How we lowered the cost per customer acquisition by 60% for a company selling online services.
Introduction
In this case study we show the results obtained from PerformancePPC campaigns with the Spreaker account, the world’s No. 1 podcast creation service.
The case study demonstrates how the combination of good product, good communication and excellent advertising yields phenomenal results.
In two years of collaboration, we have more than halved the cost of converting new customers and enabled the company to scale campaigns by quadrupling its advertising budget.
The advertising channels used were:
- Facebook Ads
- Google Ads
- Bing Ads
- Native advertising
The company
Spreaker is the world’s No. 1 online podcasting service. The platform allows anyone to upload their audio files and turn them into podcasts that are automatically shared in major platforms such as iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
The Spreaker platform also allows people to monetize their podcasts through a proprietary advertising system. The podcaster is paid based on ratings, and advertisers can place ads in the most specific channels.
The company has an excellent product, with highly polished communication featuring high-quality graphics and videos. PerformancePPC intervened to enhance the performance of the pay-per-click online campaigns. We have been collaborating on the project for two years.
The challenge
The goal of the campaigns is to generate purchases of the paid plan (Spreaker ProPlan). These are monthly subscriptions for storage and distribution services for one’s podcasts with Spreaker.
The structure of the search network campaigns consisted of a Google Search campaign using generic keywords that primarily triggered searches related to the Spreaker brand name.
Considering only conversions generated from non-brand searches, i.e., searches from people who were looking for the solution but were not yet familiar with Spreaker, Google campaigns generated a very high cost per conversion (purchase of a paid plan).
The average cost per purchase of a paid plan, considering all advertising channels, was about half compared to non-brand searches.
In previous years, several campaigns were used on Facebook, mainly with branding objectives such as website traffic.
It lacked a remarketing strategy to intercept the audience that has already visited the site. There was a lack of Display campaigns for both cold audiences and remarketing. Basically, there was a need for our Synergistic Method.
The goal was to lower the cost per conversion (purchase of a paid plan) below a certain threshold limit, considering all campaigns in the various channels.
With prior analysis, we studied the client’s market and active advertising initiatives, also conducting research on keywords and target audiences to identify opportunities to intercept and convert this audience.
The solution
We decided to propose a strategy with a dual objective:
- on the one hand, improve work on online brand perception and brand presence on the Google SERP (covering more podcast-related searches);
- on the other hand, implementing a performance strategy to promote Pro plans by targeting not only new audiences (through Google, Bing, Facebook, and Instagram) but also those who have previously visited the client’s website.
We started by working on the following steps:
- Restructured Google Search campaigns by separating the Brand campaign from generic keyword campaigns in order to reach a wide range of relevant searches of people who are searching Google for solutions to create and publish podcasts;
- In addition to this, we analyzed previous years’ performance according to the principles of efficiency and effectiveness typical of our Synergistic Method to identify the keywords with the most potential and block those that represented a waste of budget instead;
- As a result, we have achieved a much more granular account structure that allows us to keep more control over the investment and performance of individual advertising campaigns;
- Implemented the PerformancePPC Synergistic Method* to leverage synergy among different channels Facebook, Instagram, Google and Bing;
- Alongside campaigns directly targeting purchases, also others aimed at lead generation offering informational content in exchange for contact (e.g., with webinars, ebooks, pdf guides, etc.) with the goal of generating contacts potentially interested in the podcast world who could then convert in the future through activities of email marketing and remarketing.
Implementation
Our consultancy started in July 2019. We restructured the existing campaign, dividing between brand research, Competitor research, and generic research based on prior analysis.
Then we implemented remarketing campaigns on Display network and introduced new campaigns on both cold audiences and remarketing in Facebook and Instagram.
The social campaigns had several purposes:
– Make yourself known to new audiences, through interaction campaigns;
– Generate free subscriptions to the platform so that users could try it out;
– Generate purchases, i.e., bring in paid plans;
– Generating contacts.
The results
As of August 2019, the first month of operation of the new campaigns, the average cost per purchase at Google dropped 41 percent.
From August 2019 to February 2020, the average cost per purchase was reduced again by up to -60% compared to previously active campaigns.
With the March-April-May 2020 lockdown, we saw a boom in sales, with average conversion costs falling to 65%-70%.
After our intervention, given the reduction in cost/conversion, the company was able to multiply its investment in Google Ads while maintaining the same average cost per conversion and thus generating many more sales.
Considering the 60% reduction in conversion cost and the increase in advertising budget, we provided the client with firepower 23 times greater than the previous campaigns.
Continued growth
Pay-per-click campaigns, along with other marketing activities carried out by the brand, allowed for a 25 percent growth in paid plans in 2020.
Especially with a record month at +48% in November 2020.
Results compared
In the table below we see a comparison of Google Ads performance between July 2019 (before PerformancePPC campaigns started) and January 2021 (17 months after in our intervention).
For strategic reasons we have blacked out the quantitative data but you can see the qualitative data: lowered the cost per plan (PRO PLANS) fee by 60%.
In the graph below you can see the cost reduction per paid plan in 2021:
Below is the difference between pro plans (BLUE) and cost per pro plan (RED) between 2019 and 2021:
In the following graph we see a comparison between Pro Plans derived from organic channels (RED) and Pro Plans derived from paid campaigns (YELLOW).
Note how the growth of paid plans from advertising campaigns in Facebook, Google and Bing is exponential but also how advertising investment influences organic results.
Customer testimony
Here is the testimony of Tonia Maffeo, marketing manager of Spreaker.
They participated in the project:
Fabio Faccin (PPC Manager), Alessia Dirella (PPC Specialist), Luca Faccin (Manager).
