Objective:

The automotive sector is very competitive and our client was feeling the crunch in their AdWords account, specifically their shopping campaigns. With a goal of increasing the total number of users to the site, our client was spending six figures a month in Google AdWords, purely to acquire audience. Despite this large increase in site visitors and conversion numbers, improvements in total revenue or ROI growth, were not on pace with the increase in users.

Our first objective was to define true conversion points and optimize the account to maximize leads and online transactions. Second, we focused on decreasing the cost per sale from their Search Engine Marketing efforts. Not confident spending more to acquire a wider net was the correct strategy, we worked to find a way to focus the account on the audience that had the highest conversion potential and reduce spend, while working to improve total sales numbers.

Strategy:

Upon working on the account, we dove right into the data. We found it odd that with the extra spend, larger audience, and increased online conversions, the account still wasn’t profitable.

We first mapped out all possible conversions points. We had to be sure that the conversion points we were tracking were the actions that were ultimately leading to sales. From our research, we found that only 2-3 conversion points helped to nurture a consumer towards purchase. Several conversion points were measuring time on site, a number of page views, and a number of other metrics, of which have engagement value, but through our analysis, contributed little to purchases.

After we identified the highest value conversion points, we restructured the account to only target keywords and products that would best drive our selected conversions.

Understanding the way these consumers buy, we built the new structure of the account by targeting consumers looking for specific products, rather than purely acquiring top of funnel consumers spending several minutes on the site trying to determine what they need. By removing higher purchase funnel consumers, we were able to allocate additional budget towards increasing our bids to increase our average search position, earn a larger click share, and win the highest value auctions, more often.

Results:

After our first month, there were significant improvements, when compared to the prior year. The average cost per transaction decreased by 47% and at the same time, the total quantity of sales from paid search increased by 49%. Because of our structure changes, the client also enjoyed a 22% reduction in the monthly spend.

Comparing Nov-16, Dec-16, and Jan-17 to the previous year, the impact of WTM Digital’s changes were even more dramatic. Total spend during the observed time period fell by 24%, but the account still experienced an increase of 73% in online sales from AdWords. Also as one of the main factors, the average cost per sale, reduced 57% down to $30.37, making the account the most profitable it’s ever been.

Case Study Highlights

Industry: Automotive

Goals:

  • Reduce cost per sale from Google AdWords
  • Reduce monthly spend while generating more online sales.

Results:

  • Increased Online Sales by 73% vs. prior year
  • Deduced Cost Per Sale by 57% vs. prior year
  • Reduced total costs of Google AdWords by 24% vs. prior year