Google Ads on a small budget: 9.96% CTR and leads at $28
A B2B organization competing for broad, expensive terms. I narrowed the ground and pointed the account at real intent.
9.96%
Search CTR
$28
Cost per lead
Where it started
B2B organization, limited budget, one clear objective: qualified enquiries, not visits. The account was built around generic campaigns fighting for broad search terms, the kind that pull plenty of clicks and very little intent.
On a small budget, competing for broad terms is the fastest way to spend it with nothing to show. Every dollar gets split across searches that were never going to convert.
What I found
The search terms report showed the problem in two minutes. A meaningful share of the spend was going to informational searches, people looking for definitions and comparisons rather than the service.
The negative list was close to empty. Ad groups held dozens of unrelated keywords under the same ad, so no ad could speak to what the person had actually typed.
And the landing page asked for more information than it was offering in return.
What I did
I went through a year of search terms and built a broad negative list. That's where the budget comes back.
I restructured by intent, with small, specific ad groups. Fewer keywords per group lets you write an ad that echoes what the person just searched for.
I rewrote ads and extensions so they matched the landing page. When the ad promises one thing and the page shows another, the click is paid for and lost.
And I trimmed the landing page form.
Results
- Search CTR: 9.96%
- 29 conversions at $28 cost per lead
- Same spend, no extra budget, no extra headcount
What I took from it
On a small budget, removing things pays better than adding them. Remove terms, remove keywords that don't convert, remove form fields. New campaigns are usually the last thing you need.