How Looking for Quick Fixes Can Undermine Long-Term Performance in Paid Search

Search is often the first step that a user initiates themselves, but doesn’t mean they’re ready to take action. It’s important to evaluate how your keywords function in the user journey and use appropriate time frames and metrics to evaluate performance. Being too quick to pivot can create a lot of activity change but may not drive results. This is especially true in B2B, where sales cycles can be anywhere from several weeks to several years. 

My client had been running lead-gen campaigns for a SaaS product for years, but was beginning to see sharp declines in lead volume, quality and efficiency. They were managing campaigns reactively, pausing what wasn’t efficient that month and pumping budget into keywords that had performed well in the past. Often, changes were taking into account only a short period of data, which was misaligned with the length of their sales cycles. The short lookback window was overwhelmingly weighted in favor of short-term wins like branded keywords, neglecting the rest of their funnel. By ruthlessly cutting top and mid-funnel keywords and increasingly relying on bottom funnel keywords, they were neglecting prospects earlier in their journey that would then turn into bottom funnel leads later on. 

This knee-jerk marketing strategy, mixed with an uncertain economic climate and increased competition was eating away at their market share and efficiency metrics. Despite a strong July, they were starting to see notable declines going into the weaker half of the year. In August, spend increased 22% but lead volume was only up 4%, driving up cost/opportunity (CPO) 17%. Lead to opportunity rate was down 19%, while the percentage of junk had increased 17%. 

I reviewed year-over-year (YoY) and monthly performance for the previous 24 months to identify trends, establish averages for performance metrics and pinpointed the most and least effective keywords. I paused keywords with 100+ clicks that exceeded the average CPL. 

I then took the remaining keywords and organized them by theme and part of the funnel (upper, middle and bottom). The better an account is organized, the easier it is to quickly evaluate performance at a higher level and allocate budget most effectively. The single most effective lever I pull day-to-day is budget allocation, both by channel and campaign. Ideally, the most efficient, high-volume campaigns should never be limited by budget. 

Better keyword organization - by both theme and funnel also improves user experience. Instead of using broader ad copy and more generic landing pages, we’re able to create more targeted, action-oriented ad copy and direct users to the most relevant page. When a user searches they’re often asking a question or looking for a solution. If you don’t answer their question or help solve their problem, they’re likely to bounce. You’re adding value to the user by tailoring ad copy to their stage of the journey and providing a landing page and CTA that are most appropriate. You’re also improving the likelihood they take the desired action. Win-win.

After restructuring the account, efficiency and quality quickly improved. Despite a lower budget in September (-17%) and a 3% dip in lead volume, lead quality improved. Lead to opportunity rate was up 18%, driving down CPO 29% in less than a month. Opportunity to close rate went from 0% to 7%.

With the more organized, strategic structure, we were able to scale more effectively on Google and expand to additional channels where investment and performance had been minimal. We leveraged incremental ad spend on this multi-channel strategy and improvements in every KPI. In January, ad spend was up 43% and we maintained the same CPL and lead-to-opportunity rate as Q3. This resulted in a 45% increase in leads and 44% increase in opportunities.

Interested in scaling leads and opportunities 1:1 with your budget? Contact me to see if an account audit or media strategy is right for you.