Sixty percent of the budget matched searches the firm never wanted.
An accountancy practice was spending steadily on Google Ads while roughly 60% of that budget matched irrelevant search terms. Beeyacorp tightened match types, built a negative keyword base, and split campaigns by service line. Call volume tripled on the same budget within about seven weeks.
An accountancy practice was spending steadily on Google Ads while roughly 60% of that budget matched irrelevant search terms. Beeyacorp tightened match types, built a negative keyword base, and split campaigns by service line. Call volume tripled on the same budget within about seven weeks.
Most of the budget was buying searches the firm never wanted
The practice’s campaigns had drifted into broad targeting that matched a wide range of searches unrelated to its services. The majority of budget was leaking into queries that would never become clients, and without service-line structure, the account had no way to prioritise the work that actually mattered.
Objectives
- Cut the wasted spend. Identify and eliminate the roughly 60% of budget matching irrelevant searches.
- Increase qualified call volume. Grow enquiries without raising the budget.
- Structure by service line. Split campaigns so budget could be prioritised toward what actually converts.
- Improve relevance and quality score. Lift performance signals across the whole account.
What the diagnostic exposed
Every engagement opens with a full audit. Each finding below came documented with evidence from the account itself.
| Area | Finding |
|---|---|
| Paid Media | Around 60% of budget matched irrelevant search terms. |
| Keywords | Broad match with weak negative coverage pulled in unrelated queries. |
| Structure | No service-line separation, so budget could not be prioritised. |
| Tracking | Call conversions under-measured, obscuring which campaigns drove enquiries. |
None of this was a spend problem on its own. Broad match without negatives let most budget leak into irrelevant searches, the absence of service-line structure prevented any real prioritisation, and weak call measurement hid which campaigns actually produced enquiries.
How we fixed it
Cut the waste, then structure by service line. We tightened match types, built a negative keyword base, and separated campaigns by service line so budget could concentrate on the searches that produce clients.
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What we did
- Audited search terms. Cut the roughly 60% matching irrelevant queries.
- Tightened match types. Built a negative keyword base to stop the leak.
- Split campaigns by service line. Enabled clearer prioritisation of budget.
- Improved call measurement. Attributed enquiries back to the campaigns that produced them.
How it was sequenced
| Phase | Timeframe | What Happened |
|---|---|---|
| Audit | Days 1–7 | Search-term forensics and waste identification |
| Rebuild | Weeks 2–4 | Match types, negatives, service-line split |
| Optimise | Weeks 4–6 | Budget concentrated on qualified searches |
| Scale | Month 2+ | Expansion into the best-performing service lines |
Tripling call volume by cutting the waste
Metrics taken directly from the account. Figures reflect the documented engagement outcomes.
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Wasted spend | ~60% of budget | Cut |
| Call volume | Baseline | 3x |
| Budget | Baseline | Unchanged |
| Campaign structure | Broad | By service line |
| Time to results | — | ~7 weeks |
Wasted spend is usually hiding in the search-term report, and service-line structure lets budget concentrate where it converts; tripling call volume on the same budget shows how often waste removal beats a budget increase. Accountancy buyers search with specific, urgent needs, and broad campaigns bleed budget into unrelated queries, a pattern we see across professional services marketing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Into broad-match searches unrelated to the firm's services. Without a strong negative keyword base, the account matched a wide range of queries that would never become clients, quietly consuming most of the spend.
Because different services have different value and intent. Separating them lets budget be prioritised toward the service lines that produce the best clients, rather than being averaged blindly across everything.
No. The budget was unchanged. Eliminating the roughly 60% of spend going to irrelevant searches and redirecting that budget toward relevant ones was enough to triple qualified call volume in about seven weeks.
In this case the waste was cut and the account restructured within the first month, with tripled call volume by around week seven. Timelines vary with competition and starting point, but waste removal usually shows results fast.
Related client results
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