Case Study

How Smart Optimization Filled Summer Camps Across Colorado for Less Than $15 a Purchase

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Brief

Skyhawks Colorado needed to fill hundreds of summer sports camp spots across Denver, Northern Colorado, and Colorado Springs — with limited time, multiple age groups and sports to promote, and rising competition in the youth camp space.

Client

Skyhawks Colorado

Role

Paid Media Specialist

Tools

Google Ads and Meta Ads

Process

The Approach

We deployed a geo-segmented paid media strategy across Google Search and Meta Ads, targeting parents in the three key regions. Each market got its own campaign setup — including keyword variations, copy hooks, and creative — so we could track performance independently and make smarter optimizations.

  • Google Search Ads focused on high-intent users (“Skyhawks Colorado,” “sports camps near me”).
  • Meta Ads were used to build urgency and brand visibility — “Camps are filling up fast!” was our hero copy line.
  • Retargeting was layered in on Meta for warm traffic who hadn’t registered yet.

We also made weekly creative updates to prevent ad fatigue — especially on Meta, where reach was strong but scroll behavior demanded freshness.

The Results

  • Impressions: 535,578
  • Clicks: 3,556
  • Purchases: 412
  • Avg. Cost Per Purchase: $13.63
  • Top Performing Geo: Colorado Springs (Lowest CPP: $2.05 on Google)
  • Top Performing Platform: Meta (Most purchases: 160+ in April-May window)

The Wins

Google CTRs that made other marketers jealous – Across all three months, our Google CTR averaged over 30%. The campaigns were so dialed in that people were practically raising their hands.

Rock-bottom CPCs on Google – We achieved click costs as low as $0.06, showing that our targeting + ad quality hit the algorithm sweet spot.

Meta conversions that paid off – Even though Meta’s CTR hovered around 1%, the purchase volume told a different story. Our most efficient month (May) delivered 139 purchases for just $14.68 each, with Denver clocking in at $11.55 CPP.

Colorado Springs pulled ahead late in the season – What started as a weak performer in March turned into the best bang-for-buck location by June. We adjusted the messaging, reallocated spend, and saw a 2.9% Google conversion rate (compared to 0.55% the previous month).

Lessons Learned

Landing pages matter: While Google got the clicks, Meta got more conversions. That gap in performance suggests the landing page experience may have felt clunky or confusing to search traffic. Something to test next season.

NoCo struggled throughout: Even with tweaks, Northern Colorado never really converted at the same rate. We’ll test stronger offers or shift focus away in future campaigns.

Ad fatigue is real: Meta’s audience frequency started creeping up, especially mid-season. Weekly creative swaps were critical to maintain momentum.

What were the results?

We’re taking these learnings and building out a fall push for Skyhawks. With proven CTRs, geo-level insights, and a cost-efficient creative engine in place, the next season is set to launch even stronger.

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