The numbers
209%
more paid trials
48%
lower CPA per purchase
231%
better trial to paid rate
The challenge
The Buddy Punch team wanted to develop PPC as a profitable acquisition channel and scale it. They’ve spent a significant amount of resources over the past years to make paid advertising work, but without positive results.
The Buddy Punch team is busy working on the business and doesn't have time running PPC. They hired multiple agencies and various consultants to help.
Unfortunately they burned generic tactics and the lack of knowledge in product led saas. As Buddy Punch has a strong brand, many non branded ad campaigns were running branded search terms. Many searches were just people trying to log in. Traffic was not relevant, very broad - therefore little trials ended up as purchases.
The solution
Focusing on high quality audience
Previous agencies attracted very generic search queries, low intent traffic, and people who were looking to log in in competitor tools. We decided to focus on high quality users.
Buddy Punch is built for businesses who need to track their employee time. We targeted specific high intent searches - people looking for a time tracking solution for SMB.
In order to make sure we get only high quality traffic, we
- structured keywords into ad groups by close topics
- used only exact and phrase match in one ad group.
- removed mobile traffic and low quality placements
- added generic and low intent searches as negative keywords.
That allowed us to attract small businesses who are looking for a time tracking solution right at this moment. A strong, relevant message and high quality traffic made every third trial to become a paid customer.
Building high converting landing pages
Time tracking space is very competitive and cost per click on Google is very high. In order to succeed, we need to improve our conversion rates. We’ve created beautifully designed landing pages showing the value of the product for our ICP.
- Our landing page is speaking benefits
- Answering on the search query
- Use all conversion optimization tactics
As a result, our trial conversion rates are in double digits. More people convert from the same budget. That helped us to decrease cost per purchase at least 48%.
Retargeting lapsed trials on paid social
Not all trials become paying customers. In order to get more people to use Buddy Punch, we decided to retarget people who are still hot and show interest.
We set up audiences from people who didn’t complete the onboarding or lapsed trials using specific messaging - motivating them to finish their setup, start using the tool, or come back. We used:
- Creatives showing their trial has ended
- Videos showing how close users were from getting value
- Messaging to finish setup their onboarding and start tracking time
- Creative angle to stop the scroll
Our retargeting strategy allowed us to catch users with relevant messaging at the right time. That increased trial activations and helped us to achieve 34% trial to paid conversion.
The result
The quality of trials improved significantly. Almost all trials started using the product after the signup: adding employees, creating schedules, tracking time. Buddy Punch started getting high LTV deals from non branded keywords at much lower CPA. The Camel Digital team allowed them to scale PPC accounts and contribute to overall business growth.
- 2x trial conversion rates from paid traffic
- Every 3rd trial can become a paid customer
- Trial quality dramatically improved
Camel Digital’s honesty is impressive. They don’t sugarcoat things if they go wrong and celebrate actual wins. They have built an ad engine that works and provides a positive ROAS. They deliver on time and are willing to dig into the details and provide reporting on what we need.
