“Google TV Ads has proved to be an easy, cost-effective strategy to reach new customers who otherwise would never have found us.” - Jason Stutes, Marketing Director, ShoppersChoice.com

Recipe for success

ShoppersChoice.com uses Google TV Ads to reach new customers and increase conversion rates.

ShoppersChoice.com, a one-stop shop for outdoor entertaining equipment, strives to provide the very best in service. Owners Michael and Ladina Hackley originally opened The Grill Store & More in 1998, as a brick-and-mortar store located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. More stores followed, and in 2001, the company went online offering 7,000 products through multiple specialized websites. By 2004, the company had over two million products online. Michael and Ladina decided to bring together their numerous niche websites to build a comprehensive online superstore, and ShoppersChoice.com was born.

Fired up

The brick-and-mortar locations are now gone, and the company is all online, which has enabled them to be more cost-effective and stock larger quantities of products. To increase traffic to its site and stimulate sales, ShoppersChoice.com has used Google AdWords™ since 2004, a factor that marketing director Jason Stutes attributes to the company’s impressive growth. In 2005, Internet Retailer magazine ranked ShoppersChoice.com as the seventh fastest-growing ecommerce site in the United States.

Still, online advertising only works if customers are looking on the web, and about 30 percent of ShoppersChoice.com customers choose to shop by phone. Jason explains, “Not all our customers are computer-savvy. Plus, we offer a lot of big-ticket items that many people - even those who use the Internet to search - are more comfortable buying offline. We needed a way to introduce ShoppersChoice to customers who wouldn’t have found us through online search.”

Secret Sauce

Google TV Ads provided a solution for attracting those customers who wouldn’t think to search for their products online. “We were checking our AdWords account one day and noticed that we could create a TV campaign from within our AdWords account,” recalls Jason. “We had never attempted to advertise on television. But Google TV Ads offered a persuasive difference: The ease of using the same Google interface we already trusted.” With Google TV Ads, advertisers can use the all-digital AdWords interface to create, manage, and measure television campaigns.

What’s more, Google TV Ads offers unique features to help target the right audience efficiently and the flexibility to make changes for optimal results. Jason explains, “With Google’s program targeting feature, we could search for programs with relevant outdoor entertaining content, like ‘Yard Crashers’ and ‘Indoors Out’. We were able to use network targeting to access premium inventory on relevant networks like Home & Garden Television. With Google TV Ads, we could be efficient with our spend, because we’re reaching the right audience when our message is most relevant.”

Since ShoppersChoice.com sells many different products, the company leveraged the flexibility of Google TV Ads to easily set up separate campaigns featuring their seasonal best-sellers. “For example, during the winter, gas logs are our biggest-selling item,” says Jason. “So far, the results look promising. In fact, our gas logs campaign brought us an incredible 120 percent increase in direct traffic to our website. And these were very qualified leads. The new visitors were more than twice as likely to convert to purchase than before we aired our TV campaigns.”

In addition, ShoppersChoice.com was able to use Google TV Ads to achieve national brand exposure through a powerful medium. “When people see your company on TV, it adds legitimacy to your business and your website. Using Google TV Ads has given us a chance to build a brand image and has resulted in increased conversions,” Jason explains.

Well done

Jason has been encouraged by the results of their Google TV Ads campaigns. “We’re a metrics-driven company,” says Jason, “and I never truly understood how companies could analyze whether their television ads were reaching their target audiences. But with Google’s reporting features, we have a much clearer picture about how to be more effective. You know, we’re still a small company and new at this; Google helps us to be better prepared and do it smarter. Google is like us: we both pay attention to the details.”

Google TV Ads, like AdWords, offers detailed reporting that makes it easy to manage campaigns for the best results. Jason explains, “Our reports quickly tell us if we’re reaching our target audience, so we can make any necessary adjustments. We can review the number of impressions delivered on any network or program. And we can dig even deeper to determine if viewers finish watching our ad or change the channel. This reporting detail helps us determine where we’re getting the most bang for the buck so we can optimize accordingly.”

“I don’t believe ShoppersChoice.com has reached its peak yet,” Jason concludes. “The flexibility and versatility of online and offline marketing allows us to adapt to our customers’ needs. With the combined efforts of our hard-working employees and Google’s inventive products, we’re anticipating more growth and an abundance of new, satisfied customers.”