PerfumesWorld increases transaction volume by 77% against a 5.3% decrease in expenditure with Core and More Technologies!

Core and More Technologies and the PerfumesWorld team both knew one thing for certain: that the account was missing the ‘human touch’. Automated management platforms such as Marin Software would not cut it, this account needed to be cleaned out completely. We needed to roll-up our sleeves and build an inventory management process for search campaigns, address the need to stabilize the account and show near term growth, while also deciphering which existing adverts to keep (and which to discard).

And that is exactly what we did. First, looking at the history of the account we determined the top performing products, geographies, days, and time of day. We revised the account structure to mirror that data for optimal ad serve. We sought to then re-apply the savings recouped there and push for additional impression share all day, every day for top products and with top of page placement.

We simultaneously began a long, but systematic, process of restructuring the entire paid search account. We developed a methodology for inventory management that allowed us to effectively control budget allocation to ensure marketing dollars were only supporting in-stock products that were available for purchase. We created a nomenclature specifically built to mirror that of the Product Name assigned by The Perfume Spot within their inventory management system, and applied that to our Ad Group level naming convention. By doing so we were able to access a daily inventory report in which we applied an advanced algorithm to that, then activated or paused those Ad Groups based on product availability. This strategy not only improved the efficacy of the paid search campaign performance, but the efficiency of day to day management for the account as well.

Over time, we have also sought to bring all of the latest platform innovations to the table. It took a total of two solid years to manually establish the performance stability that we had envisioned. Naturally we are very cautious not to disrupt or jeopardize that progress. So, when Google began releasing more advanced, automated bidding strategies – we opted in to several betas. Through a nine-month process we facilitated batches of controlled tests, placing manual bidding strategies into 50/50 experiments against automated strategies such as Target CPA and Target ROAS. We allowed at least two-weeks runtime before declaring any winners. We went through this process in a rinse and repeat fashion throughout the course of the year – seeking to ensure optimal efficiency in terms of both volume and cost per transaction. This applied to both search and shopping platforms.

Challenge

There was no process to manage in-stock/out-of-stock inventory. Therefore, their ads for out of stock items would still show up. This was negatively impacting the relevance of their ads, while also resulting in expenditure being accrued on a per click basis against out of stock products. There were tens of thousands of outdated ads — some featuring offers that were no longer applicable, others with coupon codes that did not work, and many with messaging that had become otherwise irrelevant. These issues resided across both the Google and Bing platforms and were costing them a small fortune.

Naturally, this impacted their ability to attain top placements against other retailers, both large and small. To top it all off, there had been some website transitions (as well as changes among marketing agencies managing the accounts), so there were potentially many other issues to discover, and then resolve.