Fractional Director of Paid Search
How hiring a Fractional Director of Paid Search Helped Staffing Company Scale PPC Spend by 6X While Making Google Ads Their #2 Placement Source
SERVICE PROVIDED:
Soliant Health
NAME:
Healthcare and Education Staffing
INDUSTRY:
When I first connected with Soliant Health, their marketing team was facing a significant digital marketing gap.
Following an acquisition in July 2024, a marketing consulting firm had identified that Soliant was spending a fraction of what their competitors were investing in PPC. Like Tera R, their SVP of Marketing mentioned,
"We were just turning on keywords that we knew people were searching, but we needed help with the campaigns' performance. Do we have the right bidding strategy? We didn't really know the nuances of Google."
THE CHALLENGE
- Limited in-house PPC expertise
- Lack of strategic campaign management
- No end-to-end tracking system in place
- Need to rapidly scale campaigns across eight different brands
- Desire to transition from tactical execution to strategic leadership
As Naomi, VP of Brand Marketing, shared,
"We weren't able to scale our spend with in-house resources. We needed someone who could take it to the next level.”
OUR JOURNEY TOGETHER
In January 2025, I joined Soliant through a recommendation from their CIO.
Initially hired to focus solely on Google Ads management, my role quickly expanded as the team recognized the strategic value I could bring beyond campaign execution.
THE BEGINNING
My Approach
In just three months working together, we achieved remarkable results:
Why It Worked
RESULTS
Established cross-functional alignment
With Soliant Health, I focused on five key areas:
while maintaining profitability
6X increase in monthly Google Ads spend
and strategic roadmap for long-term growth
Created a scalable campaign structure
between marketing teams and agencies
I immediately rebuilt their account structure to support significant scaling while maintaining efficiency. And then, I implemented proper tracking systems that connected Google Ads performance to Soliant's CRM (Bullhorn), enabling true end-to-end performance measurement—something their previous agencies had never addressed.
2. Methodical, Data-Driven Scaling
Rather than immediately jumping from $40,000 to $250,000 monthly spend, I implemented a step-by-step scaling approach:
- $90,000 in January
- $220,000 in February
- $250,000 in March
"He was also training them to say 'you can do this as well. Here's how you would create a campaign for your brand. This is what you can look for.”
4. Quality Focus
I maintained a relentless focus on lead quality, not just volume, which is super important in their industry.
As Naomi noted:
"He follows up to make sure that the ads are working. He's not just putting them there and forgetting about them…..coming to my team and asking, 'Hey, can you do a quick look just to make sure that the leads that are coming in are quality leads.'"
5. Strategic Partnership
As our performance improved, my role evolved from execution to strategic partnership. I began auditing their agency performance, attending calls with Google representatives, and collaborating with Soliant's new Director of Performance Marketing to ensure alignment across their digital marketing efforts.
As Naomi shared:
"I think sometimes whenever you're dealing with things like Google where it can be very complicated, you need someone that does not make you feel dumb. And Stephen doesn't ever make me feel like that.
He always comes in very humble and kind no matter whatever dumb questions I have. And so I really appreciate that about him.”
Implemented end-to-end tracking
climbing from much lower in their lead source rankings
#2 source of placements,
to optimize campaign performance
Google Ads became their
With how new PPC was to their marketing efforts, I wanted to ensure they saw results and they saw it quickly (like with all of my clients).
And that comes from my deep technical understanding of paid search, my willingness to learn about your service, and working with your company and treating it like my own.
"He treats it like it's his company and his money," says Tera. This ownership mentality is core to how I approach client relationships. I don't just execute tasks—I look for opportunities to drive business growth.
And when you’re introducing paid search in your marketing efforts, it’s important that the learnings are accessible to you.
Being available when clients need me is a priority. Especially with how volatile PPC can be.
"He's so easy to get a hold of. Whenever we need to get anything done, he's so easy for me to reach. We use Slack, I can just contact him anytime, and he's always willing to hop on a call with me."
Beyond tactical execution, I’m constantly bringing strategic insights that help inform Soliant's broader digital marketing approach. This includes evaluating agency performance and recommending improvements beyond my direct scope of work.
Continuing Partnership
This case study was built of a conversation with this specific client, going through our work together.
Anything in quotes is a word-for-word statement said by the client on a recorded call.
"Stephen was a surprising find for us. The result and impact that he had in such a short amount of time was way better than we expected.
We love Stephen..we love working with him.. He's very personable and very likable. I would say that he's another member of our team.”
Despite hiring a full-time Director of Performance Marketing to oversee their growing digital marketing efforts, Soliant made the decision to keep me on as a strategic partner.
As Tera explained:
"Our CIO and our CEO said, 'I know we're bringing in these other people but you have to keep Stephen on because he's done so great with the accounts. We don't want it to falter."
I continue to work closely with their new director, helping to onboard him while ensuring continuity in their Google Ads performance. My role has expanded to advise on other paid media channels, creating a cohesive approach across their digital marketing ecosystem.
read the case studies
Ready to sustainably scale up your paid search efforts like Soliant’s team?
If you're looking for a Fractional Director of PPC who will be as invested in your organization’s success as you are, let's talk.
On this call, we’ll discuss if my services are a good fit and explore how we can achieve similar results for your business.