Google Ads Case Study: How Kids Castle Dropped Their Cost Per Lead by 74% in 2 Weeks
Client Overview
Client: Kids Castle
Industry: Bouncy Castle Hire
Target Markets: Wellington, New Zealand
Website: kidscastle.co.nz
Goal: Generate high-quality leads that convert into real job bookings
When Kids Castle came to Click Fusion, they’d been running Google Ads for a while and spending decent money, but the phone wasn’t ringing with the right kind of enquiries. The leads that did come through weren’t converting into actual bookings. Within just two weeks of us rebuilding their campaigns from scratch, that all changed.
The Challenge
Kids Castle is a Wellington-based bouncy castle hire company with a solid product and a good local reputation. But their Google Ads account was bleeding money. Their cost per lead had crept up to around $50, and the bigger problem wasn’t even the cost — it was the quality. Almost none of those leads were turning into bookings. They’d invested thousands of dollars over time with very little to show for it.
The key issues we found:
- Campaigns were far too broad, pulling in traffic with no real hire intent
- All ad traffic was being sent to the homepage, which wasn’t built to convert
- Bidding strategy wasn’t aligned with the goal of generating actual bookings
- Negative keyword lists were thin, burning budget on irrelevant searches
- Ad copy wasn’t speaking directly to what their ideal customer was searching for
Without fixing the structure underneath, no amount of extra budget was going to move the needle.
Our Google Ads strategy
Rather than patch up what was already there, we started fresh — building a new campaign structure from the ground up, focused on one clear goal: generating high-quality leads that turn into bookings.
1. New campaign structure
We set up a tightly organised search campaign targeting people in Wellington who were actively looking to hire a bouncy castle. Every ad group was built around specific, relevant search intent – no wasted impressions on casual browsers or out-of-region traffic.
2. Max CPC bidding strategy
We switched to a Max CPC bidding strategy to give the campaign the control it needed during the learning phase. On a modest NZ$15/day budget, this meant every click had a clear ceiling and the algorithm could gather clean, meaningful data on what was actually converting – without burning spend on guesswork.
3. Dedicated landing page
This was a big one. We built a dedicated landing page specifically for the Google Ads traffic. Rather than sending people to the homepage and hoping for the best, we created a focused page with a clear message, a strong call to action, and a simple booking enquiry form. When someone clicked an ad, they landed on a page designed to do one thing: get them to make an enquiry.
4. Keyword and negative keyword work
We were deliberate about every keyword we targeted – exact and phrase match terms with genuine hire intent only. We also built out a solid negative keyword list to filter out anything irrelevant, like DIY searches, product purchases, or queries from outside Wellington. This is what really tightened up the lead quality.
5. Conversion tracking and ongoing optimisation
We set up proper conversion tracking so the campaign could learn what a real enquiry looks like, and kept a close eye on performance in the early days to make sure the data was building correctly. Good conversion data is the foundation of any well-performing campaign – without it, you’re flying blind.
The results after 2 weeks
Within two weeks of launching the new campaign, the results were night and day compared to what Kids Castle had been dealing with before.
| Metric | Before Click Fusion | After Click Fusion |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead | ~NZ$50 | NZ$13.52 |
| Lead-to-booking rate | Near 0% | ~70% |
| Lead quality | Poor – low intent | High – ready to book |
| Monthly conversions | Negligible | 14 (on $15/day budget) |
| Avg. CPC | High, uncontrolled | NZ$1.31 |
| Time to results | — | 2 weeks |
What really stands out here isn’t just the drop in cost per lead – it’s the quality shift. Previously, Kids Castle was paying $50 a lead and converting almost none of them. Now they’re paying $13.52 and converting roughly 70% of those enquiries into actual job bookings. That’s a fundamentally different business outcome from the same advertising channel – all achieved on a NZ$15 per day budget.
It just goes to show that it’s not about how much you spend on Google Ads. It’s about how well the campaign is built.
Why the campaign worked
- Tight targeting: Focused on Wellington-based, high-intent searches only — no wasted budget on irrelevant clicks
- Dedicated landing page: Gave ad traffic somewhere purpose-built to convert, not a homepage with five distractions
- Controlled bidding: Max CPC kept spend in check while the campaign gathered quality learning data
- Clean keyword structure: Negative keywords filtered out bad traffic from day one
- Proper tracking: Gave the algorithm real conversion signals to optimise against
If your Google Ads are generating clicks but not enquiries, the issue is almost always campaign structure and strategy – not your budget. Learn more about our Google Ads management services and how we help New Zealand businesses turn ad spend into real results.
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Get in touch with the team at Click Fusion today. Flat $200/month.
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