Case Study - Paid Advertising
How a data-led Google Ads strategy for an independent pharmacy's travel vaccination service tested bids on a well-known high-street rival's name - then scaled what actually converted.
Client
Independent Travel Health Pharmacy
Industry
Travel Vaccinations & Pharmacy Services
Service
Paid Advertising
Platform
Google Ads
The Challenge
This client is an independent pharmacy offering travel vaccinations - yellow fever jabs, travel health consultations, and related bookings. It's a genuine, in-demand service, but it competes for search visibility against the UK's biggest high-street pharmacy chains, who own most of the generic search volume for terms like "travel vaccinations" and "yellow fever vaccine."
A large share of that demand isn't brand loyal - people searching for travel vaccinations often default to typing the biggest name they can think of, without actually meaning to book with that specific chain. That meant real, convertible demand was being typed straight into Google search bars alongside a competitor's name, and this client had no way of capturing any of it.
What We Did
Rather than avoid competitor-branded searches, we tested a small set of exact-match keywords in Google Ads that paired a well-known rival pharmacy's name directly with the service - alongside core yellow fever and travel vaccination terms - to see whether that search intent would actually convert for an independent pharmacy.
A data-led PPC approach built around testing first, then scaling only what the numbers backed up.
Ran small-budget exact-match tests - including "[boots travel vaccinations]" - alongside long-tail yellow fever terms, to see whether competitor-brand search intent would convert for an independent pharmacy.
Tracked clicks, cost, and conversion rate for every individual keyword - not just overall campaign spend - so decisions on what to scale were based on real booking data.
Paused exact-match terms once broader, better-performing keywords proved themselves, including one flagged by Google for a low Quality Score.
Rolled the validated approach into a dedicated Travel Campaign, built around the keywords that had already shown they could convert.
Kept bidding on the rival pharmacy's name alongside the client's own core terms, treating it as a proven demand-capture channel rather than a one-off test.
![Google Ads keyword report showing early exact-match keyword tests, including the "[boots travel vaccinations]" keyword](../brand_assets/Case%20Study/Travel%20Vaccinations%20Google%20Ads/Boots-Travel-Vaccinations-Keyword-Google-Ads%20%281%29.svg)
The Results
Looking at the dedicated Travel Campaign for September 2025 alone, the branded test keyword had grown into one of the account's strongest performers.
83
Clicks
2,067
Impressions
£1.95
Avg. CPC
£161.51
Cost
16.67%
Conv. rate
17.46%
Conv. rate on the campaign's top keyword by volume
"yellow fever vaccine near me" generated 167 clicks from 4,103 impressions in September 2025, at a 4.07% CTR and £1.56 average CPC - the single highest-volume keyword in the account, converting at 17.46%.
"[boots travel vaccinations]" was one of a handful of exact-match keywords tested early on, before the Travel Campaign existed. On a tiny sample - a single click - it converted into a booking, alongside "[yellow fever vaccine bexleyheath]" (1 click, 1 conversion) and "[yellow fever jabs near me]" (2 clicks, 1 conversion, 50% conv. rate). These were small numbers on their own, but a strong enough early signal to justify building a proper campaign around the idea, rather than writing off competitor-brand searches as irrelevant traffic.
For a niche healthcare service competing against household pharmacy names, the win wasn't a bigger budget - it was recognising that a rival's brand name in a search query doesn't automatically mean the searcher is loyal to that brand. Testing the idea cheaply, tracking it at keyword level, and only scaling once the data backed it up turned a calculated bet into a repeatable source of bookings.
It's the same test-cheap-scale-what-works principle behind why we run paid search and SEO together for clients wherever possible - proven keyword data from one channel should always inform the other.
"The biggest wins in Google Ads often come from search terms an account is too nervous to touch - like a competitor's brand name. We test it properly, on a small budget, before ever assuming it won't convert. In this case, it did - and it's been paying for itself every month since."
Philip Beaumont
Founder, Sway Digital
Want Results Like This?
Book a free 30-minute strategy call. We'll talk through your goals and follow up with a clear plan.
