Google Search for Canadian High-Net-Worth Investment Manager: +269% Consultations, -23% CPA

Client Context:
A Canadian investment management firm serving high-net-worth clients ($1M+ minimum investment) needed to scale qualified consultation requests through Google Search. Six-figure monthly budget. Non-brand acquisition was the primary growth lever in a crowded auction where several global competitors each held double-digit impression share.

The Challenge
A portion of budget was being spent on stock-related search terms that drew clicks but consistently failed to convert into genuine advisory prospects. The non-brand campaign was the hardest to make efficient, and rising CPCs from market competition made every dollar count.

The Approach

• Removed stock-related keywords pulling irrelevant traffic, redirecting budget toward terms signalling real advisory intent
• Concentrated spend on high-net-worth wealth management and financial advisor terms, the highest-converting clusters despite elevated competition
• Ran a controlled match-type test, building a separate broad match campaign to benchmark directly against exact and phrase match
• Tested a small-budget competitor conquesting campaign to measure the real cost of bidding on rival brand terms before committing meaningful spend
• Isolated Google Search from search partner placements to get a true performance read, since partners were inflating cost
• Added click-fraud protection blocking 187 fraudulent IPs, protecting budget in a high-CPC category

Results
-+269% non-brand consultation requests YoY on Google Search, while cost per acquisition dropped 23%

• +167% non-brand conversions YoY with cost per conversion down 38% across the full period
• Top converting terms (financial investment services, investment funds, financial investment) drove the bulk of qualified volume
• Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, and Edmonton accounted for roughly a third of total conversions
• Brand conversions grew steadily despite rising competitor activity on brand terms

CPC rose year over year from genuine market competition. The strategy absorbed that pressure and still delivered cheaper conversions overall.

What This Demonstrates
Scaling acquisition aggressively in a high-cost, heavily contested category while improving cost efficiency, by cutting waste, concentrating on intent-rich terms, and measuring every decision before scaling it.