The Challenge
A fintech offering a financial product to customers Australia wide was competing for search attention against the biggest, best funded advertisers in the country. The major banks. Those incumbents were spending four to six times the fintech's entire ad budget on the same keywords. On paper, it was a fight the challenger could not win.
The existing account was bleeding money. Broad keywords, weak targeting and conversion tracking that counted the wrong actions, so every customer cost a fortune and nobody could tell what was actually working.
Where they started. High cost per acquisition, low quality enquiries, broken conversion tracking and almost no visibility against the banks on the terms that mattered.
What We Did
We could not outspend the banks, so we out structured them.
1. Fixed the tracking first
We found conversion tracking firing on the wrong actions, so the data was lying about what worked. We rebuilt it to measure real customer acquisitions, not vanity clicks. A common mistake is scaling spend before fixing tracking, which just buys more bad data, faster.
2. Won on relevance, not budget
We tightened ad relevance and landing page match to lift Quality Score, which lowers what you pay for the same position. Better relevance meant we paid less per click than far bigger spenders for the same real estate.
3. Concentrated the fire
Instead of spreading thin across every term like the banks, we focused budget on the high intent searches that actually converted and let real conversion data decide where to push and where to pull back.
The principle. In a paid auction, the winner is rarely whoever spends the most. It is whoever wastes the least. Relevance and intent beat raw budget, even against the banks.
The Results
The fintech took roughly 80% impression share on its core terms, dominating the search results against banks spending four to six times more. At the same time, cost per acquisition dropped by 90% and the customers coming through were the right ones.
Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
Cost per acquisition | High and rising | 90% lower |
Impression share (core terms) | Minimal | Around 72% |
Competitor ad spend vs ours | 4x to 6x higher | Still outranked them |
Conversion tracking | Firing on wrong actions | Measuring real acquisitions |
Key Takeaways
You do not need the biggest budget to win paid search. You need the most relevant, best tracked account.
Quality Score is leverage. Higher relevance means you pay less than bigger spenders for the same position.
Fix measurement before you scale. Most expensive accounts are a tracking and targeting problem, not a budget problem.
David can beat Goliath in the auction. Incumbents spending four to six times more still lost the share that mattered.
Notes: Client anonymised at their request. Competitors referred to generically as major banks, none are named. Metrics are real and indicative of this engagement. Results vary by industry, competition and starting point. Delivered by the team now at Elev8d.