How we cut Google Ads CPC by 75% and 4x'd conversions without increasing budget.
What Was Holding Them Back
Chauffeurs on Demand had been running Google Ads in-house for over a year with no formal structure. The account had a single broad campaign with generic match types, no negative keyword list, and the ads pointed directly to the homepage — a page not built for conversion.
At $5.00+ per click and a 1.2% conversion rate, the cost-per-booking was unsustainably high. The business knew Google Ads should work for their service — airport transfers and corporate chauffeur bookings are classic high-intent searches — but the execution was bleeding budget.
The fundamental problem: they were paying for unqualified clicks from irrelevant queries like 'driver jobs' and 'car rental' while the actual buying intent searches — 'airport chauffeur Sydney', 'corporate car hire Melbourne' — were either not targeted or poorly positioned.
"Chauffeurs on Demand were burning over $5.00 per click with a 1.2% conversion rate. We rebuilt their entire Google Ads account from the ground up — cutting CPC to $1.25 and growing conversions 4x through tighter campaign structure, negative keyword management, and dedicated landing pages."
How We Solved It
Full Account Restructure
We archived the existing campaign entirely and rebuilt the account from zero. The new structure used tightly themed single-keyword ad groups (SKAGs) for the highest-value services — airport transfers, corporate bookings, wedding cars, and interstate travel.
Each ad group had 3 ad variants (RSA) written with strong commercial intent signals, service-specific USPs (professional drivers, fixed pricing, meet & greet), and clear calls-to-action.
Negative Keyword Architecture
We built a negative keyword list of 200+ terms before the campaign launched — blocking job-related queries, rideshare comparisons, DIY driving terms, and price-sensitive informational searches that would never convert.
Weekly search term reports in the first month added another 80 negative keywords based on actual irrelevant traffic. This alone cut wasted spend by 40%.
Dedicated Landing Pages
We built three dedicated landing pages — one for airport transfers, one for corporate bookings, and one for special occasions — each with a headline matching the ad copy (message match), a prominent booking form above the fold, trust signals (5-star reviews, fleet photos), and a single CTA.
A/B testing on headline copy and CTA button text ran for 6 weeks. The winning variants increased form completion rates by a further 28%.
Bid Strategy Optimisation
We launched on Manual CPC to gather conversion data, then transitioned to Target CPA bidding at the 30-day mark once Google's algorithm had enough conversion signals. This further reduced CPC while maintaining conversion volume.
What We Achieved
CPC reduced from $5.00 to $1.25 — a 75% reduction
Conversion rate grew from 1.2% to 4.9% — a 4x improvement
280% more bookings generated from the same monthly ad budget
Cost-per-booking reduced by over 80% vs. pre-engagement baseline
40% of wasted spend eliminated through negative keyword architecture
Account structure now scalable — new service lines can be added without disrupting existing campaigns
Project Details
Services Used
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