Case Study: Revamped PPC Strategy Delivers 905% More Leads

Introduction

Industrial Service Solutions (ISS) is America’s largest independent provider of industrial equipment and inspection services to industries such as manufacturing, construction, food and beverage, energy, transportation, maritime, aerospace, and defense. 

Problem

The paid advertising strategies ISS had been using prior to 2023 were not being tracked and managed efficiently, resulting in inconsistent lead generation and a lack of brand awareness for new customers.

Solution

To promote their expansive, high-margin service offerings across various industries, Highway 9 developed multiple Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, focusing on capturing new business opportunities for initial service work.

Results

A 905% increase in qualified leads, significantly higher ROI over time, and a 106% decrease in cost per contact.

What Was Slowing Down ISS’ Previous Paid Ads?

Before Highway 9 could develop a successful paid advertising strategy for ISS, earlier paid campaign performance was analyzed to identify specific areas for improvement:

• High Ad Spend/Cost Per Contact: In 2022, ISS spent $60,000 on their paid ad campaign and was spending $180 in Cost Per Contact. Only 87 leads were generated in 2022.

• Inconsistent Lead Tracking: Without automated workflows or tracking methods in place, the ISS sales team had to manually assess the leads that came in—a process that proved inefficient and unnecessarily extended the sales pipeline.

• Narrow Target Audience: Paid ads targeted only existing ISS customers, rather than generating new ones.

New Objectives and Approach

Highway 9 presented ISS with a new approach to their paid media strategy, which included developing and running multiple PPC campaigns across various channels to attract new business, as well as setting up automated lead generation and conversion tracking workflows in HubSpot to help streamline results from paid ads. 

By setting the objective of these campaigns to win new customers in need of immediate service work, effective lead qualification and tracking were critical to maximizing results from the PPC campaigns. Other primary goals of the revamped paid advertising strategy included reducing the cost per contact and driving long-term revenue growth for ISS.

How Did Highway 9 Recalibrate ISS’ PPC Strategy?

The target audience for the PPC campaigns included plant managers, repair technicians, and facility maintenance supervisors responsible for maintaining industrial equipment, who often required external expertise for repair and service solutions.

Strategic Retargeting

To focus on capturing new customers previously unfamiliar with ISS and their service offerings, this new target audience needed to be reached at a pivotal point in the decision-making stage of the buyer’s journey.

This informed the decision to run the new campaigns across multiple digital channels, as well as perform extensive SEO and competitor research to target relevant keywords and ensure ISS appeared at the top of search result pages. Ads were placed strategically to increase the company’s overall visibility and brand awareness.

Engaging Landing Page Design

Highway 9 designed and developed several targeted landing pages in conjunction with the paid ads, each promoting ISS’ comprehensive services and specialties in servo repair, maintenance, and industrial compression repair, among other equipment areas.

These landing pages were designed to give prospects quick access to relevant information after clicking on a paid ad. Each landing page also featured easy-to-use service request forms, which, once filled out, sent information directly to the ISS Vice President of Sales for lead qualification and further engagement.

Improved Lead Generation, Qualification, and Tracking

To solve the specific problem of inefficient lead qualification and tracking methods, Highway 9 created and implemented new automated workflows for tracking paid ad engagement, landing page form fills, and sending automated responses to sales leads.

Once data and contact information from form fills were sent, the ISS VP of Sales was able to qualify the lead in real-time by completing a Yes/No qualification field in HubSpot and assigning them to the appropriate service center or technical team for follow-up. This new process not only provided a clear measure of campaign success but also essential feedback for refining paid ad targeting over time by filtering out low-quality inquiries and improving overall lead quality.

Standing Out from the Competition

Drawing from the results of Highway 9’s SEO and competitive research, and ISS’ knowledge of the industrial service market, creative elements such as paid ad copywriting and landing page content offerings were developed to make ISS stand out from their biggest competitors. 

The creative style of paid ad copy was tailored to the target audience, and landing page design focused on clarity and ease of navigation to avoid overwhelming prospects with complex, unnecessary details—a common issue among competitors. 

By continuously analyzing data insights from Google Ads and HubSpot throughout the campaigns, Highway 9 further refined ad copy, keywords, and design elements of paid ads and landing pages. This continued optimization led to improved click-through rates and conversion rates over time.

Lead Generation Results That Keep Gaining Speed

The ISS PPC campaigns produced significant, measurable results that directly addressed the company’s 2023 objective to generate business opportunities from clients new to ISS. 

Since the start of the first campaign in May 2023, 875 leads have been generated for a total spend of $72,631. This marks a 106% decrease in cost per contact (from $180 in 2022 to $74 now) and a 905% increase in lead generation. Additionally, the lead qualification rate, as determined by the ISS VP of Sales, has risen to 43%. This figure exceeded the original goal of a 30% qualification rate.

As a result of the effectiveness of the PPC campaigns, ISS is also receiving more visibility in the greater digital and search landscape. The overall campaign has delivered over 418,000 impressions and maintains a 5.6% click-through rate. 

ISS continues to see an influx of new business as a result of the strengthened paid advertising strategy and campaign management provided by Highway 9, achieving a significantly higher return on investment from digital advertising efforts. As the campaigns continue to run throughout 2025 and real-time data from HubSpot enables continuous performance optimization, ISS is poised to continue its long-term revenue growth and brand awareness.

Conclusion

In 2024, Highway 9 Consulting received an HBMA Lantern Award for the ISS PPC Campaigns. This win further proves the impact and effectiveness of these campaigns, celebrating their continued success rates and efficiency.

By strengthening paid advertising efforts through the implementation of automated workflows, HubSpot CRM integration, strategic retargeting, and ongoing optimization and campaign management, the ISS PPC campaigns continue to exceed expectations and drive long-term growth for the company.