Case study · ITCE · Sofia Tech Park
Twice the Google Ads leads at half the cost, 40% more forms from search, and a new channel from AI assistants.
Part 1 · SEO and AI search
Forms from search up 40% in 90 days, and a new channel from AI assistants.
Where they started
In May, AI assistants mentioned ITCE three or four times in total, and the organic baseline recorded 7 AI assistant users with no key events. Search Console was disconnected from the sitemap, and lead actions were not tracked the same way on the English and Bulgarian sites.
What I did, station by station
- Station 1 · MeasureSearch Console reconnected to the sitemap, and lead actions tracked on both the English and Bulgarian sites.
- Station 2 · DiagnoseCritical technical fixes, and the ServiceNow pages consolidated into one hub at /servicenow-consulting/.
- Station 3 · Build849 page titles and 531 descriptions rewritten. 652 vague links rewritten and 214 new links pointing to the priority pages.
- Station 4 · DistributeAI crawlers allowed, clearer page structure, Google Business Profile rebuilt, and 91 more websites linking to ITCE.
- Station 5 · Inspect90 days against 90 days in GA4, Organic Search plus AI Assistant only, with the summer slowdown working against us.
What changed in 90 days
Organic and AI search only · % change
Source: ITCE GA4, 20 Mar to 17 Jun against 19 Jun to 16 Sep 2026
ITCE: the homepage alone produced 160 key events from search in the quarter, up from 109. Confirmed leads dipped from 87 to 76 while forms sent rose, which is the next phase's first job.
Visits from AI assistants
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot
Source: ITCE GA4 · 48 itce.com pages cited by AI engines (Semrush, 17 Sep 2026)
Where the growth landed
Organic visits by page group · % change
Source: ITCE GA4 landing pages
Search visibility
Semrush, June against 17 September 2026
Source: Semrush domain overview
AI visitors convert like Google visitors
Share of visits that ended in a key event
Source: ITCE GA4
Part 2 · Google Ads
Google Ads leads from 20 to 42 in 60 days, with the cost per lead halved.
What the audit found
Full account history, October 2025 to June 2026, and what I changed
| Problem | What I found | What I changed |
|---|---|---|
| Irrelevant searches | €664, 49.5% of search-term spend, on 844 irrelevant queries: free courses, other vendors' certifications, unrelated software | 520 search terms blocked on 11 dates; 521 keywords moved from Broad to Phrase match, 75 removed |
| Google chose the page | 70 of 79 landing pages picked by Google; leads from them cost €47.59, against €23.50 from pages ITCE chose | One chosen landing page pinned to every ad group; AI Max switched off |
| Display banners | 851 clicks and €150 for 2 leads, €75 per lead | Display and Search Partners switched off |
| Untested ads | 4 ads in the whole account, one per ad group, never tested; Google had generated off-brand ad text on its own | 6 new ads with 15 headlines each; auto-generated assets switched off |
| Home market only | 100% of clicks from Bulgaria | 35 European countries added, in English, people physically there only |
| Nobody steering | 8 months without a negative keyword, a search-term review, a bid change or an ad test | 237 changes in 90 days, 96% of them mine |
Source: ITCE Google Ads account: 60-page audit of the full history (Oct 2025 to Jun 2026) and change history, 2026
Where they started
ITCE's Google Ads account had run for eight months with nobody steering it. Before touching anything I audited its full history, October 2025 to June 2026, in a 60-page diagnostic. In those eight months nobody had added a negative keyword, reviewed a search term, changed a bid or tested an ad.
The account still produced leads, and wasted half its budget doing it: 49.5% of search-term spend went to irrelevant queries. Google picked most of the landing pages, Display banners took budget, and every click came from Bulgaria, although ITCE wants to grow across the EU and Central and Eastern Europe.
What I did, station by station
- Station 1 · MeasureConversion goals rebuilt so that only real leads steer bidding. Every result below is a tracked conversion, compared 60 days against 60 days.
- Station 2 · DiagnoseA 60-page diagnostic of the account's full history, ending in a 17-point plan: 12 points done in full, 4 in part (two wait on budget), 1 dropped as no longer needed.
- Station 3 · Build520 irrelevant search terms blocked on 11 dates, 521 keywords tightened from Broad to Phrase match, 75 removed. 5 themed ad groups (ServiceNow Consulting, ServiceNow Training and Talent, ITIL, AI Training and Consulting, Agile/SAFe), 255 new keywords, 6 new ads with 15 headlines each, and one chosen landing page for every ad group.
- Station 4 · Distribute35 European countries added to Bulgaria, in English. Ads Monday to Friday, 07:00 to 19:00, when leads actually came in. Target cost per lead lowered from €32 to €15, mobile bids +20%. A “Top ServiceNow Partner” lead form, 51 brand-compliant images and new sitelinks (AI Solutions, Training That Works).
- Station 5 · Inspect237 changes in 90 days, 96% of them mine. Leads 20 to 42, cost per lead €29.59 to €15.13. The gain held: 21.02 leads at €15.10 in the first 30 days after the relaunch, and about 21 at €15.15 in the next 30.
Google Ads, 60 days before and after the rebuild
Same account, almost the same spend
20 May to 18 Jul 202619 Jul to 16 Sep 2026
Leads
Cost per lead
Conversion rate
Clicks
Ad spend
Source: ITCE Google Ads account, 19 Jul to 16 Sep 2026 against 20 May to 18 Jul 2026. The clean-up started inside the before window, so the jump is, if anything, understated.
On almost the same spend, ITCE's Google Ads went from 20 leads to 42 in 60 days, and each lead cost about half as much.
Leads by ad group
Last 60 days · fractional leads as Google Ads reports them · 56% of budget now goes to the new groups
| Ad group | Leads | Cost per lead | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Training and Consulting | 25.00 | €10.79 | New group; the four AI keywords alone produced 22 leads |
| Training Schedule | 12.01 | €20.13 | Rebuilt, was 9.00 leads at €33.05 |
| ServiceNow Training and Talent | 2.00 | €7.62 | New, best click-through rate at 13.74% |
| Agile, SAFe and PM | 2.00 | €13.01 | New |
| ITIL and IT Training | 1.02 | €36.45 | New, next to fix |
Source: ITCE Google Ads ad group and keyword reports, 19 Jul to 16 Sep 2026
Where the leads came from
60 days before against 60 days after
20 May to 18 Jul 202619 Jul to 16 Sep 2026
Leads from outside Bulgaria
Countries that produced leads
Bulgaria's share of leads
Source: ITCE Google Ads location report. Most of the growth is new demand from abroad, not leads moved from Bulgaria.
Cost per lead by who chose the page
Euro per lead, lower is better. The first three rows are from the audit, the last is the whole account after the rebuild.
Display banners€75.00
Landing pages Google chose€47.59
Landing pages ITCE chose€23.50
Whole account after the rebuild€15.13
Source: ITCE Google Ads account: audit, Oct 2025 to Jun 2026; after the rebuild, 19 Jul to 16 Sep 2026
1,925
views of the “Top ServiceNow Partner” lead form
ITCE Google Ads asset report, 2026
95
clicks on the lead form
ITCE Google Ads asset report, 2026
14
leads sent without opening the website; a consultant replies within one business day
ITCE Google Ads asset report, 2026
Book it
Want numbers like these? Thirty minutes.
I look at your website, your competitors and what your buyers search, then tell you the number I think I can hit and what it costs. You keep the plan either way.