When Google Ads Works Too Well – Google Ads Case Study

Google Ads Case Study – When Google Ads Works Too Well

More Leads Than Our Client Could Handle!

We recently ran a Google Ads campaign that exceeded its goals, created tons of leads, and generated a substantial return on investment.

Sounds good, right?

You can imagine our surprise when our client called us and asked to cut his budget in half.

The problem -- We were generating too many leads, and he was constantly on the phone turning people away.

Normally our goal for a successful campaign is for clients to want to increase their budgets. This situation was different, but we’re still going to consider it a win.

Read on to find out how we did it!

Client Background

Our client operates a truck-repair business. One of his specialties is mobile truck repair. If your truck breaks down, his team will come to you and fix it on site.

He also has a large shop where he services trucks that need more attention than he can provide at the side of the road. His business handles individual trucks, large fleets, and everything in between.

He’s been using our marketing services since 2014, but until recently, hadn’t tried Google Ads. He approached us looking to add to his successful SEO program. He wanted to boost the number of leads he was getting, and he wanted a program that would generate results in the near term.

We presented Google Ads as an option, and he elected to give it a try. As you can imagine, he was very happy with how it went!

How Did We Achieve Such Great Results?

We follow our tried-and-true Google Ads formula to set our clients up for success. Our method has been developed after years of testing and refining, and we’ve found the best way to deliver a high-performing Google Ads campaign and great ROI for our clients.

That said, every campaign is different. Each one needs individual care to drive the best possible results.

For this specific campaign, there were four components that we focused on. Strength in these four areas is what we feel made the most significant impact for the success of this client’s campaign.

  1. Tightly Organized Ad Groups

One of our Google Ads best practices is to organize matching keywords and ads into corresponding ad groups.

This client wanted to market four distinct services in his campaign. We created a unique ad group for each service. Each ad group was populated with keywords and ad copy that matched its service category.

That meant whenever a searcher was presented with one of our client’s ads, they saw ad copy specifically pertaining to that service. A searcher using a keyword related to mobile truck repair would see an ad written about mobile truck repair.

This creates heightened relevancy for the overall campaign. Rather than using general ads that cover a broad range of searches, our client had specific, highly relevant ads for every keyword.

Since he was marketing 4 distinct services, this style of campaign structure had a major impact on its success.

  1. Robust Negative Keyword List

The negative keyword list is one of our best tools for stretching your Google Ads budget as far as possible.

In Google Ads, a keyword is a search term that will trigger your ad. A negative keyword prevents your ad from showing.

This is extremely useful. We only want your ads to show when we know a searcher has the intent to contact you for your services.

By being sharp with our negative keyword list, we can prevent your ads from showing for search terms that are informational or directed towards a service you don’t provide. This helps us home in on the keywords that are valuable to your business. We avoid spending your budget on clicks that are irrelevant to your business so we have more budget for the clicks you do want – the ones that will turn into paying customers.

This client only services specific types of trucks. This means there are a lot of searches for services that are similar to those he does provide, yet not part of his business.

We crafted a lengthy negative keyword list prior to launching our client’s campaign. This cut down on bad searches out of the gate. Then we monitored every single search term. Every term that was even slightly outside of what our client offered was immediately added to the negative keyword list.

Before long, our search-term report was pristine. Every single term that resulted in a click on our client’s ads was exactly matched with the services he offered.

  1. Call-Only Ads

There are several Google Ad formats. We can direct searchers to your website, give them the option to visit your site OR call you, or restrict the choice to giving you a call.

With call-only ads, 100% of your budget is put towards generating phone call leads. If you’re a business owner, you know how valuable it is to be able to get prospects on the phone.

Call-only ads work exceptionally well for certain industries. The catch is the cost-per-click can be much higher. This can make developing a profitable campaign a more challenging proposition.

For this client, we created call-only ads centered around certain services. We saved call-only ads for when we knew searchers would want to speak to someone right away. We also crafted ad copy that highlighted the importance and value of an immediate call. Our CTAs (calls to action) were written specifically to entice phone calls.

The results were outstanding. The bulk of our client’s conversions were driven by call-only ads.

This was a major reason why his campaign was so profitable. Phone call leads close at a much higher rate than emails.    

  1. Custom Conversion Pages

One reason LinkNow Google Ads services creates such successful campaigns is that we build custom conversion pages for every client. A conversion page is an amazing tool to capture leads. It’s one of the best ways to maximize the return on your Google Ads investment.

With a conversion page, when searchers click on your ads, they’re directed to a page optimized for one thing: converting a phone call or email lead for your business.

Our conversion pages contain selling points, photos of your work, testimonials, information about your services, enticing promos, and more. The goal is to include the information your prospect may want to see before deciding to reach out to you for a lead. See a demo conversion page here.

To build this client’s page, we looked at numerous examples from his competition. We wanted to see the information they were including and the conversion strategies they were using. We also used our client as a resource to find out what mattered most to his customers.

We then created a page that emphasized the unique selling points that set him apart from his competition. We highlighted the information that was meaningful to his potential customers to drive purchase decisions and encourage conversions. We crafted a powerful CTA (call to action) that was appropriate for his industry and compelling to prospects.

This conversion page did its job. This campaign converted at nearly 27%!

Conclusion

Despite our client needing to scale down his campaign to cope with the lead volume, we still consider this effort a tremendous success. We delivered what our client asked for and achieved our goal of helping him grow his business.

We offer flexible, no-contract Google Ads services for exactly this type of situation. We want to play our part in helping our clients navigate the dynamic environments they operate in. Flexibility helps ensure our clients always have the right program for their needs.

Typically, our Google Ads clients want to expand, not downsize, their campaigns, but every situation is unique.

We want to build a successful Google Ads program for your business. We’ll put our knowledge and experience to work on your behalf. We’ll create a consistent source of inquiries that you can rely on.

Book a call with one of our Google Ads experts and let’s get to work!

Schedule a Consultation Now

Andrew Mendel

Author: Andrew Mendel

About Andrew Mendel

Andrew Mendel is the Director of Marketing at LinkNow Media and has over 15 years of experience in SEO, including on-site, organic, local, technical, and paid ads. Andrew has multiple certifications including Google Ads and SEMRush Advertising.