Overview
The client had been running Google Ads for months with little to show for it. Budget was being spent, campaigns were live, but leads couldn’t be reliably traced back to paid search. Three compounding issues — broken conversion tracking, overly broad geo targeting, and incomplete CRM attribution — made the account look like it wasn’t working. In reality, no one had built it to work properly.
Objectives
- Fix broken conversion tracking feeding Smart Bidding
- Stop budget leaking outside the real service area
- Recover paid-search leads missing from attribution
Strategy & Execution Overview
- Tracking Rebuild:
Reconfigured phone calls, click-to-call, and form submissions as properly categorised primary conversions so Smart Bidding finally had real signal to optimise toward. - Precision Geo:
Restructured location targeting around real-service postcode clusters across NSW South Coast and Melbourne — cutting wasted impressions outside the service footprint. - CRM Attribution Audit:
Reviewed the CRM and recovered 28 paid-search enquiries that had never been attributed to Google Ads — exposing the account’s true return on spend.
Results & Impact
- 92 total leads in 30 days, from a baseline of 0 measurable leads
- 64 leads tracked directly via Google Ads
- 28 additional leads recovered from CRM audit
- ~$38 AUD cost per lead in a high-ticket renovation category
- $3,500 AUD ad spend — no budget increase
Key Takeaways
- Lead volume problems are usually measurement problems, not bidding problems
- Tight geo targeting concentrates budget on real purchase intent
- True ROAS is invisible until CRM and ad platforms are reconciled