Google Ads Campaign Optimization
// WM (Waste Management, Inc.)
Oakland Recycles, a partnership between WM of Alameda County, the City of Oakland, and California Waste Services, needed to improve the performance of a digital ad campaign supporting bulky item pickups in Oakland, CA.
Role
As Digital Marketing & Paid Media Specialist with WM’s Northern California-Nevada Communications team, I was tasked with taking over a Google Ads Search and Display campaign that was previously being managed by an external agency and improving the performance to drive more signups for the free bulky pickup program in Oakland, CA.
Strategy
An audit of current campaign structure revealed keyword misalignment within the Search campaign that presented significant opportunities to improve performance by targeting lower volume keywords that had much higher relevance for the campaign objectives. An analysis of the Display campaign showed room for improvement with audience, demographic, topic, and affinity targeting. An audit of the campaign landing page showed that there was an opportunity to boost performance further by adding conversion events in GA4 that could be used to improve targeting in Google Ads. I developed a revised keyword strategy and updated ad copy to align with the new targeting.
Outcome
After the updated strategy was launched in May 2023, the campaign saw a +381% increase in CTR, a +750% increase in conversion rate, and an -80% drop in cost-per-acquisition.