How iBuyNew Turned Paid Search into Closed Deals by Refocusing on Investors

iBuyNew helps Australians buy new build property, and made a strategic decision to shift its focus away from owner occupiers and first home buyers towards investors. The goal was simple: fewer time-wasting leads and more conversations that turned into sales.

That shift brought its own pressures. The client’s brand positioning had not yet fully caught up with the new focus, creating a temporary gap between who the ads targeted and what the messaging said. At the same time, investor sentiment was under strain following concerns raised in the federal budget, and the paid media retainer had been reduced.

The challenge was not simply to generate leads. It was to rebuild the account around a pure investor audience, restore investor confidence, and deliver closed deals efficiently within a tighter budget.

To turn the new investor focus into sales, Impressive rebuilt iBuyNew’s search program around one audience, one message and one measure of success.

Location-Led Account Restructure

Google Ads campaigns were restructured by location and opportunity, with a Generic Investment campaign covering NSW, ACT and WA, and VIC and QLD run separately. High performing keyword sets were kept intact while budgets could be controlled at a location level.

“New Build” Messaging

A New Developments campaign launched in May, built around the “new build” language used in the federal budget. Aligning to that terminology helped rebuild investor confidence and drove strong early conversion volume.

Test-First Bidding and Automation

Brand campaigns were A/B tested between Target Impression Share and Maximise Conversions, with Target Impression Share becoming the default once it proved stronger on volume and cost. AI Max was trialled on New Builds with full negative keyword lists loaded before launch and daily search term reviews.

Smarter Landing Experience

Testing confirmed the homepage converted better than dedicated landing pages, so traffic was directed there, avoiding unnecessary landing page spend.

Measuring What Matters

Cost per discovery became the core reporting metric, matching iBuyNew’s sales goals more closely than lead volume alone. Investor lead subtypes were tracked monthly from Pipedrive, keeping optimisation focused on the priority segment.

Together, this created a leaner, investor-first search program where every optimisation was tied to closed deals rather than lead counts.

The investor-first rebuild turned paid search into a consistent source of closed deals across the 12-month period.

12-Month Performance

• 619 deals closed from paid media
• $264 cost per deal
• 2,380 verified leads delivered into Pipedrive
• 393 investor leads sourced from Google Search alone

Quarter on Quarter (Sept to Nov vs Dec to Feb)

• +99% increase in deals closed
• +24% increase in platform leads

Investor Lead Quality

• 43.29% average Google Ads conversion rate for investor leads
• Investor conversion rate rose from 35% in September to a high of 52% in July
• Conversion rate generally held between 45% and 50% through the year

The steady rise in investor conversion rates shows the account was not just generating more leads, but the right leads for iBuyNew’s sales team.