Case Study: Integrated SEO & Paid Advertising Fuels Record Growth

In mid-2023, Fly Pages began working with a mid-sized regional energy company on the East Coast. Our first project with this client was a collaborative rebrand after a three-company merger, including a new website build.

The team for the initial project included the client marketing team, a web developer, a branding strategist, and our team of digital advertising and SEO strategists. This combined team worked to set up the new company’s digital identity to enable quick results from future SEO and digital ads efforts.

Once the website launched in July 2023, the lion’s share of the work shifted to the Fly Pages team as we supported the client’s marketing director and content specialist. Our scope of work included:

• Collaborative, integrated digital and content marketing designed to improve brand recognition through the stellar implementation of the new brand strategy.
• An integrated SEO and content strategy with a collective goal to drive organic website traffic and conversions.
• The generation of new customer leads through targeted Google and Meta advertising campaigns.
• Support of and collaboration with the client marketing team as they implemented customer service improvements, Google review campaigns, social media organic posting, and email marketing campaigns.
• Evaluation of results and adjustments to content, SEO, and ads strategies after monthly, quarterly, and semi-annual reporting reviews with the client team.
• Monthly executive summary reports to share with leadership, proving alignment of the marketing efforts with the KPIs and goals.

During Phase 1, our SEO and ads strategists worked with the client team and brand strategist to develop an immediate and 6-month ongoing content strategy that included:

• Search query identification by user intent;
• On-page content optimization to engage and help users convert, based on buyer journey and persona research;
• Foundational site schema markup, structure, and metadata to optimize for existing search engine algorithms;
• Off-page content optimization and phased ongoing implementation strategy;
• Google Business Profile optimization, review generation, and continued listings management;
• Share of voice and backlink building through off-page content pursuits;
• Digital ads implementation and optimization for high-converting assets; and,
• A reporting structure based on conversion rate optimization (CRO)-focused metrics instead of vanity metrics like clicks and traffic.

From the beginning of our collaboration, the Fly Pages team knew that vanity metrics had no place in our ROI and results tracking. The client’s goal was to grow residential customer conversions and revenue, so we focused instead on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) for all our digital efforts.

Instead of tracking only ad clicks and website traffic, we focused on optimizing for engagement during the learning phase of our ongoing digital efforts.

SEO Metrics Tracked:

• Organic website traffic
• Organic traffic engagement
• Organic traffic conversions
• Search Engine Results Page (SERP) share of voice: Rankings and Rich Results
• Competitor tracking and analysis for context, measuring all of the above

Digital Ads Metrics Tracked:

• Click-Through Rates (CTR)
• Conversions: Form Submissions and tracked calls from ads
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
• Year-Over-Year (YOY) customer acquisition growth

Overall Metrics Tracked:

• Leads generated from all digital channels
• Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rates
• Estimated Monthly Revenue from digital efforts
• Estimated Annual Revenue from digital efforts
• Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI), including client marketing team salaries and Fly Pages implementation costs, combined with ad spend

In FY24, we worked to refine and optimize our digital efforts with the goal of providing an increased revenue for the client. Throughout this initial learning and optimization period, our teams collaborated to adjust our strategy to deliver leads, conversions, and ultimately, revenue:

A/B Testing: Continuous A/B testing of landing page elements—such as headlines, CTAs, layouts, custom engagement and conversion tracking, and social proof tactics—helped identify and implement the most effective on-page elements for higher conversion rates and lower acquisition costs.

Keyword and Audience Targeting Optimization: Fly Pages used data-driven keyword research and refined ad targeting to focus on high-intent audiences, leveraging exact match and negative keywords, and adjusting bids based on performance to maximize ad spend efficiency.

Ad Creative, Scheduling and Remarketing: We analyzed user engagement data for both social and search ads platforms to optimize for top-converting ads creative, schedule ads during peak periods, and use remarketing to re-engage visitors who hadn’t converted, further improving ROI.

Sales Integration and Feedback Loops: Real-time lead tracking and monthly performance reviews with the sales team allowed for quick adjustments in strategy, ensuring ongoing improvement in lead quality and conversion rates.

FY23 ROMI data was incomplete and not based on revenue growth goals, which we worked with the client team to add into our data collection and conversion rate optimization efforts throughout FY24. This led to some serious wins for the client’s marketing investment, especially after we helped the customer service team identify and correct barriers to lead conversions.

Here’s where we landed at the end of FY23, establishing client benchmarks for conversion and revenue growth:

• Average cost per lead (CPL): $16.68 (Google Average CPL: $79.28, Meta
• Industry Average CPL: $20.49)
• Total leads generated: 3,763
• New customers acquired: 1,838

At the end of September 2024, Fly Pages and the client’s two-person marketing team:

• Delivered a 27.66:1 ROMI, increasing annual revenue by $4.785M
• Exceeded new customer revenue goals by 28%
• Achieved a Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) of approximately 84% lower than industry averages
• Doubled visibility percentage in organic SERPs and Rich Results (including the addition of 84 Google Map Pack listings)
• Achieved a 91% organic website traffic engagement rate
• 5,076 YOY increase in traffic

Our familiarity with modern search engine optimization and a commitment to continuous improvement led to a breakthrough in our second fiscal year. While other marketing firms held fast to outdated and even detrimental SEO practices, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) became our combined teams’ focus.

In response to increased adoption of voice search, we had already evolved the client’s content strategy to focus on natural language instead of old-school SEO keywords. In addition, Google Core Updates in 2024 led us to expand our SEO content strategy to include more than just website content.

We pivoted to focus on modern search, brand visibility and share of voice, and serving up content that contributed to the client’s brand recognition:

• Off-page mentions and trust signals: LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Business
• Profile updates and review generation
• Website schema markup: Videos, FAQs, and comprehensive cornerstone content
• B2B brand visibility: LinkedIn long-form content and thought leadership in the energy space

As the client’s content strategy embraced the move to new search queries and target audience engagement habits, we didn’t leave digital advertising to its own devices. Instead, we implemented the use of specific AI enhancements to improve ad delivery, CTR, and conversions on our top-performing platforms:

• Keyword optimization: Refined bidding keywords and negative keywords to optimize ad spend, while not competing with organic search results
• Imagery and content structure: Continued to optimize based on a full year of top ads performance
• Remarketing: Used custom conversion data to identify and remarket to both organic and paid visitors showing intent to convert through website engagement

By integrating paid advertising, SEO, and continuous conversion optimization, our Energy Client is actively achieving record-breaking revenue growth with a scalable foundation for future expansion. At the end of January 2025, the client team reported it had been the most profitable month in the company’s history (the original company, established in 1963).

Thus far in FY25, our collaborative marketing team is on pace to deliver:

• Estimated 12-Month ROMI: 19.35:1 to 27.23:1, increasing annual revenue $3.8M to $5.4M
• Estimated new customer acquisition goal of 105%
• Projected customer acquisition cost (CAC) is 81% lower than industry average (impressive, given economic and consumer sentiment impacts on the industry)
• +41.44% YOY increase in organic website traffic
• Top 3 ranking for key competitor search terms, with 6 AI overview citations
• Improved time on page and lower bounce rates due to optimized content and user experience
• Website User Engagement Rate: 90.44% (February 2025)