ADR Arcitecture

The Client

ADR Architecture is an interdisciplinary architectural design studio based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. They work across commercial developments, residential projects, modular construction, and urban planning — serving everyone from major property developers to homeowners wanting a loft conversion.

Their name stands for Adapt, Design, Reimagine — a philosophy that runs through everything they do. The challenge? Their website wasn’t telling that story.

The Problem

ADR came to us with a website that looked like it was designed by committee in 2015. Generic stock images. Walls of text. No clear path for visitors to take. The kind of site where potential clients land, squint, and hit the back button.

The numbers told the story: average session duration was under 40 seconds. Bounce rate was north of 75%. Contact form submissions had flatlined. They were getting traffic — particularly from local searches — but converting almost none of it.

For a studio doing genuinely interesting work across biophilic design, airspace development, and Build to Rent projects, the website made them look like every other architect in the West Midlands.

The Approach

Strategy First

Before touching any code, we mapped out who ADR actually wanted to reach. Turns out they had three distinct audiences: commercial developers looking for a design partner, contractors needing architectural support at various RIBA stages, and homeowners planning extensions or renovations.

Each group has completely different concerns. A developer wants to know you can handle scale and complexity. A homeowner wants reassurance you won’t patronise them. The old site treated everyone the same — which meant it connected with no one.

Content That Converts

We rewrote everything from scratch. Out went the generic ‘we are passionate about architecture’ waffle. In came clear, benefit-led copy that speaks directly to what each audience actually cares about.

The tone was crucial. ADR aren’t a stuffy corporate practice — they’re a tight-knit team who genuinely enjoy what they do. We developed a voice that’s professional but warm, confident without being arrogant. The kind of practice you’d actually want to work with.

Built to Convert

The new site was designed around conversion, not just aesthetics:

• Clear service pages for each offering, with dedicated entry points for commercial and residential clients
• Prominent calls-to-action throughout — not buried in the footer
• Mobile-first design (over 60% of their traffic comes from phones)
• Page load time cut from 4.2 seconds to under 1.5 seconds
• Local SEO optimisation targeting Birmingham and West Midlands searches

The Results

Within 90 days of launch:

• Organic traffic up 147% — driven by improved local search rankings and better-targeted content
• Contact form submissions increased 3.2x — from an average of 4 per month to 13
• Bounce rate dropped from 76% to 24% — visitors are actually exploring the site
• Average session duration up to 2 minutes 45 seconds — from just 38 seconds
• First page rankings for ‘architects Birmingham’, ‘architecture studio Jewellery Quarter’, and 12 other target terms

More importantly, the quality of enquiries improved. ADR reported that prospects were arriving better informed, asking smarter questions, and converting to paid projects at a higher rate.