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Case Study: Improving GDN & Remarketing Performance for an eCommerce Store

288%120%
Increase in Conversion RateDecrease in Cost/Conv

Background

An ecommerce store had been outsourcing their Google Ads campaign to an external agency.  The campaign was not generating the required ROI and was actually losing money in the months prior to getting in touch.

In a pandemic and in need of a great Christmas they got in touch with me to have a look at their account.

Findings 

I was able to look over their account and suggest a number of changes that would make the campaign profitable.  

The previous agency in charge had failed to keep on top of the campaigns, making very few changes and not hitting any KPIs.

The Process

The first step of any campaign is to make sure the tracking is all set up correctly.  Fortunately this was fine and I was able to analyse the data.  

Questions to ask:

  • What was working? 
  • What was not working? 
  • Which products were most profitable?
  • Which channels were providing the best traffic? 

Some of this required detailed discussions on which products were most profitable and which items would be in demand at certain times.  

Next is to analyse the landing pages. The client didn’t have any heatmap tracking so I was left to use Google Analytics data whilst I set up Hotjar to gather data additional.  

With this information, I was able to restructure the display and remarketing campaigns.  

Results of GDN Optimisation

The changes made to their Google Display Network (GDN) campaigns made an immediate impact on the bottom line as the cost per conversion dropped from £45.91 in September to £17.13 in October.

I continued to optimise the campaigns throughout November, as ultimately, I wanted to optimise as much as possible before the Christmas holidays.

The cost per conversion had dropped from £17.13 to £14.28 month on month.

December was the biggest month of the year for this client and sales went up 10-fold.

The cost per conversion still declined further despite a huge jump in spend and the competitors ramping up their campaigns for the holiday season too. On top of this, the conversion value shot up.  I can’t take all the credit for this as Christmas is the busiest time for most retailers.  However, my campaign optimisations would have made a huge difference to the bottom line. 

Are Google Display Ads worth it for eCommerce businesses?

Google Display and Remarketing Ads can be very cheap and profitable for eCommerce stores and many other businesses.

Set up is vital and simple settings can make all the difference.  For example, a lot of budget can be wasted on YouTube channels aimed at children, which your ads will appear on by default.

Spending time on the campaigns and setting up various Audiences to remarketing are vital to getting the best return on your spend.

If you have an existing Google Ads Display campaign that your agency isn’t getting the most return from, feel free to get in touch for a free no obligation audit.