How I helped Trucker Tools increase load board views by 10% by unlocking paid search as a growth channel

Background & Challenge

Trucker Tools has historically had a highly popular mobile app for truck drivers. The app's organic growth was driven by top-ranking positions in Google and Apple’s app stores, but the company was looking for additional growth levers to increase the number of drivers using the app.

Since freight brokers are Trucker Tools' paying customers, the company’s revenue growth depends on increasing broker adoption. However, the volume of truck drivers on the app directly impacts broker adoption, as brokers need access to a large carrier network for the platform to be valuable.

While I spent most of my time at Trucker Tools driving broker growth, my boss, The VP of Marketing, tasked me with also growing the carrier audience. Knowing I needed an efficient strategy, I explored paid search as a potential growth channel.

🚧 Key challenge:

Trucker Tools had struggled with paid search for brokers in the past, and early results from a new paid search agency were similarly disappointing. However, I realized that if we could assign a dollar value to a load board view, we could potentially justify using paid search as a scalable growth channel for carriers.

I pitched this idea to our COO, who was closest to our revenue data. At first, he didn’t think we could get to a CPC low enough to justify the spend. However, a few weeks later, he revisited the idea and was excited to test it.

Together, we:

📌 Defined the value of a load board view

📌 Calculated a target CPC based on our ROI multiple

📌 Partnered with our paid search agency to optimize for that CPC

After about a month of optimization, the agency finally hit our target CPC, unlocking paid search as a viable growth channel.

Role & Objective

I led the growth strategy and paid media management, overseeing:

  • Collaboration with the COO to ensure revenue calculations were accurate.

  • Defining the key performance targets—a 10% increase in load board views while maintaining an ROI-aligned CPC.

  • Providing keyword insights from previous SEO research to our paid search agency.

  • Managing campaign execution and ensuring the agency optimized performance without sacrificing volume.

Strategy & Approach

I leveraged past SEO audits that targeted high-intent carrier keywords and shared these insights with our paid search agency.

To optimize the campaign:

✅ I conducted a thorough discovery process with the agency to ensure they understood the business goals.

✅ We focused on keyword selection, bid adjustments, and campaign structuring to balance CPC efficiency with volume.

✅ We continuously refined calculations with feedback from executives and other stakeholders, ensuring the strategy was sound.

This data-driven, ROI-focused approach allowed us to justify paid search as a scalable growth lever.

Execution & Adaptation

  • I worked closely with our COO to validate our calculations and refine them with additional stakeholder feedback.

  • The agency optimized the campaign over time, hitting our target CPC after about a month.

  • We continuously monitored performance to ensure we were scaling efficiently without overextending ad spend.

This iterative approach ensured we didn’t just throw money at paid search—we built a sustainable, high-ROI acquisition channel.

Results & Impact

🚀 Hit our growth target—a 10% increase in load board views.

💰 Achieved our target CPC, ensuring the channel remained ROI-positive.

📈 Unlocked paid search as a scalable carrier growth channel that could be expanded further.

Lessons Learned & Future Application

This project reinforced that:

✅ Finding scalable growth levers requires creativity. Paid search was an area we had previously struggled with, but by assigning a monetary value to a load board view, we made it work.

✅ Solving the right problem unlocks buy-in. Because I found a way to tie carrier growth directly to ROI, I gained executive support for a channel that otherwise may have been dismissed.

✅ You don’t need to be an expert in everything—you just need to figure things out. Paid search wasn’t my comfort zone, but I found a data-backed way to make it work, proving my ability to drive growth even in unfamiliar territory.

This project is yet another example of how I identify and validate growth levers, ensuring that every marketing dollar drives measurable impact.

Mitchell Salva