$32.53 in May down to $7.41 in January
All case studiesBridal case study
Growth Lab
A $3,600 budget. 25 signed couples.
Modern Destination Weddings plans all-inclusive destination weddings in Mexico and the Caribbean. In nine months, a capped $3,600/month budget signed 25 couples — and Meta cost per lead fell 77%.
See the resultsThe engagement
Every number, tracked to the signature.
Nine months, one capped budget, and a pipeline measured in signed contracts — not form fills.
- Client
- Modern Destination Weddings — all-inclusive destination wedding planner (Mexico & the Caribbean)
- Services
- Google Ads (Search + Performance Max), Meta Ads, TikTok test, landing page CRO, email nurture
- Engagement
- April 2025 – January 2026
- Budget
- $3,600/month blended ad spend cap
- Signed clients
- 25 (April – December 2025)
- Leads
- 682 at a $37.01 blended CPL
- Blended CAC
- $1,010 per signed couple
- Meta CPL
- $32.53 (May) → $7.41 (January), down 77%
- Landing page CVR
- 8.23% vs. 2.07% on the homepage — 4× higher
From $25,243 in blended ad spend over nine months
682 leads at a $37.01 blended CPL
8.23% on the dedicated page vs. 2.07% on the homepage
The proof
Meta cost per lead, month by month.
Layered income targeting, tighter engaged-audience filters and seasonal creative drove Meta's cost per lead from $32.53 to $7.41 — while cost per click fell from $0.47 to $0.12.
$32.53May
$30.88Jun
$26.52Jul
$20.68Aug
$19.39Sep
$20.36Oct
$25.71Nov
$9.52Dec
$7.41Jan
Modern Destination Weddings metrics · Meta Ads, May 2025 – January 2026
The challenge
A big-ticket sale against much bigger brands.
Couples research destination weddings for months, compare big players like Destify and DestinationWeddings.com, and rarely book on the first touch. On a capped $3,600/month budget, Modern Destination Weddings needed a predictable lead engine, leads that turned into signed contracts through their Pipedrive pipeline, and a way to compete on expensive, crowded wedding search terms.
Their paid traffic was also landing on the main homepage — which converted just 2.07% of ad clicks into leads.
“A consultation is the most expensive click in the funnel. Every no-show doubles it.”
The campaign strategy
Google Ads built around intent
Four campaigns at $65/day: non-branded search across five themed ad groups (packages, locations, planning services, group travel, beach weddings), branded search, competitor-conquesting Performance Max, and 180-day retargeting — aimed at women 18–44 in the top 30% of household incomes.
Geo and destination refinement
When broad search costs rose in the fall, we split out a Mexico-specific campaign and a Northern States campaign. Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York became the top-converting states, with New York leads at $42 each.
Meta Ads with layered targeting
We added income-based targeting, narrowed top-of-funnel audiences to people engaged in the last six months, and layered Meta's "recently engaged" filter onto retargeting.
Seasonal creative
We planned around engagement season. Budgets pulled back in December while couples were getting engaged, then shifted into January with "You Got Engaged! Now What?" and "Top 5 Destination Wedding Mistakes" video ads.
Dedicated landing pages
A conversion-focused page on try.moderndestinationweddings.com with click-to-call, Jotform and Calendly — then a Mexico-specific page in January that converted at 9% at launch.
Pipeline tracking and email nurture
Every lead tracked through Pipedrive from attempted contact to sent contract to signed. A four-email nurture series and a $300 contract follow-up drip moved warm leads to a signature.
Before and after
Same traffic. Different math.
The dedicated landing page converted 4× better than the homepage and cut Google cost per lead by 69% — and once geo and destination campaigns matured, monthly Google leads went from 21 to 124.
June 2025 signed 9 couples at a $235 cost per signed client.
Google delivered 163 leads at a $9.97 CPL in month two.
By late September, 20 contracts had been sent and 7 couples had signed.
| Result | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Landing page conversion rate (Nov 2025 split test) | 2.07% homepage | 8.23% dedicated page |
| Google CPL on landing page test | $154.69 | $48.25 |
| Google CPL, Oct 2025 – Jan 2026 | $132.14 | $31.61 |
| Google leads per month, Oct 2025 – Jan 2026 | 21 | 124 |
| Mexico landing page CVR at launch (Jan 2026) | New page | 9% |
Key takeaways
Track to the signature, not the form fill.
A dedicated landing page beat the homepage 4-to-1. Pipedrive stage tracking showed which campaigns produced contracts, so budget moved toward the leads that actually booked. Engagement-season planning — quiet in December, "just engaged" creative in January — delivered the lowest cost per lead of the engagement.
Competitor conquesting, geo splits and destination-specific campaigns let a $3,600/month budget win against much larger players.
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