Piano Movers Pay Per Click Case Study

This client was able to see these amazing results by getting a PPC audit of their Google Ads account and having those recommendations put into action.

+73%

leads generated

-75%

cost per conversion

+3,438%

conversion rate

piano moving company case study analytics

About the Client

This particular client is a small business based out of North Texas that specializes in piano moving and storage services. They’ve been offering their services throughout Texas for over 40 years. They'd earned a good deal of local brand awareness and wanted to expand their operations by incorporating PPC into their marketing strategy.

Project Overview

For the last nine months, their Google Ads account had been managed by a Google Ads rep that convinced them to start spending money on PPC. Since then, they had been spending a lot of money, but they didn't know what that money was doing for them. They weren't seeing an increase in inbound leads or phone calls and were starting to get concerned.

As they entered their slow season, the business was slowing more than usual so they felt like it was a good opportunity to get a second opinion on how their account was being managed.

They’re a Mom-and-Pop business run by salt-of-the-earth people. They don’t know anything about running a PPC account so they relied on their Google Ads rep to steer them in the right direction. They took the advice they were given and did everything they were told to do the way they were told to do it.

Project Goal

Perform a deep dive on their Google Ads account to determine whether or not they were targeting the correct keywords and that their money was being properly utilized. The results of our PPC audit would be compiled into a prioritized action list to improve the performance of their campaigns.

Project Challenges

The account was in complete shambles, which was surprising given that it was being managed by a Google Ads representative.

We found a display campaign that had spent over $7,000 in the previous 4 months. There were 28,600 clicks in that time but it had only generated 21 conversions (0.07% conversion rate) at $260 per lead. This was not an acceptable KPI since their standard move price is ~$480.

There were hundreds of broad match keywords (with zero negative keywords) and non-converting keywords that were chewing through their daily budget. Their ads were also running around the clock without an automated bidding strategy to optimize who was shown their ads and when. (Who looks for a piano mover at 3 am? No one.)

The account was in desperate need of a complete overhaul and a return to basic PPC fundamentals to have a shot at generating a positive ROI.

Our Strategy

There were three primary problems that needed to be solved; 1) egregious waste of ad spend, 2) broad unfocused keyword targeting, and 3) around the clock ad scheduling.

Overhaul strategy

  • Pause the non-performing display campaign.
  • Keyword audit of performing search campaign.
  • Compile a list of all keywords that had previously converted.
  • Pause the search campaign to preserve the data.
  • Perform keyword research to discover new growth opportunities.
  • Build out a new search campaign with the converting keywords & intent-based keywords discovered during our keyword research.
  • Segment similar keywords into silos and build out dedicated ad groups.
  • Optimize keyword Quality Scores to lower their average CPCs and CPAs.
  • Consistently carry out AB testing to maximize campaign output.
  • Audit and restrict their ad schedules to only show during business hours.

The Results

We were absolutely thrilled with the results (as was the client). By scrapping 99% of what their Google rep had told them to do and starting from scratch using basic PPC fundamentals, we were able to pull off a complete 180° reversal on their account.

  • Increased leads generated by 73% (+144 over 4 months)
  • Reduced overall cost by 58% (~$7,200 over 4 months)
  • Increased conversion rate by 3,438% (+22.08%)
  • Reduced cost per conversion by 75% (-$47 per lead)

Reduced cost per conversion by 75%

Stopping the display campaign was a huge budget saver, as expected, which allowed us to really shrink their cost per lead by a significant margin pretty much immediately. You can see how the line drops like a stone as soon as we took over. This dropped their cost per conversion from $62 per lead to $15 per lead!

Cost per conversion over time
Comparison of CPAs before & after our work.

Increased # of leads by 73%

Shifting the targeting focus in the new campaign paid off. By only bidding on keywords that had previously converted and new intent-based keywords, we were able to almost double (+94%) the amount of the leads generated in the search campaigns.

Graph of conversions over time
Comparison of conversions before & after our work.

Increased conversion rate by 3,438%

That’s a big number. A real big number. An almost unbelievable number (right?) and the reason why it’s so large is that Google had this client running a completely unnecessary display campaign that had over 28,000 clicks in ~4 months with only 22 conversions (0.07% conversion rate).

That campaign was an anchor that tanked the account-wide conversion rate down to 0.64% when the other campaign was running at ~21%. By cutting the dead weight and improving upon the existing campaign, we were able to boost it another 5% which caused this KPI to launch into the stratosphere.

Graph of conversion rate over time
Comparison of conversion rates before & after our work.
Project Results

Piano Moving Company Google Ads Case Study

+73%

leads generated

-75%

cost per conversion

+3,438%

conversion rate

-58%

overall cost

Getting a PPC audit generated 73% more leads and reduced their costs by 58%!

You should always know what your marketing efforts are doing for you at all times. If you don't, there's never any harm in getting an audit by a third party.

Doing so helped this piano moving company earn 75% more inbound leads and reduce their overall PPC cost by 58%. Had they let the campaigns continue running or just shut them down, they never would have been able to make it all worth their while.

Don't be afraid of getting a PPC audit. You might be surprised by what you find and how much more revenue you stand to generate if you make some key changes.

If you're looking for a second opinion, give us a shout. We'll be happy to lend our expertise and give you our professional opinion of your paid marketing efforts.