Case Study 06
From DIY Google Ads to Steady Monthly Registrations for a Dance and Music Studio
Results at a Glance
- 273% more clicks from Google search than the same months a year earlier
- 61% lower cost per click
- $20 in ad spend per registration across marketing channels
Summary of Client and Challenge They Faced
A dance and music studio with two locations offers classes for every age, from preschool dance through a pre-professional program, plus adult classes and private music lessons. Many of its new students start by searching online.
The studio’s own team had been running its Google Ads, following Google’s built-in recommendations. Clicks cost about $2 each, and fewer than one in twenty people who saw an ad clicked it. When the team launched its fall campaigns, the default settings sent nearly half the budget beyond Google search, to partner websites, display ads and an automated Performance Max campaign. Those placements drew clicks at a fraction of the rate of search ads.
Most important, nothing connected the ads to registrations. The studio couldn’t tell which campaigns brought in students, so there was no way to know where the money was working.
The studio brought in Upward Arrow to manage its Google Ads, with one job: bring in more registrations.
Our Approach to the Solution
Measuring what matters. Upward Arrow started with tracking. Registration events were set up from the studio’s confirmation pages and connected to both Google Analytics and Google Ads, so every campaign could be judged on registrations rather than clicks.
Focusing the budget on search. The campaigns were switched to Google search only. Upward Arrow paused the automated Performance Max campaign, partly at the studio’s request and partly because a focused search approach could outperform it for a business like this one. Every dollar now goes to people actively looking for classes or lessons.
Searching the way parents search. Keyword research showed that people search for “dance classes” far more than “dance lessons,” and for “music lessons” more than “music classes.” Searches by age, such as dance classes for a five-year-old, drew some of the highest click-through rates in the account. That led to separate campaigns for each program and age group, each pointing to the right page, with keywords that weren’t drawing families paused.
Tidying the details. Location settings were set per campaign so each ad showed the right location, and Google’s automatically generated assets were turned off, so the ads run using approved photos from the business only.
Reporting every two weeks. A biweekly dashboard gives the studio owner visibility into performance, bringing the ad platforms and Google Analytics into one view of spend, clicks and registrations by channel, with notes on what to change next.
Client Results and Benefits
Comparing the same six months a year apart, Google search clicks rose 273% and the average cost per click fell 61%, from about $2.02 to $0.78. The click-through rate rose 39%. The studio raised its budget 44% as the results were proven, investing to expand its reach.
The tracking Upward Arrow built now shows what those clicks produce. Over five months of reporting, Google Ads brought in about 40 registrations and trial bookings a month, at about $27 each. Across all marketing channels, including the studio’s Meta ads, organic search and social, ad spend works out to about $20 per registration. Small campaigns for individual age groups cost only a few dollars to about $40 a month to run.
With a stable flow of prospects, the studio can now put more focus on client service as new students join its programs.