challenge: 

Greis Jewelers was facing very high costs in their paid search efforts. Their target customers lived in an affluent area where the competitive landscape for terms such as "jewelry store near me" and "engagement rings near me" led to expensive bids at the local level. Open to investing more in paid advertising, Greis sought a solution that could increase traffic at a lower cost without compromising customer relevancy.

Solution:

In exploring solutions, the spotlight turned to Performance Max campaigns, which had evolved beyond their primitive stages. Armed with existing display creative, including videos and text-only assets, we were intrigued by Google's claim that Performance Max campaigns offered greater cost efficiency than standard search campaigns. Despite concerns about relinquishing certain control levers, such as keyword-level bidding, the alignment of key performance indicators (KPIs) with PMAX’s primary objectives within the Google suite compelled us to test it.

Strategy:

• Embracing Automation: We capitalized on PMax's automated optimization across Google properties, tailoring the algorithm with a targeted asset mix.

• Search Focus: To prioritize cost-efficient search traffic, we uploaded minimal video and display creatives, emphasizing text-based search ads.

• Leveraging Confidence: Confident in Google's relevant categorization for Greis and its auto-bidding capabilities, we replicated targeting parameters from existing campaigns.

• Data-Driven Optimization: The campaign intelligently shifted spend toward cheaper late-day hours, optimizing cost while also achieving a 2% conversion rate increase between 6pm and 10pm.

Results:

CPCs decreased 29% and more than 80% of asset impressions were on text, indicating search was the top driver of the lower-cost traffic.

Additionally, the campaign automatically shifted more spend to later in the day, when CPC’s were cheaper, and conversion rates increased by 2 percentage points between 6pm to 10pm.