The Challenge
Since the beginning of 2023, ad markets have been expensive for advertisers. One of our elder law firm clients was having difficulty justifying its PPC campaign as the price rise of Google Ads was slimming down margins substantially.
Rising costs
In 2022, Google Ads costs rose only 5-19%, while 2023 is bringing an estimated 20-30% increase to ad prices! For context, the legal industry already has some of the most expensive ad prices, and seeing a massive increase in price is sure to turn off many firms from an advertising channel – even if they’ve been using it for years.
CPC
In February 2022, this law firm was averaging $11-$12 per click (“cost-per-click” or “CPC”) on its Google Ads spend. Compare that to February 2023, and their CPC skyrocketed to $14-$15+. While a couple dollars doesn’t seem like much, in the aggregate, it can stack fast as not every click turns into a lead, and not every lead turns into a client. The “funnel” effect usually requires many clicks to render a few qualified clients. This means that for every dollar the CPC increases, you can heavily multiply that dollar to determine the increase in cost per client.
Our Response
9Sail took this opportunity to adapt and research alternate PPC ad platforms to bring this elder law firm the same great results with a more affordable platform – ultimately hoping to increase margins. This led us to Microsoft’s Bing ads. And, as it turns out, Bing is especially attractive to older users with high household incomes – exactly our client’s target audience. We were onto something…
Could we transition a portion of the client’s Google Ad spend to Bing Ads and increase economic efficiencies?
We started by cloning the existing Google Ads campaign within Bing’s platform. From there, we used the same proven tactics we’ve always used to further optimize the campaign and adapt it to the new platform. This included A/B testing ad language, continuously adjusting ad bids, and regularly vetting keywords. These methods allowed us to trim the fat around terms that weren’t converting and simply wasting valuable resources.
The Results
The screenshots below demonstrate the differences in CPC, CPM and CTR from platform to platform. You’ll notice that the Bing campaign saw improvements across all KPIs and, noticeably, the client’s cost-per-click was cut by one-third.
Google Ads
- CPC -
- Elder Law - $14.43
- Estate Law - $15.77
- Cost-Per-Mille (“CPM”) -
- Elder Law - $818.42
- Estate Law - $742.78
- Clickthrough rate (“CTR”) -
- Elder Law - 5.67%
- Estate Law - 4.71%
Bing Ads
- CPC -
- Elder Law - $5.72 (-$8.71)
- Estate Law - $3.74 (-$12.03)
- CPM -
- Elder Law - $439.90 (-$378.52)
- Estate Law - $199.75 (-$543.03)
- CTR -
- Elder Law - 7.69% (+2.02%)
- Estate Law - 5.34% (+0.63%)
The Verdict
The central takeaway here? When playing in the PPC sandbox, consider alternative platforms when pricing becomes prohibitive. In this case, Bing advertising was a fantastic fit, tackling dual objectives: increasing margins from our client’s paid advertising spend and getting the client that much closer to its target audience.
