Advitam has set out to make organizing farewells gentler, by offering fully customizable, online funeral services that are 30% cheaper than traditional offerings and backed by concrete environmental commitments.
Behind this promise lay a significant challenge: breaking the codes of a highly regulated sector where trust still largely relies on physical proximity, while supporting strong national growth. How to inspire serenity in such a sensitive moment, convince audiences sometimes unfamiliar with digital technology, and orchestrate a seamless end-to-end experience?
This case study looks back at the support we provided to Advitam. You will discover the choices made, the levers activated, and the results obtained, proving that it is possible to combine innovation, social impact, and business performance in one of the most traditional sectors.
Context & Problem
In April 2024, Advitam contacted us with a clear observation: the Google Ads account was running, but the momentum was gone.
Search campaigns were still generating traffic, but performance was flagging. Acquisition costs were rising, leads were less qualified, and most importantly: it was difficult to know what was working or not at the local level.
In a sector like funeral services, geographical context plays a central role. It’s a local business where relevance depends as much on the message as on the location where it is broadcast.
Diagnosis
We are probably facing an algorithmic bug or penalty. Difficult to prove, but the signs are clear:
- Everything was working correctly until a sudden breaking point,
- No major changes in structure or budget explain it,
- Even clean campaigns, tested afterwards, struggled to take off.
We then made a methodical choice: to start from a healthy foundation, by working on data and account clarity.
The Two Priority Areas
1. Reinject reliable business signals into the account
- Connecting offline conversions (quotes, CRM, calls >60s)
- Cleaning up unnecessary or irrelevant events
- Adding smart micro-conversions (CTA clicks, form scrolls…)
The goal: to feed the algorithm with what truly matters.
2. Restructure the account to make it a manageable ecosystem
- Complete redesign of campaigns: out with overly generic campaigns
- Streamlining structures, simplifying signals
- Clear redeployment by audience type and objective
Result? PMAX started strong.
Within a few days, campaigns started delivering again. The volume of leads began to rise again.
Subsequent Levers Activated: Finer Management of PMAX
Since PMAX is working, we don’t just ‘let the algorithm do its thing’.
Phase 1 – Regional PMAX IDF
We start with the essentials: testing PMAX’s potential on the core target, Île-de-France.
Objective: to validate its ability to capture both strong signals (calls, local searches) and weak signals (clicks, visits, forms) while maximizing coverage.
✅ Quick result: from April, we observed a decrease in CPC and a resurgence of qualified inbound calls.
But this ‘global IDF’ format remained too broad: making it impossible to precisely identify which areas were performing, or where to invest more.
Phase 2 – Local Structuring by Department
The account structure was largely the same as today, but from April, we refocused on a departmental logic, rather than by city: creating PMAX campaigns by department (92, 94, 77, etc.).
Each zone benefits from:
- its own campaign and budget,
- distinct tracking (calls, quotes, quality),
- refined management of exclusions and assets.
This breakdown allows us to link performance data & field reality. We know where it converts, and we know why, without getting lost in too fine a granularity by city.
Observed Qualitative Results
The change in structure transformed the readability and performance of the account:
- Clear recovery of call volume >60s
- Continuous increase in quotes submitted via CRM
- Stabilization of cost per lead, zone by zone
- Indirect improvement in Brand campaign performance (halo effect)
But most importantly: the feeling of regaining control over a lever that had become opaque.
Key Takeaways
It wasn’t Performance Max that saved the account. It was the way we rebuilt its environment. And in an automated environment like Google Ads today, the signals you send dictate everything.
Over the previous 18 months, Advitam saw its budget increase sharply; it has since stabilized, and the activity gaps they previously experienced are significantly rarer.
✅ A poorly performing PMAX can become effective again if you give it context, structure, and clarity.
Thanks to this approach, Advitam has regained:
- control over its distribution,
- clear visibility into its performance areas,
- and profitable growth in an ultra-competitive environment.
What if your Campaigns Were Next?
The results obtained with Advitam illustrate the strength of Donutz Digital: a data-driven, pragmatic, and resolutely human approach, capable of reconciling automation and local nuance. Whether you need to:
- revive an account that’s losing momentum,
- unlock the power of Google Ads,
- or simply find the acquisition mix that will support your next growth phase,
we have the methods, tools, and above all, the rigor to transform your objectives into concrete results.
Want to see how far we can go together? Let’s talk over a donut (or a video call) and draw up the roadmap that will turn your metrics into the next green indicators.
At Donutz Digital, every collaboration starts with a simple question: what will have the most impact for you, the fastest?
