ExpressColour, a boutique commercial printing company in Singapore, struggled after a property market downturn led to a decline in orders from real estate clients. With our SEM and SEO optimization, they reduced their CPA by 4.5 times, increased online visibility, and diversified their client base into new industries.
ExpressColour is a well-established commercial printing company in Singapore, specializing in flyers, postcards, brochures, and other business marketing materials. With over 25 years of experience, the company traditionally relied on referrals and its strong reputation among real estate agents to drive business. However, when Singapore’s property market declined in 2013, its largest client segment contracted significantly, resulting in a substantial drop in incoming orders and revenue. Facing this industry-wide shift, ExpressColour recognized the need to adapt its business model by reaching broader markets. Search engines quickly emerged as the most effective way to capture demand from customers needing fast, affordable, and quality printed materials. By adopting a proactive digital marketing strategy built on Google Ads and search engine visibility, ExpressColour was able not only to restore growth but also to thrive in a competitive printing landscape by diversifying into industries such as Retail and F&B.
Before working with Redefine Web, ExpressColour faced significant hurdles that threatened its growth and profitability. Their client base relied heavily on real estate, leaving them vulnerable when that sector slowed.
To generate new leads, they turned to search advertising, but quickly encountered issues. Competing against “budget” printers, their campaigns targeted overly generic keywords like “cheap flyer printing,” leading to high click costs of about $2 but few meaningful conversions. Many clicks came from price-driven customers who weren’t aligned with ExpressColour’s value of speed, affordability, and quality. This led to poor ROI, with cost-per-conversion averaging $150.92.
Additionally, their outdated website ranked inconsistently, missing organic traffic opportunities. While over 1,600 monthly searches occurred for just four key terms, ExpressColour wasn’t capturing them. With limited organic reach and inefficient paid ads, the company remained overly dependent on channels delivering weak results.
Without a stronger search strategy focused on high-value leads and better conversion rates, ExpressColour risked losing ground despite its long-standing market presence.
Redefine Web performed a comprehensive search strategy optimization, focusing on structured Google Ads and targeted SEO. We identified wasteful spending related to “cheap” keywords and eliminated them, ensuring the campaign attracted higher-value customers instead of price shoppers. We optimized the website for performance and relevant search terms while restructuring ad groups to highlight competitive differentiators, such as speed, reliability, and quality. This reduced the CPA by 4.5 times, restored profitability from SEM, and opened new pipelines of diverse, smaller-volume clients that cumulatively drove consistent demand growth.
Key steps included:
By restructuring ExpressColour’s Google Ads campaigns, implementing a negative keyword strategy, and boosting organic rankings, we helped diversify the client base while cutting CPA by 4.5x. This not only stabilized revenue after industry decline but secured long-term profitability from digital-driven demand.
Kyle Vine
Brandon Smith
Benjamin Sänger
Myles Scolnick
Peter Dolenc
Francis Strutt
