Keyword Strategy Helps Military Service Bank Increase Qualified Conversions, Decrease CPA

The problem

The Client’s previous agency partner relied on broad match keywords in their PPC strategy. This proved problematic as they were spending the Client’s budget on bids for keywords that included “bad credit” and driving low-quality loan applications. In an attempt to fix this, the prior agency partner paused ‘bad credit’ keywords, but didn’t add them to a negative keyword list. Because of this, Google still showed the Client’s ads for searches related to ‘bad credit,’ and continued to drive poor quality leads.

The solution

Our solution consisted of a two-step approach:

First, we created a campaign tailored to individuals most likely to have good credit. We retained many of the legacy keywords but updated them to phrase match. By using phrase match, rather than broad match, we created an additional guard rail to ensure Google lined up search queries to our keywords as closely as possible. From there, we created a robust negative keyword list that included “bad credit” keyword variations. The application of negative keywords prevented our Client’s ads from displaying to users who are searching for “bad credit loan.”

Second, we scaled the account after we saw positive results and high-quality leads from phase one. While we initially eschewed any “bad credit” leads, we wanted to create an opportunity to market to users who may self-identify as having bad credit, even though their credit scores may be high enough to qualify for a loan. Therefore, we created a separate “bad credit” campaign to actively target those users. All keywords are in phrase match and modified with “bad credit.” By segmenting the two campaigns, we are better able to control who sees which ad, and control how much budget we want to allocate to each.

Why it matters

A broad match approach is a bad fit for businesses such as our Client’s which serve a very specific segment of the population. The issues with poor quality leads they came to us with were solvable with a more strategic and ad testing-based approach to paid media management. We came to understand that potential customers with good credit had different financial needs and concerns than those with bad credit. To reach the widest possible audience match, we needed to segment these two types of searches and tailor messaging to provide more relevant information to users in each group.

Applying for a loan is a lengthy process and potential customers need more information and guidance to make the right financial decisions. We approached our paid media strategy to segment and direct marketing efforts towards those who are more likely to convert. In doing so we were able to optimize the Client’s advertising budget, reduce cost per acquisition, and make the campaigns more effective and efficient.