AdWords Case Study - Financial Services

The graph below shows the behaviour of an AdWords account I took over on 12th November 2007. (the colour scheme has changed because Google changed the format of its reports in 2007). 
The chart shows how the overall number of sales leads has rocketed and is now on a steady climb.

My client operates in the financial services sector where some clicks cost over £10.

You don't want to be spending that sort of money per click without getting it looked after carefully.

Disappointingly, two "big name" Pay Per Click consulting firms had been running the account previously, one after the other, and neither had delivered the sales leads my client desperately needed so they were left with a team of sales staff twiddling their thumbs and getting edgy about the viability of the business. Let's face it, overheads don't go away when sales fall off a cliff...

"Get those phones ringing again"

I have to say I really felt for them because a business without sales leads is depressing and can't survive for long. So I worked hard the week I took control of the account until their 'phones started ringing again and web-based enquiries started to come on stream.

As you can see, the number of sales leads started to climb fast. Again, however, it is vital to see this in the context of the cost of these leads: anyone can spend a fortune to place their ads in the top position - and pay through the nose for the privilege.

But what about profitability? It is easy to increase conversion numbers simply by spending too much money...

The chart below shows the cost per enquiry for the same client for the same period. The critical section of the graph is again from the 12th November onwards when I took control of the account.

Note that the per-enquiry costs fell steadily but also note that when the conversion costs prior to that date looked "free", such as around 18th October, no enquiries were actually generated by the previous account managers. Google shows these as being zero cost whereas in fact on that particular day the client spent well over £100 - and got no sales leads at all.

Cost per sales lead

Again what you see here is a dramatic increase in enquiry volumes coupled with a sharp reduction in the cost-per-enquiry figure.

Here's the raw data.

 William Charlwood