Overview
VersaDesk® is the original creator of the push-button sit-to-stand desk riser and the leader in standing desk solutions since 2000.
They put a lot of effort into developing their brand, but they needed help making their PPC advertising profitable. In 2017, they brought Adventure Media on board to help scale their digital advertising.
Challenges
Competition
The sit-to-stand desk industry is extremely competitive. This was blown out of proportion when VersaDesk’s primary competitor became very aggressive, not only dominating Google searches for sit-to-stand desks, but also searches specifically for VersaDesk branded terms.
This posed a big threat. A sit-to-stand desk is not exactly an impulse buy, and the data showed that a user would take 12 days, on average, to convert as a customer after their first click on an ad. What's more, users were performing multiple Google searches during their shopping consideration phase.
We knew that we were investing in acquiring traffic, but then losing them later on in the buying process. This was true even when they were actually searching specifically for VersaDesk. If our competitors were dominating the search results pages for our branded search terms, we would be losing out on ad clicks by users that were ready to convert on our site, but likely went with the competition.
We needed to fight back and take control of branded searches. This would be the only way to ensure that customers whom we had invested in from first-click would end up coming back and completing their eventual purchase on our site.
Understanding The Customer
In order to engage with the customers at a deeper level and help them along the buyer’s journey, we have to understand their mindset and the challenges they face.
We identified two groups of people interacting with our site. The first are people who need to be sold on the idea of a sit-to-stand desk. These people are interested in the added value that sit-to-stand desks offer as opposed to standard desks.
The second audience are people who already familiar with sit-to-stand desks. These people need to be convinced that VersaDesk is better than the competition.
It would be wasteful and irrelevant to target users in the second audience with ad copy related to the benefits of sit-to-stand desks. These users are already aware of these benefits, and we need to instead make sure that all of our messaging focuses on what sets us apart from the other providers of sit-to-stand desks that this user might be considering. Segmenting our buyer personas was the first step in increasing engagement and giving us an advantage.
Results
Increasing Impression Share
The first step was to become very aggressive and start showing more often when someone specifically searches for VersaDesk. We knew that this strategy would increase our costs in the short term, but it was necessary for us to build up credibility with Google's algorithms and help ensure profitability in the long run.
Remarketing
Remarketing is important in any PPC strategy, but plays an even more important role when there is a long time-lag to purchase. We tailored our remarketing efforts based on which buyer persona each user fit into. Deep analysis of the search term report allowed us to categorize each user into either a TOF (top of the funnel) user, who is in the beginning phase of sit-to-stand desks, or a BOF (bottom of the funnel) user, who is nearing a purchase, and deciding between suppliers.
We then created ads and custom landing pages dedicated to addressing the concerns of each audience, pushing them closer to becoming a VersaDesk customer. YouTube remarketing was a key factor in setting ourselves apart from the competition.
By doing so, we were able to engage with our potential customers at a more personal level, give them information which met their needs, and ultimately encouraging them to buy from VersaDesk.
Putting It All Together
We were able to help VersaDesk regain control of their branded searches, increasing impression share for branded terms by 46%.
Thanks to a better understanding of the audiences and buyer’s journey, conversions increased by 25% and Return on Ad Spend grew 13% year over year.
