SEO Case Study

How PAJ exploded through the right SEO strategy, the establishment of a blog and internationalization in Google and became the market leader for GPS trackers

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From 0 to over
2000 impressions

Tripling
of the
conversion rate

Over 250 %
ROI directly in the
first month

search-engine

10.24 %
Click-through rate (CTR)

SEA & CRO
Case Study

Company presentation

smartest coaching is an innovative online coaching company from Neubrandenburg with a focus on personal and professional development. Isabella Wichmann and Steffen Krause support their clients with individual coaching and psychological counseling in an appreciative and collaborative way. Through flexible online sessions, they offer a pleasant learning environment that is perfectly tailored to the needs of their participants. Their aim is to accompany people on their way into the job market and help them make a fresh start in their careers. Honesty, empathy and authenticity are her top priorities.

Initial situation & challenges

Before the start of the SEA and CRO project, smartest coaching generated the majority of its inquiries via referrals.

Status quo of the website

A specific landing page was created for the upcoming Google Ads campaign (https://avgs-job-coaching.com/). However, both the smartest coaching website (https://www.smartest-coaching.de/) and the landing page had no visibility in Google at all – there were no visitors and no rankings for relevant keywords. In addition, the landing page suffered from a lack of mobile-friendliness, design flaws and a lack of differentiation from competitors (e.g. because there were no unique USPs). This in turn meant that the conversion rate of the landing page was low. For this reason, it was important to optimize the landing page of smartest coaching for its conversion before starting the SEA measures, so that the cost per click (or CPC) later in the Google Ads campaign would be as low as possible due to the high completion rate.

Challenges when setting up the Google Ads campaign

When the relevant keywords were selected for the Google Ads campaign, it turned out that the CPCs were generally high due to the high search volumes and the strong, investment-hungry competition. Therefore, special settings had to be made when setting up the campaign so that smartest coaching had a chance to assert itself as a newcomer in the industry. In addition, no data about smartest coaching’s target group was available when setting up the campaign, which could have been used to create a lookalike audience (LLA), for example. This in turn made it more difficult to launch the campaign, as data about the target group had to be collected before the campaign could be specifically targeted to the target group in order to achieve low CPCs.

Goal
The following objectives were to be achieved with the SEA and CRO project:

Increase in immediate traffic

The landing page needed to attract new visitors directly, as they wanted to generate new inquiries and customers straight away. This was particularly important due to the short customer lifecycle of smartest coaching: after coaching and successful employment with a company, the customer no longer uses the services of smartest coaching. This means that you need new customers, and you need them every month – as quickly as possible.

Immediate ROI

The resulting profit should flow directly back into the Google Ads campaign budget, allowing the increase of the budget to reach even more visitors and gain additional new customers. An immediate ROI was crucial to ensure the profitability of the project.

Improvement of brand awareness

Additionally, brand awareness needed to be improved. Since most customers had previously been acquired through referrals, it was thought that new customers gained through SEA would also recommend the coaching to other job seekers.

Long-term increase in sales through the landing page

The improved conversion rate of the landing page should lead to a long-term increase in sales generated through the landing page, resulting in a more sustainable business success.

CRO measures (March 2024 - April 2024):

From March 2024 to April 2024, various CRO measures were implemented to ensure that the landing page would be highly converting upon the Google Ads campaign launch.

The following actions were taken to optimize the conversion rate of the landing page:

Building trust:

We added customer quotes to the landing page to increase trust and social proof.

Unique selling points (USPs):

A clear and compelling value proposition was developed to highlight the unique selling points, advantages, and added value of smartest coaching, differentiating it from competitors.

Design overhaul:

The landing page design was revamped to create an appealing and modern look that increases visitors’ trust and interest.

Call-to-Actions (CTAs):

Strong and clear CTAs were implemented to increase the conversion rate of the landing page.

Mobile friendliness:

Finally, the landing page was made responsive to function optimally on all devices, providing a smooth user experience.

You can find an overview of the most important CRO measures here:

Setting up and optimizing the Google Ads campaign (from May 2024):

After optimizing the conversion rate of the landing page, it was time to set up, launch, and continuously optimize the Google Ads campaign.

We took the following actions to achieve the aforementioned goals:

Keyword Research:

First, we conducted extensive research to identify relevant keywords that potential customers might use. For this, we utilized various keyword tools to analyze search volume and competition.

Campaign Settings

The campaign was set to optimize bids for conversions. Additionally, specific settings were applied for the ad network, locations, languages, and target audiences to ensure that the CPC (Cost Per Click) at the start of the campaign would be as low as possible.

The idea behind this approach was: Since we had no data on the target audience of smartest coaching, we first aimed to achieve a low CPC with the initial settings while gathering the first audience data. Once sufficient data is available later, the ads can be scaled further, increasing the reach while keeping the CPC low enough to generate an adequate ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).

After consulting with the smartest coaching team, we set the daily budget for the Google Ads campaign.

Ad Group Settings:

Keyword Selection:

Next, the appropriate keywords for the Google Ads campaign were selected. As the campaign progressed, additional keywords were added and A/B tested. Bids for the keywords were manually adjusted based on the purchase intent associated with each keyword.

Additionally, a list of negative keywords was created.

Ad Titles and Descriptions:

We created appropriate ad titles for all 15 possible slots so that Google could automatically select the best-performing titles through A/B testing. We ensured that the key USPs of smartest coaching were highlighted and positioned in a way that they always appeared in the correct spot in the ad.

We also filled all 4 ad descriptions with the key USPs and additional information about the smartest coaching offer, keeping in mind that Google would display only the best-performing descriptions after A/B testing.

Ad Extensions:

We implemented ad extensions (e.g., sitelinks, callouts, call extensions) to increase the visibility and attractiveness of the ads.

Optimization Score and Ad Quality Score:

The optimization score in Google Ads is a percentage scale (up to 100%) that reflects the relevance and quality of ads, keywords, and landing pages. A higher quality score can lead to lower cost per click (CPC) and better ad positions.

For the optimization score, we aimed for a factor of around 70-80%, rather than the full 100%. The reason is that Google provides recommendations to reach the full 100%, such as adding broader keywords to the list to generate more reach. However, such settings would lead to ads being shown to a less interested audience, resulting in higher CPCs. Google suggests these recommendations because their goal is to generate as much revenue as possible from ads. Therefore, it’s essential to critically evaluate such recommendations and selectively apply them. A quality score of 70-80% is more than sufficient to achieve both low CPCs and a high ad position.

Optimizing the Google Ads Campaign Through A/B Testing and Competitor Analysis:

To continuously improve the Google Ads campaign for smartest coaching, we took the following steps:

Regular Data Analysis:

We regularly analyzed campaign data to adjust bids and keywords based on performance.

A/B Testing:

We conducted regular A/B tests to identify potential improvements. For example, we tested additional ad copy and determined the most effective variants to further increase the click-through rate (CTR) and reduce CPCs.

Competitor Analysis:

We regularly reviewed competitor ads to stay updated and identify further opportunities for smartest coaching. Based on these insights, we continuously optimized the campaign.

You can find an overview of the most important SEA measures here:

Ergebnisse

A complete success for smartest coaching

Thanks to targeted SEA measures and a tripling of the conversion rate, smartest coaching achieved an ROI of over 250% in the first month, which means that more than EUR 2.50 was recovered for every euro invested. The profit generated was successfully reinvested in the Google Ads campaign.

Increase in organic traffic to over 25,000 monthly visitors

The ads achieved a click-through rate (CTR) of 10.24%, which is well above the industry average (3.56%). In addition, the targeted optimization factor of 70-80% was successfully achieved with a factor of 79.9%, resulting in low CPCs and a further increase in ROI.
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The results of smartest coaching show:

Optimization is key. It is possible to run very successful Google Ads campaigns despite a lack of target group data if the campaign and ad settings have been made precisely and are constantly optimized.

It is crucial that the website converts well: The best traffic in the world is useless if the website is not designed attractively and prospective customers bounce straight away.

By continuously optimizing the website and the ads, smartest coaching was quickly able to achieve significant success and considerably increase its reach and number of customers.

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And this is what smartest coaching says about our collaboration

"elato set up a Google Ads campaign for our AVGS job coaching and optimized the conversion rate on our website as a result. We are now constantly receiving new inquiries for our job coaching and our conversion rate on our website is many times higher."
Isabella WichmannOwner - Isabella Wichmann and Steffen Krause GbR

"We were particularly impressed by elato's professional approach and their ability to respond to our specific needs. Every collaboration was characterized by efficiency and friendliness."
Steffen KrauseOwner - Isabella Wichmann and Steffen Krause GbR
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"elato hat für unser AVGS-Job-Coaching eine Google Ads Kampagne aufgesetzt und im Zuge dessen auf unserer Website Conversion Rate Optimierung betrieben. Wir erhalten nun konstant neue Anfragen für unser Job-Coaching und unsere Conversionrate auf unserer Website ist um ein Vielfaches höher."
Isabella WichmannInhaberin - Isabella Wichmann und Steffen Krause GbR

"Besonders beeindruckt hat uns die professionelle Herangehensweise von elato sowie ihre Fähigkeit, auf unsere spezifischen Bedürfnisse einzugehen. Jede Zusammenarbeit war von Effizienz und Freundlichkeit geprägt.“
Steffen KrauseInhaber - Isabella Wichmann und Steffen Krause GbR
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    Performance SEO is ROI-based SEO with a focus on quickly achieving measurable results through target-oriented strategies. Performance SEO is data-driven: through the constant analysis of data and the measures derived from this, it is possible to achieve a positive return on investment (ROI) within a very short time. It is therefore more than just "generating visibility" and "strengthening the brand": it is an approach that focuses on maximizing the effectiveness of SEO measures in order to increase your traffic and therefore sales as quickly as possible.

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    All measures are aimed at increasing the user experience on your website and the presence of your website on the internet. As a result, Google will recognize your website as an authority and your website will be placed at the top.

    You are missing out on 83.33% of potential customers if your website is not in Google's top 3 search results for your keyword. If your website is ranked outside the top 3 search results for your keyword, you should engage in SEO so that you get the qualified traffic you deserve - not your competitors.

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    The exponential effect: In contrast to paid traffic (Pay Per Click, PPC), organic traffic generated by SEO is free of charge and offers the extremely great advantage of the exponential effect:
    Due to the high ranking of your website through our targeted SEO measures, Google recognizes your website as an "authority". The result: If you create new subpages and we make them SEO-friendly, you will see positive SEO results in no time at all - in other words, your website will rank high, which means you will be found by people searching for your exact product/service. This happens because Google has already recognized from your existing pages/content that your website delivers high-quality content.

    Wealso optimize the content on your website with our SEO agency Mannheim: This improves the user experience, which in turn results in a higher conversion rate and more sales for you.

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