Print Ads Home

Overview

Newspaper campaign plus expert search marketing drives B2B Sales.

"I am a big convert. Now we have a way to use newspaper advertising tactically to improve the return on our marketing dollars."

Simon McIver Director of Marketing


Business

According to a 2007 report from The Insight Research Corporation, demand for broadband wireline services will grow an estimated 10.5 percent from 2005 to 2010, while demand for broadband wireless during the same time period is expected to grow at 61.7 percent. Covad Communications' success lies in tapping this trend. The company owns and operates among the largest broadband networks in the United States, and provides data, voice, and wireless telecommunications solutions for small and medium businesses.

Approach
Campaign

Simon McIver, Director of Marketing, is responsible for getting the word out about Covad's services. Among his chief goals is educating C-level executives at small and medium businesses that a T1 line is an affordable, productivity-boosting investment. Eighty-five percent to 90 percent of customers search for information online prior to making a T1 purchase. As a result, Google AdWords™ search- based advertising is an essential marketing tool. McIver was a quick study in the intricacies of search engine advertising with the help of his SEM Agency of Record Fathom Online. Covad and Fathom leveraged the existing ability to measure and track search activity results to optimize the effectiveness of all of the online and offline campaigns. "We use marketing dollars to boost sales based on real-time data," explains McIver. "So from that standpoint, we're very tactical."

When competitors began driving up the prices of some of Covad's pivotal keywords, McIver challenged Fathom Online to start investigating ways to augment his search engine marketing initiatives. Google Print Ads would enable Covad and Fathom, to plan and purchase print media space and distribute their ads to newspapers, all using a convenient web interface. "Google Print Ads were a great complement to Covad's search engine marketing campaigns and a way to build measurable brand awareness," says Douglas Dicconson, director of client services for Fathom Online.

McIver and Harley Butler, media supervisor at Fathom Online engineered a regionally targeted print ad campaign through Google Print Ads that directly mirrored the existing search engine marketing campaign. The ads highlighted the affordability of T1 service and touted the Covad brand. Unique phone numbers allowed Covad to track the source of each phone call. "We like to advertise in newspapers, but we don't have time to talk to all of them," says McIver. "Google Print Ads give us a way to purchase media space in many outlets from a single location. That's something we otherwise wouldn't have time to do because we're busy allocating marketing dollars based on real-time business needs."

The company's click through rate on search ads increased and overall impressions on purchased keywords increased 20 percent over the five day period immediately following the print run.
Results

Fathom Online and Covad measured the success of the print ads as a component of the overall marketing mix and was impressed with the positive synergy it prompted for the T1 campaign. "During the quarter Covad realized greater efficiency in lead/ sales ratios. Specifically around print, we achieved higher branded lead volume immediately following print runs", notes McIver.

Once the ads began running in newspapers, traffic to the Covad site spiked for two to three days afterward, with people searching for information on the company's T1 service. The company's click through rate on search ads increased and overall impressions on purchased keywords increased 20 percent over the five day period immediately following the print run. The combination of a well executed search engine marketing and targeted print campaign delivered higher quality leads and a higher number of conversions than other periods in campaign history for Covad, reported McIver.

"I am a big convert. Now we have a way to use newspaper advertising tactically to improve the return on our marketing dollars" concludes McIver.