Case Study - Paid Advertising
How we replaced automated, unstructured campaigns with intent-based targeting, a real negative keyword strategy, and clear conversion tracking - for 5x the clicks, 3x the conversions, and a 45% lower cost per lead.
Client
Westpoint Exeter
Industry
Events & Conference Venue
Service
Paid Advertising ↗Platform
Google Ads
The Challenge
Westpoint Exeter is the South West's largest indoor arena and events venue, sitting right on Junction 30 of the M5. Sway Digital manages their Google Ads and organic search performance.
When we took a closer look at the account, it was running on Performance Max and Dynamic Search Ads - both automated campaign types that hand Google's algorithm broad control over targeting. In practice, that meant budget was going out the door with no real visibility into which searches were actually triggering the ads, no negative keyword strategy to filter out irrelevant traffic, and no clear conversion tracking in place to say what any of it was actually generating.
The account was live and spending. It just wasn't working for the business.
What We Did
Rather than trying to nudge the existing automated campaigns into shape, we paused them and rebuilt the account from scratch around real intent and real tracking.
Paused the underperforming Performance Max and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns that had been running with no real structure behind them.
Built two new Search campaigns from scratch - Venue Hire and Conference Room Hire - both on a Maximise Conversions bidding strategy.
Added dozens of exact-match keywords targeting the specific searches Westpoint wanted to win, like "venue hire exeter", "conference room hire", and "meeting room hire".
Added over 150 negative keywords to cut off irrelevant traffic that had been quietly burning budget - wedding venues, tourist "what's on" searches, competitor venue names, coworking spaces, hotels, and generic "near me" queries.
Rewrote the ad copy from generic messaging to specific value props: M5 access, free parking, delegate capacity, and day rates.
Set up conversion goals across form fills, phone calls, and sign-ups - none of which had been reliably tracked before.
Once four weeks of data had shown a clear difference between the two new campaigns, we moved to a second pass focused on sharpening what was already working rather than rebuilding again.
The Results
Comparing September 2025 - the month of the rebuild - to January 2026, four months on:
555
Clicks (from 112)
16
Conversions (from 5)
£235
Monthly cost (from £133)
~£15
Cost per conversion (from ~£27)
Clicks nearly 5x'd and conversions more than tripled, while spend grew by less than a fifth as much as clicks did. The account wasn't just busier - it was working harder for every pound spent, cutting the cost per conversion by 45%.
Over the same broader window, Westpoint's organic search performance also improved substantially, with average position climbing from 22 in June 2025 to under 9 by January 2026 - and holding there for eight consecutive months.
It's a good example of why we run paid search and SEO together for clients wherever possible - the two channels reinforcing each other rather than working in isolation.
"An account can look active without being effective. Automated campaign types will spend a budget happily - they just won't always spend it well. Westpoint's account didn't need more money behind it, it needed structure: real intent-based campaigns, a proper negative keyword strategy, and ad copy that actually spoke to what the venue offers. That structural rebuild is what moved the numbers."
Philip Beaumont
Founder, Sway Digital
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