Reducing Ad Spend Waste for Suez by 26%

In just 9 months, we reduced cost per conversion for Suez by 58% and increased their conversions by 78%.

We worked with global waste management company Suez, on their UK acquisition campaigns to attract new customers using paid media. Having worked with Suez previously on SEO and videography, they asked Flourish to help improve the performance of their Search Ads across Google and Bing.

The Story of Suez

Suez are a global waste management and recycling company who employ around 5,000 people in the UK. Since being established in 1988, they have grown to deliver innovative and environmentally responsible solutions to manage waste and water for households, local authorities, and industry and commerce.

Suez wanted to increase commercial opportunities without increasing their overall ad spend. The challenge for Flourish was to decrease the average cost per acquisition and conversion to help keep costs down as part of current ad strategy optimisation.

Having built a trusting relationship with Suez over the past couple of years by completing successful projects including Search Engine Optimisation for their website and a slick promotional video, the clients were confident that Flourish could optimise their paid media management successfully.

Increasing Conversions by 78%

The previous ad strategy for Suez was ticking along, but as we emerged from the pandemic in 2021 it became apparent that we needed to change the approach and see what improvements we could make to reach Suez’s acquisition goals. We decided to complete a full review and audit of their PPC activity, examining keywords and planning a new strategy to see where we could make savings whilst increasing conversion activity.

The number of conversions was healthy, but compared with the number of overall impressions and clicks that the ads were receiving, the conversion rate could be improved.

In the time since our audit and overhaul of the ad campaigns, we have increased the number of conversions incrementally, resulting in an overall increase in monthly conversions by 78% from when we first started optimising the account.

We did this by:

• Building out negative keyword lists following a keyword analysis to filter out irrelevant searches
• Launched new ads that are focused on converting commercial searches
• Optimised campaigns for call conversions, adding call extensions to the ads

Reduced Cost Per Conversion by 58%

At the start of optimising the ad accounts for Suez, their average cost per conversion was coming in well above the industry benchmark. A conversion is defined as when a potential customer takes an action after seeing and clicking on an ad – an action could be contacting Suez either via phone call (directly from Google or their website) or sending an email or completing a contact form on the website landing page.

By re-writing and re-structuring some of the ad campaigns, we were able to make ads more relevant to Suez’s target audience. This in turn reduced the number of impressions and clicks. That may sound like a negative result, but by making the ads more focused they were more relevant to the people that Suez were trying to reach. The effect is the campaign is more likely to be seen and be relevant to the audience, rather than paid for click-through’s going to waste because the ads have been shown for less relevant searches, which we have been able to monitor over time using data and insights to inform our new strategy.

By increasing the relevancy of ads and continuing to monitor keywords, our team not only increased the overall number of conversions but managed to bring the cost per conversion (not just cost per click) down by 58% in just 9 months. We also worked on monitoring opportunities, increasing bids where we were seeing low cost per conversion and lowering bids where cost per conversion was higher, which has helped to make cost savings.

Reduced Overall Ad Spend by 26%

Thanks to the hard work from our team, working collaboratively with Suez to align with their acquisition goals, the overall spend for Suez’s PPC campaigns came down overall by 26%. This has meant a significant saving for Suez, whilst reaching their goal of increasing the number of new enquiries via online search.

Originally, Suez told us that they understood that their aim of increasing conversions without spending additional budget could be a challenge. However, over the past 9 months, what our team have achieved is not just increasing the number of enquiries by a staggering amount in a short time but we have actually managed to reduce costs and spend under the original monthly budget. We’ve saved Suez money each month that can be re-invested into other media opportunities to help develop the business even further.

Need help to get the most out of your PPC campaigns?

Here at Flourish, we have a dedicated paid media management team that use data insights to constantly and consistently optimise campaign spend to make your marketing budget work harder for you. Our results for a wide range of clients speak for themselves.

If you’re in need of some help to increase performance and acquire more leads through your digital ad campaigns, or perhaps you want to overhaul your overall marketing strategy, get in touch with our friendly expert team.