Search Marketing Blog
Fame Without Fortune? Content Match to the Rescue! (Seriously)
This is the story of a current EngineWorks client, their Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign, and what happened to the campaign when the client became an overnight media sensation. Most every business wishes for this type instant notoriety, however without appropriate modifications to on-going Paid Search campaigns, fame can directly impact your conversion rate.
EngineWorks launched our Paid Search Management campaign for the client, a luxury niche fashion company, in Q3 2007. The PPC campaign originally featured a small, targeted keyword list with appropriate match types designed to generate leads and conversions. However, no content match had been utilized by the client. Even so, the PPC campaign was delivering a modest return, as measured by the return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) and the number of conversions within their stated ad spend budget. Great!
Then, the client became famous.
A major newspaper proclaimed the luxury fashion brand as the hottest new trend. National media talk show coverage came a day or two after this impressive story, followed by addition articles, and multitudes of blog posts. Traffic to the client’s site exploded by more than 1,000%. Then, more than 2,000%. And, then even higher. This dramatic increase was matched only by our hopes for a dramatic increase in conversions. Impressions were up. Click-through-rates (CTRs) were through the roof. The budget maxed-out every single day.
However, conversions and ROAS . . . dropped like proverbial rock. Ouch.
Why did this new-found fame negatively impact their Pay-Per-Click campaign? Here’s what we discovered.
The explosion in media coverage generated incredible exposure . . . to the wrong audience. The client’s target audience is very niche, and very “aspirationalâ€. The media explosion created interest from a mass audience that was not necessarily interested in purchasing their fashions. People were searching for this hot new trend; however most of the visitors arriving at their site were not prepared to purchase their high fashion products. However, the masses were still clicking through! The client’s limited budget was being eaten-up by users with no intention of converting to a sale.
Thus, the challenge. . . to capitalize on this fabulous new fame, and at the same time, regain their previous conversion rate.
Analytics provided a clue. The client’s top converting keywords were not the same as their highest trafficked keywords. The initial campaign featured converting keywords that were very descriptive, location/modifier related, and/or targeted luxury items. However, the highly trafficked keywords were related to new trend buzzwords, client brand name related keywords, and misspellings.
Therefore, we implemented a new “mass media” PPC campaign designed to include content match phrases, using the client’s highest trafficked keywords coupled with the identification of various media outlets. Our new ad copy reflected this strategy, with phrases such as “As seen on [TV show]!”, and adjectives like “hot”, “new”, “latest” etc.
In addition, we used a blend of broad match and phrase match terms managed within Paid Search engines, Paid Search networks, and all content match options. Bids were set to a fraction of the previous campaign (approximately 20%), given that most of the keywords had very little competition. The goal was to inexpensively achieve the widest range as possible.
As for our initial targeted campaign, we managed it in the Paid Search engines only. With the curious, fame seekers, and trend hunters being funneled-away by our “mass media” campaign, the client’s budget was saved, and converting users were able to find what they were looking for via the more expensive highly targeted keywords.
Thus, the story ends well. The new-found fame, and the dual PPC campaigns, has contributed to one of the client’s best quarters to date. Our content match campaign functions as a â”branding” campaign, and our Paid Search campaign is the conversion workhorse.
The ability of the relatively inexpensive content match campaign to reach the properly targeted audience is achieving tremendous returns for this high fashion client.
An interesting side note: The first newspaper article identified the client by name. The author of the article noted that she found the new fashion brand by typing three keywords into Google, and finding the client on the first page online. Those three keywords were also mentioned in the article itself. This is an amazing example of specific search keywords being mentioned in a mass media/old media (i.e. non-advertising) publication.
Ryan 10.15.2007 at 3:58 pm
A very interesting case study!
jackie shervington 10.16.2007 at 1:31 am
Great example of power of integrated campaign - cheers