Growing Qualified Consultation Requests 269% YoY for an Investment Manager
A Google Search strategy that scaled high-value consultation inquiries while reducing acquisition costs in one of the most competitive financial search markets.
PROJECT AT A GLANCE
Industry
Investment Management
Location
Canada
Platform
Google Ads
Engagement
+1 Year
Focus
High-Net-Worth Lead Generation
Goal
Increase qualified consultation requests while improving acquisition efficiency
Growing Qualified Demand in a High-Value Market
A Canadian investment management firm serving high-net-worth clients needed to grow qualified consultation requests through Google Search. With a minimum investment threshold above $1M, success wasn’t about generating as many leads as possible. The priority was reaching people with genuine investment-management intent and turning a relatively small number of high-value opportunities into consultations. Over 1+ years, I managed and optimized both brand and non-brand Search activity, with non-brand campaigns representing the biggest opportunity for incremental growth.
Scaling Growth Without Sacrificing Lead Quality
High-net-worth investment searches are expensive and highly competitive, with established financial firms competing for the same prospective clients. At the same time, not every investment-related search had real advisory intent. Some traffic came from users researching stocks, general financial information, or products that were unlikely to lead to a qualified consultation.
The challenge was to:
- grow qualified non-brand consultation requests without sacrificing efficiency
- reduce spend on low-intent traffic
- maintain performance as CPCs and competitive pressure increased
- identify which searches, markets, and targeting strategies were worth scaling
The goal wasn’t cheaper traffic. It was more qualified opportunities at a sustainable acquisition cost.
Scaling Qualified Demand Without Chasing Cheaper Clicks
The strategy was focused on search intent, traffic quality, competitive pressure, and conversion efficiency to determine where budget could generate the strongest business opportunities.
Prioritize High-Intent Demand
Search behaviour was reviewed continuously to separate genuine advisory intent from broader investment research.
Budget shifted toward searches related to professional investment management, financial advisory services, and investment solutions, while lower-value stock-related traffic was reduced.
This allowed more spend to reach prospective clients who were more closely aligned with the firm's offering.
Test Before Scaling
Expansion opportunities were tested separately rather than rolled into the core campaigns immediately.
This included testing broader keyword targeting and competitor searches with controlled budgets to understand whether they could generate qualified consultation requests at an acceptable acquisition cost.
The goal was simple: prove the opportunity first, then decide whether it deserved more investment.
Reduce Inefficient Spend
Campaign performance was reviewed beyond headline metrics to identify traffic sources that increased cost without contributing enough valuable consultations.
Search placements, queries, and traffic quality were continuously monitored, while fraud protection helped reduce invalid clicks in a category where every click could be expensive.
This kept more of the budget focused on genuine prospective clients.
Follow Performance by Market
Geographic and competitive performance were also analyzed to understand where demand was strongest.
Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Edmonton emerged as important markets, while auction data helped explain changing costs and competitive pressure from major financial institutions.
Rather than treating rising CPCs as a problem on their own, optimization focused on whether those clicks were still producing valuable conversions efficiently.
Performance Highlights
The account scaled despite rising competition and click costs. Non-brand consultation requests increased 269% while CPA fell 23%. Across the full year, conversions grew 167%, and cost per conversion dropped 38%. The gains were sustained beyond a single strong period.
+269%
Qualified Non-Brand Consultation Requests YoY
23% Lower
Cost per Acquisition
+167%
Non-Brand Conversions Across the Full Year
38% Lower
Annual Cost per Conversion
Cheaper clicks weren’t the goal. Better opportunities were.
In a high-value category, the quality of the conversion matters more than the cost of the click.
For this account:
High-intent searches received more investment. Budget moved toward prospective clients showing stronger investment-management intent.
Low-value traffic was reduced. Searches unlikely to become qualified consultations were identified and deprioritized.
Expansion was tested before it was scaled. Broader targeting and competitor activity had to prove their value before receiving more budget.
Rising CPCs were evaluated in context. Even as competition increased, consultation volume grew while acquisition costs improved.
The result was significantly more qualified opportunities at a lower cost per acquisition, despite operating in an increasingly expensive Search market.
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