PAID MEDIA & PPC PORTFOLIO PROJECT
Fictional Brand — Real Campaign Setup & Conversion Tracking
End-to-end paid media campaign strategy and implementation for a fictional online learning brand, covering audience targeting, campaign structure, ad creative, landing page experience, conversion tracking, and measurement.
Google Ads, GA4, Google Tag Manager, Canva, PPC Strategy, Conversion Tracking
SkillSpring Academy is a fictional online education brand created to demonstrate my paid media planning and campaign implementation skills. I developed the campaign strategy, targeting, search themes, ad messaging, creative assets, and measurement framework, then extended the project into hands-on implementation using a live landing page, GA4, Google Tag Manager, and Google Ads.
Project Overview
SkillSpring Academy is a fictional online learning brand designed to help aspiring marketers build practical digital marketing skills. This project demonstrates how I approached paid media from strategy through implementation, connecting campaign planning, creative development, landing page experience, conversion tracking, and measurement.
THE CHALLENGE
Develop a paid media approach that could attract high-intent prospective learners and move them from search/discovery to program exploration.
THE OBJECTIVE
Drive qualified traffic to the SkillSpring landing page and establish a measurable lead generation journey around the “Get Program Details” CTA.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Aspiring digital marketers, career changers, students, and early-career professionals interested in developing practical digital marketing skills.
MY ROLE
Paid Media Strategy, Search Intent Research, Campaign Setup, Ad Copy, Creative Direction, Landing Page, GTM, GA4
Campaign Journey
Search/Ad → Landing Page → Get Program Details → generate_lead → Measurement
The campaign infrastructure and conversion tracking were implemented and validated. The Google Ads campaign was intentionally not activated, so no media spend or live advertising performance results are claimed.
Paid Media Strategy
I developed a conversion-focused paid media strategy designed to reach prospective learners actively searching for digital marketing education and guide them toward exploring the SkillSpring program.
Campaign Goal
Generate qualified interest from prospective learners and encourage high-intent visitors to explore program details.
Channel Strategy
Capture high-intent users actively searching for digital marketing courses, certifications, and career-focused training through Google Ads.
Conversion Strategy
Direct visitors to the SkillSpring landing page and measure “Get Program Details” CTA clicks using generate_lead.
Campaign Targeting
Location: United States
Language: English
Primary Audience: Aspiring digital marketers, students, career changers, and early-career professionals
Campaign Objective: Lead Generation
Test Budget Framework: $10/day
Landing Page: /skillspring/
Search Intent
High Intent Search Themes
digital marketing course
digital marketing certification
online digital marketing course
digital marketing training
learn digital marketing
digital marketing course for beginners
digital marketing certificate program
job-ready digital marketing course
digital marketing career training
online marketing certification
Search themes were selected around education, certification, career development, and practical digital marketing training intent.
Ad Creative & Messaging
I developed campaign messaging and visual assets around practical, career-focused digital marketing education. The creative emphasizes clear skill development while maintaining consistent messaging between the ad experience and landing page.
Creative Direction: Career-focused, educational, action-oriented
Core Message: Build Job Ready Digital Marketing Skills
Supporting Message: SEO • Paid Media • Social • Email • Analytics
CTA: Explore the Program
Ad Copy
Headlines
Learn Digital Marketing
Build Job Ready Skills
Digital Marketing Training
Learn SEO & Paid Media
Build Practical Marketing Skills
Descriptions
Build practical skills in SEO, paid media, social media, email marketing and analytics.
Develop job-ready digital marketing skills through structured, practical online learning.
Landing Page & Conversion Journey
I built a dedicated SkillSpring landing page to create a consistent journey between paid media messaging and the post-click experience. The page introduces the program, highlights core digital marketing skills, and directs visitors toward a measurable “Get Program Details” action.
Landing Page: SkillSpring Academy
Primary CTA: Get Program Details
Conversion Action: CTA Click
GA4 Event: generate_lead
Google Ad → SkillSpring Landing Page → Get Program Details → generate_lead → GA4 Measurement
The landing page and campaign messaging were intentionally aligned to maintain message consistency from ad interaction through conversion measurement.
Conversion Tracking & Analytics
I implemented an end-to-end measurement setup to track high-intent interactions on the SkillSpring landing page. Google Tag Manager detects clicks on the “Get Program Details” CTA and sends a generate_lead event to GA4. The GA4 property was then connected to Google Ads so the same lead action could be used for campaign measurement.
Get Program Details CTA → GTM Click Trigger → generate_lead → GA4 → Google Ads
Trigger: SkillSpring - Program Details Click
GA4 Event: generate_lead
Conversion Objective: Lead Generation
Validation: GTM Preview + GA4 Realtime
Ads Integration: GA4 linked with Google Ads
This tracking implementation was tested and validated using real website interactions. The Google Ads campaign itself was not activated, so the project does not claim paid impressions, clicks, conversions, CPA, or ROAS as live campaign results.
Measurement & Optimization Framework
I developed a measurement framework to evaluate campaign efficiency across the full paid media funnel from ad engagement and landing page traffic to lead actions and conversion efficiency. Because the portfolio campaign was not activated, these metrics represent the KPIs I would monitor and optimize rather than claimed live advertising results.
Traffic
- Impressions
- Clicks
- CTR
- CPC
Landing Page
- Sessions
- Engagement Rate
- Landing Page Engagement
- CTA Interactions
Conversion
generate_lead- Conversion Rate
- Cost per Lead
- Lead Volume
Efficiency
- CPA / CPL
- Budget Pacing
- Search Intent Quality
- Creative Performance
How I Would Optimize
Performance would be reviewed across search intent, ad messaging, creative engagement, landing page behavior, and conversion efficiency. Lower performing search themes and creative variations would be refined while budget allocation would shift toward combinations generating stronger qualified engagement and lead efficiency.
Measure → Identify → Test → Optimize → Scale
Performance Status: No live paid media performance metrics are reported because the Google Ads campaign was intentionally not activated. Any forecasted or mock performance data shown in supporting project materials is clearly labeled as hypothetical.
Supporting Work & Key Takeaways
Supporting Work
Explore the detailed strategy, research, campaign planning, implementation documentation, and supporting materials behind the SkillSpring paid media project.
View Strategy & Campaign Planning→
Key Takeaways
This project strengthened my ability to connect paid media strategy with hands-on technical implementation. Rather than stopping at campaign planning and creative development, I built a live landing-page experience, implemented CTA tracking through Google Tag Manager, validated the generate_lead event in GA4, connected analytics with Google Ads, and configured the campaign around measurable lead generation objectives.
SkillSpring Academy is a fictional brand created for portfolio demonstration purposes. Campaign strategy, research, creative development, landing page implementation, GTM configuration, GA4 measurement, and Google Ads campaign setup represent hands-on project work. The Google Ads campaign was not activated and no advertising spend occurred. Any projected or mock performance metrics in supporting materials are hypothetical and are not presented as live campaign results.
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