The established
ecommerce retailer

An established ecommerce retailer in the United States was having limited success with Google AdWords. They were struggling to manage their PPC campaigns efficiently and achieve a profitable return on investment (ROI). The retailer wanted a more strategic and scalable PPC solution, which could grow and evolve with their business, so contacted Calculate Marketing for a free review of their PPC marketing strategy.

Summary

42% reduction in costs, 90% increase in revenue after 7 months

How I helped

With strategic use of exact match, phrase match, modified broad match, negative keywords, and search query theme analysis, a comprehensive long-tail campaign structure was developed. Thousands of tailored ad messages were created, ensuring that ads closely matched a wide range of different search phrases.

• 97,774 keywords
• 213,190 ad groups
• 471,279 ad messages
• 5,353 sitelink extensions

Campaigns were structured to appreciate the inherent differences in implied product knowledge and commercial intention made by people searching by theme:

• Generic brand searches
• Specific brand searches (long-tail)
• Generic non-brand searches
• Specific non-brand searches (long-tail)
• Review searches

70,092 funnelling negatives were used to prevent generic keywords and ads cannibalising long-tail keywords and ads, while efficient analysis and optimisation of different keywords, search queries, and ad messages meant that budget could be taken out of poor-performing keywords and ads, and invested into high-performing keywords and ads, helping to improve the overall profitability of the campaigns over time.

Campaign results

Improved targeting, higher Quality Scores, and reduced click wastage meant that the performance of the campaigns improved significantly over a 7 month period:

• Number of different keywords being clicked rose by 421%
• Number of different ad messages being clicked rose by 501%
• Total visitor volume from PPC ads increased by 107%
• Click through rate (CTR) increased by 40%
• Average cost per click (CPC) fell by 42%

Client results

Improved targeting of keywords, increased relevancy of ad messages, and efficient campaign analysis and optimisation meant that:

• Transactions increased by 77%
• Revenue increased by 90%
• Return on investment rose by 80%

A similar targeted PPC strategy has since been applied to Bing and Yahoo, with a 36% reduction in Yahoo / Bing monthly click spend resulting in a 7.7% increase in click volume and a 251% increase in ROI. 24 RLSA (remarketing list for search ad) campaigns consisting of 1,122 keyword themes have also been created to further engage with previous website visitors as they later make more generic searches on Google, with 41 international campaigns consisting of 360,929 tailored ad messages and localised banners helping to grow sales volume and ROI in overseas markets.

If you’re an ecommerce retailer looking to increase your sales and revenue from PPC marketing, please get in touch and ask for a more profitable PPC solution for your website.