{"id":34088,"date":"2024-08-22T18:59:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T18:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elato.media\/smartest-coaching\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T08:04:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T08:04:57","slug":"smartest-coaching","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.elato.media\/us\/case-studies\/smartest-coaching\/","title":{"rendered":"smartest coaching – SEA & CRO Case Study"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Google Ads & CRO Case Study<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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How smartest coaching achieved over 250% ROI and tripled its conversion rate in the first month through Google Ads and conversion rate optimization.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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From 0 to over
2000 impressions<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\t\r\n\t <\/div>\r\n\t \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Tripling
of the
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Over 250 %
ROI directly in the
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10.24 %
Click-through rate (CTR)<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\t\r\n\t <\/div>\r\n\t \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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SEA & CRO
Case Study<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\t\r\n\t <\/div>\r\n\t \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Company presentation<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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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.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Initial situation & challenge<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Before the start of the SEA and CRO project, smartest coaching generated the majority of its inquiries via referrals.<\/p>\n

Status quo of the website <\/strong><\/p>\n

A specific landing page was created for the upcoming Google Ads campaign (https:\/\/avgs-job-coaching.com\/). However, both the website of smartest coaching (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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 costs per click (or CPC) would be as low as possible later in the Google Ads campaign due to the high completion rate.<\/p>\n

Challenges when setting up the Google Ads campaign<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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 competition that was keen to invest. Therefore, special settings had to be made when setting up the campaign so that smartest coaching had a chance of asserting itself as a newcomer in the industry.<\/p>\n

In addition, no data about smartest coaching’s target group was available when the campaign was set up, 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.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The following goals were to be achieved with the SEA and CRO project:<\/p>\n

Increase immediate traffic<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Immediate ROI<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The resulting profit was to flow directly back into the Google Ads campaign budget in order to reach even more visitors and gain additional new customers by increasing the budget. An immediate ROI was crucial to ensure the profitability of the project.<\/p>\n

Improving brand awareness<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Brand awareness was also to be improved. Since most of the customers had previously been acquired through recommendations, it was logical to assume that new customers acquired through SEA would also recommend the coaching to other job seekers.<\/p>\n

More sales in the long term thanks to the landing page<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The improved conversion rate of the landing page should increase the number of sales generated via the landing page in the long term, leading to more sustainable business success.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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CRO measures (March 2024 - April 2024)<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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From March 2024 to April 2024, various CRO measures were carried out to ensure that the landing page directly converts highly when the Google Ads campaign is launched.<\/p>\n

Among other things, the following measures were taken to optimize the conversion rate of the landing page<\/p>\n

Build trust:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We added customer quotes to the landing page to increase trust, or social proof.<\/p>\n

Unique selling points:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A clear and compelling value proposition was developed to highlight smartest coaching’s unique selling points, benefits and added value and to differentiate it from competitors.<\/p>\n

Revision of the design:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The landing page design was redesigned to create an appealing and modern look that increases visitor trust and interest.<\/p>\n

Call-to-actions (CTAs):<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Strong and clear CTAs were implemented to increase the landing page conversion rate.<\/p>\n

Mobile friendliness:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the landing page was designed responsively so that it works optimally on all devices and offers a pleasant user experience.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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You can find an overview of the most important CRO measures here: <\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Setting up and optimizing the Google Ads campaign (from May 2024)<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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After optimizing the conversion rate of the landing page, it was now time to set up, launch and continuously optimize the Google Ads campaign.<\/p>\n

Among other things, we took the following measures to achieve the aforementioned goals:<\/p>\n

Keyword research:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

First, we carried out extensive research into relevant keywords that potential customers could use. To do this, we used various keyword tools to analyze the search volume and the competition.<\/p>\n

Campaign settings<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The campaign was set to optimize for conversions as part of the bidding settings. Specific settings were also made for the advertising network, locations, languages and target groups so that the CPC was as low as possible at the start of the campaign.<\/p>\n

The idea behind this was: As we do not have any data on the target group of smartest coaching, we will first ensure that we achieve a low CPC with the settings made and at the same time collect the first target group data. If sufficient data is then available later, the ads can be scaled further so that the reach of the ads is increased and the CPC is still low enough to generate sufficient ROAS (return on ad spent).<\/p>\n

After consultation with the smartest coaching team, we set the daily budget for the Google Ads campaign.<\/p>\n

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Ad group settings: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Keyword selection:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The appropriate keywords were then selected for the Google Ads campaign. Over the course of the campaign, further keywords were added and A\/B tested. Furthermore, the bids on the keywords were adjusted manually – depending on how much purchase intent the respective keywords had.<\/p>\n

A list of keywords to be excluded was also created.<\/p>\n

Ad titles and ad descriptions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suitable ad titles were created for all 15 possible slots so that Google could automatically select the best ad titles from the 15 title variations in their A\/B tests. We made sure that the most important USPs of smartest coaching were emphasized. We also positioned the ad titles appropriately so that they always appear in the right place in the ad.<\/p>\n

We also filled in all 4 ad descriptions with the most important USPs and further information about the smartest coaching offer – again with the idea that Google only plays the best of the 4 ad descriptions after the A\/B tests.<\/p>\n

Ad extensions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have also implemented ad extensions (e.g. sitelinks, callouts, call extensions) to increase the visibility and attractiveness of the ads.<\/p>\n

Optimization factor, or quality factor of the ads:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

For the optimization factor of the ads, it was important to us to achieve a factor of approx. 70-80% and not the full 100%. The reason for this is that Google makes further recommendations to the campaign manager in order to achieve the full 100% optimization factor. For example, it is recommended to add broader keywords to the keyword list in order to generate more reach. However, such settings would ensure that the ad is also displayed to a less interested target group, resulting in high costs per click (CPCs). However, Google suggests such recommendations because their goal is to make as much money as possible from the ads. In some cases, we would therefore spend more money as a result of their suggested settings. It is therefore important to always question such suggestions for campaign settings that increase the optimization factor and, if necessary, to omit them. A quality score of 70-80% is absolutely sufficient to achieve both low CPCs and a high ad position.<\/p>\n

Optimization of the Google Ads campaign through A\/B tests and competitive analysis:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In order to continuously improve smartest coaching’s Google Ads campaign, we carried out the following measures, among others:<\/p>\n

Regular data analysis:<\/strong><\/p>\n

We regularly analyzed campaign data, such as adjusting bids and keywords based on results.<\/p>\n

A\/B tests:<\/strong><\/p>\n

We conducted regular A\/B tests to identify potential and implement optimizations. For example, we tested additional ad texts and determined the most effective variants to further increase the click-through rate (CTR) and reduce the costs per click (CPCs).<\/p>\n

Competitor analysis:<\/strong><\/p>\n

We regularly reviewed competitor ads to stay up to date and identify further potential for smartest coaching. The campaign was then further and continuously optimized based on the findings.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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You can find an overview of the most important SEA measures here: <\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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