- Client
- Australian B2B SaaS, workforce compliance
- Channels
- Google Search, Display, Meta
- Media spend
- $3,358 in 5 weeks, ~half the approved budget
- Role
- Audit, rebuild, ongoing management
The challenge
Busy account. Wrong goal.
An established compliance platform selling to HR teams at large employers. Google Ads had run for years with no confidence it produced demos. The category has a trap: the obvious searches come far more from individual workers checking their own status than from employers buying software.
- FINDING 1Bidding to a timer.Smart Bidding optimised to time-on-site; the demo tag recorded zero.
- FINDING 2Wrong audience.Most non-brand spend reached individuals, not employers.
- FINDING 3Budget too thin to learn.Many small campaigns, most below Smart Bidding thresholds.
- FINDING 4Negatives on paused campaigns.Known waste was still getting through.
- FINDING 5Paying for customer log-ins.10 of 14 brand-search contacts were existing customers.
What I did: measure the right thing, then spend.
- 01Fixed measurement. Rebuilt tracking in GTM so Google Ads, GA4 and Meta count demo requests and form leads, connected through to the CRM.
- 02Rebuilt Search around employer intent. Fewer, stronger campaigns; shared negative lists filtering out job-seeker searches.
- 03Cleaned up brand. Removed log-in keywords and excluded customers, so brand spend protects new demand.
- 04Launched Meta lead gen. A compliance checklist lead magnet for HR decision-makers, CRM lookalike vs interest audience tested head to head.
- 05Built retargeting. Meta and Google Display to site visitors and form starters, customers and recent demos excluded.
- 06Reported against the CRM. Cost per lead = spend ÷ CRM contacts, customers removed, so the numbers match what sales sees.
Results
Lead volume tripled. Cost per lead roughly halved.
Google Ads, GA4 and Meta, 14 Sep – 18 Oct 2026. Pipeline valued at the $2,500 entry contract; not yet closed revenue.
The insight
Platform numbers flatter. The CRM tells the truth.
Brand search looked strong until existing customers were stripped out. Spend followed proof: budget only moved to a channel once the CRM showed it produced real contacts. That's why the program hit these numbers at about half the approved budget.
Next: 3 in 4 people who start the demo form don't finish it, so the next gain is a simpler form and a nurture sequence, not more media.
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