A stranger is expensive to convert. Someone who sees your ad for the first time on their phone has no reason to trust you over the next result, so they scroll past or click and leave. Every one of those clicks still costs money.
That was the position of a specialized service business in North Texas when it came to us. Nearly all of its marketing was search ads. The ads were getting clicks, but the share of visitors who became customers had stopped moving, and each new customer was costing more than the last.
What was going wrong
Nothing was wrong with the ads themselves. The problem came earlier. The people clicking had never heard of the business, so the ad had to earn their trust in a few seconds, against competitors doing the same thing.
The fix was to make sure people had already seen the brand before they ever searched for it.
What we changed
Three channels, run together rather than one at a time.
Screens in the rooms people already spend time in. We put the client’s ads on our indoor billboard network in a chosen set of ZIP codes, around Highland Park and the Metrocrest area. These are screens in gyms, restaurants and local businesses, where people sit or wait and see the same ad more than once over a week.
The same audience, followed onto their phones. We drew geofences around nearby commercial developments, so people who had been in those areas saw the client’s display ads afterwards. The goal was several points of contact rather than a single impression.
A local listing ready for the search. We updated the client’s Google Business Profile and local landing pages, so that when a familiar name came up in a search, the listing gave people a reason to call or ask for a quote.
The first 60 days
$68,000 in new contracted revenue. In addition:
- The landing-page conversion rate rose 3.4 times as more visitors arrived already knowing the brand.
- Calls and direction requests from Google Maps rose 140%.
“When people see your brand inside their favorite local spots, you aren’t just an ad on a screen anymore — you become part of the community fabric. That familiarity is what turns a cold scroll into a $5,000 contract.”
— Mason Boswell, founder of Maverick Digital
Why this transfers
Most local businesses treat their marketing channels as separate purchases: some search ads, maybe a social budget, a listing somebody set up years ago. Each one is then judged on its own, and each one looks expensive.
Here the three channels worked as one. The screens made people familiar with the brand, geofencing kept it in front of them, and the listing was ready when they searched. None of them would have produced this result alone.
If your clicks are holding steady while your conversions are not, the question is probably not how much more to spend on search. It is how many of the people searching already know who you are.
Want the same for your business? Get in touch or call (214) 901-6456.