In two months (May–June), I moved the account from a Smart campaign to search campaigns in two languages and set up tracking of paid bookings. In the first full month of the new structure, a paid booking cost half as much (€4.50) as a simple checkout page visit used to.
Client and goal
A photo studio in Tallinn that rents out studio spaces with online booking and payment on the website. The audience is bilingual: Estonian and Russian-speaking.
- Channel: Google Ads.
- Period: May–June.
- Goal: rebuild the account so that it brings paid bookings, not intermediate actions.
Starting point
- A Smart campaign with low-quality traffic. From January to April, the main campaign got 238,000 impressions at a 1% CTR.
- Conversions that weren't sales. The account counted studio selection on the website and map directions as conversions, while paid bookings weren't tracked at all.
- One campaign for both languages, so there was no way to see which audience actually bought.
What I did
- Paid booking tracking. Made the purchase the primary conversion.
- Search instead of Smart. Launched separate search campaigns in Estonian and Russian, and paused the Smart campaign until enough conversions were collected.
- Language split. Each language got its own keywords, ads and budget, so the cost per booking is visible for each audience.
Results
Purchases weren't tracked before May, so we compare against the closest available event: a visit to the checkout page. There are never more purchases than checkout visits, so the comparison is fair.
| Metric | Before: Jan–Apr | June: new structure |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly budget | €192 | €108 |
| Target event | checkout visit | paid booking |
| Events per month | 20 | 24 |
| Cost per event | €9.50 | €4.50 |
With a 44% smaller budget, the account brought more paid bookings than it used to bring checkout visits. For May–June as a whole, including the transition period: €197 spent and 27 paid bookings.
Estonian vs Russian
Search campaigns, 17 May – 30 June:
| Campaign | Spend | Clicks | CTR | Paid bookings | Cost per booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estonian | €104 | 363 | 23% | 25 | €4.20 |
| Russian | €41 | 65 | 28% | 0 | — |
Both campaigns reached a 23–28% CTR, compared with 1% for the Smart campaign, but the buyers were Estonian speakers. Without the language split, this would have been invisible.
Takeaways
- Get the goal right first. While the account counted studio selections and map directions, thousands of “conversions” said nothing about sales.
- Search instead of Smart brought targeted traffic: CTR went up twentyfold.
- In a bilingual market, always split by language, and which language sells depends on the niche. For studio rental in Tallinn, it's Estonian.