{"id":1137,"date":"2026-08-16T01:35:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T05:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/?page_id=1137"},"modified":"2026-08-22T00:46:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T04:46:45","slug":"case-study-restructuring-paid-search-for-high-intent-growth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/?page_id=1137","title":{"rendered":"Case Study: Restructuring Paid Search for High-Intent Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">How an initial account cleanup and ongoing agency partnership cut paid search spend by 39% while pushing CTR to 11% and CVR to 9%<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">UVA McIntire School of Commerce<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Overview<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Upon joining UVA McIntire in September 2021, I inherited a Google Ads account burdened by a loose, overly broad strategy where ad spend was being wasted on single-word keywords that drove unqualified traffic. Recognizing paid search as a high-intent channel, I immediately executed an emergency account audit and keyword cleanup. This turnaround established a clean foundation for onboarding our new agency partner, with whom I collaborated through 2022 and 2024 to drive sustained performance gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Objectives<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Eliminate Wasteful Ad Spend:<\/strong> Identify and purge broad, single-word terms driving irrelevant traffic and inflating acquisition costs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Capitalize on High Intent:<\/strong> Realign campaign architecture, ad copy, and search terms around prospective students actively seeking graduate business education.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Enable Long-Term Agency Success:<\/strong> Rebuild account structure, negative keyword lists, and match-type hygiene to give our incoming agency partner a clean, high-performing foundation to build on.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Maximize Campaign Efficiency:<\/strong> Drive down overall spend while simultaneously elevating click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates (CVR).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Approach<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Immediate Account Cleanup (Late 2021):<\/strong> Conducted a granular review in Google Ads to prune wasteful single-word broad match terms, refreshed ad copy, and established strict negative keyword lists to stop budget bleed within the first few months.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Agency Onboarding and Alignment:<\/strong> Standardized account taxonomy, conversion tracking, and match-type hygiene, providing our new agency partner with a clean baseline and clear strategic guardrails from day one.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ongoing Strategy and Governance:<\/strong> Partnered closely with the agency on continuous optimization, ad copy testing, restructuring, an experimentation around high-intent graduate program categories.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Results and Impact<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>39% Reduction in Paid Search Spend:<\/strong> Cutting low-intent keyword waste during initial cleanup and maintaining strict agency alignment reduced overall ad spend by nearly 40% by 2023.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>CTR Jumped from &lt;3% to 11%:<\/strong> Tightening search term relevance and ad positioning yielded more than a 3x increase in click-through performance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Conversion Rate Reached 9%:<\/strong> Filtering out unqualified clicks ensured high-intent traffic reached application and inquiry touchpoints, maximizing conversion efficiency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How an initial account cleanup and ongoing agency partnership cut paid search spend by 39% while pushing CTR to 11% and CVR to 9% UVA McIntire School of Commerce Overview Upon joining UVA McIntire in September 2021, I inherited a Google Ads account burdened by a loose, overly broad strategy where ad spend was being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1128,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1137","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Case Study: Restructuring Paid Search for High-Intent Growth - resume + portfolio of work<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Case Study: Restructuring Paid Search for High-Intent Growth - resume + portfolio of work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How an initial account cleanup and ongoing agency partnership cut paid search spend by 39% while pushing CTR to 11% and CVR to 9% UVA McIntire School of Commerce Overview Upon joining UVA McIntire in September 2021, I inherited a Google Ads account burdened by a loose, overly broad strategy where ad spend was being [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/?page_id=1137\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"resume + portfolio of work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-22T04:46:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hirejasmine.co\\\/?page_id=1137\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hirejasmine.co\\\/?page_id=1137\",\"name\":\"Case Study: Restructuring Paid Search for High-Intent Growth - resume + portfolio of work\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hirejasmine.co\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-16T05:35:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-22T04:46:45+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hirejasmine.co\\\/?page_id=1137#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/hirejasmine.co\\\/?page_id=1137\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hirejasmine.co\\\/?page_id=1137#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hirejasmine.co\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Case Studies\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hirejasmine.co\\\/?page_id=1128\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Case Study: Restructuring Paid Search for High-Intent Growth\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hirejasmine.co\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hirejasmine.co\\\/\",\"name\":\"resume + portfolio of work\",\"description\":\"Explore my work experience and work samples\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hirejasmine.co\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Case Study: Restructuring Paid Search for High-Intent Growth - resume + portfolio of work","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Case Study: Restructuring Paid Search for High-Intent Growth - resume + portfolio of work","og_description":"How an initial account cleanup and ongoing agency partnership cut paid search spend by 39% while pushing CTR to 11% and CVR to 9% UVA McIntire School of Commerce Overview Upon joining UVA McIntire in September 2021, I inherited a Google Ads account burdened by a loose, overly broad strategy where ad spend was being [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/?page_id=1137","og_site_name":"resume + portfolio of work","article_modified_time":"2026-08-22T04:46:45+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/?page_id=1137","url":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/?page_id=1137","name":"Case Study: Restructuring Paid Search for High-Intent Growth - resume + portfolio of work","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-08-16T05:35:21+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-22T04:46:45+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/?page_id=1137#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/?page_id=1137"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/?page_id=1137#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Case Studies","item":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/?page_id=1128"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Case Study: Restructuring Paid Search for High-Intent Growth"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/#website","url":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/","name":"resume + portfolio of work","description":"Explore my work experience and work samples","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1137"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1163,"href":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1137\/revisions\/1163"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirejasmine.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}