Your campaigns will no longer be like diamonds in the rough. Marko.pl case study

Marko is a Polish jewellery shop. It offers a very wide range of products, from gold and silver jewellery to devotional items and watches. Their unique products can be purchased both in the marko.pl online shop and at several brick-and-mortar locations in north-eastern Poland.

The pandemic had a huge impact on the development of e-commerce, including, to a large extent, the jewellery industry. Why? In case of investments it seems to appear that all that glitters is, actually, gold. It was no different in the case of our client – Marko.pl! 2020 has been the best year in terms of sales since year the e-shop was founded.

As far as Google Ads campaigns are concerned – we achieved a 100% increase in sales indicators year on year! So how do you continue to grow your business and scale your
search operations, after record growth, the opening of stationary shops and despite the huge growth in competition?

Big idea: we sell a range of products typical of stationary sales

We focused on creativity – not only at the level of configuration and optimization of the campaign! To overcome the challenge we faced, simply optimizing a campaign that was already operating at its maximum capacity would have been insufficient.

We opted for selling … products that are not meant to be sold! What do we mean by that Selling products you don’t usually purchase online, specifically: engagement rings!

Tactics: 4 strong pillars

To achieve the goal, tactically, our strategy consisted of 4 strong pillars:

• using our proprietary tool to maximize PLA campaign results: Sempai Merchant 360
• entering the highest level of the sales funnel, taking into account such campaign configurations that would generate high-quality traffic leading to conversion
• advanced automation and structuring of existing and new campaigns
• strong brand promotion in the region where it is a leader

Goals

In order to meet the biggest challenge for 2021 and basing on the strategy, together with the customer, we have set the following goals

• an increase in the scale of Google Ads campaigns by 30% y/y
• private label enhancement verified with Search Lift
• increase in sales of engagement rings both in terms of the number of transactions and their value
• the leading position in the jewelery industry maintained in the Podlaskie Region

Challenge No. 1: selling an engagement ring online

The rings offered by our customer are the most important category of products. Not only because of the huge selection, but also because of the margin.

Online sale of rings is a very difficult task for the following reasons:

• Price – some of them are worth more than several dozen thousand PLN, which makes them the most expensive produsts offered,
• The majority of the persons would like to try on or touch the ring before purchase, as the wrong size or model may result in … the rejection of the proposal 🙂
• The purchasing path is considerably longer that in case of other categories – the purchasers need more tome for thought due to the emotional load of the purchase.

So how to handle such a difficult product in the search engine and increase the number of transactions?

Solution: Creation & Creativity

Creation and creativity – the combination of both elements was precious for this type of product!

We reached out to potential customers and significantly improved sales ratios by using:

• engaging advertising messages
• eye-catching graphics and videos
• advanced campaign configurations

Solution: Sempai Merchant 360 as a game changer

Sempai Merchant 360 is an enhanced ecosystem for PLA ads on Google and Facebook, consisting of a comprehensive service that provides an edge in key campaign elements.

It consists of our 3 proprietary solutions:

The Sempai Inventory Manager – it is used to optimize the product feed for various sales channels such as: Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram, Bing and others.
CSS Sempai Shop – a website that groups product offers from e-sellers. It allows them to be displayed in the form of product ads in Google, traditionally redirecting clicks straight to the product card in a given online shop.
Sempai Merchant – used to support automation in the construction, development and optimization of PLA campaigns.

We used Sempai Merchant to optimize the PLA campaign. This is a real game changer for optimizing and automating product campaigns.

With Sempai Merchant we gained the following advantages over Smart Shopping campaigns:

• possibility to generate and run product campaigns in different configurations e.g.: in terms of available attributes
• taken from the product feed – feed, bullion and one adgroup campaign vs SPAG (single product ad group)
• possibility of comparing the results of parallel product campaigns as above. in order to check which model proves to be the most effective
• enabling browsing of search terms and optimization in the field of queries exclusions that generate a lot of views and few clicks (Quality Score) or low sales (ROAS)

With the use of as many as 3 Comparison Shopping Services (CSS) in PLA campaigns:

• we activated previously neglected products – with lower QS or / and omitted by algorithms
• at the same time, we were displaying several variants of a given product – important in case
• of jewellery, where there are little characteristic things about a product,
• we have covered more advertising space in PLA boxes
• we have gained more resources for investments – with the rates per click lowered by even 20%, which we used to increase the scale of the campaign

Challenge No. 2: chaotic matching of products to queries

People who run Google Ads campaigns are well aware that matching the displayed product to the user’s query in product campaigns is a big problem.

It is often the case that even though there are products in the range that better match the entered keyword, the system still promotes a different product:

Typically, specialists burn through CPC rates and interfere with titles or descriptions to minimise this problem. Is there a cheaper and more effective way?

Solution: ad segmentation based on a sales funnel

Here it is! With Sempai Merchant, we used an advanced funnel-based structure to display only a set of selected products for specific keywords.

We chose the products that we want to promote more and the keywords for which they are to appear according to the budget we set and in the highest positions.

We used this solution, i.a. for engagement rings:

Challenge No 3: high product turnover

The range of products in e-commerce fluctuates frequently, for example due to the season, availability or new product lines being introduced.

While Product and Display campaigns are based on a product feed that is updated on a regular basis, product turnover is a big issue in Search campaigns (if they target product LPs). It affects the occurrence of 404 errors, ad rejections, constant out-of-date campaigns, and worst of all, potential buyer frustration.

How can this be remedied?

Solution: business data

We used a corporate database which, thanks to update scripts, only supported active links to products.

Using labels, we divided the links in terms of category, bestseller margins and many other criteria that were important to us.

This solution enabled us, among other things, to gain tailored ad texts, dedicated extensions, more statistics and better control over running campaigns.

Our idea resulted in a 50% increase in revenue and a 25% increase in Search conversions!

Challenge No. 4- many promotions and thousands of ads simultaneously

Advertising messages have a large impact on user activity. Useful product information, a strong call to action, offer highlights or current promotions can all determine user interaction with our ad.

But how can this be done effectively if there are various parallel promotions on multiple brands or product types? How do we update and refine ads quickly if we are running… thousands of them?

Solution: ad customizers for text ads

To cope with this challenge, we used a non-standard solution: the attributes of the ad customisation module assigned to the most important categories in the e-store. They allow us to permanently assign variables to individual ads, which we can change at any time.

This allowed us to instantly change the headlines and text of ads without the need to have them approved each time by the system, and to provide information on multiple concurrently running promotions, e.g. -40% for earrings, -30% for pendants and -20% for gold rings.

Challenge No. 5: impatient users

Google Statistics leave no doubt: web users are becoming more and more impatient. Every second of delay in loading the page results in a successive outflow of visitors.

The same applies to search engine advertising, namely overly general messaging such as „we have the best and cheapest offer” and end links that do not lead to a product or
service.

A user who entered a query for a specific product model in the search engine, after being directed to the home page or even the entire category by an advertisement, is unlikely to finalize the transaction and will quickly exit it.

Solution: facilitation for users

We used Single Keyword AdGroup (SKAG) segmentation in our Search campaigns. This solution allowed us to optimally match the messages in the headlines and descriptions of ads to users, as well as associate them with selected extensions and influence the bids and targets on a point by point basis.

In Display campaigns (Remarketing and Dynamic prospecting) based on product feeds, we used product filters. This way, we have perfectly matched the products to the user in dynamic ads. For example, if a user browsed gold earrings in an e-store, the search engine will see this particular product and other earrings from the same category.

Both measures resulted in a 42% increase in revenue and 35% increase in transactions after just the first month of implementation.

Challenge No. 6: how to maintain a regional
leadership position during the pandemic

Until the outbreak of the pandemic – Marko was the undisputed leader of the jewelry industry in Podlasie. It is the largest chain of luxury goods in the voivodeship, with 7 stationary stores, including 4 in its heart – i.e. Białystok

With the ongoing pandemic, we were faced with the challenge of how do we maintain our regional leadership position as the covid reality is that location is becoming less important?

After opening the stationary stores, another task awaited us – how to persuade customers from Podlasie, who have already slowly started to get used to online jewellery shopping – where they have practically unlimited choice of assortment, including e-shops – to return to Marko.pl showrooms?

Solution: online & offline connection

We focused on local promotion of both stationary and online sales to meet both challenges.

We targeted campaigns at every stationary outlet that has a business card on Google, but adapted advertising resources to meet current needs. Despite the unpredictable closure of individual outlets due to pandemic restrictions, customers were kept informed of which outlet was open. As a result, users did not see advertisements for shops that were closed.

In addition, we tried to analyze the correlation of online and offline user activity. What  does it mean? Potential customerswho shared their location with Google were shown an
advertisement for the nearest open showroom. Those who, in turn, visited a Marko.pl showroom, saw ads on Google, persuading them to buy in their e-shop.

Results – building brand awareness

With our comprehensive measures, we more than fulfilled our objectives!

When it comes to building awareness of Marko.pl among Internet users, both in the region and throughout Poland, we have achieved unquestionable success!

Results for the Podlaskie Voivodeship:

• visits to a stationary shop +351,26%
• navigation to a point +110,98%

Results for Poland:

• Sessions: +44%
• Transactions: +23%

Overal results – main goal achieved!

Have we met the main challenge for 2021, i.e. maintaining the pace of growth after a historically best-selling year?

Definitely YES – as the results alone say (January-December 2021 to January-December 2020)!

• sessions: +68%
• transactions: +43%
• ROAS: 1031,29%