Case Study
Impact Wolves
Generating 145 free-consultation leads in 9 months through strategic Google Ads optimization – a case study in compounding performance wins across three reporting phases.
Client Background
CPA MOMS® is a national US franchise network that matches entrepreneurs and small-business owners with carefully screened virtual CPAs across bookkeeping, tax planning, financial reporting, and CFO advisory. The business model is consultation-led - every paying client starts with a free 30-minute phone consultation booked through the website. They approached me to scale lead volume through Google Ads while bringing the cost per consultation booking under control in a competitive, broad-match-heavy category where generic searches like "accountant near me" can drain budget fast without producing fit-for-purpose leads.
Phase-by-Phase Performance Snapshot
Google Ads performance dashboards captured across three consecutive 3-month windows - showing how disciplined optimisation compounded results from the pre-engagement baseline through to the latest reporting period. (These are sequential reporting windows, not calendar quarters.)
Phase 1 - Before May 1 - Jul 31, 2024
Phase 2 - After (Initial Wins) Aug 1 - Oct 31, 2024
Phase 3 - Latest (Compounding Gains) Jan 1 - Mar 31, 2025
Month 1 vs Month 2 - Headline Movement
|
Metric
|
Phase 1 May-Jul 2024
|
Phase 2 Aug-Oct 2024
|
Phase 3 Jan-Mar 2025
|
P1 → P3
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Clicks
|
783
|
586
|
363
|
Sharper targeting
|
|
Conversions
|
35
|
53
|
57
|
+62.9%
|
|
Conversion Rate
|
4.47%
|
9.04%
|
15.70%
|
+251%
|
|
Cost Per Lead
|
$174
|
$109
|
$57.49
|
-67.0%
|
|
Total Spend
|
$6.11K
|
$5.77K
|
$3.28K
|
-46.3%
|
Each phase delivered better results on a smaller budget – the hallmark of an account that’s compounding rather than just running.
Conversion Rate Tripled Across Three Phases
The compounding efficiency story - every visitor became more than three times as likely to book a consultation by Phase 3, the result of progressively sharper match between search intent, ad copy, and landing page.
Calculated as conversions ÷ clicks for each 3-month window. The compounding lift was achieved while progressively reducing total ad spend – by Phase 3, total spend had nearly halved versus Phase 1, yet leads had increased.
Initial Challenges & My Approach
Job-Seeker & Student Traffic Eating Budget
"CPA" is one of the most ambiguous query stems in Google search - it pulls in people looking for CPA jobs, CPA exam prep, CPA salary information, and accounting students researching the profession. None of these searchers are entrepreneurs ready to hire. A meaningful share of the original $6.11K spend was being burned on this kind of off-intent traffic.
My Solution:
Built an aggressive, continuously updated negative-keyword library blocking job-related ("hiring," "salary," "career," "jobs"), education-related ("exam," "course," "study," "review"), and DIY-related ("how to do," "tutorial," "free") queries. Spend got progressively locked onto commercial-intent searches from business owners actively looking to hire.
Generic Messaging Against Big-Brand Competitors
Ad copy was leading with "professional accounting services" - a message that puts CPA MOMS® in head-on price comparison against H&R Block, TurboTax, and every local CPA firm. Without a sharper hook, click quality stayed low and the cost-per-conversion sat at a punishing $174.
My Solution:
Rewrote ad copy around the brand's actual differentiators - virtual delivery, an average of ~15 clients per CPA (versus hundreds at traditional firms), specialism in entrepreneurs, and the free 30-minute consultation as the call-to-action. This pre-qualified clicks toward business owners who valued personalised service over the cheapest option.
Single Ad Group Bottleneck
All keywords were grouped into one undifferentiated ad group - bookkeeping searchers saw the same ad as tax searchers, which saw the same ad as CFO-service searchers. Quality Scores stayed mediocre because the ad-to-keyword match was always loose, and there was no statistical signal on which audience or service was actually converting.
My Solution:
Restructured the account into intent-based ad groups - one per service line (bookkeeping, tax planning, CFO/advisory, QuickBooks setup) and one per industry vertical (real estate investors, eCommerce, franchise owners). Each cluster got its own tightly themed ad copy and a clear conversion baseline to optimise against.
Form Friction on the Consultation Page
Even when the right person clicked, the consultation booking experience was longer than it needed to be - too many fields, no reassurance about what happens after submission, and a generic CTA that didn't communicate the no-cost, no-obligation nature of the call. Drop-off between click and form submission was clearly the bottleneck.
My Solution:
Worked with the team to align landing page copy with ad messaging (message-match), reduced form friction by surfacing only essential qualifying fields above the fold, and added trust signals - CPA experience averages, the matching process, and "the CPA pays for the match - it's free for you." Conversion rate climbed from 4.47% to 9.04% in Phase 2 and continued to 15.70% by Phase 3 as a direct downstream effect.
Key Strategies Implemented
Account Structure Audit & Rebuild: Full Google Ads account audit and restructure into intent-based campaign clusters (service line × industry vertical)
Aggressive Negative-Keyword Library: Daily search-term review blocking job, exam, salary, and DIY queries at the source
Commercial-Intent Keyword Sculpting: Prioritised "hire a CPA," "virtual CPA for entrepreneurs," "outsourced bookkeeping," "small business tax CPA"
Vertical-Specific Ad Copy: Distinct ads for real estate investors, eCommerce sellers, franchise owners, and general entrepreneurs
Free Consultation as Hero CTA: Repositioned the 30-minute phone consult as the primary conversion event in every ad and landing page
Trust Signal Layering: "Average 25 years CPA experience," "~15 clients per CPA," "free for business owners" surfaced in ads and on landing page
Bid Schedule Optimisation: Hour-of-day and day-of-week bid multipliers concentrating spend on B2B working hours
Landing Page Message-Match: Page headline, sub-copy, and form fields aligned to the ad the visitor clicked
Conversion Tracking Hardening: Form submissions, phone calls, and consultation bookings tracked as separate conversion actions
Geo-Performance Layer: Bid adjustments toward US states with the highest historical conversion-to-engagement rates
Monthly Performance Reporting: Branded reports with optimisation logs and forward action plans
Continuous Account Monitoring: Daily tracking of spend, clicks, and conversion quality
Lead Generation Impact
Phase-by-phase consultation booking performance - comparing the pre-optimisation baseline against the first optimisation cycle and the latest reporting period on the same account, same offer.
Phase 1 - Before
Phase 2 - After
Phase 3 - Latest
Combined 9-Month Total
Total Clicks
1,732
Total Leads
145
Total Spend
$15,160
Blended CPL
$104.55
The Compounding Story
More leads from less spend – and the gap kept widening every phase. By Phase 3, the account was generating 57 consultation bookings on $3.28K of spend, versus 35 bookings on $6.11K in Phase 1 – that’s 63% more leads on roughly half the budget. Cost per lead fell from $174 to $57.49 (a 67% drop), and conversion rate climbed from 4.47% to 15.70% (a 251% lift). This is what compounding optimisation looks like: each phase built on the last rather than plateauing.
Results & Impact
Through disciplined ongoing optimisation across negative-keyword sculpting, account restructuring, vertical-specific ad copy, and landing page alignment, CPA MOMS®' Google Ads account became a measurably more efficient lead-generation engine - and crucially, the gains compounded across three reporting phases rather than plateauing. By Phase 3, consultation bookings had risen 62.9% versus the Phase 1 baseline while total ad spend had been cut by 46.3%. The conversion rate climbed from 4.47% to 15.70% - a 3.51× lift signalling a fundamentally sharper match between search intent and the brand's offer. Cost per lead fell from $174 to $57.49, a 67% reduction. The result is a paid search channel delivering predictable, profitable lead flow on a meaningfully smaller budget - in a category where generic targeting otherwise bleeds spend on job seekers and exam candidates.
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