How One Company Decreased Their Cost-Per-Lead by 350% and Doubled Their Revenue in 2 Years
By Nate
Challenge
in-lite is an online company that develops, manufactures, and sells leading LED outdoor lighting across North America. When we met the owners at Landscape Ontario in 2020, they were experiencing a number of challenges, namely:
- They worked with several providers for each aspect of their marketing — one to manage their Google Ads and another for their Facebook Ads, for example — which made things feel disjointed and uncoordinated.
- They felt like they were the ones managing the relationship — prompting meetings, initiating discussions, and following up to make sure things were getting done.
- When they wanted to try new things — be it Pinterest ads, Youtube ads, Tik Tok ads, etc. — they encountered resistance. They heard comments such as “We don’t think that’s a good fit” or “We don’t do that”.
Through our initial conversations, it was clear that in-lite was ready to reach the next level in their business. At the time, they were a $7,000,000 company with an ambitious goal of hitting $20,000,000 in the next 5 years. They knew that in order to get there, they had to do things differently.
They were looking for a strategic partner that would help them upgrade their framework, refine their thinking, and push them past their existing growth plateaus. After presenting a custom Marketing Action Plan where we outlined the greater vision to reach their goals, our partnership began.
Solution
In 2021, their main goal was to increase sign-ups for their in-sider program, an exclusive VIP membership for trade professionals to access discounts, content, and resources to help them grow their business. At the time, the cost-per-acquisition for the in-sider program was $700.
Their secondary goal was to increase eCommerce leads through their Shopify website, which had been sitting at around 100 leads per month. Our team got to work on a strategy that included:
Google Ads
When we took over their Google Ads account, we noticed that all their revenue was coming from branded search and none from eCommerce product search. This indicated a huge opportunity. With this insight, we created display campaigns to attract a cold audience, which generated over 130,000 clicks to their website and 730 conversions (phone calls and contact form submissions) in the first 8 months of the campaign. We also created a remarketing ad group given that 97% of their site visitors were not converting upon their first visit and needed to be warmed up.
Email Marketing
We wrote new drip email campaigns for contacts who had filled out their contact form. These emails served to nurture and educate prospective buyers, reengage their existing customers, and keep in-lite top-of-mind. In the first 8 months, over 40,000 emails were sent with an average open rate of 32% and click-through rate of 8% (industry averages are 21% and 3% respectively).
Facebook Ads
In 2022, we took over their Facebook account. Within 6 months of launching the new ads, they received 1352 in-sider sign ups. In the process, we were able to significantly reduce their Facebook Ad spend while improving results by narrowing their target audience. They were able to expand their ad spend into most of the United States and British Columbia after seeing significant growth in the first four States that were targeted.
Results
Over the last 2 years, in-lite experienced a 350% reduction in their cost-per-lead, going from $700 to $88 (as of this writing). They have experienced over 50% year-over-year revenue growth, hitting $15,000,000. They are on track to exceed their revenue goal two years ahead of schedule.
More than anything, we have been working with in-lite at a strategic level to approach their marketing with a 3-5 year lens. They are no longer reacting impulsively to the market as things happen but rather thinking ahead and staying the course. In our experience, businesses that achieve this level of thinking — of working on their business rather than in it — are best positioned for long-term success.
If you are interested in experiencing similar results for your online business, contact the team at Intrigue today.
