This case study covers the first 50 days of Buttercup managing the account (March–April 2026), compared against the 50 days immediately prior and the same period in 2025. The client operates in the Australian bank guarantee market — a niche B2B fintech vertical with high-value conversions and competitive CPCs.
The Challenge
The client — an Australian fintech offering bank guarantees and deposit financing — was running four Google Ads campaigns with mixed results. Google rep recommendations had introduced broad match keywords and fragmented the account structure. Quality Score on the primary keyword sat at 5/10, with Expected CTR rated Below Average — meaning Google was actively choosing not to show ads for over half of available searches. The highest-potential product campaign was allocated just $20/day while lower-performing campaigns consumed the majority of budget. Multiple overlapping conversion actions (soft clicks, form starts, actual account signups) were confusing the bidding algorithm, which optimised toward cheap engagement signals rather than real business outcomes.
What We Did
- Ran a full 7-pillar gap analysis to identify where the real problem was — Quality Score, not budget
- Consolidated from 4 fragmented campaigns to 2 focused product lines, eliminating wasted spend on underperforming campaigns
- Rewrote the primary RSA with a CTR-focused approach: pinned headlines with exact keyword match, outcome hooks, and price signals
- Deployed full extension stack — sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, and price extensions — to boost CTR and ad real estate
- Cleaned up conversion tracking so the bidding algorithm targeted actual account creations, not soft engagement clicks
- Implemented negative keyword strategy to prevent cross-campaign cannibalisation between the two product lines
- Reallocated budget toward the highest-ROI product campaign, which had been starved at $20/day despite 54% click-to-conversion rate
- Reduced rank-lost impression share from 53% to 17% through Quality Score improvements — unlocking demand the account was previously invisible to
The Numbers
Year-on-Year Comparison
Same 50-day window, one year apart — controls for seasonality
| Metric | Mar–Apr 2025 | Mar–Apr 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad Spend | $4,325 | $3,862 | -11% |
| Account Creations | 6 | 15 | +150% |
| CPA (Account Creations) | $721 | $257 | -64% |
| Active Campaigns | 2 | 2 | — |
| Clicks | 329 | 314 | -5% |
| CTR | 5.5% | 5.8% | +0.3pp |
| Avg CPC | $13.15 | $12.30 | -6% |
Period-on-Period Comparison
Before vs after Buttercup — shows the immediate impact of structural changes
| Metric | Before Buttercup | With Buttercup | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad Spend | $4,462 | $3,862 | -13% |
| Account Creations | 8 | 15 | +88% |
| CPA (Account Creations) | $558 | $257 | -54% |
| Active Campaigns | 4 | 2 | Consolidated |
| New Product Conversions | 1 | 7 | +600% |
| New Product CPC | $19.47 | $11.55 | -41% |
| Rank-Lost Impression Share | 53% | 17% | -36pp |
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