SEO and PPC Case Study: How a National Printer Grew Monthly Leads 8 to 10 Times Their Original Goal

Running SEO and PPC together, instead of choosing one, turned a company with almost no online presence into a business breaking sales records during an economic downturn.

Quick summary: In this SEO and PPC case study, a long-standing national printing company grew website traffic 473% and increased monthly leads to 8 to 10 times their original goal, by combining a content-driven SEO strategy with a PPC campaign that started as a bridge and became a permanent, cost-effective part of the strategy.

Introduction

This SEO and PPC case study looks at a long-standing national printing company that had built its business almost entirely through an outside sales force traveling the country. That model worked, but it made it genuinely difficult to reach medium-sized businesses or anywhere outside the largest metro markets, and it came with real, ongoing travel expense. The client wanted to build a real online presence to generate sales directly, while cutting down on those travel costs, and turned to SEO and PPC together to get there.

The Challenge

The goal going in was modest by comparison to what eventually happened: increase online traffic, leads, and sales by 15 percent, with an expectation of about 20 solid sales leads a month. The client had a genuinely strong track record of turning leads into long-term, profitable relationships, including major enterprise accounts in sectors like aerospace and defense, but almost none of that success had ever come through the website.

Where the Company Started

Prior to this engagement, the company had basically no real online presence. Only a small percentage of the website was optimized in any meaningful way, there was no reliable way to track what was happening on the site, and the company had little to no experience running paid advertising. There were also no real internal procedures in place for tracking and managing qualified sales leads once they arrived. An initial keyword analysis identified 284 keywords with solid, real search traffic behind them. The company ranked for none of them, effectively invisible past the third page of search results.

Our Strategy

SEO built around real content

The site had little to no real content, which meant search engines had almost nothing to understand what the business actually did or ranked for. The SEO strategy followed three stages: optimizing the pages that already existed, writing keyword-targeted articles to build topical relevance, and building an XML article database specifically so search engines could crawl and index the growing content library. That structure gave the client clear, visible benchmarks to judge progress against, not just a vague promise that rankings would eventually improve.

PPC as a bridge, then a permanent strategy

SEO takes real time to build momentum, so a PPC campaign was launched specifically to generate qualified leads and revenue while that longer-term work took hold. PPC was originally framed as a temporary measure, something to lean on until SEO caught up. Ongoing optimization, ad refinement, and consistent A/B testing made the PPC account so cost-effective that it stopped being temporary. It became a permanent, integral part of the client’s marketing strategy, and PPC even helped surface new keywords that strengthened the SEO campaign in return.

Closing the loop with call tracking

Call tracking software was implemented to track both online and phone leads accurately, which gave the client a real, complete picture of what marketing spend was actually producing. That visibility also helped improve the client’s own internal process for handling and following up on leads once they arrived.

The Results

The results didn’t just meet expectations. They reset what the client thought was possible from their marketing.

Key results at a glance:

• Website traffic increased 473%, measured in unique visitors, since the optimization process began
• Monthly leads reached 8 to 10 times the original goal, moving from an expected 20 leads a month to a steady 40 to 50 leads a week
• PPC budget was reduced 20% below annual projections, while leads and sales kept climbing
• The company went from ranking for none of 284 target keywords to page 1 rankings for hundreds of them
• The client had at least four record-breaking sales months in a 25-year company history, despite a broader economic downturn

The business impact went well beyond the marketing dashboard. The client chose not to replace an outgoing salesperson, relying on the new lead flow to make up the difference instead. Despite a broader economic downturn, the company broke sales records repeatedly, with at least four months standing as the best in its 25-year history. Today the company has 50 full-time employees, several of them hired specifically to keep up with the growth this effort generated.

What Business Owners Can Learn

• SEO and PPC aren’t competing options. Run together, PPC can fund and jump-start momentum while SEO builds long-term, compounding equity.
• A channel planned as temporary can earn a permanent place in the strategy once the data proves it’s cost-effective. The original plan doesn’t have to be the final plan.
• Flexible PPC spend, dialed up or down with real business capacity, turns a fixed marketing cost into an operational lever instead of a rigid line item.
• Digital lead generation can genuinely replace a piece of a traditional sales structure once it’s producing enough consistent volume.
• Growth shows up beyond the marketing numbers themselves, in headcount, in record sales months, even during a broader economic downturn.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should a business choose between SEO and PPC, or run both together?

Running both together tends to outperform choosing one. In this case study, PPC was originally meant as a temporary bridge to generate revenue while SEO built up momentum over time. PPC turned out to be so cost-effective that it became a permanent part of the strategy, and it even helped surface new keywords that strengthened the SEO campaign.

How long does SEO take to start working?

SEO takes real time and consistent effort to build momentum, which is exactly why pairing it with PPC is useful. In this case study, PPC was launched specifically to generate qualified leads and revenue while the SEO campaign, including new content and keyword targeting, had time to take hold and start ranking.

Can PPC spend be reduced while still growing leads?

Yes, when the account has been optimized enough that spend and results aren’t tightly linked. In this case study, the PPC budget was reduced 20% below annual projections while leads and sales kept climbing, largely due to ongoing optimization, ad refinement, and A/B testing that made the account more cost-effective over time.

What does page 1 rankings actually mean for a business?

It means the difference between being found and being invisible. In this case study, an initial analysis identified 284 keywords with real search traffic, and the business ranked for none of them. After the SEO campaign, the business achieved page 1 rankings for hundreds of keywords, which is what actually drove the increase in qualified organic leads.

Final Thoughts

None of this came from picking SEO or PPC and hoping it was the right call. It came from running both together, treating PPC’s early success as a signal worth keeping rather than a temporary crutch, and building the internal tracking to know exactly what was working.

If you’re not sure whether your own marketing strategy is leaning too hard on one channel instead of using SEO and PPC together, that’s exactly the kind of question a Competitive Marketing Analysis is built to answer. It’s free, it takes a real look at where you stand, and there’s no pressure attached either way.