Jani KahukiwaAs Google Ads Strategists and Client Managers, we tend to focus on what happens inside the dashboard, but sometimes we need to take a step back and put on our Marketer caps to see the big picture and truly consider the customers’ journey.
Read on to find out how we turned what our client thought would be an eCommerce-focused campaign into a lead generation-focused one.
Carmen Lee, our Senior Client Manager, explains why the team developed this strategy and how it benefited the client.
Table of Contents
Understanding Your Client’s Business
Maximizing Google Ads In Your Customer Journey
Understanding Your Client’s Business
The first question we ask ourselves as marketers is how Google Ads might fit into the overall marketing strategy. Don’t rest on your laurels. This is where we investigate the practical part of any business, and get a handle on customer behavior.
Let’s take our client’s winery, which wanted to incorporate Google Ads into its strategy. Being new to the network, it was up to the team at Solutions 8 to structure the campaigns for this client.
This particular client believed it was time to move into the world of digital marketing and in the long run, they weren’t wrong. The benefits were truly outstanding.
Firstly, examining the customer journey and how Google Ads would play into the strategy was imperative.
Think about your own approach to purchasing wine. Would you buy a bottle of wine if you’d never tasted it? Do you buy wine if you’re unfamiliar with the brand name? Some people do, many don’t. This is where we begin our marketer investigative practices!
The winery was newly established and their website, while comprehensive, was also new. This clued us into the initial steps needed to get the brand name out there.
WE HAD TO GET CUSTOMERS TO THE WINERY!
Maximizing Google Ads In Your Customer Journey
While the winery had its online store built out which was structured for eCommerce, we quickly decided, after a few months of testing, that focusing on eCommerce would simply not work for the first part of the strategy.
The reason behind this decision can be seen in the following image, which shows the slump in wine sales. From September 2023 up to the present, apart from Black Friday and Christmas, sales have not been steady.
From the beginning, we knew we would not focus on sales, but rather on the customer journey.
It was of the utmost importance that we get customers into the winery and have them taste the wine. We chose three specific campaigns to carry out this objective.
Smart Campaigns & Dynamic Search Ads
What was the smart thinking behind opening up with a Smart campaign? Well, to start with, it allowed us to show up on Google Maps. You’re in California, you’re looking for a winery to visit. Napa Valley is your obvious choice.
Our winery is now hitting that portion of the market audience who are actively searching for a winery in Napa Valley. That is the immediate benefit of having a Smart campaign!
The second campaign that we launched was a Dynamic Search campaign, and we targeted the area of San Francisco. Its structure made it easy for people to visit the various pages of our client’s website. An interesting side note is that most conversions took them to the home landing page.
Keywords then became a significant factor. Napa Valley wine tasting and Napa Valley winery were optimal keywords. Our aim to build brand awareness for the winery was fundamental and these top-of-funnel search terms did just the trick! What better way to make your winery known than to target those people looking for a winery in Napa Valley?
It was obvious we were on the right track with the Dynamic Search Ads. Conversions were improving just by getting in those people who were doing top-of-funnel research. Getting people to visit their winery was the key.
Competitor Campaigns
We want you to know from the get-go that a Competitor campaign is not always effective, but we are happy to announce that it worked very well indeed for our client.
As mentioned earlier, our client is relatively new, and for that reason, it is not a well-known brand. Relying on those companies with long-established brand recognition became a no-brainer. We started bidding on those terms and then showing our ads to an audience in the initial phase of research.
We scored a total of 100 conversions from competitor brands in the last month, simply because people saw our client’s ads, saw a decent website, liked what they saw, and decided to give it a try. This is the main strategy that generated more visits to the winery than any other.
In the last month, more than 60% of conversions have come from Google Ads. So don’t be afraid of facing the competition!
The message we would like to share with you is that when a client comes to you saying they have an eCommerce store and are only interested in looking at ROAS and purchases, you must look at it from a CMO perspective.
Focusing on just Google Ads may not always be the best way to go. You must look at the customer journey and take into consideration what is needed to convert. Had we relied solely on purchases, the client would have been sorely disappointed very early on.
Connect to Solutions 8 for more success stories. We have a whole team of experts like Carmen to help you navigate digital marketing. Your business is our business!
