Bing Ads took Ready Steady Print through its pay-per-click advertising strategy, with a long term view to building growth
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is the ticket to new customers for many SMEs, but getting the perfect strategy can take some experimenting and expert advice.
Recently, Bing Ads held a competition through SmartCompany to find a SME keen to overhaul its PPC strategy.
The winner, Ready Steady Print Key Account Manager Joshua Kamil, received six weeks of support from the search giant, working with Microsoft’s Global Search and Digital Solutions Account Manager, Adair Robins to drive traffic and increase conversions.
This involved keyword expansion, optimal budget and bid suggestions and ensuring ad copy had strong calls-to-action to maximise traffic to the website.
“Kamil was happy to activate a number of campaigns that were not previously live when he was advertising on Google,” says Robins.
Robins used Bing Ads’ new conversion tracking tool, Universal Event Tracking, to track eCommerce transactions. Optimisation actions included removing negative keyword conflicts, keyword expansion and optimal bid suggestions.
Kamil focused on split testing the ads to determine which version showed the greatest development.
“One set of ads focused on the benefits of our service, such as next-day dispatch or 30 day money back guarantee, while another set of ads focused on price, bringing the attention to flyers for $99 or business cards for $10,” Kamil says.
The exercise achieved a 2.5% increase in sales for the business, but Kamil expects more to clients to emerge.
Website traffic increased by 30% and the CTR increased from 5% to 11% even as we added broader key terms. The average position remained at 1.3 which is a fantastic result, says Robins.
“Average cost-per-click (CPC) started at $0.80 and initially increased as the account expanded, however over time it decreased significantly to $0.65 ($0.15 less than the original CPC) as a result of the optimisations we implemented within the account,” Robins says.
Robins says a core goal for Bing is to offer clients a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) that is lower than its competitors.
“Bing Ads is easy to implement – with the Google Import tool found in the Bing Ads User Interface and in the Bing Ads Editor, importing an existing Google structure is fast, easy and secure.”
Kamil believes that all types of businesses can find value through focusing on their search engine marketing (SEM) operations in this way. He advises other SMEs to split test everything to increase conversion, and to know when to cut your losses on particular keywords.
“We’ve made a conscious effort to stop using certain product-related keywords which were just breaking even. Be wary of keywords delivering lots of traffic but also eating into your budget,” Kamil says.
“If we hadn’t addressed SEM, it would have been at the detriment of our business because we were trying to bring our customers online. Without it, there wouldn’t have been as much customer commitment.”
To learn more about Bing Ads and search marketing, visit the Bing Ads website or call 1800 030 716 for further information.
Written by: Thea Christie
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