Environmental Testing Services (ETS) Hybrid Search Case Study
Programmatic B2B, LLC and ETS, November 2022
The Problem
Environmental Testing Services (ETS) had migrated to a new website builder with limited content for a market with significant changes on the horizon. New legislation in New Jersey (NJ) and Pennsylvania (PA) had recently passed and requires landlords and homeowners to complay. Specifically, the NJ lead paint inspection law states that a landlord MUST hire a certified lead evaluation contractor to perform inspections of certain single-family, two-family, and multiple rental dwellings for lead-based paint hazards every three years or upon tenant turnover.
The problem for ETS is simple, but the solution was a bit more complicated. ETS needed the right content and integrated search strategy to attract these new market opportunities at an acceptable cost. Mike Stefkovic, CEO of Environmental Testing Services LLC already had a thriving business from referrals and a nearly perfect (4.9 of 5.0) average on their 30 Google reviews. Nevertheless, the referrals alone would not scale to the demand for lead testing as the new law goes into effect.
The Hypothesis
Creating unique topical pages with audited content about the practical application of lead testing and promoting such content with hybrid search marketing would deliver a positive return on a minimal investment.
The Test
Programmatic B2B, LLC worked with the ETS CEO and stakeholders to understand their market and the problems they solve for landlords, renters and homeowners. Secure access to Google Ads and Network Solutions was granted to a sole Programmatic B2B gatekeeper and administrator to manage paid search campaigns, content creation and content management as a hybrid approach to integrated search marketing.
The Results
Results of the paid search optimization were realized quickly, but organic results took longer. Nevertheless, the following quantitative analysis proves that a conservative investment can deliver exceptional results:
In summary, a 4-month incremental investment of $1,500 (42% or +$375 per month) resulted in a qualified organic web site traffic increase over 400%. Minimal technical changes were required to keep costs down. There was no need to move to a new content management system (CMS) or new website builder. Programmatic B2B simply made the best of what was already there and then did the same with paid search by engaging our dedicated Google representatives to align our paid search investment with the new content and landing pages as ad extensions.
The resulting paid search return on ad spend (ROAS) was also positive for the same reporting period.
July - October 2022 cost per lead was $47.20 compared with $82.56 for the same period in 2021. Corresponding conversion rates (full form fill with comprehensive client detail on inspection site) improved from 4.3 percent in 2021 to 7.2 percent in 2022. Details on web, tablet and mobile device traffic were also analyzed to prove the resulting cross-devices targeting effectiveness as well.