Case Study

Diversifying Marketing Channels Can Lead to More Conversions and Better ROI

The Problem

The client had been spending a significant amount of time managing their own Google Ads and felt they

  • did not really know what they were doing 
  • did not really know if the ads were working
  • could benefit from expert help 

We started working together as of July 2019.

The Plan

There were no (meaningful) goals set up in Google Analytics. 

The one current goal that was defined was views of a specific page (called Book Online). Page views of this page unfortunately do not give us sufficient insight into whether or not visitors are likely to book.

We created new goals:

  • Intent to Register (as measured by clicking on a button that says Register Now and takes you to a 3rd party website)
  • Email (clicks on an email address on the website)
  • Calls (clicks on phone numbers on the website)
  • Tour Requests (completion of a form on the website)
  • Intent to Login. This goal allowed us to measure the percent of traffic that was likely an existing client and help us reach new clients.

The Process

  1. We decreased the client’s ad spend 79% (from $4,800 the previous month to $1,000) as we were heading into a slower season. 
  2. One of the easiest ways to do this was to stop bidding on the client’s brand as they were already highly visible organically on Google.
  3. Changed match types to focus more on exact and phrase matched keywords.
  4. Added negative keywords to make sure the client was not showing up for searches not related to doggy day care.

Covid-19 hit March 2020 and advertising was halted from March until May. 

Given the lack of travel during the pandemic, demand for doggy day care had decreased significantly therefore we decided to pivot and try Facebook Ads as a means of push marketing to supplement the pull marketing of Google Ads.  

We changed the focus from “board your dog while on vacation” to “give your dog a break from you” since people were working from home. We devoted 50% of our  media buy to Facebook Ads.

The Results

Decreased spend by 79%

Created 5 KPIs to measure conversions​

Leads up 29% using a combination of Facebook and Google ads

In the face of a pandemic, utilizing a combination of push and pull marketing channels, we were able to generate more leads than we were the previous year.

The client indicated that they were receiving more calls and emails from new customers.

Since we created new conversion goals only in July of 2019, it would be September 2020 before we could measure year over year progress. 

By September of 2020, compared to September 2019, through a combination of Facebook and Google Ads, conversions were up 29% compared to the previous September.