Improving Targeted Product Sales with Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Our client is a leading global manufacturer and sales maintenance organization for reliability testing equipment across a wide variety of industries. We recently used pay-per-click to assist the company through a major organizational transition and maximize their return on investment (See the PPC case study to learn more). Beyond the transition, the company turned to us to leverage pay-per-click to drive revenue growth for specific areas of their business. We developed a strategy that focused on improving alignment with searcher demand and increasing the quality of leads. Our custom pay-per-click strategy delivered great results for the client and helped them achieve a positive return on investment.

The Customer’s Challenge

For years, our client managed their PPC campaigns on their own. Although they generated some traction from their efforts, a significant part of their budget was going to waste on irrelevant clicks or clicks that weren’t converting. They noticed extremely high spending on one of their chamber groups in particular.

Every month, they were spending over $2000 on the ad group for this reliability testing chamber, but their conversions were low. Conversions were defined as any meaningful action taken by visitors that qualified them as a lead for purchasing the chamber, such as requesting a price quote or contacting a sales representative. This low conversion trend was worrisome because this chamber type was one of their least expensive product groups, but the cost to convert a single lead was about as much as their most expensive chambers. They were losing money through their marketing efforts, and they needed to quickly pivot their strategy if they wanted to achieve long term profitability for their business.

When they turned to us to manage their PPC, they tasked us with the following objectives for this chamber type:

• Stop the wasteful spending on clicks that were irrelevant and not converting
• Reallocate budget freed up by halting overspending across other product groups
• Capture the high demand for this chamber type by improving alignment of clicks with relevant search queries
• Achieve a positive return on investment by decreasing cost per acquisition, boosting total conversions, and increasing lead quality for this chamber type

Our Strategy

We conducted a thorough audit of the client’s current PPC to identify gaps and opportunities to improve performance for this targeted product group. We discovered that their average cost per acquisition (CPA) for this product was about $125, which was significantly greater than their target CPA of $50-70 for this product group. This high CPA was not sustainable for the long term profitability of their business.

Using this knowledge, we developed a strategy that would effectively reduce their cost per acquisition for this product by (1) Improving alignment with relevant search queries (2) Reducing cost per click on target keywords and (3) Increasing conversion rates for this ad group.

Improve Alignment With Relevant Search Queries

The first priority in our strategy was to rein in wasteful spending. While reviewing performance, we found they were generating a large amount of clicks (average of 210+ clicks per month) for this chamber group, but only about 19% of these clicks each month were from search queries related to the targeted product. This meant that over 81% of the clicks they were paying for were unrelated to the targeted chamber. 

To improve alignment and reduce irrelevant clicks, we identified the top target keywords for this chamber based on search volume, competitiveness, and bid amounts. By doing so, we reduced the number of target keywords in this ad group significantly, allowing for tighter control of clicks and easier management.

Then, we optimized the match types and negative keywords for this ad group to decrease the chances of their ads showing for irrelevant search queries. No more paying for completely irrelevant clicks such as “Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets” or “Chamber Of Commerce!”

Reduce Cost Per Click On Target Keywords

Our next step was to decrease the cost per click on target keywords by improving the quality scores in this ad group. They were spending about $10 per click, and their quality scores were low which demonstrated an opportunity to reduce cost per click. Optimizing quality scores has been proven to improve return on investment as well as decrease cost per click and cost per conversion (Wordstream). Any quality score above a 7 has been correlated to decreased spending on those keywords. 

We focused on optimizing each component that goes into quality scores: expected clickthrough rates, ad relevance, and landing page experience. We improved the calls to action (CTAs) in the ad copy to encourage click through, updated the ad copy to align more closely with the target keywords, and chose more targeted landing pages for each of the ads.

Increase Conversion Rates For This Ad Group

Our next focus was on increasing conversions and conversion rates for this ad group. The client’s average conversion rate was decent, hovering around 7.73%, but there were certainly areas for improvement. A major consideration we had to account for was that these chambers are a major investment, so visitors would be hesitant to take action on anything that required commitment right away. Therefore, we focused on improving the messaging of their CTAs to emphasize the low level of risk that was involved when customers took action.

We also highlighted that customers could get price quotes not only for free, but fast! By submitting their basic information in a simple form, they would receive a free and fast price quote - no commitment whatsoever! In addition, we improved the visibility of CTAs throughout the landing pages in order to provide visitors with clearer guidance on how they could get in contact with our client.

The Outcome

With our focused strategy, we successfully helped the client spend less to get more leads for this chamber group. We achieved a CPA of $69, which was a 45% decrease from their starting cost per acquisition and within their target CPA range. By taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the high demand for this product group, we've successfully improved our client’s return on investment. As a result of these achievements, we’ve positioned our client to maintain long term profitability. 

After launching this new strategy in November 2019, we closely monitored the progress of this ad group over the next 5 months. In comparing the performance of this ad group to the same period in the previous year, we’ve achieved successful results for the client. 

For all of the following graphs, the solid color line represents data from 2019-2020, when Denverdata Web started managing the client’s PPC.

Dotted color line represents data from 2018-2019, prior to Denverdata Web managing the client’s PPC.

Decreased Spending On This Ad Group From About $2,169 Per Month To $296 Per Month (86% Decrease)

Improved Quality Of Clicks With About 95% Of Clicks Relevant To Their Ad Group.

Increased Clickthrough Rates From 6.09% To 9.88% (62% Increase)

Solid color line represents data from 2019-2020, when Denverdata Web started managing the client’s PPC.

Dotted color line represents data from 2018-2019, prior to Denverdata Web managing the client’s PPC.

Reduced Average Cost Per Click From $9.64 To $8.66 (10% Decrease)

Solid color line represents data from 2019-2020, when Denverdata Web started managing the client’s PPC.

Dotted color line represents data from 2018-2019, prior to Denverdata Web managing the client’s PPC.

Increased Conversion Rate From 7.72% To 12.57% (63% Increase)

Solid color line represents data from 2019-2020, when Denverdata Web started managing the client’s PPC.

Dotted color line represents data from 2018-2019, prior to Denverdata Web managing the client’s PPC.

Reduced Cost Per Conversion From $124.89 To $68.91 (45% Decrease)

Solid color line represents data from 2019-2020, when Denverdata Web started managing the client’s PPC.

Dotted color line represents data from 2018-2019, prior to Denverdata Web managing the client’s PPC.