Restaurant Equipment Industry

Restaurant
Equipment
Industry
Case Study
Comparison Shopping Engine Management
CASE STUDY
Problem
The Client:
This Restaurant Equipment
Industry Company is a business-
to-business supplier of top
quality restaurant appliances
and supplies. They are a
prominent player in the
commercial kitchen industry and
their business grows annually.
A prominent restaurant equipment business was a
successful merchant in Google Product Search and
had experienced growth from working with Vertical Rail
throughout 2011. However, in 2012 Google switched
from the free to use Google Product Search to the
paid Google Shopping.
We devised a strategy to help them
onboard and combat the challenges
of the new Google Shopping.
Goals
 Gain visibility in Google Shopping through impressions.
 Increase site traffic and qualified clicks.
 Increase transactions.
 Increase revenue.
1
Challenges for RES
 The highly competitive commercial kitchen industry had just entered into a
“survival of the fittest” situation as many merchants were scrambling to cope
with the onset of the new Google Shopping paid model. We knew we had to
act fast and efficiently to stay ahead of the curve and establish our client’s
market share quickly.
 With over 150,000 products, we had to make intelligent decisions regarding
product priority in regard to bid costs.
 Budgets needed to be reallocated from other online marketing channels to
accommodate new Google Shopping click costs.
350.00%
300.00%
Impressions
250.00%
Clicks
200.00%
150.00%
100.00%
50.00%
0.00%
Sep-12
Oct-12
Nov-12 Dec-12
Jan-13
Feb-13
Mar-13
Apr-13
May-13
Jun-13
Jul-13
2
Strategy
Google Product Search had served our client well in the past so we aimed to
transition them into profitable and thriving Google Shopping adopters. With over
150,000 products, we had to get their business in the Google Shopping game
quickly or risk losing visibility to their competitors.
Vertical Rail devised a plan to structure campaigns to elevate core products with
known sales history and establish specific levels of visibility, tailored around
margins, seasonal product line shifts, varying commercial versus residential
markets and products with comparative advantage.
This program was implemented based upon keyword research, sales data, and
analytics with budgets and campaign details tailored to fit their short and longterm sales goals.
We immediately:
 Launch customized PLA campaigns in Google AdWords.
- These campaigns were targeted towards different aspects of the
restaurant equipment industry. For example, we had campaigns that
targeted specific brands, best-sellers, promotional campaigns, and
more.
 Optimize product data feeds and gain visibility.
3
How We Did It
After accessing this restaurant equipment company’s base data feed, we…
 Researched the commercial kitchen industry, its seasonality, its major brands
and how MAP pricing policy affected all aspects.
 Effectively organize the vast amount of product data from the website.
 Formatted the feed per the specifications of Google Shopping.
 Refined product attributes and made sure that each product was properly listed.
From there our team built PLA campaigns using Google Adwords …
 We organized each product into relevant ad groups.
 We set auto targets that were aimed at specific subsets of their inventory.
 Each campaign was intended to make sure our client appeared prominently in
Google Shopping keyword searches.
250.00%
200.00%
PLA Revenue
150.00%
100.00%
50.00%
0.00%
Sep-12
Oct-12
Nov-12 Dec-12
Jan-13
Feb-13
Mar-13
Apr-13
May-13
Jun-13
Jul-13
4
How We Did It
Next, we applied bid management on each product using Google AdWords…
 We designated budgets for specific campaigns, such as a campaign that targeted
specific regions of the country or a campaign that targeted specific product types.
 We placed the appropriate bid on each campaign to ensure visibility while
maintaining a manageable budget.
- Higher bids were placed on best-sellers, and lower bids were placed on
products that were likely to be clicked but not purchased.
Finally, to optimize their data feed we…
 Edited each of their products, SKU by SKU, to make sure the appropriate
keywords were properly positioned within their product titles and descriptions.
 Ensured that each SKU met Google’s attribute requirements.
 Uploaded our keyword rich data feed, daily.
20,000
Visits
Transactions
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
Aug
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
5
Results & Successes
Within 2 Months:





Impressions grew by 54.68%
Visits grew by 47.96%
Clicks grew by 54.68%
Transactions grew by 33.33%
PLA Revenue grew by 57.21%
Within 6 Months:





Impressions grew by 151.60%
Visits grew by 59.64%
Clicks grew by 135.85%
Transactions grew by 47.61%
PLA Revenue grew by 86.93%
Within 10 Months





Impressions grew by 205.39%
Visits grew by 287.08%
Clicks grew by 76.14%
Transactions grew by 60.11%
PLA Revenue grew by 159.01%
6
Win The Race
“
“
Win the race. I felt like I was constantly behind in a race
chasing Google and many of the comparison shopping sites
to keep up with both their changes and those my competitors
made. Once I turned the management over to Vertical Rail I
had confidence that I was in the lead and no longer running a
losing race, I was in it to win it.
– Company Chief Information Officer
00
7
Vertical Rail is not a dashboard or an automated marketing tool.
We act as an extension of your Ecommerce marketing team.
We apply real-time human observation and comprehensive
analysis to a merchant’s data and marketing strategy to achieve
measurable results.
RESULTS
Your Vertical Rail Team
335 Spreckels Dr., Suite D | Aptos, CA 95003
Toll-free: 1.888.736.4367 | Local: 1.831.661.5893