Data-Driven Marketing Case Study: How a Fractional CMO Transformed a £3M UK SME
Data Driven Marketing - Case Study : Outsourced to an Agency, UK based, Overseas execution team.
Data-driven marketing isn’t about vanity metrics — it’s about using evidence, analytics, and accountability to drive measurable growth.
In this real-world case study, a £3 million UK technology SME replaced its traditional agency with a Fractional CMO and a data-driven strategy that delivered an 8× increase in traffic, restored pipeline confidence, and cut wasted ad spend.
Using tools like SERanking, Google Analytics, Search Console, and Lighthouse, the Fractional CMO rebuilt marketing performance from the ground up — proving why data-driven marketing delivers real ROI for SMEs.
Data Driven Marketing - UK Based Technology Company
SME Turnover £3m plus.
Growth Industry, Spent 7% on marketing.
Agency appointed in January 2025.
September 2025 MD calls and asks for a Marketing Health Check. Health Check Article
The Case Study takes you through the first 30 days discovery and fix list.
Fractional CMO Analysis Step 1
- Data Driven Marketing
Tool used SERanking
Analysis methodology:
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Upload domain to SERanking.
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Research 4 Competitors identified 1300+ keywords.
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Search volume 26,500+ searches a month - healthy.
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SME Case study company was ranking for 47 keywords.
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Average position 67th ie Page 7.
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Search volume from SEO 2 visitors a month.
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843 Keywords of the 1300 had search volume.
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Domain Authority was within 5 points of all the competitors, so no issue there.
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Website had 56 pages.
Data Driven Marketing - Health Check Step 2
Tool Used: Google Search Console
Analysis Methodology
Review site map - discovered pages 2
Why?
The site had not been indexed since January 22nd.
Google therefore assumed the site still had 2 pages.
Indexed October 7th the Detail report showed 13 pages with Slow speed rendering.
Google Requires:
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Mobile version of sites to load in 3 seconds.
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Desktop versions in 1 second.
If your site fails these tests then the site gets "down ranked."
Data Driven Marketing - Fractional CMO Analysis Step 3
Tool used Google Analytics
Analysis methodology:
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Review Channel Performances
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Review Page Performances
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This revealed very high bounce rates (people leaving)
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A problem as there is no point having a site if the traffic doesn't read the site!
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703 users staying on the site 5 seconds.
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Most of the traffic coming from Email activity.
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48 sessions from Pay Per Click of which 2 converted.
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Conversion goals set "form fill" & "brochure download"
Data Driven Marketing - Health Check Step 4
Tool Used: Google Lighthouse
Analysis Methodology
Run the Home Page and 3 Key product page speed tests.
Discovery - the best page of 4 loaded in 7.8 secs.
The worst in 20.5 Seconds.
This was caused by multiple people having site admin access and the following slowed the site down - New fonts, pop ups, old image formats, pages being built from scratch in HTML code, were all slowing the site.
Full Page Speed Fixed here
Summary of Fixes
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Timescales 2 weeks
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Remove multiple HTML coder access
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Loaded all pages onto standard high performance templates
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Re-Indexed site
Recommendations
After explaining the findings to the MD he wanted recommendations, which were simple:
1. Remove site access from the agency - gain quality control
2. Appoint a professional webmaster £2k a month
3. Make them accountable for minimum performance standards.
4. Put In standard Measurement Benchmarks across all 4 tools:
- SERanking - for content ranking management & audits.
- Google Analytics - for Channel & Page Performance.
- Google Console - Technical Web Page management, push
ranking.
- Google Lighthouse - Web page performance.
5. Implement standard templates for 8 page types, no building HTML from scratch every time.
6. Pause PPC campaigns, till web page speed fixed - stop wasting money!
IMPACT
8X increase in SEO web Traffic - after the faster website was indexed, Google immediately recognised - 56 pages.
Every Keyword group jumped in rankings - see image.
Data Driven Marketing - Fractional CMO Advisor Level Stage 2
Look to improve:
The PPC route was the fastest way to turn on lead volume
However running analysis on the WebPages revealed:
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They would convert but at 2%.
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The minimum we wanted was 4%
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Ideally to get ahead 6%
The Interview with the PPC Campaign Manager confirmed:
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No dedicated Landing Pages
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Forms requiring a click , not open on page.
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Customer logo's below the fold ie no re-assurance.
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CTA's below the fold and generic
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77.6% page abandon rate (literally wasting money)
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No "end to end" adword to MQL funnel Measurement
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Worse still no leads.
Data Driven Marketing - Recommendation
Reset PPC
1. Create 7 High Impact Landing Pages:
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6 Product specific
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1 Competition page
2. Use a standard high performance Landing Page Template
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To get high speed performance
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Address basic issues like:
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Forms instant text entry on page
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CTA above the fold
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Customer Trust By logo's above the fold
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3. Implement End to End Campaign Measurement
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To get full campaign ROI
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To diagnose weak & strong points of the campaign
4. Run a 5 week Stage 1 campaign
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Target 30 leads a month
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CTR Click through from adwords target 6%
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Conversion on page stage 1 a modest 4%
Stage 2
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Create 6 Value Trade Assets to make people stop scrolling.
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"Capex Fee Guide here"
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"ROI Report here"
2 Objectives:
1. Overachieve 4% with 6% minimum conversion rates
2. Beat the 30 lead target, and gets some confidence back.
Data Driven Marketing - SEO Plan
Research Showed the PPC plan cost per lead would be 30-40% higher than SEO.
- So whilst the PPC plan would be effective months 1-7
- We would taper it off months 8-13 reducing spend by 25% qtr 3 & 50% qtr 4.
- We set about analysing the "Content Scores" of 9 Keywords that had 4,500 searches a month.
- Current Share 5 of 4,500 searches per month.
- The research showed the current content scored a B- v a Top 3 position score of A+.
- Competitors were scoring 80+ for their content whilst the clients worst was 56 and best 64 and they didn't rank for 6 keywords at all.
- A Pillar and Cluster / Blog strategy was designed to become an authority on these 7 Keywords in 6 months.
- Initially aiming for Top 30, then Top 10 and finally Top 3.
The SEO Forecast
Methodology
1. Extract the volumes for the 7 keywords
2. Feed the forecasting tool with the traffic share numbers
- Top 30 position / ranking
- Top 10 """""""""""""""""""""
- Top 3 """""""""""""""""""""""
Whilst it may take 6 months to reach top 10 positions given the competition for these keywords.
And 12 months to reach the top 3, the focus would pay off with 26 demo's a month, once we hit top 3 ranking positions.
ROI Metrics
Demo to Deal conversion is about 26%
Deal value between £20K - £60k
Building an unassailable ranking would be well worth the investment.
Investment
1 FTE Marketing Intern - £16.5k - £27k
1 Fractional CMO - £60k x 40% of time - £10k
or
Approx £44k - to get 6 deals a month worth £240k
How Fractional Teams delivery board ready marketing.
Why a Top 3 SEO position is crucial?
SEO Plan Implementation
The 12 month plan is detailed in the tablee to the left:
- Crucial is the focus Year 1, on the 7 Keyword groups
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To dominate the rankings and get 30% of the 9,000 searches a month requires a 12 month deliverables horizon.
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The table depicts the deliverables required by both the fractional marketing director and the marketing intern.
The business objective is to lower the cost per lead in year 2 to £62 a lead, with a 25% conversion rate.
Whilst we are investing in year one the cost per lead will be £653, and average over the 2 years £214.43 cost per lead.
As the SEO channel comes on line fully in year 2, we back off the PPC / Google Adwords campaign that delivers leads at £317 per lead.
Across the two years we cut the cost of lead acquisition from £317 to £214.43.
- Then Its Maintenance on these 7 and target the next 10 keywords.
- Target more as the level of competition/difficulty tends to drop
The Agency Finds looking objectively.
Agency Shortcomings.
1. No Data Driven Approach - Activity focused only.
Examples
Activity based on no forecasts, no funnel efficiency measurements and no basic hygiene performance measurements.
2. As a result there was no ability to diagnose issues, the MD was spending £12k a month and getting no leads, losing confidence daily.
3. Without measurement and accountability - no responsibility for the numbers, just activity. Motivation was poor. Month end reviews painful.
4. As soon as we inserted basic measurement tools - it took 2 weeks to fix the biggest issue preventing PPC & SEO success - Website Speed. We simply transfer the content to high performing web page templates.
5. Thereafter Basic planning, focus and measurement, analysis started to produce results & the MD's confidence grew.
After: New Templates and Page re-engineering
Example Website Page Speeds Before and after
Whilst Website speeds increased across the site
Below and over see the mobile page speed data for the home page.
Important Tip:
When testing use the Page Speed Test URL in a normal chrome session.
Paste it into an "incognito chrome session" and re run the url, analysis.
Why?
The cache is sometimes and depending on testing, often full of old pages, incognito effectively removes the risk of you testing an old page that's been cached inadvertently.
Before: New Templates and Page re-engineering
Summary of data driven marketing approach
Benefits of a fractional CMO
Case Study - Issues Identified and fixed
See Case Study
Download the full spreadsheet here
Supporting Data Sources
20 FAQs — Data Driven Marketing - Case Study:
£3m UK SME using an Agency.
Post: Marketing with agencies no ROI
What industry was the £3m SME operating in?
The company was a UK-based technology SME in a growth sector, spending around 7% of turnover on marketing.
Why did the business call for a Fractional CMO review?
Despite heavy investment in an agency, ROI was unclear, rankings were weak, and lead generation had stalled.
What was the agency set up before the review?
A UK-based agency with an overseas execution team managed all marketing, including SEO and PPC, with little measurement or accountability.
When was the agency appointed and when did the audit begin?
The agency was hired in January 2025; the Fractional CMO was brought in for a marketing health check in September 2025.
Which tools did the Fractional CMO use for the audit?
SERanking, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Google Lighthouse were used to assess rankings, indexing, traffic, and site performance.
What did SERanking reveal?
The SME ranked for just 47 keywords out of 1,300 identified opportunities, averaging position 67 — with only 2 organic visitors per month.
What was discovered in Google Search Console?
Only 2 pages were indexed due to outdated sitemaps; 13 pages had slow-speed issues, causing major ranking losses.
What did Google Analytics show about site performance?
Traffic was mainly from email, bounce rates were high, and 703 users stayed less than 5 seconds — indicating poor on-site engagement.
How did Google Lighthouse influence the findings?
Page load times ranged from 7.8 to 20.5 seconds, far above Google’s standards of 3s (mobile) and 1s (desktop).
What caused such poor technical performance?
Multiple admin users, oversized images, unoptimised fonts, and non-standard templates caused the speed and indexing failures.
Action Plan & Recommendations
What were the first steps recommended?
Remove agency admin access, appoint a professional webmaster, standardise page templates, and implement a 4-tool measurement framework.
What were the key benchmarks set after the audit?
Each tool was assigned accountability:
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SERanking for keyword tracking
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GA4 for channel performance
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GSC for indexing
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Lighthouse for page speed
Why was PPC paused initially?
Running ads on a slow, unindexed site wasted budget; improving site performance first ensured ad spend efficiency.
How was PPC redesigned after the audit?
Seven high-performance landing pages were created with above-the-fold CTAs, logos for trust, and full end-to-end funnel measurement.
What conversion targets were set for PPC?
Stage 1 aimed for 30 leads/month at 4% conversion, scaling to 6% as pages and assets matured.
SEO Strategy & Results
How was the SEO plan structured post-audit?
Focus Year 1 entirely on seven core keywords (4,500 searches/month) using a pillar and cluster content model to reach top 3 rankings.
What was the measurable impact after 30 days?
Site indexing improved from 2 to 56 pages, and SEO traffic increased 8×, lifting visibility across all keyword groups.
What were the long-term SEO goals?
Achieve top 10 positions within 6 months and top 3 within 12 months, generating 26 demos per month from organic search.
What was the projected ROI from the new strategy?
With 26 demos/month and a 26% demo-to-deal rate, the plan targeted 6 deals per month worth £20–£60k each — ROI multiples above cost.
How did the Fractional CMO engagement compare to the agency?
At roughly £44k annual cost (intern + 1 day/week CMO), it replaced £144k+ in agency spend and delivered measurable pipeline growth within weeks.