The Conversion Optimizer: Hitting Home Runs

Market-Vantage boosts client return on investment with Google Conversion Optimizer.

Spending money to make money

When Hans Riemer founded Market-Vantage in 2002, return on investment (ROI) quickly became his everyday mantra. In addition to doing great work for clients, it was obvious to Riemer that his agency would have to structure online campaigns so that income from them exceeded costs. "Our main goal is achieving ROI for clients through smart online marketing strategies-it's that simple," says Riemer.

While that may sound obvious, Riemer explains that there are two types of clients: those who need to advertise on the web and are resolute about spending no more than, say, $5,000 per month; and those who are spending $5,000 per month, see that it is profitable, and therefore are eager to spend more. "The idea is that you are making more money by spending more money, and at the same time finding ways to reduce advertising cost per lead acquired," says Riemer. "When you get both sides of the equation right, then everybody wins."

More leads, same budget

One company that intelligently spends more money to enhance its income turned to Market-Vantage to increase traffic and convert more of its site visitors into leads. Most Market-Vantage clients are business-to-business tech companies, and this software provider is no exception. The company provides web content management and authoring solutions to businesses of all kinds.

Potential customers can go to the company's site to obtain an instant live demo of the software or download a free trial. "The client's goal was to increase the number of leads-identified as people who downloaded a free trial or participated in an online demo," explains Director of Client Services Darryl DeLong. "At the same time, they wanted to hold their monthly budget steady."

The company had initially been managing Google AdWords™ search-based advertising campaigns on its own. As a first step, Market-Vantage was able to reduce CPC significantly by using themed ad groups and tighter keyword choices. Then, using the savings gained from the lower CPC, Market-Vantage launched several cost-effective Content Network campaigns with the help of Google AdWords placement performance reports, which boosted the number of monthly conversions. The job for Market-Vantage was now to take these results to the next level.

Taking it up a notch

Riemer and DeLong had seen Conversion Optimizer in AdWords and read blog posts from other agencies that had been successful using it. They decided to try the new AdWords feature to help their software client improve campaign success and manage advertising costs. Market-Vantage specified the client's maximum cost-per-acquisition (CPA) bid, and the Conversion Optimizer set all their keywords' CPC bids automatically. The Conversion Optimizer then made adjustments in CPC bids based on the likelihood that a conversion would result from each ad auction.

After three months of using Conversion Optimizer, the client had gained impressive returns. The number of AdWords search-based conversions increased by 13% per month, while the Cost Per Conversion actually decreased by 9.5%. Overall, the combination of restructuring the company's AdWords campaigns and applying Conversion Optimizer has reduced average CPA by more than 50%.

"Everything came together for this campaign: a great landing page, great keywords, and great clickthrough rates," says Riemer. "Conversion Optimizer was the final boost we needed to take the success of the campaign to the next level."

An invaluable resource for the agency

DeLong says everyone at Market-Vantage was immediately impressed by how much time and effort Conversion Optimizer saved them during the campaign. "With Conversion Optimizer tweaking the bids on Search keywords, we can focus on more strategic issues," he notes. "Plus, the ROI improvement we got from Conversion Optimizer speaks for itself."

Google tools, including Google AdWords Editor and Google Analytics, also help the agency save resources and make it easier to keep a pulse on campaigns and alter them accordingly. Says Riemer, "Google solutions not only generate leads, but also they are fantastic for market research and for helping us with search engine optimization. This is vital, because our clients are keen on getting measurable results."

In addition to AdWords Editor and Analytics, the agency plans to use Conversion Optimizer as a standard tool in its marketing arsenal from now on. Riemer notes that Conversion Optimizer can benefit many kinds of companies, but software companies that can offer demos or free trial downloads or technical companies offering white papers and industry reports are ideal candidates. Says Riemer, "All you need is a solid offer, good keywords and ads, and a well-designed landing page-and you can hit a home run with Conversion Optimizer."

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About Conversion Optimizer

The Conversion Optimizer is an AdWords feature that helps advertisers manage advertising costs. Advertisers simply specify their maximum cost-per-acquisition (CPA) bid, and the Conversion Optimizer sets all their keywords' cost-per-click (CPC) bids automatically. The Conversion Optimizer makes adjustments in CPC bids based on the likelihood that a conversion will result from each ad auction. In addition to decreasing the time advertisers spend monitoring and managing CPC bids, the Conversion Optimizer can help improve AdWords campaign performance. For more information, visit http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=60150.

About Google AdWords

Google AdWords™ is a performance-based advertising program that enables businesses large and small to advertise on Google and its network of partner websites. Hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide use AdWords for text, image, and video ads priced on a cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-impression (CPM) basis. Built on an auction-based system, AdWords is a highly quantifiable and cost-effective way to reach potential customers. For more information, visit http://www.google.com/adwords