How We Reduced CPL by 58% for a Delhi Startup in 90 Days

When this client came to us, they were spending ₹80,000/month on Google Ads and getting about 67 leads — a cost per lead (CPL) of approximately ₹1,200. Their sales team needed at least 150 qualified leads per month to hit revenue targets. The budget was fixed. Something had to change.

Over 90 days, we rebuilt their Google Ads account from the ground up. The result: 152 leads at ₹504 CPL — a 58% reduction, achieved within the same monthly budget.

Here's exactly what we did.

The Diagnosis: What Was Wrong

Before changing anything, we spent Week 1 auditing. What we found was unfortunately common for self-managed Google Ads accounts:

• Broad match keywords bleeding budget — 60% of ad spend was going to irrelevant searches like "free CRM software" and "what is SaaS" — not buying-intent queries.
• Single campaign, single ad group — All services were bundled together, making bid adjustments impossible and Quality Scores poor.
• Landing page mismatch — Ads promised "free trial" but landed on a generic homepage with no CTA above the fold. Bounce rate: 78%.
• No negative keyword list — The account had run for 11 months with zero negative keywords added.
• Conversion tracking broken — Form submissions weren't being tracked. Google was optimising for page views, not leads.

Month 1: Fix the Foundation

Step 1 — Fix Conversion Tracking First

Nothing else matters if you can't measure results. We installed Google Tag Manager, set up form submission tracking, phone call tracking, and a "thank you" page conversion event. From Day 1, Google's algorithm finally knew what a lead looked like.

Step 2 — Rebuild Campaign Structure

We broke one campaign into four: branded, competitor, problem-aware (e.g. "reduce churn", "improve retention"), and solution-aware (e.g. "SaaS CRM tool", "customer success software"). Each had tightly themed ad groups, improving relevance and Quality Scores.

Step 3 — Kill the Budget Bleed

We switched all campaigns to phrase and exact match only, then spent two weeks building a negative keyword list of 300+ irrelevant terms. Impression share dropped 40% — but lead volume held steady because the remaining traffic was far more qualified.

Month 1 result: CPL dropped from ₹1,200 to ₹810. Budget saved from wasted clicks was reinvested into high-converting segments.

Month 2: Improve the Middle

Landing Page Overhaul

We built a dedicated landing page for each campaign segment. Problem-aware campaigns got a landing page that opened with the pain point ("Losing customers to churn?"). Solution-aware campaigns got a feature-led page with social proof and a free trial CTA above the fold.

Average bounce rate fell from 78% to 41%. Time on page doubled.

Ad Copy Testing

We ran 3 RSA variants per ad group, testing:

• Pain-first vs. benefit-first headlines
• Social proof ("Trusted by 500+ Indian businesses") vs. offer ("Start free — no credit card")
• Urgency-based vs. feature-based descriptions

Within 4 weeks, winners were clear. CTR improved by 34% on the problem-aware campaigns.

Month 2 result: CPL dropped to ₹630. Lead volume hit 127 — the highest the client had ever seen in a single month.

Month 3: Scale the Winners

With tracking reliable and landing pages converting, Month 3 was about scaling. We switched the best-performing campaigns to Target CPA bidding at ₹550 (slightly above actual CPL to give Google headroom), then gradually increased bids on the top-performing ad groups.

We also added RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads) to bid more aggressively for users who had visited the pricing page or started the trial sign-up but didn't complete it.

Month 3 result: 152 leads at ₹504 CPL. First time the client hit their monthly lead target.

Key Takeaways

Most Google Ads accounts that are underperforming aren't failing because of creative. They're failing because of broken fundamentals:

1. Fix tracking before anything else. Optimising without conversion data is guesswork.
2. Structure drives relevance. One campaign for everything means poor Quality Scores and wasted spend.
3. Match types matter more than most people think. Broad match in competitive markets is almost always a budget drain.
4. The landing page is part of the ad. A great ad sending to a bad page is wasted spend.
5. Patience with automation. Target CPA bidding needs 30–50 conversions to learn. Don't switch strategies weekly.