The Client
Ross-Simons, America’s trusted jeweler, opened its first retail store in historic Providence, Rhode Island, in 1952, with a mission to provide exceptional quality jewelry and luxury items at the most affordable prices possible. Today, Ross-Simons is a thriving multi-channel retailer. The company operates www.ross-simons.com, fourteen jewelry stores in seven states, and mails more than 50 million catalogs annually across the globe.
The Challenge
When Ross-Simons came to us for management of their PPC campaigns, they had two objectives. First, they needed to resolve widespread ad relevancy problems; via the different matching technologies, search engines frequently displayed the wrong Ross-Simons ad. For example, a query for “white gold jewelry” would trigger a “platinum jewelry” ad. Second, Ross-Simons wanted to maximize their non-branded revenue and ROI. As a catalog mailer with a 30-year history of mailing catalogs, Ross-Simons had very strong search traffic, conversion, and sales from its existing customers. However, their goal was to attract a new audience to its website and grow their buyer file.
Solution
The Inceptor team began by performing an in-depth audit of Ross-Simons’ PPC accounts to identify the causes of the ad relevancy problem. We rigorously reorganized the accounts and added hundreds of negative keywords. This ensured that search queries always triggered a relevant ad.
The reorganization had the additional effect of creating exceptionally high Quality Scores. After the optimizations, 94% of the keywords had a Quality Score of at least 7 out of 10; 80% had an 8 or higher. These unusually high Quality Scores meant that Ross-Simons was receiving the lowest CPCs possible; the average CPC dropped 31%.
After improving ad relevance, we developed a strategic keyword expansion plan to increase qualified traffic. Using specialized research and management tools, Inceptor was able to quickly and efficiently identify and launch thousands of keywords.
We also paid close attention to keyword match types in order to maximize traffic and ROI. Through meticulous reporting and extensive testing, Inceptor was able to exploit high-volume Broad and Phrase match queries while still excluding irrelevant traffic; search impressions increased 26%.
Results
- Average CPC decreased by 31%
- Qualified Search impressions increased by 26%
- 10% revenue growth while ROI increased by 124%
Larry Davis, VP of Marketing for Ross-Simons summarizes the Inceptor relationship as follows: “The best thing about working with Inceptor is their ability to adapt to changing market conditions and fickle search results. We have been able to identify pockets of underdeveloped search terms and words and minimize our cost-per-click. We are most happy with our team and their commitment to Ross-Simons. They aren’t afraid to push back and share new ideas. It’s a pleasure working with Inceptor.”
