Rebuilding PPC for a UK Debt Recovery Firm
From Wasted Spend to High-Value Case Enquiries
Client Overview
A UK-based debt recovery firm approached Fruity Llama looking to stabilise their Google Ads performance and generate more consistent enquiries.
The business handles both B2B and consumer debt recovery cases, with individual claims ranging from £5,000 to over £1 million.
At the time of engagement, the company was already investing significantly in paid advertising and needed a partner who could take full control of performance and scale results responsibly.
When we began working together, their monthly advertising spend was approximately £10,000 per month. Today that budget has grown to £18,000 per month, driven by improved performance and increased confidence in the channel.
The Problem
The account had been active for some time, but performance lacked structure and commercial focus.
Several issues were immediately identified during our audit:
• Campaigns competing against each other
• Inefficient keyword targeting attracting irrelevant searches
• Consumer-heavy traffic instead of high-value business debt enquiries
• Low ad rank limiting visibility on important search terms
• Inconsistent conversion tracking
• Microsoft Ads running but underutilised
In short, the account was spending a significant budget but lacking the structure required to consistently generate high-quality cases.
Our Approach
Rather than making small tweaks, we rebuilt the account structure to align with how people actually search for debt recovery services.
Key changes included:
Campaign restructuring
Campaigns were segmented around high-intent search behaviour such as:
- unpaid invoice recovery
- business debt collection
- commercial debt recovery services
This ensured budgets were focused on the searches most likely to produce valuable cases.
Search quality control
Over 1,000 negative keywords were introduced to remove irrelevant traffic and reduce wasted spend.
This dramatically improved the quality of incoming enquiries and allowed the budget to concentrate on qualified prospects.
B2B targeting improvements
Search terms were refined to prioritise business debt recovery enquiries, where case values are typically much higher.
This shift helped move the account away from lower-value consumer claims.
Microsoft Ads optimisation
Microsoft Ads was expanded and optimised as a secondary acquisition channel.
In this niche, Bing traffic can produce stronger B2B lead quality, particularly from business owners and finance professionals.
Results
Since implementing the new structure, the account has become far more stable and predictable.
Key improvements include:
• Monthly ad spend scaled from £10K to £18K
• Consistent enquiries from both businesses and individuals seeking debt recovery support
• Significantly reduced wasted spend through keyword control
• Improved ad visibility for high-intent search terms
At one stage, the client reported 11 new cases generated in a single day, representing approximately £270,000 worth of outstanding debt entering their pipeline.
For a debt recovery firm, each enquiry has the potential to turn into a high-value case, meaning paid search has become a critical channel for business development.
Key Takeaways
This project highlights a common problem we see with many PPC accounts:
Spending money on ads is easy.
Running them with clear commercial structure and control is much harder.
By restructuring the account, tightening search targeting, and focusing on high-intent keywords, we helped turn a fragmented PPC setup into a predictable lead generation system.
Today the client continues to scale their advertising investment with confidence, knowing the campaigns are built around real commercial outcomes rather than vanity metrics.
Looking to Improve Your PPC Performance?
If you’re spending serious money on Google Ads but unsure whether the account is performing as well as it should, we offer a live PPC audit process where we review your campaigns and highlight opportunities for improvement.
Book a review and we’ll show you exactly where performance can be improved.
