want people to take action now, which is what a landing page will do.
How We Fixed It
To kick this campaign up a few more notches, we needed a dedicated landing page.
Over the last few years, we have run millions of dollars in ad spend, and one thing is for sure - most people are BURNING money by not using high-converting landing pages.
So we started with one of our signature landing pages that encourage traffic to opt-in to view their current inventory and pricing.
We included a simple but-to-the-point headline, a carefully crafted benefits section, and a clear Call-To-Action on a well-designed, beautiful landing page.
The results?
Cost: $1,820
Conversion Rate: 1.19%
Conversions: 32
Cost Per Conversion: $56.90
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 we spent.
Cost: $2,020
Conversion Rate: 0.34%
Conversions: 5
Cost Per Conversion: $403Cost: $1,690
Conversion Rate: 0.42%
Conversions: 7
Cost Per Conversion: $241Cost: $1,820
Conversion Rate: 1.19%
Conversions: 32
Cost Per Conversion: $56.90
April 2019
(Pre-PPC)
June 2019
(During PPC)
July 2019
(During PPC)
Work Done:
None (Pre-PPC)
Work Done:
Basic Restructure
Campaign Optimization
Work Done:
Advanced Optimization
Custom Landing Pages
The great thing is we’re still not done.
Because we do daily management and ongoing optimization, we have a wealth of strategies to implement to improve this campaign as we get more data.
Additionally, as long as the client can handle the volume, we can work to scale it to the moon - all while maintaining a healthy CPL and lead quality.
Want us to help you with your PPC lead gen campaigns? Check out our PPC management service.
Frequently asked questions
Get Started With Your Growth Sprint Today!
