Data Driven Marketing Case Study: How One SME Fixed “No Marketing ROI”

Case Study 1: “Marketing with Agencies — No Marketing ROI”

Our Customer

• The client had worked with a traditional marketing agency for months without seeing measurable results.

• Reporting focused on vanity metrics — impressions, clicks, and followers — with no link to leads, pipeline, or ROI.

• There was no single source of truth across analytics, CRM, and spend data.

• Any attempt to "nail accountability" was met with fog.

• "Nailing jelly to a wall was easier"

• Spend was substantial £300k a year run rate.

• Leadership lost confidence in marketing because it couldn’t prove commercial impact.

The Data Driven Marketing Fix

1. Analysed tracking and reporting foundations:

   • SERanking - SEO rankings by Keyword

   • SERanking Competitor analysis

   • Goggle Analytics - Traffic Performance

   • Google Search Console - Indexing & Page Status

   • Google Lighthouse - Site Speed and Issues

   • Google Adwords - Pay Per Click Campaign

   
   

   Data Driven Marketing Findings:

   1. SEO - 2 visitors a month - from 43 keywords most ranking positions were the 6/7 page.

   2. 5 Competitors - Had 843 Keywords with search volume, 65,000 visitors a month.

   3. Google Analytics pointed to 0.5% Goal conversion, demo request or Enquiry form.

   4. Google Lighthouse

      • Mobile website loaded in 14 secs

      • Desktop in 9 secs

   5. Google Adwords had a 6-18% click through rate, however 77.6% abandoned the website after 8 seconds.

   6. Google search console showed no page indexing since January (now September) and 3 of 20 pages showing as indexed, due to slow page loading.

   7. Google had effectively penalised the site.

Summary

The website had multiple issues that we easily fixed:

• A calculator had been added that slowed the site load by 6 seconds, on its own.

• Images were large - 73% larger than required with the latest webP image format

• Every page was individually built, meaning the opportunity for error was far higher than with standard templates.

• No one was measuring site speed or questioning the Google analytics to ask why the high abandonment rate.

• The impact 5 months at £5k spend on PPC, 2 months at £1,800-2k spend wasted.

2. Shifted the model from agency delivery to data-driven ownership

   1. Added accountability for every number.

   2. Removed multiple people from website access.

   3. Moved to standard Templates for web pages to make page performance:

      1. Mobile less than 3 seconds rendering

      2. Desktop 1 second rendering

      3. Webmaster owned that number

   

3. Researched the agency PPC campaign

   1. Finding PPC expert was good, no support, she had flagged the abandonment rate 2 months prior.

   2. Switched to 4 campaigns to generate the required leads = 30 a month.

   3. Insert a baseline measurement week to see what:

      1. Traffic we were actually going to get

      2. What click thru rate (6% required for 30 leads)

      3. What web page conversion rate to a demo/enquiry form (4% required)

      4. Week 2 move to Tailored Landing Pages

      5. Week 3 insert end to end detailed PPC performance tracking (latest)

         
         

         

4. Focused on accountability and clear KPIs rather than outputs.

   1. Created an end to performance checklist

   2. Level 1 reporting to diagnose "operational campaign performance through to a lead"

   3. Level 2 Board Reporting, simple top,middle and end of funnel reporting

   4. Level 3 "safety reporting so we could see instantly anything broken in the customer journey

   5. Daily 30 minute reviews for the first 2 weeks.

Full_Funnel_Tracking_Checklist(L).xlsx

Download XLSX • 10KB

The Results

1. Transparency restored: marketing could show exactly where every lead and deal originated.

2. Board confidence returned thanks to measurable ROI.

3. Cost of marketing delivery reduced by 30–40% compared with previous agency retainers.

Key Learnings

Measurement drives trust: Boards only invest in marketing when ROI is visible.

Agencies often over-index on outputs, not outcomes: Shifting to accountability models changes results.

Data Driven Audit - the detail

Data Driven Marketing Guide

Data Driven Marketing - Introduction

Every channel must tie to a commercial metric: Traffic without pipeline = wasted spend.

Internal capability beats external dependency: Data ownership and in-house control create sustainable growth.

Marketing evolved into measurable growth engine with weekly performance visibility

FAQs for Marketing with Agencies — No Marketing ROI”

Why did this business fail to see ROI from its marketing agency?

Because the agency focused on vanity metrics—impressions, clicks, and followers—without connecting activity to commercial outcomes. No single source of truth existed across analytics, CRM, and spend, so leadership couldn’t see how marketing contributed to pipeline or revenue.

What were the biggest technical issues affecting performance?

The site was penalised by Google for slow loading times, poor structure, and large images. Pages took 14 seconds on mobile to load, and only 3 of 20 pages were indexed in Google Search Console due to performance and structure errors.

How much marketing spend was wasted before Communications Edge intervened?

Over £25,000 in PPC spend was wasted in just seven months due to untracked conversions, slow site performance, and poor landing page optimisation. The annual marketing budget exceeded £300,000, yet no measurable return was visible.

What tools were used to diagnose and fix the issues?

Communications Edge used:

• SERanking for SEO keyword tracking and competitor analysis

• Google Analytics (GA4) for traffic and conversion analysis

• Google Search Console for indexing and crawl health

• Google Lighthouse for site speed and mobile performance

• Google Ads for PPC tracking and optimisation

What changes made the biggest difference?

Three improvements transformed results:

1. Rebuilding pages using standardised templates for speed and reliability

2. Implementing end-to-end PPC tracking for visibility from click to lead

3. Holding daily performance reviews to drive accountability and quick optimisation

How fast did measurable ROI return after the fixes?

Within eight weeks, site performance improved, leads began converting, and the board regained visibility of where every lead and deal originated. Confidence in marketing was restored through transparent reporting.

How did Communications Edge reduce marketing costs?

By shifting from an agency retainer model to a data-driven ownership model, reducing delivery costs by 30–40% while improving output and accountability. Every channel was linked to clear KPIs and tracked in live dashboards.

What role did PPC play in the turnaround?

PPC was rebuilt around performance benchmarks:

• 6% click-through rate

• 4% landing page conversion rate

• 30 monthly qualified leads targetTailored landing pages replaced generic ones, and detailed PPC performance tracking was added to close the loop from ad click to enquiry.

What lessons can other SMEs learn from this case study?

• Measure marketing against commercial metrics, not activity.

• Speed and usability directly influence ROI.

• Dashboards and KPIs turn opinion-based marketing into evidence-based growth.

• Internal capability outperforms external dependency over time.

How does Communications Edge ensure accountability going forward?

Each performance level has an owner:

• Level 1: Campaign execution and lead tracking

• Level 2: Board reporting with funnel visibility

• Level 3: Safety reporting for broken journeys or tracking issuesThis ensures transparency from spend → lead → revenue.