The effective optimization of any search campaign is limited by the data it has to work with. In most cases, campaigns optimize to the highest possible volume of clicks or conversions at a reasonable return-on-ad-spend (ROAS). However, in this case the client was specifically looking for leads that would convert into appointments. For the Happy Idiots team, generating more clicks which converted to leads was not giving them the qualitative data they needed to assess how successful the campaign was in meeting the client’s objectives.
Working closely with the client, Erik utilized offline conversion data to enrich the analysis of the campaign performance. By importing this data into Microsoft Advertising it was then a simple task to overlay campaign performance with the offline Conversion Tracking signals and see which leads converted to a successful appointment. “This was transformative for our optimization efforts. Suddenly we could see which campaigns were driving poor quality leads and which were the hidden gems to focus on,” said Erik.
At the start of 2020, the process of importing offline data was cumbersome and manual, but when Microsoft Advertising upgraded the pilot to allow for automated import, the Happy Idiots team could update the offline conversion data on an hourly basis. “This was ideal for us as it gave us the most relevant actionable data, and we could set rules within the Microsoft Advertising interface to switch campaigns on or off based on the ‘real performance’ of appointments rather than clicks,” explained Erik.
Using offline conversion import, the efficiency of the campaign improved dramatically. By optimizing to the right data points, Happy Idiots achieved the desired number of leads while cost-per-appointment (CPA) was reduced by 31% and the lead quality increased by 21%.
Not only this, but because of the additional data fed into the Microsoft Advertising system, automated bidding strategies also started to perform better, optimizing to the metrics Erik’s team cared about the most.