Specialty Retailer
Powering Bid Optimizations With Alli
Bid shaving is not a new concept in paid search optimization. Many in SEM have tried it over the years to improve profitability across their keyword portfolio. However, many search advertisers are able to run only the most rudimentary approaches, due to either the lack of automated technology or insight into how best to balance the trade-off between profitability and volume. PMG’s advanced approach to bid shaving has helped brands achieve profit maximization at scale.
Services
91%
Spend efficiency improved by
1,100%
ROAS up
94%
Lower Avg. CPC
Challenge
A major retail client dominates impression share for its brand on Google and Bing, primarily due to low competition for its core keywords. Knowing that brand SEM profitability helps fund new customer prospecting via non-brand keyword targeting, PMG sought to squeeze greater channel profitability for the client without ceding brand SOV and search traffic to their website.
Strategy & Approach
PMG leveraged its Alli platform to create and automate the execution of bidding rules to essentially eliminate unnecessary headroom between our max bids and average CPC. The key was to reduce bids gradually. If the process occurred too quickly, or bid changes were too large, the risk to the account was a significant loss of impression share.
The tool ran through the complex set of rules on a daily basis, sometimes over multiple times in a day. The rules covered guidelines such as keyword categories to target (and exclude), lookback windows for performance comparison, setting filters and cost thresholds, keyword labeling for reporting reference, and bid up/down rules based on SOV segmentation.
Over the course of several months with continuous refinement, PMG’s daily rules in Alli helped the account achieve flawless optimization. Due to its automated nature, the account team was able to monitor the process without manual intervention. This was key because it helped eliminate human error as well as optimized frequency.
Results
The retailer saw tremendous success due to PMG’s efforts. When comparing one of its major annual sales to the prior year, the brand saw CPCs drop from 16 cents to a penny, resulting in brand SEM spend dropping by 91%. Importantly, revenue increased vs. the prior year, with ROAS up 1100% and site traffic improving 13%.
PMG continues to optimize brand keyword bids via its technology on a daily basis. The brand has achieved significant cost savings without sacrificing traffic or sales volume. And with increased profitability, the brand has been able to invest in other areas that help grow its customer base.