A woman with short red hair sits at a table reviewing documents with a professional during a financial advisor marketing case study.

Creating a Scalable Lead Engine for a Financial Advisor Matching Platform

Case Study

Project Overview

In financial services, paid search is one of the most expensive places to compete. Advice-related keywords carry some of the highest costs per click in Google Ads, and a click only pays off if it becomes a prospect an advisor actually wants to meet.

Our client, an online platform that matches consumers with vetted financial advisors, was feeling that pressure firsthand. Each acquisition was costing more than $1,000, and many leads fell outside the services their advisor network was looking for.

TruNorth was brought in to rebuild their paid search program around qualified leads and bring acquisition costs down to a level the business could scale.

Key Metrics

Results compare 30-day reporting periods from November to October 2026

85%

Decrease in CPA

288%

Increase in Paid Search Leads

189%

Increase in Qualified Leads

Objective

The client needed a paid acquisition strategy that would:

  • Bring cost per acquisition from over $1,000 to a sustainable target
  • Grow lead volume without raising the monthly budget
  • Focus spend on women seeking the services advisors pay for: financial planning, wealth management, investing and retirement planning
  • Expand beyond a single core market into a national footprint

Measuring What Actually Matters

Fix the Signal Before You Scale the Spend

A cheap lead is worthless if no advisor wants it. Before chasing volume, we rebuilt how success was measured so Google’s bidding would optimize toward the leads the client can monetize.

  • Qualified-lead definition: We separated raw quiz fills from fully completed quizzes that matched the services advisors were looking for, and made that the CPA that mattered.
  • Conversion tracking across Search and Performance Max: Clean conversion actions on both campaign types gave Smart Bidding an accurate signal, lifting tracked Google Ads conversions from 10 to 125 per month.
  • Click-fraud protection: ClickCease now blocks up to 138 invalid paid clicks a month, keeping budget on real prospects.
  • Transparent reporting: Twice-monthly reports track cost per qualified completion, cost per lead, incomplete quizzes and lead source, so the client always knows what each dollar returns.
A woman with red hair reviews tax forms at a desk with her laptop and calculator, using a financial advisor matching platform.

Precision First

Strategic Growth Through Data

With a reliable signal in place, we tightened targeting before expanding it.

  • Tighten (May-July 2026): We cut wasted reach by 88%, from roughly 320,000 to under 45,000 impressions a month. Click-through rate climbed from 2.1% to more than 7%, and qualified CPA fell below $150 for the first time.
  • Scale (August-October 2026): Once the campaigns were converting efficiently, we reopened reach to new audiences and states. Impressions returned to 300,000+ a month and average CPC dropped to $1.65, while qualified CPA held near $150.
  • Go national: Paid quiz completions, once concentrated in California, now come from across the country, led by California, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, North Carolina and Texas.
A map of the United States with black and white pins marking cities for a financial advisor matching platform.

RESULTS THAT SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES

icon quote

“I love that you were so real with where the problems were going to be, which made me understand that you actually get it, and you’re not just making false promises.”

CEO & Managing Partner

12x

More tracked conversions

88%

Increase in CTR

189%

Increase in Qualified Leads

83%

Of Leads Now Come from Paid Search

THE TRUNORTH DIFFERENCE

Paid search works best when it is measured against the outcome the business actually sells. By defining a qualified lead first, then tightening and scaling around it, we turned an expensive channel into a predictable growth engine.

  • Knowledge sharing and transparency: Twice-monthly reporting showed the client exactly what every dollar returned.
  • Commitment to results: We set a ~$150 CPA target and have held the average there for four straight months.
  • Holistic approach: Tracking, targeting, fraud protection and geographic expansion were tuned together, not in isolation.

Reach out today to see our processes first hand.