Corporate portal with content filters

Solution

Developed the website structure for both users and recruiting companies. Designed a catalog of companies with a search by name / services / countries. Applied filters by parameters.

Developed a convenient admin panel for registering and adding a client card with links to pr articles, social links, photos and a logo for each client. Designed a separate page for the news blog with sharing buttons.

Advertising

Launching ads in the UK was challenging due to the very high cost per click and strong competition. It was unclear how the traffic would perform and convert on a new website, with a new ad account, new campaigns, and new creatives. We needed to build up data step by step.

We started with exact match keywords, selecting the top 10 that were most relevant and aligned with the services offered. The campaign was set up as a single account-wide structure but segmented by cities across the UK, so we could track performance regionally.

After launch, we monitored search terms daily to ensure relevance. Even with exact match, Google often includes loosely related queries, so during the first week we actively added negative keywords to clean up traffic.

Because the budget was limited while CPC and CPA were high, we began with manual bidding, adjusting daily based on results. Early on, leads and calls were scarce, so we introduced micro-conversions to help the algorithm learn faster. These included:
- scrolling the page,
- staying on the site for more than 30–60 seconds,
- more than 3–5 clicks on elements within a session.

We also used Microsoft Clarity to analyze user behavior: where visitors clicked, how far they scrolled, what they read. These insights helped us improve website UX and increase conversion rates.

Once the first leads started coming in (about a month in), we switched the campaign to the Maximize Conversions bidding strategy. Later, we tested Target CPA, but the budget was too small to be effective. For this strategy, you typically need 10x the target CPA as a daily budget (e.g., if one lead costs $200, the daily budget should be ~$2000). Since this wasn’t feasible, we stayed with Maximize Conversions.

Over time, we analyzed which queries brought high-quality vs. low-quality leads and refined the keyword list. With the limited budget, we eventually focused on just 3–4 exact match phrases. Despite the narrow targeting, Google still brought in close variants, so these few keywords were enough to cover the necessary demand.

Conclusion

Even in the UK market with high CPCs and limited budgets, ad campaigns can work effectively. The key is careful monitoring in the first weeks, gradually shifting to smart bidding strategies, and finding the optimal balance between ad spend and performance.