Online kitchen retailer Appliances Online, the used Google+ to widen engagement levels with customers including CTR and conversion rates on search advertising. The strategy implemented Google Hangouts, rich media, and Google+ circles to tailor message to key groups. This case study looks at how the face-to-face strategy boosted its paid search CTR’s 33% and 300 new followers per day on Google+.
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Brand: Appliances Online | Sector: FMCG | Country: UK | Objective: Build brand enagagement, drive sales | Agency/ Partner: Google | Format: Google+, IM, Video, YouTube, Social Media
The brand’s very first hangout featuring local hero Tony the Fridge who had just run his final half-marathon (out of 30 in a row) with a fridge on his back, had over 200 people watching live.
According to social media manager Kate Barton, “The excitement, energy and buzz that come from attendees of a hangout couldn’t possibly be captured in any other way – and that‟s a powerful thing.
At the time, the brand had just over 2,000 followers on the platform, but the online event itself attracted 200 new followers.
Since then, they did a hangout baking challenge, and plan to do more: “With loads more ideas in the pipeline, I can see hangouts being a common occurrence on our page.”
When users take a picture of their refrigerator contents, follow the brand and share their post Google+, they get the chance to review a fridge freezer.
With its content strategy in place, Appliances Online simultaneously turned to the task of boosting follower numbers through cross promotion. Their method involved tapping into the audiences it had already established on other channels.
For example, whenever a competition goes live on other social networks, Appliances Online includes the Google+ badge and consequently gains approximately 300 new followers a day. When it holds a hangout or event on Google+, these initiatives are always pushed across all other channels to ensure a cross-promotional benefit.
Results
But what about the company’s objective of increasing search performance? Incorporating social extensions into Appliances Online’s AdWords advertising has had a hugely positive influence – a CTR uplift of 33%, accompanied by a decrease in cost-per-acquisition of 8% and decrease in cost-per-click of 7%.
• More than 1,000 additional followers thanks to hangouts
• 200 live hangout views on average per hangout
• 300 new followers per day on Google+ as a result of competitions on other social networks where the Google+ badge is featured
• 33% CTR uplift, 8% CPA decrease, 7% CPC decrease in search
