[AdWords Case Study] 33% Reduction in Cost Per Lead Using the Kaizen Approach

In today’s article, learn how we used the Kaizen approach of continual improvement to help our client reduce the cost-per-lead by 33%.

Kaizen is a Japanese word for continuous improvement. Ever since I studied Kaizen in a college Operations class (specifically how Kaizen has been a competitive advantage for Toyota), I've tried to apply the concept to different areas of my life. And looking back on recent successes, I've discovered that they were all the result of this idea of continuous improvement, or Kaizen. In our world of flashy marketing tactics like Twitter, Snapchat, mobile apps, Facebook messenger, and [insert the new latest and greatest tactic here], it's important to remember that strong marketing performance does not magically happen overnight. It's almost always the result of months and even years of, you guessed it, continuous improvement. With this in mind, I'm going to share a Google AdWords case study that exemplifies the Kaizen approach to AdWords optimization. I'm not going to share "the one secret that reduced our cost per lead by 36%." I'm also not going to share "the one trick." That's because there is no one secret or one trick... The reality with Google AdWords is that success is built on continuous improvement, month after month, and year after year. Let's dive in to the details so you can see this in action...

The Background Our client in this case study is a dentist in Georgia. When we started working together, our client had been advertising himself, but with no conversion tracking. That means he didn't really know if the ads were working or not... And even if the ads were miraculously working, he had no way to improve the ROI without conversion tracking. So guess what we did first? That's right, we set up conversion tracking. Since this is a dentist, the majority of the leads come from phone calls so we installed phone call tracking in addition to webform tracking on the website contact forms. Think of conversion tracking like a required course in college. In order to graduate, you have to complete the required courses. In order to optimize a Google AdWords campaign, you have to complete the conversion tracking setup. Of course, setting up conversion tracking does nothing unless you actually use the data to improve your campaigns. That brings us to our Kaizen process of AdWords optimization... Our Kaizen Process I'm calling this the Kaizen process because over the past 2 years we didn't just focus on one tactic; We focused on continuous improvement in all areas of the campaign. It's impossible to put your finger on the one or two activities that made all the difference because with optimizing AdWords campaigns you're dealing with a moving target. One day you need to adjust bids, while the next day you need to improve ad copy. So what exactly did we do? Below, in no particular order, are what I believe are the 5 most important edits we made that led to a 33% reduction in cost per lead. 1. Ad Schedule Optimization When you think of ad scheduling, you probably think of running ads during office hours. Or maybe turning ads off during holidays. Sure, that can make sense, but I'm specifically talking about ad schedule optimization here. With ad schedule optimization, we're looking at the conversion data for days of the week and times of day. There are reports in AdWords that will tell you which days of the week give you the lowest and highest cost per lead. There are also reports that tell you which times of the day give you the lowest and highest cost per lead. As you collect data, you can use this to refine your ad scheduling and adjust your bids so you're maximizing your budget during the best times. 2. Device Optimization This one is pretty straight forward, yet it's often overlooked in AdWords campaigns. There are reports in AdWords that will tell you how your ads are performing across different devices - Computers, Tablets, and Mobile. When you run those reports you will likely see a big discrepancy in performance across devices. This is especially true if you do not have a mobile optimized website! The reality is that people behave differently depending on which device they are using. You may find that your cost per lead is perfectly acceptable for Computers, but astronomically high for Mobile, or vice versa. Whatever the case is, you clearly need to adjust your bids accordingly to get the best ROI from your ad campaign. 3. Budget Optimization Unless you're familiar with how this works, the phrase "budget optimization" probably sounds strange. I mean, isn't your monthly budget simply your monthly budget? Well, if you only have one ad campaign, then the answer is yes. However, if you break up your advertising account into multiple campaigns, then you unlock the potential to optimize your budget. For example, our dentist has multiple different types of services like cosmetic dentistry, invisalign, sedation, implants, etc. Sure, you could have all of those services in one campaign, but that's not ideal. Instead, you want to break out all the individual services into their own campaigns with their own daily budgets. Then once you see your cost per lead for each service area, you'll be able to adjust your budgets accordingly. Obviously, you'll want to allocate more of your budget to the campaigns that drive the lowest cost leads and minimize your budget on the campaigns with higher cost leads. It's pretty simple, but only if you structure your account correctly. 4. Keyword Level Bid Optimization Most advertisers understand and are familiar with this tactic so I won't waste too much time here. If you know your keyword conversion rate is 5% (ex. you get 5 phone calls for every 100 clicks on the ad) and your target cost per lead is $50, then your max cost per click is $2.50 (conversion rate multiplied by the target cost per lead). Using that simple calculation you can adjust your bids to ensure you're hitting your target cost per lead. 5. Ad Copy Optimization I'm sure you're also already familiar with ad copy optimization. More specifically, the process of split testing two or more ad variations to determine which ad performs the best. But what does it mean to perform the best? That's a loaded question... One metric is certainly click-through rate. The higher the click-through rate, the better because that leads to higher Quality Scores. However, ads with the highest click-through rate are not always the ads driving the lowest cost per lead. With that in mind you must focus on both of those metrics. If you focus on click-through rate without any regard for cost per lead, then you'll likely be led astray. Likewise, if you focus on cost per lead without any regard for click-through rate, you may end up with low Quality Scores and in turn, higher cost per click. The Results Again, I can't emphasize enough that the above edits were continuously tweaked over 2 years. I'm not suggesting we made the edits above and then sat back and watched the performance improve. That's not how this works. The edits were made continuously, month after month. Remember the Kaizen process! Below is a graph showing the cost per lead and the number of leads per quarter over the past 2 years.

As you can see from the graph above, the cost per lead was $48 in Q2 2015. Then in Q2 2017 the cost per lead was $32. That's a drop of 33%! You'll notice the number of leads dropped in Q2 2017, but that's only because the budget was reduced for external reasons. To put the 33% reduction into perspective, let's compare the number of leads that you can get with a $5,000 per quarter budget ($1,666/month). With a 33% reduction in cost per lead, this dentist is now generating 51 more leads each quarter with the same exact budget! Obviously this didn't happen overnight, but I hope now you can see the power of continuous improvement in your AdWords campaigns.

[SEO Case Study] 3X More Traffic and 6X More Leads

One of the things I hear from business owners is that they feel like SEO won’t help them because their rankings are too low or their website has been around for too long. Today’s article is a case study about how we used SEO to generate three times more traffic and six times more leads, proving that it’s never too late to get started.

Do you think it's too late to start working on search engine optimization (SEO)? Do you think you're rankings are just so bad that it's not even worth trying at this point? If you just nodded your head yes, then you need to read this case study because it's never too late!

The Challenge Our client is a leading manufacturer and distributor of a natural resources product. When this client came to us for help, their website was not optimized for search engines so their website was not appearing at the top of Google for relevant search terms. In fact, when we began our work, the client had zero first-page Google rankings for any of their priority keywords. For their #1 top-priority keyword, our client was ranking 63 in Google (that's page 7). In other words, they were nowhere to be found in Google! If this sounds familiar, then you may be feeling overwhelmed or even helpless by how far you have to climb to get to the first page of Google. It's at times like this when it's important to remember the famous Chinese proverb, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." I guarantee if you do nothing, then you'll never reach the coveted first page of Google. But if you take action, even the smallest action, then you'll start to pick up the necessary momentum to propel you forward. Let's take a look at some of the small steps we took with our client that got them moving in the right direction... The 5 Small Steps We Took The first small step was a website audit. We audited the website to identify all of the specific issues that were preventing the website from ranking high in the search engines. Based on that audit, we created a custom search engine optimization plan... The second step was keyword research. We conducted research to identify the specific terms that prospective customers would use to find our client’s products when searching in Google. The third step was to edit the website based on our keyword research. For example, we documented edits to the page Titles, Headers, Meta Descriptions, and some of the page copy to make it more relevant to the target keywords. Then, since our client had its own web development team, our client’s web developers implemented the website edits that we had documented. The fourth step was to get some inbound links (links from other website pointing to your website). Inbound links are a major factor in search engine rankings so we dedicated a lot of resources towards building new links to the website. We submitted the client to relevant business directories, and we conducted research and outreach to request links from relevant websites. As a result, the client attracted new links to their website, and this helped improve rankings. Finally, the fifth step was to create more pages on the website to increase the chances that our client would rank for relevant keywords. We researched topics for informational articles that would form a “Knowledge Center” on the client’s website. We then drafted the articles for the client’s approval, and the client’s web developers added the articles to the client’s website. As you can see, this was fairly straight forward and none of the steps are too daunting. Now for the best part... Let's look at the results... The Results As I mentioned above, when we began our work, the client had zero first-page Google Rankings for any of the priority keywords that we were tracking. For the top-priority keyword, the client’s ranking was #63 in Google. Today, the client has 10 first-page Google Rankings for priority keywords. For their top-priority keyword, the client’s website currently ranks #2 in Google! Below is a graph of our client's Organic Search Traffic (SEO Traffic) and conversions from July 2015 to March 2017. As you can see, they had 231 visits from search engines in July 2015. Then in March 2017, they had 843, which is an increase of 265%! Conversions (visitors contacting our client about their products) increased as well from only about 3-4 per month to now 10-18 per month.

Now let's compare a longer time period to really highlight the improvement here... Below is a table that compares the periods from July 2015 through January 2016 versus July 2016 through January 2017.

How would your business change if you had a 3x increase in traffic and a 6x increase in sales leads? Remember, it all starts with a small step!

[SEO Case Study] 317% ROI for Asphalt Paving Company

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important area to focus on in your marketing, and it's important to make sure your efforts are paying off. In today's article we’re sharing a case study about how we helped one of our clients generate a strong return on investment (ROI). SEO Case Study About Return On Investment (ROI) Are you wondering if SEO can really generate ROI for your business? Today I’m going to walk through an SEO case study for one of my clients that will answer this important question.

Background In early 2014 our client, an asphalt paving company, contacted us and expressed frustration that his competitors were ranking high in Google and he was nowhere to be found. He knew he was missing out on new business every year simply because prospective customers were choosing his competitors that ranked on the first page of Google. Prospective customers are searching “paving contractors”, “asphalt paving”, and “asphalt crack repair” every single day and my client was losing that business. The problem was clear. The solution was not so obvious… What We Did The first step we took was to complete what we call the SEO Tune-Up. The SEO Tune-Up includes the following: Keyword and competitor research to identify the best search opportunities Edits to core pages of the website Creation of new core pages to target additional “buying-intent” keywords Creation of new informational pages to target “research-intent” keywords Fix all technical issues like site speed, mobile optimized pages, broken links, missing schema, duplicate pages Set up and verify Google My Business profile Set up Google Analytics and Search Console to track performance In other words, we cleaned up the on-page SEO. On-page SEO is everything on your website that affects your rankings. Since you’re in full control over your on-page SEO, this is usually your biggest leverage point. Next, we switched our focus from on-page SEO over to off-page SEO. Off-page SEO is everything off of your website that affects your rankings. For example, you’ve probably already heard that citations and links on other websites can boost your search engine rankings. Those are both examples of off-page SEO factors. Since our client was focused on local customers, we focused a lot of our efforts initially on building relevant citations, or mentions of our client’s name, address and phone number online. We did this by creating accounts on all the relevant industry and geographic business directories we could find. Plus, we also launched a 2-pronged content marketing strategy: We created content on our client’s website targeting research-intent keywords with the goal of ranking in Google. We created content and posted on other people’s websites that could rank in Google and also provide a link back to our client (aka guest posts). Was all this worth it? Let’s look at the results… The Results Below is a Google Analytics report showing the website traffic, as well as the leads generated directly from SEO. A goal completion for this client is a quote request form submission on the website.

As you can see, the traffic has increased from a steady 90-100 visitors per month in 2014 to a new high of 279 in May 2016 (179% increase). More importantly, the leads from SEO increased from a high of 6 in October 2014 to a new high of 20 in April 2016 (233% increase). (Two Important Notes: 1. This is a very seasonal industry because you do not pave driveways in the winter where our client is located. That’s why there is a decline in traffic and leads between November to February each year. 2. The graph above does not include phone calls generated from SEO) OK, this sounds nice, but what’s the ROI? To get to that number let’s look at the monthly change in leads from 2014 to 2016: 30 leads from SEO in 2014 122 leads from SEO in 2015 92 more leads from SEO year over year (307% increase) Next, we need to know the average fee per sale and the lead to sale conversion rate. With a little research, you’ll find that the average fee for paving a driveway is around $5,000. It obviously depends on the size of the driveway and the complexity of the job, but on average it’s about $5,000. SEO lead to sale conversion rates is a bit harder to research. If we assume a modest 5% conversion rate, then the 92 additional leads would generate about 5 more customers, or $25,000. Lastly, we need to compare sales to the cost of the SEO work. This particular client was investing in a custom SEO package for $500/month so the ROI calculation looks like this: ($25,000 – $6,000) / $6,000 = 317% ROI. Again, it’s important to note that this calculation does not take into account the phone call leads and sales so the ROI number is a low estimate. But the ROI between 2014 to 2015 is not what’s most impressive here. If you look at the graph above you can see that 2016 outperformed 2015. That brings us to the big takeaway from this case study… SEO Is a Growing Asset When done right, SEO is a growing asset that will generate a better and better ROI each year. That’s the beauty of this marketing investment. Rather than renting ad space that disappears as soon as you stop paying the ad network, you’re building an asset that will grow over time!

Local SEO Case Study: The Power of Press Releases

Until July 2013, press releases were a great tactic for building high quality links to your website.

And the process was simple.  Write a press release that includes links to your website, pay a press release distribution service like PRWeb, and then watch your search engine rankings improve as more and more legitimate websites posted the press release with links to your site.

Of course, that all changed in July 2013 when Google announced the death of press releases for search engine optimization (SEO).

But was it really the end of press releases as an SEO tactic?  No, and in this case study I'll prove there is still a lot of power in press releases (if you know how to use them correctly).

What Changed in July 2013?

In July 2013, Google announced they would now consider links in press releases as "paid links" and encouraged distribution services to use "nofollow" links in the releases.  This change makes sense since businesses were paying press release distribution sites in order to get high quality links to their websites.

In case you're not aware, Google does not count paid links or "no follow" links in their ranking algorithm.  Those types of links are ignored by the algorithm.  That means all of the links you get from the press release would not directly improve your search engine rankings.

Hence, the resounding cry that press releases were dead for SEO.

While it's true the links do not directly improve your rankings, there is another powerful SEO benefit of press releases.

The Key Benefit is Citations

A citation is a mention of your NAP (business Name, Address, and Phone number) on another website.  For example, if your business is listed in Yelp, then your profile on Yelp is a citation because it lists your NAP.

When drafting a press release, if you include your business NAP in the byline of the release, then when your release is published across the internet, each published page is a new citation for your business. You can see an example below: 

That means you could issue one press releases and within a day or two have dozens or even hundreds of new citations.

That sounds great, but why are citations important?

Citations Are Critical For Local Rankings

One of the biggest factors in ranking high in the local "map" results is the quantity and quality of your citations.  Sure, you can create accounts on business directories and build up a nice foundation of citations, but so can your competitors.

To gain a competitive advantage, you can use press releases to rank higher in the local results.  To prove this works, let's look at a case study...

How Our Client Jumped from #20 to #2

One of our dentist clients was stuck around #20 in the local "map" results.

We had already completed our website tune-up and set up all the relevant business directories, but the rankings would not improve beyond #20 for his top priority keywords, "Savannah dentist," "dentist Savannah," and "dentist in Savannah."  At this point we knew we had to take it to the next level to overtake the competitors ranking on the first page of Google.

Here's what we did...

Over a 4-month period, we issued 4 press releases for our client.  Of course, in the press release we included links to our client's website, but as you know those links were "nofollow" so they did not directly help for SEO.  The power was in the citations, or the mentions of our client's business name, address, and phone number.

As more and more websites published the press releases, our client began to jump up in the Google local rankings.  Eventually he was #2 on the first page of Google in the local results for his primary keywords.

As you can see from the screenshots above, the citations helped our client rank in the local "map" results on the first page of Google.  When Google determines the searcher is looking for a local business, then often Google displays a map with local businesses listed below.

To rank high in these local search results, you must have citations, and that's one of the reasons you should consider using press releases as part of your Local SEO strategy.