Over the past few years, Rise has been working closely with a consulting firm attempting to enter into the Google Ad space. However, problems arose due to the client’s services conflicting with Google’s ad policy. This greatly hindered how much money they were allowed to spend on advertising. Despite impediments along the way, Rise’s team of experts swiftly got to work on fixing the problem, resulting in the consulting firm’s success!
The Client’s Goals
The consulting firm is actually composed of two separate business entities. The first of which we will be referring to as Company A. Company A originally started out solely advertising on Bing for their tax resolution services (assisting/consulting individuals who have large amounts of debt). Company A wasn’t happy with the poor numbers Bing was bringing, and still couldn’t find a way to get past Google’s automated policy defender. We were called on to help get them past this hurdle, optimize their campaigns, and assist in launching Company B’s (their subsidiary) ad campaign as well.
The Problem
The issue that caused Company A to consistently be denied the ability to post Google Ad campaigns was caused by an issue in Google’s advertising policy. Google vets every single company that wants to run campaigns on their site to make sure they are ethical, legal, and adhere to Google’s standards. In the case of debt consolidation, Google requires specific permits/credentials to run ads for that specific service. Despite Company A gaining access to Bing and closely following Google’s guidelines, they were repeatedly denied the ability to post Google Ads. Once our team realized this was a losing battle, they used our exclusive connections with Google to get direct access with a Google Ads representative to help handle the issue.
Strategy
Before our assistance, Company A was only able to spend about $2,500 a month with Google’s limitations. This was a fraction of what they were hoping to spend with a full scale campaign. With the Google representative finally at our side, we were able to get Company A’s ad campaign up and running completely. At the start of Year 1, Company A was able to spend around $34k in Google Ad campaigns. We stayed in the 30-40k range, just in case the campaign got shut down again, until June of Year 1, where we increased spending to $85k a month. Steadily increasing to October, spending reached a new high at $120K per month. April of Year 2 saw an all-time peak of $233K in monthly spending.
Our strategy for Company A’s success evolved greatly to get the results the client wanted. It became very hyper-analytical, constantly looking for different ways we could improve the quality of clients coming in from our ads to make sure the ROI and CPL we’re staying in the green. When slight lulls in web traffic or issues with Google arose, we would reduce spending down to around 150-200k. As we began to introduce Company B and flesh out their own campaigns, we cut spending in half to about 80-90K a month for about 12 months.
Company B launched in October of year 2. We began with a starting rate of 10k a month on ad spend. By November, we had already hit 40k a month. With a steady climb each passing month, Company B was able to reach a high of $175k by May of year 3. We followed a very similar approach to Company A in order to reach these numbers, without putting too much strain on the consulting firm. However, we found treating each company as completely separate entities and not grouping their campaigns or methodologies was a great success. We made sure to act as though they were two separate clients even though they came from the same firm. This helped to mitigate any assumption that they share similar demographics or require the same optimizations (which they often didn’t).
For those unaware, when running campaigns on Google Ads that lead to some type of intake form (like those applying for tax resolution), campaign managers can send data about the forms back to Google so they can better understand what you are looking for. Getting a hundred customers/sign-ups through your Google Ad campaign is great, but most of a company’s income may only come from about 10% of those who apply. This is why the quality of cases and clients coming in is just as important. As a big part of our strategy, and what allowed us to reach such high monthly expenditures, sending data back to Google so the campaigns could be optimized internally was a major advantage.
Results
Beyond high monthly spending, the consulting firm is continuing to report great metrics for their campaigns and high quality leads coming in. Company A has reached a total expenditure of $3.44 Million after about 3 years of our support. We see an average conversion rate of 8.9% (based on individuals who complete the application), and a $44 cost per lead. Company B has spent $2.33 Million over about 2 years and averages a CPL of $60.
Conclusion
This case gave us quite a few problems along the way. Despite being flagged for debt services, changes in the market, constant competitors, and having our campaigns taken down for a full week due to an appeal, our team of experts worked tirelessly to get this campaign completely up and running. We are incredibly proud and grateful for how effectively our team here at Rise was able to overcome adversity and meet the client’s needs no matter what.
If you are struggling with your Google Ad campaigns, and want a team of hard-working experts behind you, contact Rise Marketing Group today for a free consultation!
