How we turned a stalled Ad Grant into 3,200 email signups a month
.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy leads the effort to protect, maintain and celebrate the Appalachian Trail. Working alongside local, state and federal partners, ATC keeps one of America’s most beloved trails open and thriving for everyone who walks it.
An Ad Grant spending the full monthly budget with zero conversions to show for it
.
When ATC came to us in June 2016, their Google Grant account had been sitting idle for more than five years. The budget was being spent every month but none of it was generating real results. No meaningful conversions, no conversion value, nothing to show the board. Their numbers at the start told the whole story: $9,935 in ad spend, 6,352 clicks, a 73.02% CTR and zero meaningful conversions.
issue 01
Five years of idle traffic
.
The account had been unmanaged for over five years. Budget was flowing out every month but none of it was converting into anything useful.
issue 02
Zero conversions
.
Despite strong click volume and a high CTR, the account had generated no meaningful conversions and no conversion value whatsoever.
issue 03
No strategy behind the spend
.
Clicks were coming in but there was no structure to turn that traffic into leads, signups or any measurable outcome.
The Approach
Five years of data and fifty new opportunities
.
The account had been spending the full $10,000 for years, which meant we had half a decade of keyword data to work with. We dug into every keyword that was inexpensive, had a low paid difficulty score and pulled high volume. By the end of the research phase we had identified more than fifty opportunities worth building on.
solution 01
Custom landing pages
.
We tested eight different campaigns to find which one drove the most conversions, then built a focused landing page around the winner.
solution 02
Account structure
.
Single keyword Ad Groups (SKAG) gave us precise control over which searches triggered which ads, keeping quality scores high and spend efficient.
solution 03
In-depth keyword research
.
We filtered five-plus years of data down to the keywords with the best combination of volume, low cost and low competition, then built every campaign around them.
the results
From 300 emails per month to over 3,200 new monthly subscribers
.
After identifying the highest-performing campaign, we built a custom landing page and kept A/B testing until the numbers moved consistently in the right direction. Three new landing page designs later, the account was generating over 3,200 email signups every month. That’s more than 38,400 new subscribers a year, all driven by a Google Grant that used to produce nothing.
3,200
+
kpi highlight
Monthly email signups, grown from 300 through continuous testing and three rounds of landing page improvements.
Increase ↑
500%+
Click-through rate, up from where it started.
Decrease ↓
50%+
Average cost per click, down significantly from where it started.
