100% Growth in Marketing Qualified Leads

PPC, Public Relations

Global PR software leader Cision had underperforming PPC campaigns where half its landing pages failed to generate qualified leads. A PPC and landing page optimization strategy focused on user experience and clear CTAs doubled the number of MQL-producing pages and increased CTR by 24.8%.

About Cision

Blacksmith transformed Cision’s PPC lead generation funnel by systematically optimizing their landing pages at scale

Cision is a global leader in PR, media monitoring, and marketing communications software. Their solutions help modern marketers and communicators manage, measure, and amplify their stories. In the MarTech industry, generating high-quality Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) through paid search is a major component of their growth strategy, making campaign efficiency a top priority.

Services Rendered

Strategy Consulting

We began with a comprehensive strategy phase to define the client’s target audience, key performance indicators (KPIs), and optimal channel mix. This created a data-driven blueprint for the entire paid media campaign, ensuring all efforts were aligned with their core business goals.

PPC Management

Our team provided end-to-end PPC management, handling all aspects of the campaign from account setup and daily monitoring to strategic bid adjustments and budget allocation. This active management was focused on maximizing the client’s return on ad spend (ROAS).

UI/UX Design

To ensure a high conversion rate for the traffic generated, our UI/UX design team was engaged to optimize the campaign’s key landing pages. This focused on creating a smooth user experience and a frictionless path from ad click to conversion.

cision landing page hero for old website

Underperforming Landing Pages

The most significant problem was that many of their landing pages were failing to produce a single Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). Despite strong ad spend driving visitors to polished hero sections, the lack of clear value and conversion focus turned many of these pages into dead ends.

text heavy landing page leading to poor UX

Low Ad Engagement

Existing page templates had a poor user experience (UX), with slow site speed and unclear calls-to-action. Ads were struggling with low CTRs, and the landing pages weren’t helping. Pages were overloaded with long copy and vague value statements which created a weak post-click experience, reducing Quality Scores and limited ad visibility.

Inefficient Ad Spend

Despite showcasing credibility with strong proof points, their poor Quality Scores meant they had to overspend just to stay visible in the ad auction. This pushed the bids higher, inflated the cost per click, and drained ad budget while making conversions costlier than necessary.

The Solution

Human-Centered Design to Build Trust

We discovered that users who faced abstract visuals on arriving at the landing page were less likely to convert. To address this, we replaced generic imagery with authentic, human-centered visuals such as expert profiles and testimonials. This change reduced hesitation in the decision-making process, established trust faster, and directly improved landing page conversion rates from ad clicks.

Streamlined Conversion Points for Visitors

We restructured conversion points by moving forms higher on the page, reducing the required fields on the forms, and aligning CTAs with ad copy promises. By removing these roadblocks, visitors from ads could act on their intent more quickly, leading to a measurable increase in form completions and a stronger return on ad spend (ROAS).

Scannable Layouts to Support Post-Click Journeys

To satisfy users who want to quickly skim the landing page to see if it matches their intent, we rebuilt long, text-heavy pages into clean, modular sections with bold headlines, succinct value propositions, and strategically placed CTAs. This greatly reduced bounce rates, improved time-on-page, and ensured that more users progressed smoothly through the funnel after their initial click.