SEO + Content Case Study

Improved ad relevancy cuts credit union’s CPC 98%

Paid Media strategy increased ad relevance to potential credit union customers, increasing Google Ads’ Quality Score and dramatically reducing cost-per-click (CPC).

Results

2.19 M

ad impressions
97.9%

decrease in brand
cost-per-click (CPC)
1,582

applications received

The Client

The Client is a financial institution with locations throughout the West Coast. They offer services including business and personal banking such as checking and savings accounts, mortgages, credit cards, and loans.

The Objective

The Client came to us looking for paid media account management, with several specific products they wanted to run paid promotions to draw attention to.

Paid Media Strategy

Decrease Client expenditure on cost-per-click (CPC)

The Problem
The Client had been targeting product-specific ads and user experiences to general, non-specific searches. This approach greatly hurt their ad relevance, as there was a lack of message match between product and ad language.
The Solution
We shifted the Client’s paid ads strategy through meaningful segmentation. We created specific ad copy to address customer-stated needs and sent potential customers to actionable landing pages instead of product-specific pages. This greatly increased the ads’ relevance across the account and led to incredible brand cost-per-click (CPC) decrease.
It’s important to note, generally speaking, we saw substantial gains across all products compared to the Client’s previous paid advertising efforts.
Why it Matters
By making the ad account function more efficiently, we were able to stretch the Client’s budget further. Which, in turn, allowed us to increase the amount of conversions secured with that budget.

Results

The Client was very concerned with their brand’s visibility and impressions of their paid advertisements. Our strategy yielded 2.19+ million ad impressions between Q2 and Q4.

Being top of mind is critical for companies who deal in long term horizon products, like home loans. Potential customers aren’t making snap decisions when they first see a targeted advertisement. Their conversions take multiple exposures through tactics like remarketing, before they ever convert.

Another benefit of increasing ad impressions to highly targeted audiences is brand awareness. When new viewers see paid ads they slowly become familiarized with the brand’s products or services, making them more likely to respond favorably to any future advertisements they may see.

97.9%

decrease in branded cost-per-click (CPC).

Strategic changes in audience targeting and ad copy allowed us to speak more directly to prospective clients’ stated needs.

We segmented audiences so we could match ad messages to search queries, and then sent users to the most relevant page for their expressed interests. More relevant ad messages producer higher click-through-rates (CTR), which are then rewarded by Google with higher Quality Scores. Better Quality Scores lead to improved visibility and ultimately, cheaper click costs.

Our strategy initiated a “domino effect” of benefits. We were able to get the client greater ad value for their budget, and skyrocket their efficiency through the roof.

If we can get 3x or 4x the number of clicks without spending more budget and serving more relevant advertisements, then paid search campaigns can see exponential growth trajectories.

One of the ad messages targeted searchers looking for auto loans. As the result of the increased ad relevance and improved Quality Scores, the Client recorded 1,500+ applications, a 901% increase year-over-year. While part of the increase in online conversions was due to a 104% increase in ad spend, the overwhelming majority of the success can be attributed to smart segmentation and curated strategy.