114% more leads, 53% lower cost per lead
Over a 6-month window, Machine Tool Exchange saw a 114% increase in leads while cost per lead dropped 53%.
The challenge
Machine Tool Exchange is a Johannesburg-based industrial machinery business selling new and used machines, including bandsaws, lathes and CNC equipment, across South Africa. They sell into a small, technical buyer pool with long consideration cycles. During the baseline period the account was generating 14 leads at R397 per lead.
What we did
We rebuilt the Google Ads campaigns around the individual machine categories and tightened the keyword and ad group structure to match the search terms buyers were actually using. We rewrote ad copy and landing page headlines to lead with category-specific pages instead of dumping all traffic on the homepage. We fixed account-level creative issues that were pulling the wrong product images into ads, then ran weekly Marketing Pulse optimisations on bids, negatives and ad copy.
The results
In the following 6 months, leads increased from 14 to 30 — a 114% improvement. Cost per lead dropped from R397 to R186 — a 53% reduction.
