TPE #120: Lead Gen case study: +250% conversions & -60% CPA
Jan 27, 2025Read time: 4 minutes
A few months ago, Bob posted a massive case study on LinkedIn of how he helped a Lead Gen client grow conversions by +250%, while reducing CPA by -60% (year-over-year).
The coolest thing about this case study is that he didn’t do anything fancy, and really took the account back to the fundamentals.
In today’s issue of The PPC Edge, I break down what he did, so you can get inspired on how to grow your own accounts.
Bob calls this case study a Google Ads Lead Gen Specialist’s wet dream ;-).
Let’s dive right in!
The Lead Gen ‘Wet Dream’ Case Study: +250% conversions & -60% CPA.
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of the case, here’s the proof:
Who doesn’t want such massive growth in conversions, while drastically reducing the CPA?
About the client:
- Active in the Automotive industry.
- Sells simple informational products.
- AOV is low, so they’re in the volume game.
Here’s the TLDR of what Bob did to grow conversions +250%, while reducing CPA -60% (year-over-year):
- Start from scratch: go back to the fundamentals.
- Fix the tracking (from GACT to OCT).
- Consolidate campaigns and ad groups with the Modern-Day Search approach.
- Build out new, relevant keyword themes.
- Switch to Target CPA.
- Wait for more budget.
Let’s zoom in on each step.
Step 1: Start from scratch: go back to the fundamentals.
The account was not managed properly, with heavily fragmented campaigns and ad groups.
There was a lot of untapped potential, which is why Bob decided to go in aggressively and start from scratch by creating a new foundation with the fundamentals (see steps 2-5).
It’s usually the ‘boring’ fundamentals that drive the best results, which is obvious in this case study as well.
Step 2: Fix the tracking (from GACT to OCT).
Bob switched from Google Ads Conversion Tracking to Offline Conversion Tracking (Enhanced) to measure real business results and feed the algorithm with more relevant data.
A crucial step for the new foundation that he was building.
Bob and his client decided to go with the Google API solution as volumes were too big for different OCT methods, such as manual and scheduled uploads. This increases the speed at which offline conversion were uploaded, but also the accuracy.
Step 3: Consolidate campaigns and ad groups with the Modern-Day Search approach.
After pausing all campaigns, Bob completely restructured the account with our Modern-Day Search approach (a combination of account consolidation, Smart Bidding, Broad Match, RSAs, and conversion-optimized landing pages):
- Consolidated 19 campaigns into 4 campaigns.
- Consolidated 89 ad groups into 21 ad groups.
- Introduced (full) Broad Match + Dynamic Search Ads (see step 4).
- Reduced RSA assets for rapid testing.
- Switched to Target CPA (see step 5).
As you can see, there’s nothing fancy here. But it had a massive impact on results.
The original account structure resulted in fragmented data, so by consolidating the campaigns, Google’s algorithm had way more data to work with and learn from (which massively benefitted the results).
Step 4: Build out new, relevant keyword themes.
Consolidation alone wasn’t enough. There were a lot of low-intent, irrelevant keywords in the account so Bob used the historical SQR (Search Query Report) data + the Keyword Planner to advertise on high-intent, relevant keyword themes.
Testing Broad Match and DSA worked well for this account (yes, really, Broad Match isn’t always as evil as people think it is — as long as your fundamentals are in place).
Step 5: Switch to Target CPA.
The last step in restructuring the account: set up Smart Bidding (switching to Target CPA).
Something interesting happened after the new account structure was launched:
- Impressions and clicks decreased.
- Conversions and conversion rate skyrocketed.
Because of the new structure, Smart Bidding was able to double down on high-performing queries and ignored the rest.
The (absolute) top impression share increased significantly on high (conversion) volume queries.
More relevance → higher conversion rates → lower CPA.
Step 6: Wait for more budget.
As you can see in the proof above, the results improved really quickly. The only problem: Bob had to wait for new budget approvals to scale further.
In the meantime, he slightly decreased his CPA targets to protect the efficiency (because raising budgets too fast can lead to overpaying).
After waiting for a few months, he finally got more budget and off he went! π
Quick recap & how you can drive similar results.
And that’s how Bob helped this Lead Gen client grow conversions by +250%, while reducing CPA by -60%:
- Start from scratch: go back to the fundamentals.
- Fix the tracking (from GACT to OCT).
- Consolidate campaigns and ad groups with the Modern-Day Search approach.
- Built out new, relevant keyword themes.
- Switch to Target CPA.
- Wait for more budget.
As you saw in this case study, the key to driving results with Google Ads is going back to the fundamentals. There’s nothing fancy about what Bob did for this Automotive client.
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And that’s all for today — I hope that was helpful.
Catch you next week!
Cheers,
Miles (& Bob)
