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Case Study

Eleveating Iridium's brand and driving growth through Google Ads

At SearchKings Africa, we understand that real growth happens when sales and marketing are fully aligned. We specialise in creating this integration, combining deep expertise in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to build scalable, measurable revenue engines. This case study highlights our impactful partnership with Iridium, a modern accounting firm based in South Africa, demonstrating our ability to deliver exceptional results in the accounting and financial services industry.

The Client: Iridium Business Solutions 

Iridium is a modern accounting firm based in South Africa, focused on providing tech-driven, people-first services to growth-minded business owners. As an award winning Xero Platinum Partner, Iridium is redefining the accounting space.

 

The Iridium Team

The Challenge: Standing Out and Driving Long-Term Awareness 

In a competitive digital landscape, Iridium recognised the need for sustained brand awareness and visibility to outcompete other accounting firms vying for the same digital space. The challenge was two-fold: to gain significant brand visibility and to establish themselves as a category leader within a modest budget, without compromising reach or engagement. Their primary goal was not short-term lead generation, but rather building long-term awareness and positioning themselves as the accounting firm of choice for South African entrepreneurs.

Our Strategy: High-Impact Awareness & Integrated Growth 

We designed a high-impact awareness campaign strategy, placing heavy emphasis on Performance Max (PMax) and Video campaigns, supported by Display and Search, to extend reach and consistency. We leveraged our comprehensive expertise to build a complete sales-to-lead-to-client journey for Iridium over six years.

Our multifaceted strategy included:

… to maximise impressions across all Google properties, dominating share of voice and visibility in high-intent moments across search, display, YouTube, and Gmail.

… to visually communicate Iridium’s value proposition, capturing attention and driving interest.

… to ensure ads reached relevant growth-focused entrepreneurs and business owners—Iridium’s ideal client—by leveraging first-party data, platform insights, and industry experience.

We continuously monitored and optimised for engagement rates, making continual refinements to keyword targeting, copy, visuals, and bid strategies to ensure momentum never slowed.

Training Google and Microsoft algorithms to identify and prioritise leads most likely to convert into long-term clients.

Designing sophisticated bidding models that focused spend on high-intent searches, maximising return on ad spend.

Disseminating targeted Google Display Network (GDN) and YouTube campaigns to remarketing and Customer Match audiences, celebrating Xero award wins and reinforcing Iridium’s credibility.

Our proprietary Call Intelligence Solution tracked lead quality, enabling feedback loops into SEM platforms for smarter AI targeting. Watch how it works here.

Our leadership team is made up of seasoned professionals—including two C-suite executives who are qualified CA(SA)s with a combined 8 years of experience in the accounting profession—giving us unique insight into the commercial and operational realities of firms like Iridium.

… Uploaded CRM-derived customer lists into ad platforms to create Customer Match audiences, enabling smarter targeting and improved remarketing to known high-value segments.

… automated lead capture, task assignment, and follow-ups, ensuring every opportunity was actioned on time.

… Integrated Ignition proposals directly into Iridium’s sales flow, automated proposal sends, reminders, and tracking to boost conversion rates, while collaborating closely with their internal automations team to embed this workflow into Pipedrive.

The Iridium Team

Throughout the campaign, SearchKings monitored and optimised for engagement rates, rather than traditional lead-gen metrics—knowing that brand recall and trust-building were the north star for Iridium.

The Results: Exceptional Engagement and Market Presence 

The campaign performance was exceptional, especially when benchmarked against industry norms.

Metric: Overall Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Performance: 6.79%

Industry Average: 5.8%

Outcome: Exceeded expectations

Metric: Performance Max CTR

Performance: 6.03%

Industry Average: 1.38%

Outcome: Smashed industry average

Metric: Video View Rate

Performance: 53.17%

Industry Average: ~30%

Outcome: Outstanding engagement

These numbers indicate outstanding audience targeting and message resonance. Viewers were not just seeing the ads—they were interacting with them, clicking through, and consuming Iridium’s content at a rate well above average.

Beyond engagement, SearchKings delivered significant scale and consistency:

250,585 impressions

4,351 clicks

1,604 video views

All this was achieved on a tightly managed budget, demonstrating that smart strategy and creative placement can outperform spend-heavy campaigns when executed well.

Client Impact: Boosted Brand Recognition & Competitive Edge 

Through this campaign, Iridium has seen a significant boost in brand recognition—not just online, but in conversations with prospects and partners across South Africa. Anecdotal evidence from their team points to increased awareness of the brand prior to direct outreach, a powerful signal that awareness efforts are paying off.

Iridium now enjoys a stronger digital presence than many of their larger competitors, despite not matching them in budget. The campaign helped position Iridium not just as another accounting firm, but as a forward-thinking, modern partner for South Africa’s entrepreneurial community. Our deep industry understanding, with C-suite executives who are qualified CA(SA)s with extensive accounting experience, gave us unique insight into their commercial realities.

“It is a pure delight working with the team at SearchKings Africa.  They are exceptionally talented and knowledgeable in Google Ads and have provided incredible support in our goal of establishing our brand as a leader in the industry. We would be lost without them!”

Heather Poulos, Head of Marketing  – Iridium

Let’s Build Your Growth Engine 

The Iridium partnership showcases what’s possible when you use high impact, integrated SEM strategies. At SearchKings Africa, we turn marketing activity into revenue results, with full transparency and performance you can measure.

Build Your Growth