Case Study: 3 Pillars in Action—Tripling Sales and Record Profit for California Contractors School
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Executive Summary:
Contractors Intelligence School, in partnership with nn.partners, achieved outstanding results by tripling student enrollment and securing a market leadership position in California’s contractor licensing sector. With our support, the school saw a 32% increase in revenue year-over-year and a significant $1.49 million boost in gross profit.
Through our collaboration, the company successfully transitioned to a data-driven approach, saving over 10 hours per week in manual processes and achieving unprecedented precision in decision-making. By integrating end-to-end analytics and merging online and offline data, the school can now analyze crucial information in seconds rather than days. Additionally, our targeted paid media strategies and audience-based marketing efforts further propelled their consistent business growth and solidified their leadership in the industry.
Key Results:
- 32% increase in revenue year-over-year
- $1.49 million boost in gross profit
- From 10 hours per week saved on data processing
- Unprecedented data maturity and precision in overall marketing efforts
Company Profile:
Industry: eLearning provider / construction
- Service Offering:
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- In-Person Classes: Available at multiple convenient locations across California.
- Online Courses: Flexible and accessible learning options for students to study at their own pace.
- Study Materials: Comprehensive resources designed to enhance learning and retention.
- Practice Exams: Realistic tests that help students prepare effectively for the licensing exam.
- Specialization: the company specializes in delivering clear, engaging, and effective contractor licensing education services, ensuring that students are well-prepared to pass their licensing exams and succeed in the contracting industry.
Data Stack:
- Connectors: Google BigQuery, Google Sheets, Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta ads and more.
- Share destinations: Google Analytics, Looker Studio.
Marketing Analytics and Data Challenges
Data Overload:
The client’s data was scattered across various systems, primarily within a custom CRM, with no integration into analytics tools or ad platforms. This fragmentation created an overwhelming data overload, making it difficult to gain a clear understanding of performance. The time-consuming process of piecing together information took days, severely limiting the client’s ability to make informed decisions and stalling business growth.
Outdated and Manual Tracking Methods:
The client was relying on outdated and manual tracking methods. With only a few tags manually inserted into the website’s codebase for Google Ads and no use of Google Tag Manager, tracking accuracy was compromised. This not only led to operational inefficiencies but also required a thorough and time-consuming cleanup process to ensure data accuracy and reliability.
Performance Blind Spots:
The website was operating with significant blind spots, with only a limited number of web events being tracked. The absence of analytics tools, an enhanced e-commerce setup, and behavioral data collection meant that crucial customer behavior insights were missing. This lack of information made it difficult to optimize marketing efforts and fully understand customer interactions, leaving the business at a disadvantage.
Wasted Potential:
Although data was being collected within the CRM, it wasn’t fully leveraged for insights or decision-making. As a result, valuable opportunities to optimize paid campaigns and drive profitability were missed. The inability to capitalize on this data kept the business from reaching its full potential and achieving the growth it was capable of.
The Solution:
nn.partners introduced Funnel, a powerful marketing data hub designed to automate and streamline data integration across various platforms. By implementing Funnel, data from multiple sources, including GA4, ad platforms, and the client’s custom CRM, was seamlessly funneled into Google BigQuery, a robust data warehouse. This setup allowed for highly granular insights and enabled data-driven decision-making, significantly reducing the manual workload that previously hampered the client’s ability to focus on strategic growth and business development.
Implementation Journey
The choice to integrate Funnel was guided by its perfect balance of value, cost-effectiveness, and ease of use, making it an ideal fit for the client’s needs. nn.partners led the implementation process, working closely with the client to customize the system to their specific requirements. Despite initial concerns, the business owner quickly recognized the benefits of the streamlined data management and reporting capabilities. The transition was smooth, and the client was soon enjoying enhanced data clarity and actionable insights, which were previously out of reach.
The Results
The integration of Funnel proved to be a game-changer for Contractors Intelligence School. The automated system provided a unified view of marketing costs, revenues, and student acquisition metrics, leading to a deeper and clearer understanding of channel performance. This increased efficiency not only saved from 10 hours per week but also led to marked improvements in Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and gross profit. The transformation was evident in the school’s enhanced marketing strategies, improved data accuracy, and overall operational efficiency, solidifying their market leadership position.
Paid Media Challenges:
Outdated Account Structure
The client’s ad accounts were built on outdated structures that no longer aligned with modern best practices. This disorganization led to inefficient budget allocation and poor campaign performance. As a result, achieving optimal results became nearly impossible, stunting the client’s business growth and preventing them from fully capitalizing on their advertising efforts.
Ineffective Targeting
The client’s targeting strategies were poorly defined, casting a wide net that attracted low-quality traffic and yielded minimal engagement. This broad and unfocused approach led to wasted ad spend and limited conversions, as the ads failed to reach the most relevant and high-potential audience segments. Consequently, the client’s growth was severely hampered by their inability to connect with the right customers.
Underutilization of Bidding Strategies
The client was limited to using basic bidding strategies, missing out on the advanced, cost-efficient options available on platforms like Google, Microsoft, and Meta Ads. This underutilization led to overspending on suboptimal ad placements, leaving substantial ROI potential untapped. As a result, the client’s competitive edge was weakened, and their campaigns underperformed in terms of cost-effectiveness and reach.
Weak Creative Optimization
Ad creatives were static and uninspired, lacking the necessary variation and testing to drive meaningful engagement. The absence of robust creative optimization resulted in poor engagement rates and a failure to capture the audience’s attention. This significant shortcoming in the creative strategy severely limited the impact of the ad campaigns and frustrated efforts to achieve the desired growth.
The Solution:
To address the client’s challenges, we restructured their campaigns to strategically target audiences at every stage of the funnel—Top of Funnel (ToFu), Middle of Funnel (MoFu), and Bottom of Funnel (BoFu). This approach ensured that each ad reached the right audience at the optimal time, maximizing the impact across Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Meta Ads.
We implemented an integrated communication strategy that synchronized messages and creatives across all platforms. This consistent and reinforced messaging ensured that prospects received a cohesive brand experience at every funnel stage, which is critical for driving engagement and conversions. Additionally, we employed advanced bidding strategies tailored specifically to each funnel stage. This not only optimized ad placements but also significantly boosted Return on Investment (ROI) by focusing resources on high-potential audiences.
Implementation Journey:
The implementation journey began with a comprehensive audit of the client’s existing campaign structures and performance metrics. Identifying key gaps, we then developed a tailored strategy that aligned with the client’s goals. By restructuring the campaigns into distinct funnel stages, we could precisely target different audience segments based on their position in the customer journey.
Our team worked closely with the client to integrate synchronized messaging and creatives across all advertising platforms. Utilizing advanced bidding strategies, we optimized each campaign to ensure cost-effective ad placements. Throughout the implementation, we applied our proven testing framework, conducting multivariate tests to refine targeting, creatives, and messaging continuously. This iterative process allowed us to identify and scale the most effective tactics, ensuring that the campaigns remained agile and responsive to market dynamics.
The Results:
The strategic restructuring and implementation of a funnel-based approach yielded remarkable results for the client. By delivering targeted messaging at every stage of the funnel, we significantly increased engagement and tripled conversions. The integrated communication strategy reinforced brand consistency, leading to stronger brand recall and customer loyalty.
Advanced bidding strategies optimized the client’s ad spend, resulting in a substantial improvement in ROI and historic gross profit. The continuous multivariate testing framework ensured that the campaigns were always optimized for maximum performance, leading to sustained growth in sales and profitability. Overall, the client experienced a dramatic enhancement in both their paid media effectiveness and overall business growth, setting a new benchmark for success.
Overall results:
Our collaboration with Contractors Intelligence School resulted in a complete transformation of their business, evolving from a fragmented and siloed framework into a cutting-edge, integrated system. This shift enabled the client to achieve remarkable outcomes, both in terms of operational efficiency and financial performance.
By implementing end-to-end analytics, we seamlessly merged online and offline data, providing the client with a unified view of their marketing and business operations. This integration empowered predictive, data-driven growth, reducing the time spent on analytics from days to mere seconds. As a result, the client can now focus more on strategic decision-making and less on manual data processing.
Our targeted paid media efforts and audience-based marketing strategies significantly boosted the client’s market presence, leading to consistent business growth. These efforts not only secured the client’s leadership position in the contractor licensing education industry but also delivered impressive financial results.
Key Results:
- +32% Year-over-Year Revenue Growth the client saw a significant increase in revenue, reflecting the success of the optimized marketing strategies and enhanced operational efficiencies.
- +$1.49 Million Increase in Gross Profit Year-over-Year: Over the same period, the client’s gross profit saw a substantial boost, underscoring the financial impact of the implemented solutions.
- Streamlined Operations: The integration of advanced analytics tools drastically reduced the time required for data analysis, improving decision-making precision and freeing up resources for growth-focused activities.
Through our comprehensive approach, Contractors Intelligence School is now positioned at the forefront of the industry, with a robust, scalable system that supports sustained growth and profitability. The results speak for themselves, showcasing the power of 3 pillars of marketing success.