Transforming Paid Acquisition for CIPD

CIPD is the UK’s leading body for HR professionals, but their paid acquisition channels weren’t delivering as they should. Google Ads performance was slipping, impression share was down, and cost per click was rising. Their Google Ad Grant account was underused, and other channels like Meta, Bing and LinkedIn weren’t contributing enough to overall growth. The team needed a more joined-up strategy, one that would improve targeting, messaging and spend efficiency across platforms. With membership signups and content engagement being key goals, the challenge was to unlock more value from their media spend and build a foundation for sustainable growth.

We kicked things off with a full audit across all paid acquisition platforms, Google, Bing, Meta and LinkedIn. We restructured campaigns for better control, refreshed targeting strategies, and aligned creative messaging to audience intent. We overhauled bidding strategies, ran keyword and audience research, and introduced a test-and-learn framework for ad creative and landing pages. For the Ad Grant account, we restructured campaigns to unlock more of the available budget. Across channels, the focus was on improving quality, driving down costs and increasing the conversion rate. Everything we put in place was designed to scale effectively and adapt as goals evolved.

In a matter of months, we delivered a step change in performance. Conversions increased by 88%, and over 800 paid Mebership renewals driven from digital campaigns. The Google Ad Grant spend went up by 58%, fuelling around 100 monthly content downloads. We improved click-through rates and lowered CPCs by 20% and 32% respectivly, giving the team better visibility at a lower cost. Across Meta and LinkedIn, we introduced better segmentation and creative testing, generating new insights and stronger engagement. Overall, the work gave CIPD a smarter, more efficient paid acquisition engine that delivers now and sets them up for what comes next.