A national healthcare nonprofit was leaving most of its $10,000 Google Ad Grant unspent every month on a Dynamic Search Ads setup. We transitioned the account to Performance Max in October 2025. Monthly grant spend rose 165.738% to hit the full cap by April, clicks grew 439.206%, and website events increased 107.692%.
SEO + Content Case Study
Brand Match Reversal in Google Ads Boosts Conversions for Regional Home Builder
Custom home builder saw form submissions decline despite increasing budget. By reverting from Broad Match with Brand Control to Phrase Match, DTC reignited lead volume and slashed acquisition costs.
37%
increase in form submissions
43.66%
cost per form submission decrease
33.33%
increase in phone calls
The Client
Lombardo Homes specializes in building new construction homes to fit any lifestyle in Southeast Michigan, St Louis and Columbia, MO.
The Objective
The goal was to reverse a steady decline in form submissions and bring cost back under control by refining keyword targeting within the brand campaign.
Paid Media Strategy
-
The problem
Although Broad Match with Brand Control initially drove results, form submissions began steadily falling after peaking in April 2024, even as spend increased. The overly broad targeting and lack of continued keyword intent refinement caused performance to degrade, leading to wasted spend and diminishing ROI.
-
The solution
We removed the Broad Match with Brand Control setting and reverted to Phrase Match keywords, pairing this with manual CPC bidding. Once conversion data stabilized, we transitioned to a max conversions strategy using a target CPA. This gave the algorithm better inputs and improved performance by matching ads to higher-intent queries.
-
Why it matters
Fine-tuning brand campaigns doesn’t just protect branded traffic, it allows you to control spend efficiency and reduce cannibalization. This update increased form submissions and phone calls while simultaneously cutting cost per conversion, proving the value of precision keyword strategies in brand-focused PPC campaigns.
All conversions, but specifically form submissions, started declining month over month, despite increasing the budget nearly 80% compared to the year prior.
Form submissions rose by about 36%, phone calls climbed roughly 33%, cost per form submission fell by approximately 44%, and average CPC dropped by about 42%.
Results
After reverting from Broad Match with Brand Control to Phrase Match targeting, form submissions increased 37% and phone calls rose 33%, despite overall spend decreasing by nearly 23%. Cost per lead dropped by 44%, and average CPC fell by 42%, demonstrating that more precise keyword targeting significantly improved both lead quality and cost efficiency. This demonstrated that for brand campaigns to perform at scale, ongoing keyword evaluation and intent alignment are critical, not just to protect brand visibility, but to ensure you’re paying for the right traffic.
Read More Case Studies
-
Performance Max Transition Maxes Out a $10K Google Ad Grant for a national healthcare nonprofit
Read more -
Full-Funnel Content Strategy Drives a 20% Increase in Conversions for Chicago-Area Custom Jeweler
Read moreA national brand with sales reps in every state was running search ads that read as generic. We added State and City level location insertions to the responsive search ad copy so the ads matched wherever a user was searching from. Conversion rate rose 33.01% and cost per conversion fell 19.03%.
-
CRM Integration Lifts Lead Quality and Cuts Cost per Acquisition 28.73% for a Global IP Firm
Read moreDennemeyer was optimizing Google Ads toward every form fill, not the leads that actually closed. We integrated their CRM with Google Ads so Smart Bidding could optimize for qualified leads. Cost per acquisition fell 28.73%, conversion rate rose 77.92%, and by January only 4.5% of raw leads came through unqualified.
Email Us. Find out how we can help.