The challenge
Effort grows, time does not.
Effective SEA thrives on a granular build: only when ad copy and landing pages match the search query precisely does an optimal user experience emerge, lifting CTR and conversions. That requires many small, manually demanding tasks.
At freenet Mobile, too, frustration grew that, purely for lack of time, search marketing could not be tuned perfectly. The sheer number of tasks and brands made it impossible to build every account structure granularly and re-book keywords regularly.
Limited time and capacity fed straight into performance. freenet Mobile wanted to test whether an automation solution could decisively raise SEA efficiency and free up time for what matters.
Our approach
Manual versus automated: a direct A/B test.
To test the effect, the German account volume was split by traffic into two equal halves: one kept manual and unchanged, one set up fresh with adSoul. Two months of testing after a two-month learning phase, across brand and generic campaigns. The building blocks:
- 01
Granular account structure
adSoul ensures a granular build in which ad copy and landing pages are matched specifically to the search query.
- 02
AI entity recognition
An AI method recognizes natural language and traces words back to their root, so search queries are captured reliably and served precisely.
- 03
Automated keyword booking
Large volumes of keywords are booked automatically and search queries re-booked, expanding the keyword set fully automatically.
- 04
Simple promo handling
Starting and stopping promotions, keywords and ad copy is greatly simplified.
- lack of time across many brands and tasks
- account structure not consistently granular
- keywords not re-booked regularly
- deeper analysis left undone
- untapped potential
- granular structure, ensured automatically
- AI entity recognition for precisely matched ads
- automated keyword booking and re-booking
- lower CPC, more traffic on the same budget
- time freed up for strategy and concept work
The results
More quality, more success, less work.
The analysis was positive across the board, in both brand and generic areas. With adSoul, the click-through rate rose by 13.5% and the conversion rate by 6.5% versus the manual account. At the same time CPC and CPO fell, cost per order by 11.29%, with more sessions (+5.13%) and transactions (+10.61%).
Since both groups ran the same bid-management tool, the improvement is demonstrably down to higher campaign quality: budget flowed to ads with higher quality and relevance. adSoul enabled growth and lower effort at once.
With adSoul we exceeded the performance goals we had set and can drive the automation of our search marketing further. This gives our SEA team the chance to focus even more on strategic and conceptual work.
What came next
Keep going, with a clear focus on strategy.
The test proves the potential of automation in search marketing: more efficiency and quality, more traffic at lower cost and a better conversion rate. freenet Mobile is driving automation further and focusing its SEA team more on strategic tasks.
