Hire Republic

The challenge

A 25-year-old event hire brand, post-rebrand, needing smaller recurring bookings.

Hire Republic (formerly Neals Event Hire) is a Queensland-based event hire, styling and production company operating for 25+ years — weddings, corporate events, festivals, galas, events up to 100,000 attendees. In 2023 they rebranded to Hire Republic to reflect a team-first, inclusive "events for the people" culture. Big-project pipeline was strong. The gap was smaller, more frequent bookings each month.

The story

On-brand creative. Premium positioning.

Hire Republic didn't want to chase cheap leads — they wanted the right leads. That meant creative that matched a premium event brand, not race-to-the-bottom discount ads.

Client Background

Queensland's widest marquee range (traditional, clear roof, pagoda, glass walls), plus furniture hire (stools, wire tables, bespoke timber), catering equipment, décor and styling props. Strong website presence with blog, FAQs, client stories.

Problem Statement

Strong reputation for large-scale events, but a thin pipeline of smaller, recurring monthly bookings. Competing in a crowded event hire category where most ads race to the cheapest price. They needed visibility and volume — without cheapening the brand.

Solution Provided

Two paid channels running in parallel: Meta Ads for awareness + lead capture via a dedicated event-booking landing page, and Google Ads across four ad groups (Brand, Catering Hire, Event & Party Hire, Furniture) to capture high-intent search.

Channel 1 of 2

Meta Ads

Premium creative, premium audience.

"Are you planning an event that needs to impress?" — a single question, four beautifully shot event scenes, one landing page to capture the lead.

01 · Ad creatives

Four premium angles, one hook.

Every ad opened with the same hook — "Are you planning an event that needs to impress?" — and ran four distinct visual treatments: tropical long table, cocktail service, clean linen styling, and custom glassware. Designed to feel like the events Hire Republic actually delivers, not stock photography.

Hire Republic — tropical long table event creative — Tropical long table · 19 reactions

Hire Republic — cocktail service creative — Cocktail service · evening event

Hire Republic — linen styling creative — Clean linen styling · gala

Hire Republic — custom glassware creative — Custom glassware · wedding

02 · Landing page

"Let's Get This Party Started" — one clear capture point.

Built offer.hirerepublic.com as the single destination for every paid click. Five-field form, hero image matching the ad aesthetic, one primary CTA. No menu, no navigation bleed, no distractions.

Hire Republic landing page — Let's Get This Party Started — offer.hirerepublic.com · dedicated event-booking capture page

03 · Campaign performance

18,300 reached. 70,180 impressions. 767 link clicks.

Frequency 3.8 — every target audience member saw the ads ~4 times, reinforcing brand recall. CTR 2.32% all-click / 1.09% link-click. 18 leads at $94.44 CPL — above category average, by design. The ask was premium leads, not cheap leads.

Hire Republic Meta Ads dashboard — 18,300 reach, 70,180 impressions, $24.22 CPM — Meta Ads Manager · RM Lead Campaign overview

Channel 2 of 2

Google Ads

Four ad groups. 66 conversions.

Split by product vertical — Brand Names, Catering Hire, Event & Party Hire, Furniture — so each group could bid for its own intent without cannibalising the others.

01 · Campaign overview

Aug 2024 – Mar 2025 · $4.87K spend · 66 conversions.

Clean 8-month window at a steady $1.50 avg CPC. Performance line held steady across the period — this is what a scalable baseline looks like before we push budget.

Hire Republic Google Ads overview — 66 conversions, $73.86 per conv, $4.87K spend — Google Ads · 66 conversions at $73.86 each

02 · Ad group split

Furniture led volume. Catering Hire led efficiency.

Furniture carried the volume — 13,579 impressions, 1,748 clicks, 40 conversions. Catering Hire converted 20 at $72.82 CPA. Event & Party Hire kept premium traffic flowing. Brand Names stayed tight for conquesting.

Ad group performance · Furniture & Catering Hire converting

03 · Search terms mining

Search term data feeding bid decisions.

Weekly search-term reviews — adding high-performing queries as exact match, negating the junk. "Event furniture hire," "marquee hire," "event party hire" all came through as converters. City modifiers (Brisbane, Gold Coast) stacked up alongside category terms.

Hire Republic Google Ads search terms report — marquee hire, event furniture hire — Search terms report · query-level performance

The results

Premium creative built the pipeline.

Two channels running to one landing page. On-brand all the way down. Volume on Google, reach on Meta, one clean capture point.

Google Ads conversions

18,300

Meta reach

$1.04

Avg all-click CPC (Meta)

3,248

Google Ads clicks

On-site & landing · events for the people

Hire Republic website — Events for the people — hirerepublic.com · events for the people

Lessons learned

"Premium brands don't win on CPL. They win on lead quality — and the pipeline you build by not cheapening the brand."

We could've dropped Hire Republic's CPL in half with tacky discount creative. We didn't. A $94 CPL from someone planning a wedding or corporate gala is a $5K–$50K booking. Cheap leads cheapen the brand — and the brand is the reason they get repeat bookings in the first place.