Impress Blinds cut its cost per Google Ads enquiry by 55% between the first and last 90 days of search ads. In the later window one click in eleven became an enquiry, up from one in twenty, and the two windows cover almost the same weeks of the year, one year apart.
The business and the brief
Impress Blinds makes blinds, curtains and shutters in its West Yorkshire workshop. An advisor visits the customer's home with samples, measures every window and prices the job on the spot, so the first step for nearly every sale is a home appointment.
Blinds are a considered purchase. People compare styles and prices online for a long time before they book. The brief was to reach people ready to book a visit, and to count every appointment request and call from the ads so the cost of each enquiry could be compared over time.
What we built
We gave vertical, roller and Venetian blinds their own search campaigns, each with ads written for that product and leading to the matching product page. Appointment and quote forms sent after an ad click, and calls from the ads, were recorded as enquiries in Google Ads. Taps on the phone number or chat buttons were kept out, because a tap does not prove a conversation.
What happened
We compared the first 90 days of the search ads with the last 90 days they ran. The later window brought 18% fewer clicks but 51% more enquiries. The click-through rate on the ads rose 63%, one click in eleven became an enquiry, up from one in twenty, and each enquiry cost 55% less. In the later window the ads ran on vertical blinds alone, which accounts for part of the gain.
Vertical blinds earned the budget
When each blind type had its own campaign, a vertical-blinds click was 1.6 times as likely to become an enquiry as a Venetian-blinds click, with roller blinds close behind. After a pause of about three months, the ads came back on vertical blinds alone, and that campaign's enquiry rate rose further.
The phone is where people book
More than nine in ten enquiries came from people who clicked the ad on a phone, and about nine in ten were website forms rather than calls. The product pages keep a call button and a book-a-free-measure button fixed at the bottom of the screen, so the next step is always one tap away.
How we measured it
An enquiry is an appointment or quote form, or a call from the ads, as recorded in Google Ads. Cost per enquiry is Google Ads spend divided by those enquiries. No sale values are recorded for this account, so these figures stop at the enquiry.
The website behind these ads is covered in the Impress Blinds website case study. For a business that sells through home appointments and wants the same view of its own ads, see our Google Ads management.
