HPD Lendscape Google Ads
HPD Lendscape came to us with Google Ads that weren’t performing as they had hoped. After a total rebuild, their performance metrics went off the charts.
A highly successful firm with an underperforming element.
BACKGROUND
HPD Lendscape is a secured lending and finance platform which has been operating for over 40 years and is recognised as a leader in its industry. Its platform enables secure lending through invoice finance, factoring and supply chain finance and collaborates with banks in more than 50 markets.
When HPD came to us their in-house marketing team already had strong campaigns set up for inbound marketing (this includes content marketing, social media marketing, SEO and branding). However, they felt that there was a definite improvement to be made with their ‘outbound marketing’ (advertising), particularly with Google Ads, in order to stimulate FinTech lead generation.
A great deal to say, very few words to say it in, very few people to say it to.
THE CHALLENGE
HPD had one core challenge: they had a complex offering and a very small target audience – their worldwide potential client list is made up of just 3,000 people! Adequately expressing the benefits of a niche business in a short and snappy manner is difficult enough – when there are so few people to target, it becomes even harder.
HPD were already using Google Ads but with limited success. As a Google Ads marketing agency, we were brought in to run a more effective, hyper-targeted campaign, generating high-quality leads without ballooning ad spend costs.
Repair, rebuild, rejuvenate.
THE WORK
HPD knew that a Google Ad would never come close to explaining their proposition, so their ads would direct the user to download resources, request a demo, attend an event and more. This was a good move, but their ad strategy had a lot to be improved upon. Digital marketing for FinTech companies requires precision and before anything else, we needed to make repairs.
HPD’s analytics showed that 96% of their ad clicks were coming through people who had searched ‘HPD’ – meaning they were spending almost all of their budget on visitors their website would have received for free (given an adequate SEO setup). Their ads were not on the first page on Google for any relevant non-brand keyword and they had not set up any filters for negative keywords, meaning they were paying for mistaken clicks from people who were searching for other ‘HPD’ organisations, such as the Houston Police Department!
There were several other ways in which their Google Ads were not being effective and the account needed an entire rebuild. We got to work on extensive keyword research and analysis, analysing the search intent behind the keywords that were typed into Google, the level of competition and the amount that was needed to pay per click. We then cross-checked different options and created a shortlist which would be used. This formed a template for getting the most out of ad spend and minimising budget waste.
We then directed different ads to different web pages instead of the user always being taken to the homepage, ensuring that the target audience would hit priority pages faster. We also identified that the ads had high potential beyond the core markets of the UK and US. We suggested splitting the budget between the regions, allocating the majority to priority markets and exploring the rest of the world separately.
When you see nearly 1000% increases, you know the changes are working.
THE RESULTS
HPD set a goal completion target (the amount of people who clicked on the ad who then went on to download resources, sign up for an event etc) at 7%. Our rebuild of HPD’s ad account enabled them to smash this target.
In just five months, the numbers HPD received were nothing short of outstanding. We not only managed to generate a 350% increase in goal conversion rate and a 1,117% increase in goal completions, but also to gain 189% more clicks and 968% more ‘Ask for a Demo/Book Demo’ button clicks.
The splitting of budget between high cost regions, low cost regions and brand has also enabled us to get more clicks and conversions for the same spend.
These results show just how valuable it is to partner with a Fintech digital marketing agency. Google Ads can be a highly effective way to generate leads but if used incorrectly, will cost you heavily in both time and money. Through collaboration with a partner which has the relevant skills and experience, HPD were able to see improvements that went far beyond their expectations.