A great offer means nothing if the right people scroll straight past it.
That was the challenge a leading broadband provider brought to us. They had a Scotland-exclusive deal and a clear goal: put it in front of the right people and turn their interest into qualified leads at a cost that made commercial sense.
We didn’t guess. We tested, measured and moved fast, backing what worked and dropping what didn’t. The result? Qualified leads, a clear cost benchmark across seven campaigns and a far sharper picture of who the provider’s customers really are.
In this case study, you’ll see:
- How we built a test-and-learn paid social programme across multiple markets
- Which creative routes won (and one that performed well but had to go)
- Why a simple survey beat standard ads on both cost and lead quality
- The lessons any growth-focused business can apply to its own campaigns
The challenge: selling broadband in a crowded market
Broadband is a tough sell. Most people already have a provider, and plenty have settled for a connection that feels “good enough”. Getting them to stop scrolling and act takes more than a standard ad.
The provider faced three clear challenges:
- Relevance: The offer was exclusive to Scotland, so the creative had to make that obvious within seconds.
- Efficiency: Every lead needed to come in at a cost that justified the spend.
- Quality: Volume wasn’t the goal. The team needed leads they could genuinely help.
Get any one of these wrong and the budget leaks away. So we built a programme designed to find the answers quickly.
Our approach: test widely, then commit with confidence
We worked as an extension of the provider’s team, building a structured test-and-learn programme across paid social. Rather than betting the budget on one idea, we ran multiple campaigns side by side, comparing markets, creative formats and lead capture methods.
One metric guided every decision: cost per qualified lead. It gave us a single, honest measure to judge every campaign, market and creative route on equal terms. No vanity metrics, no fluff.
The work fell into two strands:
- Promoting the region-exclusive offer to the right audience in Scotland
- Creative testing and survey-led lead capture to find out what drove the strongest response
Campaign 1: Making a Scotland-only offer feel personal
Exclusivity is powerful. It says “this is for you”. But it only works when people see it instantly.
We built activity around clear, direct messaging that put the benefit up front and used exclusivity as a selling point. That insight, that people need to recognise the offer as theirs within seconds, shaped every creative decision that followed.
We also ran comparison campaigns in England, Ireland and the wider UK, alongside activity in Greece and Poland. This gave the provider something genuinely valuable: a benchmark showing how Scotland performed against other markets, and where future opportunities might lie.
With the offer in market, the next question was simple. Which creative would make Scottish audiences stop and look?
Campaign 2: A/B testing the creative
We tested four distinct visual directions head to head:
- People: Relatable, human imagery built around real-life connectivity
- Landscapes: Sweeping Scottish scenery to signal place and familiarity
- Highland cows: A playful, instantly recognisable Scottish icon
- Regional identity cues: Broader visual signals to gauge local resonance
What the testing taught us
Creative featuring strong regional identity cues performed well in testing. It confirmed what we suspected: clearly local imagery helps people recognise an offer as theirs, almost immediately. Landscapes and Highland cows both proved particularly effective – saying “Scotland” loud and clear, in a way that felt natural and familiar to the audience.
The testing helped us identify which local signals worked hardest for this audience, and which were worth exploring further.
The testing confirmed that clear local signals lift response. Landscapes and Highland cows both proved highly effective – giving audiences an instant, familiar sense of place that made the offer feel relevant to them straight away.
Next, we tried something completely different.
“How bad is your broadband?” The survey that struck a nerve
Instead of asking people to respond to an offer, we asked them a question they already had strong feelings about:
“How bad is your broadband?”
It landed brilliantly! Almost everyone has a broadband grumble, and the survey gave them a quick, easy way to share it.
This approach delivered far more than clicks. It allowed us to:
- Capture valuable first party data through a light, engaging experience
- Segment respondents by their broadband frustration and need
- Understand the audience in their own words
- Identify genuinely qualified leads, filtering out people the provider couldn’t help so the team only followed up with real prospects
Every lead arrived with context. Instead of a name and an email address, the provider got a clear picture of each person’s problem, and a head start on solving it.
So how did it all stack up?
The results: what the campaigns delivered
| Campaign | Market | Format | Relative Performance |
| England Ads | England | Standard ads | Strongest efficiency |
| Greece Ads | Greece | Standard ads | Strong efficiency |
| Scotland: Take a Survey | Scotland | Survey led | Above average — lower cost, higher quality leads |
| Scotland Ads | Scotland | Standard ads | Solid mid-range performance |
| UK: Take a Survey | UK-wide | Survey led | Mid-range performance |
| Ireland Ads | Ireland | Standard ads | Higher cost per lead |
| Poland Ads | Poland | Standard ads | Higher cost per lead |
What the results revealed
The survey beat standard ads in Scotland. “How bad is your broadband?” delivered qualified leads at a lower cost than standard Scotland ads – and those leads came with richer data attached. Lower cost and higher quality is a winning combination.
England and Greece led on efficiency. England delivered the lowest cost per qualified lead across the whole programme, with Greece close behind. That’s a clear signal about where budget can work hardest.
Ireland and Poland cost more. These markets ran at a significantly higher cost per qualified lead than others in the programme. That’s essential intelligence before committing future investment, and it’s far cheaper to learn through a structured test than through a full-scale launch.
Key lessons for your own campaigns
1. Local relevance drives response
When creative clearly says “this is for you”, performance improves. Strong local cues help people recognise an offer as theirs, quickly and confidently.
2. Interactive formats outperform passive ones
Ask people a question they already care about, and they lean in. The survey drew people in rather than pushing a message at them.
3. The best leads come with context
Survey led capture turned every lead into an insight. That made segmentation and follow up sharper, and far more likely to convert.
4. Strong performance must fit the brand
A winning test isn’t always the right long-term choice. Smart testing weighs results against brand values and audience expectations, so short-term gains never cost you trust.
5. Test widely, then commit with confidence
Running campaigns across multiple markets and formats showed exactly where budget performed best. Every recommendation was backed by real data, not assumptions.
The outcome
The provider walked away with far more than a batch of leads:
- A clear performance benchmark across seven campaigns and multiple markets
- Proof that survey led capture delivers higher-quality leads in Scotland, at a lower cost
- A tested creative playbook for signalling local relevance effectively
- Segmented audience data to power smarter, more personal follow-up
- The confidence to put future budget behind the markets and formats that genuinely perform
What this means for your business
Every pound of your marketing budget should work hard. That means testing properly, measuring what matters and cutting what doesn’t, fast.
If you’ve worked with agencies that report on activity instead of outcomes, you’ll know how frustrating that gets. We do things differently. At Hot Dog Solutions, we work as an extension of your team. We dig into your data, find out what really drives results for your brand and put your budget behind it with confidence. Wherever possible, we tie our fees to the results we deliver, because we should never be rewarded for simply spending more of your money.
Want a partner who’s accountable for outcomes, not just activity? Let’s talk.
Hot Dog Solutions. Don’t let your visitors go Walkies.
