The case is about how we convinced our American client to invest in Google Ads media advertising and within a month saw an increase in traffic.
Google Ads
Service
Delivery
Business field
USA
Location
Client
Rapidus is an American transportation company specializing in delivering documents and valuable papers. Its standout features include 24/7 operations and automation. Clients can submit requests through the website or mobile app.
The client approached us in 2018. Their advertising was performing poorly: the budget was increasing, but there were no increases in inquiries or profits.
Goals:
✓ increase leads;
✓ increase profits;
✓ entering new markets.
Tasks:
✓ optimize advertising;
✓ increase traffic;
✓ make the brand more famous.
What did we do first?
We conducted a free audit of the old advertising campaign. We analyzed around 50 factors, including keywords, search terms, and negative keywords
We also checked the moderation of all ads.
The client was right: the ads were running, but the desired results were not being achieved.
After the audit, we sent a work plan for the first two months with priority tasks and ideas for development. Almost on the same day, the client agreed to further cooperation.
Results
by 2 times
The cost of the lead reduced
by 5%
Conversion rate increased
Work plan for Google Ads
Optimize an old advertising campaign
Cut off everything that “drained” the budget to nowhere. Review the keys, placement, and geography.
Launch new advertising
Elaborate a strategy for search and media advertising, as well as test advertising for the mobile application.
We started with two search and media advertising campaigns for one state. Now we’re working with four states: about 30 search and ten active media campaigns. We’re also confidently implementing video advertising.
In the project, four of our specialists worked: the marketing department manager, PPC specialist, analyst, and semantics specialist.
Optimization of the old ads campaign
The old advertisement was set up incorrectly at that time and did not produce the desired results. We decided not to turn it off completely but to optimize it.
From our experience, even if the ad is set up poorly, it’s better to keep it: getting a new one (even if perfectly set up) up to speed will take one to two months. And that’s a big risk of losing performance metrics.
We did a detailed job on the website’s semantics: added keywords, filtered out negative keywords, and conducted a detailed analysis of competitors.
Semantics
First, we got all the search terms from Google Ads and Google Analytics of the client’s website (a total of 53 terms).
Keywords
We reviewed all the keywords in the advertising account.
In all campaigns, there were only two keywords: “courier” and “delivery”. At the same time, there were no “one day delivery” and “24 hour delivery” keywords, although 24-hour courier delivery is precisely the client’s advantage.
Some keywords were used in broad match, and the search terms had too much “junk” (for example, the keyword “milk by”). However, the client’s goal is B2B queries, so the priority should be on document transportation. Anything related to food should be sent to negative keywords.
We also tried turning off the main keywords “courier” and “delivery”. Advertised using simpler ones: “courier delivery”, “courier delivery services”, “sameday delivery”, and derivatives. This turned out to be a good investment.
If keywords are not optimized, Google will soon start slipping in irrelevant keywords.
Negative Keywords
We immediately added all the food products and those the client filtered out independently. During the work process, we constantly updated the list of negative words, consulting with the client.
Competitors
To understand market capacity, we made “Auction Insights” reports. Additionally, we analyzed competitors for traffic using SimilarWeb.
Setting Up a New Google Ads Campaign
Search Ads
In setting up the search ads, we decided to add some creativity. In the first week, we expanded the semantics of the keywords from 53 to 281. We revamped one campaign to connect with the keyword “delivery”, another for connections with couriers, and for satellite cities. We also added a separate chain of campaigns from one delivery point to another. We then applied a similar structure of connections to all the states we worked with.
Media ads
First, we removed ineffective platforms and changed geo-settings. We also reduced the budget: divided it between remarketing and targeting by preferences. We launched one “smart” display ad and one targeted at the relevant audience. To “warm up” old customers, we created a separate ad campaign targeting by email.
Video Ads
We launched it experimentally following Google experts recommendations. We tested it for a couple of months, then paused it. The budget was small at the time, so we decided to spend it on search advertising and a mobile app.
Tip
Before launching video advertising, find out from the client how much money can be spent. And ask for links to the video (YouTube or another service).
Remarketing
We launched it in parallel. The client created the banners themselves. We sent recommendations on quantity, size, and other technical parameters.
App Advertising (Mobile App)
Customers mainly come to the client through the website. There’s also a mobile app available for download, which we decided to experiment with. We launched the advertising but then paused it.
We found that the app mostly brought in B2C queries. B2B clients (the client’s main audience) prefer to search using a PC.
Market analysis also showed that some competitors were acquiring clients through LinkedIn. Our client already had a profile, so we decided to test this channel too. We filtered relevant professions and sent them to the client for approval. We started the ad campaign from scratch in several formats. Traffic to the website ads turned out to be the most effective. We also tested messages, but the conversion was slightly lower.
The uniqueness of the client’s service is that it does not interact with the client directly. But with the LinkedIn audience, you need to work in direct and very close contact.
Microsoft Ads (Bing Ads)
It started in the fall of 2018 and ran for about a year and a half. Initially, the strategy was as follows: since LinkedIn didn’t pan out, we decided to capture some traffic with Bing Ads. The cost per lead was lower than Google’s (which pleasantly surprised us). However, of the planned $ 1000-3000 per month, only $ 300 was spent. We received mostly B2C lead, making the strategy unprofitable.
Features of Google Ads
Google Moderation
Periodically, Google rejected direct calls to action. For example, ads with the phrase “try now!!!” stopped working with three exclamation marks. We removed two of the marks, but in vain. Then Google also banned the keyword “try”.
Content Generation
We recommended the client fine-tune content generation on the site. Specifically, to improve the page’s relevance by the number of exact keyword occurrences. This lowers the cost per click and improves conversion.
For example, there was a task to add five identical keywords with UTM to the site:
?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term={keyword}
This change improved the conversion rate by 5%.
Automation
The client’s developers set up the goals. From our side, we verified the accuracy of tracking. That is, the client would unload data regarding orders, and we would match it with what’s in analytics. Those that didn’t appear in analytics were also tracked and reconfigured.
We prepare reports in Looker Studio (Google Data Studio) for all clients. We select the most important ones for the business.
Looker Studio Overview (Data Studio) provides real-time data and current reports. They are always available, so there’s no need to dig through Google Analytics. Take a look at a sample report in Google Data Studio that we prepare for clients. We can set up one for you too 🙂
Numbers
Cost per Lead (Total via Google Ads)
Conversion
📌 Read the blog: How to calculate ROI, ROAS, ROMI: calculator and differences
Expansion. New Regions
The brand promotion strategy in California worked excellently, so the client agreed to scale the business to other states. First, we launched in Colorado. The search advertising audience responded weakly. After two months, we decided to add display and video advertising. This tactic worked better; people began to recognize the Rapidus brand. Now, the business in Colorado is as profitable as in California.
After a successful launch in Colorado, the client suggested expanding into Texas. This time, we launched display advertising right away (although the client was hesitant to spend on it, hoping to get traffic from search). We saw good results in terms of both quantity and cost of queries in the first month.
Tip: An important task in promoting a client-carrier is to increase brand awareness. People don’t want to trust valuable documents to an unknown player in the market.
A little later, we launched in Washington following a similar scheme. Currently, we are working with four large states.
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
Periodically, we brainstorm and look for ways to improve conversion. In the case of Rapidus, we suggested several website improvements, specifically optimizing the speed of script loading.
The list of website improvements was made by the lead technical specialist at Marketing Link. There were 10-15 edits in total. The most important of these were implemented by the client’s developers in the first two weeks.
The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who completed a desired action. For example, they ordered and paid for a product/service, left their phone number on the website, or subscribed to a newsletter.
The conversion rate (Conversion Rate) is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of visits and multiplying by 100. The resulting value in percentage is the conversion rate. For example, if there are a thousand visitors to the site and 80 sales per month, the conversion rate equals 0.8%.
A CRO audit (Conversion Rate Optimization) or audit for increasing conversion means that with the same traffic to the site, you can get significantly more applications. That is, the same 1000 site visitors can make not 80 sales, but 120. The conversion would be 1.2%, not 0.8%.
Instructions on transferring data from CRM to GA
Task:
a) upon successful registration, we retrieve the Client ID in the form: XXXXX.YYYYY
b) We then send it directly to the Measurement Protocol into analytics, replacing XXXXX.YYYYY with the actual Cookies data and UAXXXXXXXX-1 with the Google Analytics counter, making a request of the type:
?v=1&t=event&tid=UAXXXXXXXX-1&cid=XXXXX.YYYYY&ec=registration&ea=measurement-protocol&el=registration-measurement-protocol
Then, the code in our resource will send an event with the category registration, the group measurement-protocol, and the label registration-measurement-protocol.
How to check website loading speed
- https://testmysite.withgoogle.com/intl/en-gb
- https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights
- https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse
- https://gtmetrix.com
- https://tools.pingdom.com
- Google event tracking verification service.
Overall, we “sped up the site” and worked on geographic relevance. For example, previously, a user from Dallas would land on the homepage. Now, with our adjustments, they are automatically redirected to a regional page. We also monitored user paths on the page and added missing request forms.
The result is an increase in conversion:
Experiments
- With advertising on mobile apps and desktops: we conducted A/B tests, determined which clients came from where, and adjusted the settings.
- With budget distribution within a single state: we found a model with the optimal ratio of budget to cost per query.
Conclusions
Regularly check the effectiveness of different promotion channels
For example, we cut back on video advertising at one stage because we felt it was underperforming. However, it was actually the display campaign that helped the client conquer new regions and increase profits.
Don’t implement all of Google’s recommendations at once
It’s better to test them one by one and continuously monitor the dynamics.
📌 Read another case: How to increase sales 16 times in 2 years
Plans
Focus on video advertising. Initially, we launched it but had to pause due to budget constraints. However, it significantly impacted traffic growth.
Also, continue to scale the business. Currently, the project is actively earning in four out of fifty American states. There’s plenty of room for growth!
