Engineers Australia: Improving Google Ads Performance Across Three Accounts
Engineers Australia appointed TMR in 2021 to manage Google Ads and improve campaign measurement across three accounts.
Our work combined campaign restructuring with a rebuild of conversion tracking, a transition to Google Analytics 4 and the implementation of Meta’s Conversions API. The aim was to give the marketing team clearer reporting and help each account generate relevant actions more efficiently.
The Client
Engineers Australia (EA) is the leading Australian professional body and not-for-profit organisation dedicated to advancing the practice of the engineering community. With 115,000 members, including 31,000 students, EA plays a crucial role in accrediting professional engineering qualifications across the country.
The Brief
Engineers Australia needed consistent measurement across its digital properties and campaigns organised around the goals of each business unit. The brief covered conversion tracking, Google Ads management, the transition to Google Analytics 4 and server-side tracking for Meta.
The marketing team also needed reporting that supported decisions about campaign performance and budget allocation.
Our approach
We began with measurement, reviewing conversion actions and mapping the interactions each account needed to track. This work informed the campaign structure and reporting.
Conversion tracking
We worked with EA’s marketing and web development team to review duplicate and missing conversion actions and rebuild tracking through Google Tag Manager. The setup covered actions such as membership sign-ups, event registrations and professional development enquiries.
Google Ads management
We restructured campaigns across three accounts around their audiences and objectives. The work covered Search and Display campaigns, with Performance Max used where appropriate, followed by ongoing adjustments to targeting, bids and creative.
Analytics and reporting
We managed the transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4, configuring event tracking and reports around EA’s campaign goals. We also implemented Meta’s Conversions API to support server-side event measurement alongside browser tracking.
Underpinning all of it was a reporting requirement: EA’s management team needed clean, reliable data they could trust to make budget and campaign decisions. That meant resolving tracking before optimising spend — not the other way around.
The Strategy
TMR’s approach was deliberately sequenced: fix the foundation before scaling spend. There’s no point optimising campaigns against conversion data you can’t trust. The first priority was measurement. Everything else followed.
Conversion Tracking Rebuild
The existing conversion setup had duplicate actions, misconfigured goals, and critical user interactions that weren't being tracked at all. TMR worked closely with Engineers Australia's marketing and web development team to map every conversion point across the site — membership sign-ups, event registrations, professional development enquiries, and contact form submissions — and implemented clean tracking via Google Tag Manager. This gave EA a single, accurate view of what each campaign was actually delivering.
Campaign Restructure Across 3 Accounts
EA's three Google Ads accounts — covering different business units and audiences — were restructured from the ground up. Search campaigns were rebuilt around tightly themed ad groups aligned to specific conversion goals. Display campaigns were reconfigured with updated audience targeting. Performance Max campaigns were introduced where appropriate, with asset groups and audience signals built to match each business unit's objectives. Crucially, campaigns were now structured so that optimisation decisions were driven by the metrics that actually mattered to EA — cost per member acquisition and cost per event registration — not just clicks and impressions.
Google Analytics 4 Migration
TMR managed the full transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 for Engineers Australia. This wasn't a simple migration — it required rebuilding event-based tracking from scratch, configuring custom dimensions and metrics relevant to EA's goals, and building management reports in GA4 that replicated the KPI visibility the team had in Universal Analytics, while adding new capabilities. The migration was completed ahead of Google's UA sunset deadline, giving EA a full data baseline in GA4 before the switchover.
Facebook Conversion API (CAPI) Integration
iOS 14+ privacy changes had significantly degraded the accuracy of Engineers Australia's Facebook pixel data — a common problem affecting any organisation running Meta campaigns post-2021. TMR implemented Facebook's Conversion API (CAPI) as a server-side solution, sending conversion events directly from EA's server to Meta rather than relying solely on browser-based pixel tracking. The result was a measurable improvement in reported conversion accuracy and better-performing campaign optimisation, as Meta's algorithm could now work from more complete data.
Tools Used
Google Ads
Responsive Search · Display · Performance Max · AI Max
Google Analytics 4
Website Event tracking Custom reporting
Google Tag Manager
Conversion tracking Event implementation
Meta Conversion API
Server-side conversion API
EEA results through August 2026
These results cover EEA campaigns, one part of the broader Engineers Australia engagement.
more tracked conversions
lower cost per tracked conversion
The Results in Plain Terms
From January to August 2026, EEA’s campaigns recorded a 152% increase in
Ad spend increased by 56%, while average cost per tracked conversion fell by 38%. Conversion volume grew faster than spend, with a lower average cost for each tracked action.
Tracked conversions include purchases and enquiry-related actions, including form submissions. Cost per conversion is calculated from total ad spend divided by total tracked conversions for each period.
The Results in Plain Terms
Cost per conversion reduced by more than 50%
Across Engineers Australia's Google Ads accounts, cost per conversion fell by more than 50% against the pre-TMR baseline — the result of campaign restructuring, improved conversion tracking accuracy, and sustained bid optimisation.
Conversion tracking accuracy: 0 duplicate actions
At the start of the engagement, EA's conversion setup contained duplicate tracking actions that inflated reported conversion numbers and distorted optimisation signals. By the end of Month 1, all duplicates were resolved and tracking was confirmed accurate across all three accounts.
GA4 migration completed ahead of deadline
TMR delivered the full Google Analytics 4 migration — event tracking, custom reporting, and management dashboards — before Google's Universal Analytics sunset. EA had a full data baseline in GA4 before the transition was forced.
Facebook CAPI: conversion signal recovery
Following Facebook CAPI implementation, reported conversion volume from Meta campaigns improved materially — recovering signal lost to iOS privacy changes. Exact improvement percentage to be confirmed from account data.
Three accounts managed simultaneously
TMR managed Google Ads activity across three separate Engineers Australia accounts covering different business units, audiences, and campaign objectives — all optimised toward the same underlying goal: lower cost per relevant conversion.
What they said
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