Google Ads is one of the most powerful ways of driving high-quality leads to your company – but only if your ad campaign is properly optimized. While an underoptimized campaign can cost you money, a campaign targeting the right keywords with the right copy can generate leads without breaking the bank.
Our client had an underperforming Google Ads campaign: this is how we improved their traffic quality while reducing their cost-per-lead (CPL) by almost $100.
The Client: A Successful Winnipeg Electrician
The client is a Winnipeg electrician who has already benefited from our SEO services. The goal of our Google Ads campaign was to lower the cost of their Google Ads conversions while improving the quality of their leads.
The Problem: A Campaign That Was Too Costly
In the world of pay-per-click (PPC) ads, cost-per-lead (CPL) is one of the most important metrics. CPL doesn’t measure how much it costs to get traffic to your website – it tracks how much it costs to generate leads through form submissions and phone calls. In other words, when you’re tracking CPL, you’re tracking the cost of getting customers through your door – a much more valuable and actionable metric in the world of Google Ads.
Our client’s existing Google Ads Campaign had a CPL of $130; as an electrician, successful conversions could lead to jobs worth thousands, but leads do not always convert, so the cost was simply too high. To add to our client’s difficulties, the quality of the leads was below the threshold they wanted. They work with high-end commercial and residential clients; they wanted leads that went beyond (proverbially) changing a lightbulb.
Our Strategy: Keyword Optimization And Ad Quality Enhancements
In order to improve lead quality while reducing CPL, our paid media team took a four-pronged approach: Pausing keywords, adding new keywords, adding negative keywords, and improving ad quality.
Pausing Keywords: Aligning Our Keyword Strategy With Our Client’s Budget
At times, a valuable keyword will exceed a client’s 90-day cost-per-lead budget. By pausing these keywords until they become less competitive, we can give clients the flexibility they need to spend their ad budget on lower-cost keywords until the competitive keyword aligns with their budget.
We found that the keyword “electrician near me” had a CPL over 90 days that was too high; the keyword was simply too competitive, while other similar keywords could generate leads at a fraction of the cost. This is still a valuable keyword that our client may pursue in the future, so ads targeting the keyword were paused.
Negative Keywords: Removing High-Cost & Low-Quality Keyword Targets
Negative keywords allow our paid media team to exclude search terms that do not align with a client’s strategy.
Our client did not want low-budget jobs; they are a high-end electrician, and they take on complicated projects. As such, negative keywords like “cheap”, “cheapest,” “low cost,” “review,” and “reviews” were added to improve lead quality.
Adding Keywords: Finding High-Conversion Terms That Align With Our Client’s Strategy
When pausing valuable keywords like “electrician near me”, it’s important to find other keywords to generate quality leads. We experimented with several keywords and chose a number of terms based on their conversion success, and to broaden the reach of our ad campaign. Added terms included:
- Electrician in Winnipeg
- EV chargers Winnipeg
- Commercial electrician Winnipeg
- Certified electrician near me
These are a handful of the many keywords we targeted; in-depth keyword research was conducted to ensure that every keyword we added led to high conversion rates from customers who matched our client’s business goals.
Improving Quality Scores: Reducing Cost-Per-Lead
Google gives all Ads a Quality Score; this score is one of the key factors that determines how much an advertiser has to bid to get their ad displayed.
Our client’s ads were divided across four different ad groups. We improved the copy (headlines and descriptions) across all four ad groups; coupled with our new keywords and use of negative keywords, the ad strength across all four groups was improved. This led to higher quality scores, which meant lower bid amounts were needed to succeed; the result was a lower cost-per-lead.
The Results: An Incredible 77% Reduction In Cost-Per-Lead!
In just 90 days, we saw incredible results:
241 leads at an average cost of $32.20 per lead, for a total spend of $7760.
At the client’s previous CPL, the same number of leads would have cost a staggering $31,300.
- That’s over $23,500 saved – all while generating more relevant leads.
Just one more reason to work with First Rank for Ads Management Services!
