B2B Lead Gen for Commercial Construction in Australia

Client & Context

Central Steel Build (centralbuild.com.au) — an Australian company specializing in commercial construction and fit-out solutions for businesses, covering office, retail, hospitality, medical and industrial spaces.

The Challenge

At the start of the engagement, the account already generated activity but wasn't optimized: budget was distributed inefficiently across campaigns, cost-per-conversion was high, and overall traffic quality needed improvement. Over the baseline period (20.02.2026–20.05.2026), the account produced 139 conversions at an average CPA of A$204, spending A$28,355.69 across 12,164 clicks.

The objective wasn't simply "spend more" — it was to increase conversion volume without a proportional rise in ad spend, bring CPA down below the A$204 baseline, improve overall traffic quality and relevance, cut spend on underperforming campaigns and directions, and reallocate that freed budget toward campaigns with proven efficiency and headroom to scale — specifically preparing the Search and Performance Max structure to support further growth in the Commercial and Industrial verticals.

Approach

1. Account audit and budget reallocation

The first step was a full audit of the Google Ads structure, budget distribution, and the performance of individual campaigns and business directions. This surfaced exactly where budget was being spent inefficiently, and the team began progressively shifting spend toward campaigns with stronger results and genuine scaling potential. As early results came in, budgets were continuously re-tuned to reflect actual campaign performance — allowing conversion volume to grow without a matching increase in total ad spend.

2. Performance Max optimization

The Performance Max structure for the Commercial and Industrial directions was reviewed in detail. Search Themes and audience signals were adjusted, and new asset groups were created specifically to test fresh audience and competitor signals. Results from these tests were analyzed on an ongoing basis and used to refine the group structure and signal mix, with the primary focus gradually shifting toward the directions and configurations delivering the best performance.

3. Search traffic quality

Search queries and ad placements were reviewed on a regular cadence, with non-relevant terms added to negative-keyword lists and underperforming placements excluded. This work ran in parallel with adjustments to Search Themes and audience signals to reduce the share of irrelevant traffic. Over the engagement, CTR rose from 1.29% to 3.03%, while average CPC fell from A$2.33 to A$1.41.

4. Search campaign optimization

Search campaigns were regularly reviewed at the level of individual search queries, budgets, and directional efficiency. Based on these findings, settings were adjusted and budget was concentrated on the campaigns demonstrating the strongest performance — allowing conversion volume to grow steadily while keeping cost under control.

5. Bid strategy management

Actual CPA per campaign was tracked continuously and Target CPA values were adjusted accordingly. Target changes were only made once enough data had accumulated for each campaign, to avoid prematurely constraining a campaign with a Target CPA set too low — which would have limited its ability to scale.

Results — 3-Month Comparison

Conclusion

Through comprehensive optimization — budget reallocation, Performance Max restructuring, search-query hygiene, Search campaign refinement, and disciplined bid-strategy management — conversions grew from 139 to 171 (+23%) over three months, while CPA fell from A$204 to A$172.12 (−16%). Ad spend increased only 3.8% over the same period — meaning the growth came from structural quality and traffic relevance, not simply from a bigger budget. The account is now better positioned to scale its Commercial and Industrial campaigns going forward.