When I joined myskillcamp, I inherited a Google Ads account that had been running for years and was the main source of acquisition. I was not a Google Ads expert, but I still wanted to evaluate what I was given. So I hired Victor Philippe, ex-Google, to run a full audit and tell us where we stood.
The findings confirmed there was room for optimization. The account used well-known and tested strategies but they were not up to date with Google new recommendations. Over three years, working on his recommendations and continuously iterating, I reduced cost per conversion by 60% while growing Conversion by 123%.
The Challenge: an outdated Google Ads setup
The audit revealed the account was running on practices from years prior. SKAG (Single Keyword Ad Groups) everywhere, phrase and exact match keywords, manual bidding. None of it aligned with how Google Ads works in 2021 and beyond.
Victor's findings were clear: we needed a complete restructure. However, the release would be incremental to make sure not to loose our pipeline. New campaigns' budget would be slowly ramped up while old ones slowly deprecated.
Rebuilding the Google Ads account
I rebuilt the campaign structure following Victor's recommendations and best practices: consolidated ad groups, automated bidding for conversions, broad match keywords with comprehensive negative keyword lists. We moved away from SKAG to fit Google's more automated, machine-learning driven approach.
The focus shifted to what actually matters for Quality Score: landing page experience, ad relevance, and proper conversion tracking. Better tracking meant Google's algorithms had better data to optimize against.
Landing page optimization
The landing pages were a mess. Slow load times, unclear value propositions, and forms asking for 8 fields when we only needed 4. Every unnecessary field was costing us conversions.
I redesigned the landing pages in Webflow with a clear hierarchy: headline, social proof, benefits, single CTA. We reduced form fields to the essentials and relied on automated lead enrichment in the background to fill in the rest.
A/B testing became systematic. We tested headlines, form lengths, CTA copy, and page layouts. We optimized page speed by compressing images, implementing lazy loading, and removing unnecessary scripts. Core Web Vitals improved significantly.
Building the conversion funnel
I mapped the full conversion funnel from ad click to demo booked, identifying every drop-off point. The goal was to make the path to conversion as frictionless as possible.
We built qualification forms with conditional logic to route leads based on market, company size, and use case. Demodesk integration enabled instant demo booking, eliminating the email back-and-forth that was killing our conversion rates.
For leads not yet ready to talk to sales, we created automated nurture sequences in HubSpot. Re-engagement campaigns targeted leads who visited the pricing page but did not convert.
Analytics infrastructure
You cannot optimize what you cannot measure. I implemented enhanced Google Analytics tracking with custom events for micro-conversions, not just form submissions.
Google Tag Manager became our central hub for all tracking. Organized tags, triggers, and variables made it easy to add new tracking without touching code. We built cross-domain tracking for multi-step conversion paths.
Hotjar gave us qualitative insights: heatmaps showed where users clicked, session recordings revealed friction points, and form analytics identified which fields caused abandonment.
Databox dashboards combined Google Ads, Analytics, and CRM data for full-funnel visibility. Leadership could finally see the complete picture from ad spend to closed revenue.
Connecting paid and organic
Google Search Console became a goldmine for keyword ideas. We identified high-intent queries where we ranked organically but had low paid competition. These became our highest-performing ad groups.
We also fixed technical SEO issues impacting landing page indexation and created content recommendations based on search query gaps between organic and paid.
By the end of this work, marketing became a predictable, scalable source of qualified pipeline for sales. We had a repeatable playbook for launching campaigns in new markets. And for the first time, we could accurately report marketing ROI and justify continued investment.