A 2026 AMA Crystal Awards Winner for Best Paid Search Campaign (Medium): How Optidge launched a new brand into a competitive ABA therapy market and built the attribution infrastructure to prove every dollar’s impact.
Links ABA is the New Jersey division of Heartlinks ABA Therapy Solutions, providing Applied Behavior Analysis therapy to children diagnosed with autism through certified BCBAs and RBTs in home, school, and community settings. Each signed client represents substantial revenue per six-month treatment cycle, making every qualified lead a high-stakes business outcome.
Heartlinks had been an Optidge client since 2021, but New Jersey was unproven territory. The campaigns, previously managed by another agency, were folded into Optidge’s portfolio under a new brand identity with its own website, landing pages, and ad account. The competitive landscape in the tri-state area was intense, with established regional providers and national chains competing aggressively for the same parent-caregiver audience.
The deeper problem was attribution. Heartlinks had no system to connect closed deals back to specific Paid Search campaigns. Budget decisions were made on proxy metrics like cost-per-lead and click volume, with no way to answer the fundamental question: how many leads actually became paying clients? Optidge needed to build a Paid Search engine for a new market under a new brand while simultaneously constructing the attribution infrastructure to measure real business impact.
Optidge structured the Links ABA New Jersey account around a clear separation of branded and non-branded campaigns. Non-branded campaigns were organized into tightly themed ad groups targeting service-specific terms and competitor keywords.
In October 2025, Microsoft Bing campaigns were added, creating a dual-platform strategy that proved critical to cost efficiency. Budget flexibility was coordinated directly with the client, including an aggressive push during the pre-Thanksgiving demand window.
The target audience was parents and caregivers of children with autism, a population defined by high urgency and emotionally driven search behavior. Many were searching in the weeks following a recent diagnosis. Geographic targeting was set to “Presence” only to ensure ads reached users physically located in the service area. Keyword strategy centered on high-intent queries segmented by service type and location, with aggressive negative keyword management to filter out job seeker and informational queries.
Ad copy led with outcome-driven, empathetic language: “Board-Certified ABA Therapists,” “ABA Therapy That Comes to Your Home,” and “Start Your Child’s ABA Journey Today.” Landing pages were purpose-built for New Jersey with state-specific insurance information, therapy settings, and local testimonials. A sticky header addressed one of the most common barriers in ABA intake: “Get care immediately. Accepting new clients with no long wait-lists.” In a market where families routinely face months-long waitlists, that single line of copy served as a direct differentiator.
The most transformative element of the strategy was building end-to-end attribution through HubSpot CRM. Every lead, whether phone call, form submission, or chat, was tracked through the full sales pipeline from initial contact through insurance verification, intake, and closed deal. Google Ads click IDs were linked directly to HubSpot deal records, and qualified leads were uploaded back to Google Ads as conversions to train the bidding algorithm on actual business outcomes. This closed-loop system was the first of its kind in Heartlinks’ marketing history.
From September through December 2025, the period of full CRM attribution, the Links ABA New Jersey campaigns generated 34 closed deals directly attributed to Paid Search. Deal flow accelerated month over month: 1 in September, 6 in October, 13 in November, and 14 in December.
On the strength of these results, Heartlinks expanded its Optidge engagement by adding Paid Social as a new channel and increasing Paid Search budgets heading into 2026.
The Links ABA New Jersey campaign proves what happens when a disciplined Paid Search strategy is paired with rigorous closed-loop attribution. By building the infrastructure to trace every closed deal back to the exact campaign, keyword, and platform that initiated it, Optidge replaced guesswork with definitive proof and turned a new-market launch into one of the highest-ROAS campaigns in the Heartlinks portfolio.
This campaign was named a finalist for the AMA Houston Crystal Awards in the Best Paid Search Campaign (Medium) category.
Heartlinks ABA Therapy is one of many ABA therapy providers Optidge serves nationwide. Optidge provides specialized digital marketing for the ABA industry, including paid search (PPC), paid social media, and HubSpot CRM solutions purpose-built for ABA therapy providers.