UK Agency Spots Hidden PPC Strategy & Proves 2,567% ROI

Case Study

• Agency: Atomic Marketing
• Client: Luxury Home Good Supplier
• Software: WhatConverts

The Challenge:

"WhatConverts let us stop optimizing for lead volume or cost per lead because we had the tools to understand what produces a better quality of lead. We found of the 10 quotable leads for this campaign, only 5 or 6 resulted in actual sales… but that made up our clients highest percentage of earnings for their first quarter, something like £100,000.”  

Atomic Marketing, a UK digital marketing agency, has helped 50+ trade businesses earn consistent, qualified leads through Google Ads since 2013. Using a mix of experience, continuous learning, and hard work, Atomic Marketing regularly achieves top-tier results like 1,000%+ return on investment (ROI) and 80% decrease in cost per lead (CPL) for clients.

One such client, a luxury garden office supplier, saw stellar results in the first quarter of 2023. However, the next 9 months had seen stagnating sales. And the client, once thrilled with the results, was now considering switching to another agency.

Atomic Marketing was left with the challenge of:

1. Analyzing why Q1 brought in such fantastic earnings
2. Identifying what changed in the subsequent quarters
3. Strategizing how to optimize their campaigns to achieve similar results today

The Approach:

“Using WhatConverts, we have that ability to show [clients] the return, what’s working, and what’s not working as well. With that data, we can do less of what’s not working and allocate more of the budget into what’s actually producing results.”

For most clients, Atomic Marketing uses WhatConverts to tie earned revenue back to specific ads, landing pages, and keywords, letting them clearly show their marketing ROI. However, this client was reluctant to qualify and value the leads Atomic Marketing generated, forcing the marketing firm to optimize only for CPL (not ROI).

When faced with analyzing the client’s deteriorating results, Atomic Marketing had a hunch. In Q1, they implemented a campaign experiment—advertise an in-person tour of the client’s showroom instead of the default free property survey and quote. The PPC strategy was retired a month later due to low lead volume and a dramatically higher CPL (£150-£300 compared to £60-£80).

Atomic Marketing believed that despite the high costs of these leads, they were far more valuable than those from other campaigns due to their conversion rate, sales value, and upsell potential. Their plan was to use WhatConverts’ lead tracking and attribution data to prove it.

Atomic Marketing would work with the client to qualify and value this year’s leads within WhatConverts. Then, they could use the built-in reporting to analyze which campaigns were producing the highest earnings for the client and what had changed since Q1.

The Result:

After working with their client to qualify and value each lead over the past 9 months, Atomic Marketing could clearly see the showroom campaign massively outperformed every other campaign they’d run that year.

Thanks to WhatConverts, Atomic Marketing proved that although the leads produced were more costly, they were also more likely to close (70% compared to 30%) and had a higher sales value compared to other campaigns. As a result, the showroom campaign earned a 2,567% ROI, nearly twice as high as any other marketing effort that year.

The data was clear—the client’s drop in sales was due to halting the showroom campaign in Q1 because of high CPL. And with this in mind, Atomic Marketing was able to not only retain their client by proving their marketing value, but also build a business case for doubling down on this effective yet forgotten strategy.

“Since re-implementing the strategy back to Q1, we’ve been able to get a much higher lead to quotable rate than before, increased by 20% or more. And now the client has a much better understanding of what’s going on so there’s no confusion about what’s working and what isn’t.”

Results Highlights

• Uncovered PPC strategy w/ 2X higher ROI & conversion rate
• Proved their marketing achieved 2,567% ROAS
• Increased lead-to-quotable rate by over 20%

Want to see what kind of ROI you can achieve? Start your free 14-day trial of WhatConverts today!