Zenup
ONLINE MENTAL HEALTH · INDIA55.2%
Reduction in Google customer acquisition cost
Lead-to-sale conversion rose 115% while Google spend increased 22%.
HEALTH SERVICES · GOOGLE ADS
55.2% lower Google CAC, without cheaper leads.
Zenup's cost per lead stayed flat while customer acquisition cost fell by more than half. The improvement came from rebuilding the account around intent quality, downstream sales data and a landing experience designed to convert.
See how we got there- Category
- Online therapy and psychiatry
- Scope
- Google Ads, intent architecture and landing-page testing
- Objective
- Reduce CAC while preserving scale
- Measurement
- Backend-confirmed closed sales
reduction in Google CAC
increase in lead-to-sale conversion
reduction in cost per SQL
growth in Google spend
01 · THE BRIEF
Reduce acquisition cost without buying cheaper leads.
The account looked efficient at the lead level and expensive at the customer level.
Zenup is an online therapy and psychiatry platform. High-volume local-intent searches often generated inexpensive enquiries from people seeking a physical clinic, creating an attractive cost per lead but a weak sales pipeline.
The assignment was to improve the business outcome without rationing demand. That required optimising against closed sales and intent quality instead of celebrating the cheapest form fill.
THE GROWTH QUESTION
How do you halve CAC when the auction price is not the real source of waste?
02 · THE CONSTRAINT
Three frictions stood between potential and scale.
Cheap intent converted poorly
Location-modified searches produced volume from people whose needs did not match an online care model.
CPL hid the business outcome
A blended top-line lead cost made weak downstream conversion look healthier than it was.
Account structure blurred quality
Brand, service and intent layers needed separation before budgets and targets could reflect commercial value.
“The breakthrough did not happen in the auction. It happened in who was clicking—and what happened after the click.”
03 · THE SYSTEM
Optimise the account around intent and closed revenue.
Every structural decision was judged by its ability to move higher-quality demand through the sales journey, even when the lead metric looked less flattering.
Tier search intent
Primary and secondary intent received separate budgets and target CPAs instead of disappearing inside one blended number.
Make search terms the rhythm
Weekly reviews systematically removed location-led and irrelevant terms that generated cheap but unproductive enquiries.
Separate markets and winners
Psychiatry campaigns were tiered by city while stronger service lines scaled and weak-CAC campaigns were reduced or paused.
Test the landing experience
A purpose-built page competed with the incumbent, and the winning experience was rolled into the highest-spend campaigns.
Search term→
Intent tier→
Qualified lead→
Closed sale→
Budget + landing page
Brand isolated from generic demand
Weekly negative-keyword reviews
Backend sales used for evaluation
04 · THE OUTCOME
55.2%REDUCTION IN GOOGLE CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COSTLead economics held steady. Customer economics transformed.
Google CAC fell 55.2% while cost per lead remained flat and monthly spend increased 22%.
Lead-to-sale conversion more than doubled, weekly closed sales rose 156%, sales-qualified lead volume more than doubled and cost per SQL fell 47%. Only percentage changes are shown to protect the underlying account data.
05 · WHY IT WORKED
The result came from a system, not a single tactic.
CAC outranked CPL
The business metric—not the platform's cheapest conversion—became the account's decision standard.
Negative keywords created value
Removing high-volume, low-fit intent improved the pipeline without reducing scale.
Media and landing page moved together
Higher-quality demand had a purpose-built experience ready to convert it.
The account grew by refusing to confuse a cheap lead with a valuable customer.
YOUR NEXT GROWTH CHAPTER
Is a healthy CPL hiding an expensive customer?
Bring us the search account, the sales data and the real acquisition cost. We will help you reconnect them.
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