"Forget about reducing the CPC"

This wasn't what the client was hoping to hear. Over the last year their ad spend had gone up from about $3 000 a month to more than $10 000, but sales had declined.

The previous month was their worst ever: 7 new contracts, down from a high of 30+ new contracts a month.

Everything they'd tried to reduce their cost per click resulted in fewer leads and fewer sales. So they desperately kept raising their ad budget praying that they'd be able to spend their way to profit.

The client hoped that I'd be able to spot some mistake or setting in their Google Ads account that could get the CPCs down to what they were in previous years.

Often when I audit a Google Ads account I can find a handful of easy wins. I make a few recommendations. The client implements them and saves 10 times what I charge. Everyone is happy.

But, that wasn't the case here. I was looking at a well-run Google Ads account. Sure, there were a few things that would shave a little off the average CPC, but nothing short of a time-machine would get the CPC down to what it was before.

Even if we could reduce the CPC today, it'd only be temporary.

The trend, for as long as I've worked with Google Ads, has been that the costs go up. When I started in 2007 you could buy clicks for $0.01. Not anymore and never again.

But, it wasn't all doom and gloom. There is a lot that happens between the time someone clicks on your ad and the time you win the sale. This process is notoriously inefficient and an easy target for improvement.

In the previous month my client made 7 sales from 26 168 clicks. It sounds awful but it's not unusual. Let's take a look at how those 26 168 clicks turned into sales:-

• 26 168 people clicked on an advert.
• 3 327 of those people submitted an enquiry form and became a lead.
• 1 391 leads completed an assessment and became a qualified lead.
• 507 qualified leads booked a meeting with a sales consultant.
• 185 qualified leads attended a meeting.
• 7 qualified leads contracted with the firm.

In money terms he paid Google about $1 400 per client he contracted with. He could live with spending $500 per new client. Roughly a third of what he's currently spending.

Reducing CPC to a third of what he's currently paying is close to impossible.

That's because we have very little control over the cost per click. Google sets the lowest price they'll charge you, and other advertisers bid the cost up.

The other way to hit the $500 per client target is to triple the sales closing rate. Go from winning 7 out of 185 meetings to 20 out of 185 meetings. But, that's also a hard ask.

But it is possible and - in my experience, not that difficult - to make small improvements to each step. For example, it's quite realistic to:-

• Improve the landing page form submission rate from the current 13% to 15%.
• Improve the number of leads who complete the assessment from 42% to 50%.
• Improve the number of qualified leads who book a meeting from 36% to 45%.
• Improve the number of leads who attend a meeting from 36% to 45%
• Improve the sales closing rate from 4% to 5%.

You can check my math in the table below. If I've got it right, the cumulative effect of these small changes means that they'll make 20 sales a month and hit the $500 per client target.

And that's the approach we're going with.

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