Davison Design and Development has increased
sales dramatically with Google AdWords.
|
After spending two years and $30,000 for a product idea that never made it to
market, George Davison understands the problems inventors face when trying to
get their new product idea in front of a corporation for consideration. Based on his
experience, he created Davison Design and Development in 1993 to help inventors
bring their ideas to life. DDD aims to help "everyday people with ideas" by providing
complete product development, including market research, building prototypes,
creating packaging solutions, and corporate licensing.
Approach Before joining Google AdWords, the company's main mode of advertising was through classified ads in U.S. and Canadian publications – but this approach failed to generate a high number of leads. The Pittsburgh-based company built a website in 2000, but only began to focus on it more closely a few years later, with the aim of reaching a larger audience. "We're not a local company," says Mike Rizzo, Davison's director of Internet advertising. "Most of our clients come from outside Pittsburgh, and we wanted a way to reach them." "When we first started, we were getting five to 10 leads a day, if that," recalls Rizzo. Today, Rizzo reports the company's website is its single best marketing tool. "We wouldn't be a tenth of the size we are without the Internet," he said. Part of the increased online activity comes from Google AdWords, which the company initiated in 2001. In particular Rizzo is a fan of AdWords' conversion tracking feature, calling it the one element of the program he could not do without. "We can see how much a lead is costing us, and we can see impressions," he said. "It's great." Rizzo also uses Google Analytics and says the combination of AdWords and Analytics has been extremely helpful. "We can see where on the website people are going, how long they're spending on our website, our top entry pages from organic Google search," he said. "That's definitely opened some eyes about how people are finding us. Even from a web design standpoint, what type of browser, what type of Flash they're using – that helps us immensely. It has caused us to change our web design." Results In the last year, online revenue has increased 40 to 50 percent, which Rizzo attributes mostly to AdWords. And the company has seen a steady increase in business as well. "Today we are spending five times more each month than what we were spending two years ago on Google AdWords," he said. "And we just keep on increasing, adding more keywords, because the results are that effective." Traffic to the website has jumped from 50 clicks a day to the current 1600 daily clicks. Rizzo said he sees an increase in traffic when there are news articles about inventions, and the ABC-TV show American Inventor has also been a boon to business. Rizzo has even created an Ad Group to capitalize on interest in that show. In true inventor tradition, the company began its life in the basement of Davison's small house, but today, it has almost 300 employees. "Google AdWords can definitely be attributed to how fast we have grown," says Rizzo. "It has been a crucial factor in allowing us to add more people and grow the way we have. AdWords is a substantial part of our lead generation." About Google AdWords Google AdWords is currently used by thousands of businesses worldwide to gain new customers in a cost-effective way. AdWords uses keywords to precisely target ad delivery to web users seeking information about a particular product or service. The program is based on cost-per-click (CPC) pricing, so advertisers only pay when an ad is clicked on. Advertisers can take advantage of an extremely broad distribution network, and choose the level of support and spending appropriate for their business. For more information on launching your own campaign or getting expert help, visit http://adwords.google.com. Would you like to share your Google AdWords success story with us? We'd love to hear from you! *2005 Home and Garden Survey, conducted by Media-Screen and GMI (April 2005). Return to BIM overview page |
|