162% ROAS increase for British Assessment Bureau

To meet the primary objectives, we knew a sweet spot would need to be found between reducing cost while not reducing the volume and quality of leads generated from paid search media.

Results

Taking a holistic and agile approach, our strategy increased traffic quality and conversion — and resulted in an impressive improvement in Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) of 162%, with costs reduced by half.

How we did it

We began with a paid search audit across Google and Bing. Findings highlighted a significant wastage of spend and an under-performing conversion funnel, which had negative knock-on effects on the website's user engagement metrics.

This activity then formed a roll-out plan — creatively combining different digital techniques and disciplines, including; Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO), bid strategies, variant testing, UX and content — to maximum effect.

This saw landing pages overhauled on the website to better target and resonate with the right audiences. This enhanced conversion volume, improving user engagement metrics on the website at the same time.

A sharp focus on retargeting, then creatively factored in customer buying cycles, upsells and tactical promotions.

All paid search accounts saw a major restructure — informed throughout by data-led experiments, and bringing ad copy and ad extension testing into the mix too. Thanks to testing too, all under-performing search terms could be culled.

Optimising for growth

The primary objective of reducing cost efficiently was met very early on, and CRO activity helped increase traffic quality even more meeting secondary objectives to grow leads and sales — within this fresh, reduced media budget.

Just 6 months on, conversion has risen 4% year-on-year and our client's purse is a great deal heavier.