How Five Star Commerce Slashed CPA by 40% and Scaled Their Agency

“We used to depend on Upwork. Now, because of WhatConverts and smarter ads, PPC brings in 80–90% of our business.”

Case Study

• Agency: Five Star Commerce
• Industry: Amazon Ads Consultancy
• Software: WhatConverts

From Freelance Leads to Full-Funnel Control: The Growth Story of a Lean Amazon Ads Consultancy

When Five Star Commerce began, its primary source of new business was Upwork. While this platform provided a steady stream of leads, it also came with limitations: unpredictable lead quality, platform fees, and a lack of control over the sales funnel. As the company aimed to scale, it recognized the need for a more sustainable and controllable lead generation strategy.

The Challenge: Unreliable Conversion Data, Unscalable Growth

Five Star Commerce, an Amazon services agency based in Utah, had a problem most advertisers know well: they couldn’t trust their conversion data. Relying on traditional methods like thank-you page tracking meant spam bookings, bogus form fills, and bots were all being counted as conversions.

That uncertainty limited their ability to scale using paid ads and meant Upwork was their go-to for lead generation. Despite helping over 460 brands annually, Five Star Commerce knew they could only grow so far on the platform. They were ready to scale. And to do it, they needed lead tracking data they could trust.

The Solution: Real Conversion Control with WhatConverts

“We just wanted something where we could say, ‘Yes, that was a conversion’—and have Google and Microsoft Ads know it too.”

After a long search, Five Star Commerce discovered WhatConverts—and found the lead tracking capabilities they were looking for.

The team implemented a workflow using WhatConverts, Acuity Scheduling, and Zapier. Now, whenever a prospect books a call, the WhatConverts platform captures all the data: campaign, click ID, and more. Then the Five Star Commerce team qualifies the lead and sends that verified conversion back to Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.

No more spam. No more bots. Just real leads optimizing real campaigns.

Here’s what the process looked like:

1. Capture Lead-Specific Data from Every Channel

Five Star Commerce set up their lead tracking in WhatConverts so they could see exactly where leads were coming from broken down by:

• Source (Google)
• Medium (CPC)
• Campaign
• Keyword
• And more

Plus, they could see if a lead came in via a phone call, by booking an appointment, or through any other conversion action.

This level of lead data granularity made it easy to see which channels were performing and which were falling flat.

Resource: WhatConverts Integrations

2. Separate the High-Quality Leads from Low-Quality Leads

Next, Five Star Commerce would qualify the leads based on the collected data. For example, they could listen to call recordings or read transcriptions to determine if a caller actually booked a consultation. If they did, that lead was marked as quotable.

3. Send Back Only Qualified Leads as Conversions to Ad Platforms

After qualifying their leads, Five Star Commerce could automatically send back only qualified leads to the ad platforms.

For leads with a sales value attached, they could also send back that lead data as well. Sending back sales value to an ads platform lets you get more strategic with your ad spend and set value-based bidding goals which can yield better results.

4. Steer the Ads Algorithm with Lead Quality Data

By sending only quotable leads to ad platforms as conversions, the bidding algorithm can start to see patterns on what audiences are more likely to convert.

This effectively steers the algorithm, letting Five Star Commerce target higher-value leads with their PPC campaigns. That means better results, more effective ad spend, and a stronger, more growth-ready business.

Resource: How to Optimize Google Ads Automated Bidding

The Results: Higher Quality Leads, Lower Cost Per Conversion, Bigger Ad Budgets

“It’s a total game changer. We can’t imagine going back to not using WhatConverts.”

Once WhatConverts was fully implemented, the shift was immediate:

• Cost per conversion dropped from ~$250 to ~$150 at peak performance
• Higher lead quality led to faster sales cycles (same-day closes on calls)
• Ad spend doubled, jumping from $8K–$10K to over $20K per quarter
• PPC channels now drive 80–90% of new business, up from ~15%

Because the team now has full visibility into which clicks become real clients, they confidently run Maximize Conversions campaigns—knowing the algorithm is learning from true outcomes, not noise.

Ready to Take Control of Your Lead Quality?

WhatConverts gives you the power to qualify leads, track real conversions, and train your ad platforms to find more of the clients you want.

Want to see what kind of ROI you can achieve? Start your free 14-day trial of WhatConverts today!