Worked example, not a client
A Solihull taxi firm's NEC show calendar: one line per show
A twelve-car taxi firm near the airport takes a share of its year from NEC shows and has always run one campaign for all of them. This page shows the account rebuilt as a calendar: one dated ad group per show, a budget per show from last year's line, and the everyday airport campaign underneath. The firm is a composite and the figures are illustrative; the NEC's calendar is public and changes each year.
Written by Daniel Stoychev. The firm and its figures are illustrative. The calendar structure is the one in the NEC guide linked below; the shows named are examples from the NEC's published calendar and their dates change year to year.
Worked example. The taxi firm is invented to show a calendar-shaped account. The shows named are real events at the NEC whose dates change each year; the figures beside them are illustrative, not a client's.
The calendar
One line per show, the shape the report takes
| Show, month | Ad group dates | Budget for the show | Spend | Fares booked from the ad | Cost per booking | Decision for next year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring Fair, February | A fortnight before to the last day | £300 | £288 | 41 | £7.02 | Keep; exhibitors book airport runs weeks ahead |
| Crufts, March | A fortnight before to the last day | £450 | £447 | 63 | £7.10 | Keep; the busiest four days of the year |
| A consumer motoring show, May | The show days only | £150 | £131 | 9 | £14.56 | Drop; visitors drive |
| A trade show, June | A week before to the last day | £200 | £196 | 22 | £8.91 | Keep |
| Motorcycle Live, November | The show days only | £250 | £244 | 12 | £20.33 | Drop; visitors ride |
| Everyday airport campaign | All year | By month | £1,100 a month | 160 a month | £6.88 | The baseline every show is judged against |
The two drops are the point of the table. Both shows brought clicks; neither brought bookings, because the visitors arrive on the thing they came to see. A single campaign for all shows had hidden that for three years, because the Crufts bookings paid for the motoring show's clicks.
What the ads said
The line that location insertion cannot write
- Airport to the NEC, fixed fare, four minutes: the show's name in the headline, the distance and the price shape.
- The on-the-day ad group with the presence setting and a radius around the halls and the terminal; the planner ad group targeted to the whole country.
- Negatives for the show names with tickets, times, floor plan, exhibitor list, and for NEC with the electronics company and the two foreign venues that share the letters.
What the first report said
Four lines
- Spend and fares by show, one line each, against the everyday campaign's cost per booking.
- The two shows dropped, with the reason in one sentence.
- The searches excluded, with the three most expensive named.
- What is declined: a single budget for all shows, bidding on the organiser's name, and a Display campaign to visitors' phones, which would spend and not book.
Where this leads
The pages that do this work
Send the account ID. Within 72 hours you know where last month's money went.
The free check needs your ten-digit Google Ads customer ID and nothing else. Daniel Stoychev reads the account himself and writes back within 72 hours. If you would rather talk first, the phone is answered in office hours by the same person.