At a Glance
Before
- Manual budget management for 119 centers
- "Schedule Assessment" as primary goal
- Unqualified leads wasting budget
- No portfolio bid strategies
- 3,500 bookings per month baseline
- Inconsistent budget pacing
After
- Automated budget tracker with daily alerts
- "Book Appointment" as primary conversion
- Qualified leads only (actual bookings)
- Portfolio bid strategies per campaign type
- 7,000+ bookings per month
- 100% YoY growth achieved
Key Metrics
The Challenge
Managing 119+ Mathnasium centers across the USA with 229 active campaigns and a $50K monthly budget presented unique operational and optimization challenges.
Multi-Location Budget Management Chaos
With 119 centers, each running both Search and Performance Max campaigns, managing budget pacing manually was impossible. Each center needed individual budget monitoring, but there was no automated system to track daily spends across 229 campaigns and alert when centers were over/underspending.
- 119 centers × 2 campaign types = 229 campaigns to monitor daily
- Manual budget checks taking hours every day
- No automated alerts for budget pacing issues
- Centers overspending or underspending by month-end
- Inconsistent performance across locations
Unqualified Lead Generation
Campaigns were optimized for "Schedule a Free Assessment" button clicks, not actual appointments. This meant Google was driving clicks on the CTA button, but many users weren't completing the booking process. The algorithm was optimizing for the wrong signal, resulting in wasted spend on unqualified traffic.
- Primary conversion: "Schedule Assessment" button click
- Users clicking but not completing bookings
- Algorithm optimizing for wrong signal
- High cost per qualified lead
- Poor conversion-to-booking ratio
No Strategic Bid Management
Each campaign was running with individual bidding strategies, making it impossible to optimize at scale. There was no portfolio strategy to share learnings across similar campaigns, and seasonality adjustments weren't being applied to ensure proper budget pacing by month-end.
- Individual bidding per campaign (no portfolio strategy)
- No shared learnings across similar centers
- Missing seasonality adjustments
- Inefficient budget distribution
- Poor end-of-month budget pacing
Our Solution
We built a custom automated budget management system and restructured the entire campaign optimization strategy to drive qualified leads at scale.
Custom Budget Tracker with Automated Alerts
We built a Google Sheets-based budget tracker integrated with Google Ads API that automatically pulls daily spend data for all 229 campaigns. The system categorizes spends by campaign type (Search vs Pmax), calculates percentage of monthly budget used, and sends automated email alerts with color-coded warnings (Underspending <10% used with 7+ days left, Critical 80%+ used, High Alert 80-89% used, Warning 50-79% used).
- Google Apps Script pulling daily spend data via API
- Automatic categorization by Search/Pmax campaign types
- Daily % spend calculation vs monthly budget
- Color-coded email alerts: Critical (Red 80%+), High (Orange 80-89%), Warning (Yellow 50-79%), Underspending (Blue <10%)
- Center-by-center budget status dashboard
- Eliminated hours of manual budget checking
Conversion Goal Optimization: Button Click → Actual Booking
We changed the primary conversion goal from "Schedule a Free Assessment" (button click) to "Book Appointment" (actual completed booking). This fundamental shift ensured Google's algorithm optimized for users who actually completed the booking process, not just clicked the CTA. The new conversion only fires when a user successfully books an appointment on the confirmation page.
- Changed primary goal: "Schedule Assessment" → "Book Appointment"
- Conversion fires only on confirmation page (actual booking)
- Algorithm now optimizes for qualified leads
- Dramatic improvement in lead quality
- Lower cost per actual booking
- Increased booking-to-enrollment ratio
Portfolio Bid Strategies + Seasonality Adjustments
We implemented portfolio bid strategies separately for Search and Performance Max campaigns, allowing similar campaigns to share conversion data and learnings. We also configured seasonality adjustments to account for back-to-school surges and holiday slowdowns, ensuring optimal budget pacing throughout the month.
- Portfolio bid strategy for Search campaigns across all centers
- Portfolio bid strategy for Pmax campaigns across all centers
- Shared conversion data across similar locations
- Seasonality adjustments for back-to-school periods
- Improved budget pacing and month-end performance
- Better cross-location optimization
The Results
The transformation was remarkable. By automating budget management and optimizing for actual bookings, we doubled monthly appointment volume while maintaining efficient spend across all 119 centers.
Before Optimization - Baseline Performance
Starting point before implementing automated budget tracker and conversion optimization:
- 3,500 bookings per month across 119 centers
- ~$50K monthly budget
- Manual budget management (hours daily)
- "Schedule Assessment" as primary goal
- Inconsistent performance across locations
- Budget overspending/underspending issues
Implementation Phase - System Build
Building and deploying the automated budget tracker and conversion optimization:
- Built Google Sheets budget tracker with Apps Script
- Integrated Google Ads API for daily spend pulls
- Configured automated email alerts with color codes
- Changed conversion goal to "Book Appointment"
- Implemented portfolio bid strategies (Search + Pmax)
- Applied seasonality adjustments
December 2025 - Early Results
Initial performance improvements visible across the portfolio:
- Internet leads: 12,151 → 8,610 (focused on quality)
- Paid leads increased: 7,769 → 4,634 (more qualified)
- Budget tracking automated (zero manual hours)
- Daily email alerts operational
- Portfolio strategies optimizing
- Improved lead quality metrics
January 2026 - Peak Performance
Full optimization achieved with dramatic booking growth:
- 7,000+ bookings per month (100% YoY growth)
- Doubled from 3,500 baseline
- 229 campaigns managed seamlessly
- 119 centers performing efficiently
- Automated budget alerts working perfectly
- Underspending centers flagged: Bountiful, St. Louis Park, Centennial, etc. (0.00% used)
- Critical centers identified: Cary (140.17%), Cedar Park (94.20%), Westwood (94.22%)
- High alert centers: Legacy West (87.08%)
- Consistent $50K monthly budget maintained
Key Takeaways
Automation Eliminates Manual Work
Building a custom budget tracker with Google Apps Script and API integration eliminated hours of daily manual budget checking across 229 campaigns, allowing the team to focus on strategy instead of operations.
Optimize for Actual Conversions
Changing from "button click" to "actual booking" as the primary conversion dramatically improved lead quality. Always optimize for the action that matters most to the business, not vanity metrics.
Portfolio Strategies Scale Learnings
Implementing portfolio bid strategies separately for Search and Pmax allowed similar campaigns to share conversion data, accelerating optimization across all 119 centers simultaneously.
Seasonality Matters for Budget Pacing
Education businesses have clear seasonal patterns (back-to-school surges, holiday slowdowns). Applying seasonality adjustments ensures proper budget pacing and month-end performance.
Client Impact
100% YoY Booking Growth
Mathnasium doubled their monthly appointment volume from 3,500 to 7,000+ bookings while maintaining the same $50K monthly budget, dramatically improving efficiency.
Operational Time Savings
The automated budget tracker eliminated 2-3 hours of daily manual work, freeing up the team to focus on strategic optimization instead of operational tasks.
Improved Lead Quality
By optimizing for actual bookings instead of button clicks, Mathnasium now receives only qualified leads who have completed the booking process, improving the booking-to-enrollment ratio.