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Case Study at a Glance
The Problem:
Rising CPAs, falling traffic (-44%), and a complete pause on paid search
The Fix:
Full rebuild in 10 days using ATLAS™, our proprietary AI-powered system
The Results:
CPA down 45%
Non-brand conversions up 94%
Paid search profitably back online and scaling
”Other agencies chased metrics. Search Machines delivered impact. Since partnering, conversions are up 94% and CPA is down 45%. They’ve earned our trust - not just with results, but with how they show up. We got a team we trust to lead with clarity.”
Jake SmithCEO, Absolute Reg
Clients and Results
“Other agencies chased metrics. Search Machines delivered impact. Since partnering, conversions are up 94% and CPA is down 45%”
CEO, Absolute Reg
Absolute Reg – one of the UK’s top private number plate retailers – had spent years building a trusted brand in a competitive category. But by early 2024, their paid search engine was breaking down.
Under their previous agency, performance had spiraled:
- Traffic was down 44%
- CPAs were climbing fast – with non-brand costs at record levels
- Weekly conversions were shrinking and momentum had all but vanished
Despite their in-house team’s best efforts, the decline only accelerated. Eventually, they were forced to make the hard call: pause all paid media.
They didn’t just need campaign tweaks – they needed urgent triage, a complete rethink, and a partner who could move fast, think smarter, and restore profitable acquisition with confidence.
What Was Going Wrong:
Our free audit uncovered four core issues:
- Blocked demand – The account was overusing negative keywords, unintentionally cutting off high-intent traffic.
- Underbuilt keyword set – With just ~1,000 active keywords, the account missed key queries, categories, and long-tail intent that drives conversion.
- Misleading goals – The previous agency had optimised towards a blended CPA goal. This created major inefficiencies (e.g. £4 brand CPA vs. £100+ non-brand CPA)
- Inconsistent bidding logic – Smart Bidding was hamstrung by patchy revenue data and a mismatch of bid strategies across campaigns.
These weren’t surface-level issues – they were structural. And they were holding Absolute Reg back from any chance at scalable, profitable growth.
What We Did Differently:
We completely rebuilt the account in just 10 days – using Google best practices and our proprietary ATLAS™ system, a smarter, AI-powered search marketing framework designed to unlock structure, scale, and control. Key changes included:
- Expanded to 7,000+ exact match keywords – using ATLAS™ to identify intent-rich long-tail demand, from “boss plates” to “joe plates” and more niche conversion drivers.
- Segmented campaigns by intent and CPA range – enabling smarter bidding and stronger landing page alignment across the funnel.
- Resolved negative keyword conflicts – restoring access to high-converting, previously blocked queries.
- Split brand vs. non-brand reporting – revealing true performance and eliminating the CPA masking effect.
- Standardized bidding logic across non-brand campaigns – using Maximise Conversions with clean, consistent inputs anchored to a sustainable CPA target.
Rather than layer changes on top of broken foundations, we started from zero – rebuilding a structure built for clarity, efficiency, and scale.
The Results:
Within days of relaunching, results began to shift:
- CPA dropped 45% – even in one of the most competitive PPC markets in the UK
- Weekly non-brand conversions climbed 94% – restoring profitability and giving the team space to scale
The turnaround wasn’t just about results. It rebuilt confidence in search – and trust in a partner who could deliver more than surface-level fixes that’s still delivering consistent, profitable growth today.
