A question we get a lot from clients is whether it’s possible to run a successful paid advertising campaign without breaking the bank. Well… it is!

Like anything, the key to running an affordable but successful paid campaign is in the planning. Your strategy is more important than ever when you don’t have endless funds. To give you an example, our Paid Media Executive, Rozina, will take you through a campaign we ran recently for Curzon Home Cinemas using a moderate-sized budget…

Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Stacy Martin and Raffey Cassidy: a dream cast under the expert direction of Brady Corbet for Curzon’s film Vox Lux. No wonder we were super excited when Curzon asked us to help them promote the movie. We were all thinking the same thing: “we might even get to meet the cast!”

But, that’s enough name-dropping for now. Let’s take a closer look at how we approached and ran the campaign.

The Brief

Curzon set us the target of increasing numbers in three main areas by running an integrated search and social paid advertising campaign. They wanted to see an increase in:

• Transactions
• Registrations
• Website film purchases

The Challenge

The problem was that Curzon’s budget for this campaign was limited.

So, what’s the secret to running a successful campaign even when the budget is moderate, you ask? Ok, here we go…

How to Run a Successful Campaign on Search with Limited Budget

For paid search campaigns, the key is to prioritise your quality score.

What is Quality Score?

Quality score is a rating between 1-10 that Google awards you based on an estimate of the quality of your search campaign. Factors Google looks at to determine your quality score include:

• The keywords you are targeting and their relevancy to their ad group
• The relevancy of your advert copy to your target keywords
• The user experience (UX) on your landing page and the relevancy of the page to your advert copy and keywords
• Your click-through rate
• The performance of your historical ad campaigns

Broadly, the Google quality score equation can be summarised as:

Relevance + User Experience = Quality Score

Find out more about Google quality score >

Why Focus on Quality Score?

You should strive for a good quality score because:

• Google considers quality score when determining which ads should appear in the top positions
• The quality of your ads is one of the variables that determine the cost-per-click (CPC) you will pay. So, the higher your quality score, the lower the price you could pay
• A good quality score indicates that your campaign provides a good UX and is relevant to what your audience is searching for, making them more likely to convert. Remember, your costs will decrease if you concentrate on the quality rather than the quantity of your leads

How to Run a Successful Campaign on Social with Limited Budget

Use Hyper-Targeting

It’s risky to cast a wide net amongst a large audience if you don’t have lots to spend, especially if they haven’t shown any previous interest. You want to focus instead on a smaller pool of people who are more qualified; again, it’s about the quality of your leads rather than the quantity!

This is exactly what we did on Facebook by retargeting three audience segments that had already shown an interest in Curzon. These included:

• Visitors to the website that didn’t make a purchase
• Website visitors who had previously registered their details
• Visitors who had previously purchased products on the website

Split-Test and Optimise Accordingly

Using hyper-targeting wasn’t the only way we managed to run a successful social campaign for Curzon with a limited budget.

We also ensured we were spending the budget we did have in the best possible way. On Facebook, we split-tested performance by the audience’s device, interest and demographics. During our rigorous weekly optimisation, we used the insight gained from our split-testing to weight the budget in favour of the variations that were the best performing.

It’s a no brainer really; just do more of what works!

The Result: Success!

Across search and social, the campaign exceeded its objectives, achieving an overall conversion rate of 18.8% and an advert click-through rate of 8.7%.

Overjoyed with the results, Curzon invited us to a screening of Vox Lux in London. Naturally, we jumped at the opportunity. Remember our dream of meeting the cast? Well… that’s exactly what happened! Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin and Brady Corbet were all present at the screening and took part in a Q&A after the movie. There’s no denying we were star-struck!

And what can I say about Vox Lux? It’s a movie that hits you hard; you’re encouraged to empathise, understand and question circumstances that you may be tempted to otherwise ignore. But rather than me spoiling the entire movie, here’s my recommendation: go and watch it!

Read the Curzon case study to find out about other campaigns we’ve run together >