Behind the Scenes of Remarkable Growth with PPC Ads
Anthony Gold, a renowned law firm in the heart of London, identified a significant opportunity within employment law. Aneil Balgobin, the new Head of the Employment department, reached out to Kwery with a distinct mission: to launch and manage pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns designed to reach individuals in London and nearby areas navigating the complexities of settlement agreements.
Aneil explained:
“Settlement agreements are key in resolving work disputes. They cover important terms like payment from employers and rights given up by employees. Usually drafted by employers, these agreements must be checked by a legal expert to make sure they're fair and enforceable.”
Our goal was clear: reach individuals recently made redundant who were seeking expert legal guidance.
What set this project apart was its inception – starting from a blank slate. This scenario posed a unique set of challenges, far more complex than optimising an existing Google Ads account. The absence of historical data meant we couldn't rely on past insights to gauge effectiveness or direct our strategy.
Aneil Balgobin reflected on the initial hurdles:
"I joined Anthony Gold during a challenging time amidst the pandemic. My task was to build a new department from the ground up. We were in dire need to develop a steady stream of work for the team—a reliable pipeline of clients where none existed before.."
Before diving into the campaign, we provided Aneil with the market analysis and performance forecast:
We developed a lead management system to assist Aneil's team in monitoring campaign performance.
This system tracked each lead's journey from their initial click to the completion of legal instruction. It provided a real-time reporting dashboard displaying crucial performance indicators: the campaign's ad spend, the volume of qualified leads, the number of leads converting into legal instructions, total revenue, ROAS, and profit.
Although our PPC campaigns were profitable from the outset, we didn't achieve the level of success we initially hoped for right from the start.
Two challenges emerged early in the campaign.
In the densely contested legal industry, fifteen firms aggressively competed for the top four ad spots on Google's search results, promoting settlement agreement services.
This fierce rivalry in an already crowded online space drove up the cost per click (CPC), making it challenging to generate enough leads at sustainable return on ad spend (ROAS).
We faced a critical decision: either increase our budget and bids to gain more visibility and leads, potentially reducing our ROAS, or scale back, which could lead to fewer leads and limited revenue growth.
Secondly, our search term analysis showed that some clicks and leads were not related to settlement agreements in the context of employment law.
Two key insights from this analysis emerged:
With three months of campaign data in hand, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work refining our keyword targeting.
Keyword strategy changes resulted in a 17% reduction in costs, a 23% decrease in cost per lead (CPL) and a staggering 42% increase in the lead-to-legal instruction conversion rate.
Aneil saw the difference:
“Suddenly, we were not just fishing – we were catching. The leads were more aligned with what we offer, and returns on our ad spend were finally making sense."
In our quest to further improve Anthony Gold’s PPC performance, we turned our attention to an often-overlooked yet potent platform: Bing.
While Google Ads had been our primary battlefield, the exploration of Bing opened a new avenue offering both the quality of leads and affordability.
Adding Bing to our strategy led to a 12% increase in leads, with a 47% lower cost per lead compared to Google.
Refined keyword targeting and Bing integration set things in motion, but more was needed to achieve the market dominance we sought for Anthony Gold. It wasn’t enough to reach the right audience; it was crucial to convert them into leads at a higher rate.
Our next strategic move was clear: to design and develop better landing pages.
Unlike general website pages, a landing page serves one specific purpose: to convert visitors from PPC ads into leads. The effectiveness of a landing page directly impacts conversion rates (CVR), which in turn influences cost per lead (CPL).
Simply put, as we boost our conversion rates, our cost per lead drops. This creates room to increase our budget and bids — all while keeping return on ad spend (ROAS) intact — leading to an uptick in clicks, a greater number of leads and a higher volume of legal instructions.
Recognising this, we designed two new landing pages tailored to Anthony Gold's target audience. Each page was developed with a clear understanding of the user’s journey:
The introduction of these custom landing pages marked a turning point in the campaign.
Fast forward one year…
At the same time:
In Aneil's own words:
"Establishing that pipeline of work from a standing start was really good. This is our bread and butter. We're no longer fretting about meeting our targets. This isn't just a one-off success. It's our consistent, reliable flow of work. It helps us plan, and it helps us grow and helps us develop.”
Get in touch, and let's have a no-obligation, good old, honest chat about pay-per-click advertising.
You'll speak with a PPC specialist, not a salesperson.
