Reducing cost per conversion by over 40% with a targeted paid search strategy

David came to us with a problem; his existing agency was hemorrhaging money on a paid strategy that just wasn’t working and he was seeing an extremely poor return on his investment. It was time to approach a new agency with a fresh approach to being seen and getting found online. The energy industry is renowned for being a competitive space so it was crucial to build a viable conversion model that reduced wasted spend and reached the right people at the right time.

Pay per click (PPC) has been around for nearly 30 years, with the banner era starting back in 1994. Since that time, the paid search landscape has changed dramatically and strategies have had to adapt to the wants and needs of Google and its customers.

Running a successful campaign doesn’t just require knowledge of paid advertising platforms; it involves several skills ranging from data analysis to copywriting. After some closer analysis, we realized the previous agency had a “set it and forget it” attitude to many of the campaigns with no real data-based adjustments to the bidding strategy. This resulted in the spend climbing and the conversions hitting rock bottom.

Our experienced PPC specialists are known for smashing client targets and David’s objectives were simple. He wanted to drive sales and to achieve those sales for the lowest possible cost. So we set to work developing a strategy that would turn his campaign around.

"Decided to move our PPC and SEO activities away from two incumbent agencies. This was based on Zelst winning a very competitive tender.

Zelst are a motivated team who know their onions- especially in the areas of SEO and PPC campaign management. Recently I gave them Facebook to see if they can work their magic. Great to work with."

David
Group Marketing Manager

First and foremost, the account needed a high level of optimization and setup work as the business had multiple depots across the UK and they only served the products to specific postcodes within those locations. The initial setup was the biggest challenge, but the numbers speak for themselves once it was up and running.

Our biddable media team spent time optimizing the whole account, which included developing new local campaigns that were much more effective than previous campaigns. The previous agency focused primarily on brand terms and used a range of dynamic search campaigns to try and gain traction. The Zelst team, however, focused on the keywords that mattered the most and closely monitored the performance each week to ensure they were putting the money in the right places.

Our team focused on a range of metrics, including CTR, bounce rate, conversion rate and cost per conversion. Analyzing these specific metrics ensured the team was on track to achieve and consequently overachieve David’s objectives.

Due to our PPC team spending so much time getting the initial set up right, within the first month, it was clear to see we would achieve our client targets.

December 2020 to April 2021

• Impressions: 149k
• Clicks: 27k
• Avg. CPC: £0.83
• Cost per Conv.: £31.16
• Conversion rate: 3.12%

The first quarter of 2021 saw a significant increase in paid traffic compared to the previous year.

The team was working with a significantly higher CPC (an increase of 99.2% from the previous year) so it was crucial we were able to place the correct budget in the places where we were going to see the strongest results.

The team were able to increase the overall sessions on the site by 1,082% compared to the previous year.

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