Strong Marketing Partnership Yields Big Google Ads Results
It’s not easy for a regional tech company like Evolving Solutions to leverage its expertise into brand awareness and business growth, especially in a crowded technology market. Tactics such as thought leadership and Google Ads campaigns are a great start but executing them effectively with a small marketing team can be a challenge.
By partnering with GamePlan Marketing, a North American agency specializing in IT marketing, Evolving Solutions exceeded expectations, achieving record-breaking click-through rates (CTR) and low cost-per-click (CPC), while generating impressive impressions, website traffic, and content downloads.
Evolving Solutions simplifies technology for clients across private-sector industries, offering a competitive edge with its smart, people-first approach and enduring relationships. However, with just three full-time marketing professionals and one part-time intern supporting a company of 100 tech experts, marketing bandwidth was stretched thin.
“We’re juggling a lot of initiatives and don’t have time to handhold a partner through the basics like educating them on our business, market, and audience,” says Kelly Hirner, Director of Marketing at Evolving Solutions.
After struggling to find the right partner, Hirner found GamePlan Marketing, whose expertise in IT marketing proved invaluable. “With GamePlan, we’re not starting at ground zero,” Hirner says. “We don’t need to do the basic explaining we’ve had to with other partners.”
Evolving Solutions needed to raise brand awareness and establish credibility, even when competing against larger firms with more marketing resources. The solution started with developing high-quality thought leadership, which Hirner describes as a core differentiator: “If people click through and the content is poor, they won’t come back, and it won’t have an impact.”
In early 2024, Hirner partnered with GamePlan to take this thought leadership to market with a Google Ads campaign designed to drive traffic, build awareness, and warm up prospects for the sales team.
Hirner provided GamePlan with seven ad groups, each linked to a landing page or key piece of content. The ad groups focused on Evolving Solutions’ core capabilities and areas of high-growth potential.
GamePlan handled the keyword research, identifying 115 keyword phrases while monitoring and optimizing campaign performance. By identifying irrelevant search terms such as “free cloud storage,” they eliminated wasted impressions.
The Google Ads campaign generated 152,673 impressions and 16,167 clicks over the course of the campaign. The overall CTR reached 10.59%, far exceeding the tech industry average of 2.09% (Wordstream 2024).
Key ad group results:
The cost-per-click (CPC) averaged $0.73, dramatically lower than the industry average of $3.80. Additionally, the campaign doubled website traffic and achieved standout results for content engagement.
Every ad is linked to an asset written by GamePlan to illustrate the company’s strengths. “Differentiating content gives us authority and shows we’re not afraid to share our insights,” says Hirner. GamePlan’s content support also helps her small marketing team look big. “Our larger peers wonder how we do it. I tell them that we found the right partner,” says Hirner.
Hirner draws on marketing development funds from IBM to fund many of her projects, and she says, “We’ve gotten a lot of kudos from IBM on the things we’ve been doing with GamePlan, largely because of the quality of the content. That’s the sort of thing that keeps us coming back.” For example, she says, in developing the IBM Storage Strategy eBook, which had a CTR of 12.33%, GamePlan helped the company get to the right part of the message. “GamePlan does a great job interviewing our experts and packaging our message in a way that resonates with our target audience,” she says.
GamePlan works as an extension of Hirner’s team, who trust the quality of its work. “It’s critical for us to operate that way,” she says. “Over the course of our relationship, we’ve found that GamePlan gets it right the first time, not only with our Google Ads project but especially with our e-book projects, which require minimal editing. They push us when we need it, and the delivery is best in class. I can’t say enough about GamePlan.”
Hirner advises other technology providers to make a real effort to find the marketing agency that feels like the right fit, works with you as a true partner, and understands your business and capabilities.
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