Leads Growth for DPG | Digital Marketing Case Study | Search Laboratory
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Multi-channel success for DPG

An integrated digital marketing case study for the education sector

The brief

 

DPG is a provider of HR courses across the UK. The overall aim of the strategy was to increase leads and lead quality for CIPD courses and new products across the site.

Historically, DPG’s focus was on selling CIPD courses via PPC. However, the CIPD started to sell their own courses online, meaning that DPG was naturally being dominated by CIPD in the SERPs.

In addition, smaller competitors were being more aggressive than ever, dramatically driving up the CPAs from paid search.

Leads and conversions were down, so we needed to support marketing in driving more leads by supporting new products, achieving better lead quality and assisting them through a site migration.

24%

increase in overall leads YoY

459%

improvement in organic leads YoY

11%

improvement in paid search leads YoY

Integration

 

DPG receive a monthly multichannel lead report via our propriety software, ReportLab, tracking the following:

  • Paid vs. organic vs. direct performance, segmented into engagements – calls, forms, live chat
  • Performance vs. paid projections and organic forecasts
  • Monitored on-site performance and engagement metrics pre-and post-migration.

Paid search

 

  • Improved optimisation of bids, especially for expensive campaigns like Level 7 and Level 5 Online. Made campaign bidding more efficient
  • Worked with DPG to create conversion optimised landing pages
  • Used ad customizers to deliver more personalised user messaging
  • Created local campaigns targeting struggling locations. This led to programmes filling up quickly
  • Optimised quality scores to improve ad rank
  • Worked with the client to improve ad creatives with appropriate incentives.

SEO

 

  • Supported migration to ensure no authority and rankings were harmed
  • Supported the design and structure of the new site with their development agency with the aim of prioritising key pages we saw had ranking potential
  • Re-optimisation and content creation for new product pages. This was focused on lower search volume, less competitive terms that would not be profitable to target via PPC. These pages are now key for generating leads for the site
  • Authority building digital PR campaign with a specific focus on HR publications. SEOLab enabled us to identify which pages needed links to be pointed at them post-migration.
  • From this, the content and online PR campaigns were tailored to gain links towards these pages from high authority and relevant publications in the business and HR niches. The first campaign on Tattoo Discrimination gained 33 links
  • The most recent campaign on mental health in the workplace (which went live on the 4th October) has generated 25 links and 24 pieces of coverage to the DPG site so far, including links from Business Insider, Teen Vogue and LinkedIn.

Results

Multi-channel

Overall leads up 24% YoY

Paid search                                                                       SEO

11%

increase in leads YoY

20%

decrease in cost per lead

8%

improvement in conversation rate

11%

decrease in spend

459%

YoY improvement in organic leads

25%

increase in YoY organic traffic

30%

increase in organic new users

183%

increase in organic form fills

Increased organic rankings for key terms targeted in our optimised content:

  • CIPD courses Glasgow #1 +5
  • CIPD level diploma #5 +4
  • CIPD courses Leeds #5 +4
  • Level 7 CIPD #6 +2

Overall, this migration succeeded in driving more traffic to the site, improved the quality of the traffic, and improved conversion rates.

The Future of SEO (Report)

 

Decoding cutting-edge search updates to create a future-proof organic strategy

 

SEO is evolving rapidly in the digital landscape. Multichannel search journeys are becoming more common, generative AI is now part of search engines and Google’s core updates are key factors in organic search experiences shifting worldwide.

Our Future of SEO report, co-authored by James Bentham and Amy Banks, addresses these concerns and provides insights on how marketers can realign their approach. By doing so, it empowers marketers to develop future-proofed solutions for their brands that lead to prolonged growth and sustainable success.

Take a look at our Future of SEO report here

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