Wessex Cancer Support

Wessex Cancer Support provides practical and emotional support to people affected by cancer across the Wessex region, through its support centres, services and community fundraising.

We have worked with the charity for almost five years, managing its Google Ads Grant and supporting its website side by side since November 2021. In 2025, alongside a refresh of the charity’s website and landing pages, we also carried out a full refresh of the ads.

Our objectives were to:

• Align the ads with the refreshed website structure and the charity’s current services
• Connect people affected by cancer with the right support
• Increase referrals, enquiries and event registrations
• Grow awareness of the charity across the region
• Improve website performance to support the campaigns

A joined-up partnership from day one

Because we support both the website and the ads, the two have always worked hand in hand. From the start, we focused on making every click count. We refined targeting and ad messaging and improved tracking so the charity could see the real impact of its ads. Click-through rate rose by over 40% compared with before we took over, and in 2024 alone clicks grew by 62%.

A full refresh of the ads

Alongside the website refresh, we went through the account from top to bottom. We rebuilt the campaign structure to mirror the new website, so it follows how the charity presents its services. There are now clear routes for people looking for support, people wanting to get involved, and people searching for the charity by name.

Smarter, more focused campaigns

The new structure brought activity that had been spread across many smaller campaigns into a few focused ones. Combining the data this way gives Google’s bidding much more to learn from, so it can find the right people faster.

We also set each campaign to focus on the specific conversions that matter most for its goal. Support campaigns work towards referrals and support enquiries, and fundraising campaigns work towards event registrations and ways to help. The data guiding each campaign is now focused and highly relevant, so the algorithm puts the budget where it’s most likely to make a difference.

Remapping every ad

We remapped all the ads to the new landing pages. Every search now leads to the page that best answers it, whether someone is looking for a support service, a fundraising event or a way to help.

Improving website performance

Alongside the refresh, we improved the website’s technical performance and brought its Core Web Vitals into the green. A faster, smoother site gives visitors a better experience, especially on mobile, and helps the ads perform at their best.

Measuring what matters

We refined conversion tracking to match the new site, so every important action, from support referrals to event registrations, is captured and feeds back into the campaigns.

The account was already performing well, but the full refresh completed in October 2025 took it to the next level. In the 12 months since, impressions have more than doubled and clicks have grown by 60%. More people are taking action too: conversions are up 143% and conversion rate is up 52%, with growing numbers of support referrals and event registrations coming through search.

The past six months have been even stronger, with impressions up 214%, clicks up 97% and conversions up 231% on the same period last year.