Contextual advertising from scratch for an alcoholic beverages store

Advertising of alcoholic products has a number of restrictions, due to which the ad may not be allowed to be shown. The Client contacted us with the task of setting up advertising for alcoholic beverages for his website. This is his first experience of launching contextual advertising. And he is successful - for 9 months of doing this, the context brought him 6740 conversions since February of which 71% are sales. We also managed to achieve a return on investment of 670%!

A niche feature is that alcohol in Ukraine can be advertised, but not to the entire audience, and not all ad formats can be used. For example, you cannot start remarketing because Google does not collect this audience.

1. February-May

We started working with the Client in February 2021. The Client was offered to set up advertising in search (for general queries and for product categories). The Client wanted to set up a separate campaign for priority categories (he provided a list of categories).

As a result, we set up such campaigns:

• for priority categories of goods (the Client himself has highlighted the priority);
• campaign with general queries;
• campaign for product categories (except for priority ones);
• campaign to competitors - after analyzing the market situation, we realized that there are many competitors, and we can get some of their traffic and increase the number of sales. Their domains were used as keys;

Fig. 1 – Example of advertising on competitors

• DSA campaign by product category - it aims to close the gaps in the keyword list of a regular search campaign. The system compares user queries with the content of the website and collects ads itself to be shown to interested users. Working in combination, search and dynamic search campaigns can increase your reach to your target audience and drive sales.

During optimization, we tested different bidding strategies (namely, we started with the Maximum Clicks strategy). As soon as the data on conversions appeared, the strategies were connected Maximum conversions and then the Target CPA bidding.

The client did not receive a task to achieve a certain price per conversion. During the work with the project, we ourselves tested different strategies and tried to reduce the price. It turned out that the Target CPA strategy performs better. As a result, we get more conversions at a lower cost.

During regular work with the Client's advertising account, such events were carried out:

• clean search queries from unprofitable and irrelevant;
• expand the list of negative keywords;
• add keywords based on system recommendations;
• disable expensive keys that did not bring conversions;
• adjust bids by location and time of display.

In addition to adjustments, we have expanded the list of campaigns for ad scaling:

• The brand campaign was set up in March because after analyzing the search queries we realized that customers were also looking for the Client's store.
• A smart display campaign was set up for the test, but it did not bring any results.
• We set up a duty free campaign since there were many similar queries (price for duty free alcohol, buy duty free whiskey, etc.).

Fig. 2 – Account results for the first 4 months (Feb 2021 - May 2021)

As a result, we have achieved a decrease in conversion by almost 5 times - from 111 to 21 UAH!

As conversions were taken into account:

• click on the contacts;
• added product to the cart;
• call back;
• completed form on the contact page;
• placed order.

Fig. 3 – Data for February-May 2021 by conversions

In the first 4 months with the help of customized contextual advertising received:

• 1488 placed orders;
• 50 callbacks;
• 4 completed contact forms;
• 2030 product additions to the cart;
• 205 clicks on a phone number.

43% of the 3,450 conversions account for orders.

2. June-October

We have repeatedly offered to set up shopping campaigns and connect e-commerce, but initially our Client did not want to do it.

Since June, the Client agreed to start e-commerce and provided us with a feed for the Merchant Center.

To set up smart shopping so that it works effectively, you need data on audiences and on the value of conversions, so that the system has something to learn. We cannot get audience lists because Google does not collect audiences for alcohol. Therefore, since we just started e-commerce, we needed a period so that data on transactions (their number) and conversion values (income) appeared in the account.

First, we set up a normal shopping experience for the Client. After working for 3 weeks and having received enough statistics on transactions and values, we set up a smart shopping.

Smart shopping campaigns, as a result of product analysis, were divided into 2 campaigns: Smart shopping for vodka, and for other products. Because vodka stole all the impressions and the budget. We did the same for the search.

We started testing strategies for search campaigns after e-commerce plugged in and transaction and value data emerged. Used the Maximum Conversion Value strategy, only a few search campaigns left the Target CPC strategy. As a result of the test, we realized that it works more efficiently and we get more income (conversion value).

Also, ineffective conversions were disabled after starting e-commerce, namely the cart and clicking on the contacts. We did this in order for the system to retrain for more valuable conversions for us, namely transactions (sales) and leads (callback/feedback form).

We systematically optimized advertising campaigns (we continued to regularly clean requests, disable expensive keys without conversions (so as not to waste the budget on it).

In shopping campaigns to improve its effectiveness:

• tested strategies with targeted ROI;
• disabled ineffective/expensive products for promotion;
• turned off ineffective geo (analysis was carried out and places from which there were no sales were turned off).

Now it is already 5 regions and 2 cities of Ukraine:

• Ivano-Frankivsk region;
• partially Kiev region;
• Cherkasy region;
• Chernihiv region;
• partially Zaporizhzhya region;
• the cities of Lviv and Poltava.

For the period June-October 2021, we were able to achieve a return on investment of 670%. That is for every 10 UAH spent, the client earns 67 UAH. We managed to get a return on investment of 5611% for the brand campaign!

Fig. 4 - Results for June-October 2021

The contextual advertising channel has become the main source of the Client's income - we receive 72% of the total income from advertising.

Fig. 5 – Distribution of the Client's income through digital channels

Also, the Client receives 73% of the total number of transactions from the PPC channel.

3. Setting up ads

Since there are restrictions on displaying advertisements for alcoholic beverages, it was necessary to configure the ads so that they attract the maximum available visitors from the search and the media network.

Fig. 6 – Description of the Client's products benefits in the ads

Fig. 7 – Description of the Client's products benefits in the ads

We took pictures from the Client's website. Benefits of buying goods from the Client were shown in the description:

• original, certified products;
• prices are lower than those of competitors (on average by 10%);
• fast delivery to anywhere in Ukraine (only 1-2 days);
• cash on delivery.

Fig. 8 – Example of a search ad

Fig. 9 – Objects that render responsive display ads

We used the extensions for more attractiveness:

• phone number;
• additional links;
• clarifications;
• prices;
• structured descriptions (brands, places, types of alcohol).

4. Bid adjustment

We analyzed the work of advertising campaigns in order to find out at what hours the alcoholic beverages are most popular and maximize their effectiveness. As a result, we realized that most conversions are made between 7 am and 8 pm, and there are practically no sales between 11 pm and 6 am.

We analyzed the impression times for each campaign and made our own bid adjustments for each device to get the best results, for example:

• for the campaign for priority goods, set + 20% to the rate for impressions from 7 am to 10 am and from 11 am to 6 pm;
• for a brand campaign set: + 30% for impressions from 9 am to 1 pm and from 2 pm to 8 pm.

The rest of the time, the rate was reduced by 20-40%. That is, if an ad is shown at 6 am, then the Client will pay less for the impression, and his ad may not be in the first place in the block. But, at a lower cost at unpopular times, we could still be shown in the ad block and receive visits from visitors to the website.

We also regularly adjusted ad display locations by disabling non-conversion geo.

Рис. 10 – Excluded places for Smart Shopping Campaigns

The majority of views and 80% of sales are made via cell phones. Therefore, we have set the bid adjustment by device - + 20% for conversion search campaigns.

Fig. 11 – Distribution of costs, clicks and conversions by device

At the moment, the Client has 9 campaigns, the most profitable of which are Brand and Smart Shopping.

Fig. 12 – June-October 2021 comparison

The Client's return on investment and business revenue continues to grow. After connecting e-commerce, we see a systematic increase in these indicators. Comparing October and June 2021, revenue and profitability increased by 135% and 85%, respectively.

Conclusion

We constantly analyzed the current results and adjusted the campaign settings so that they would bring maximum leads and sales when setting up contextual advertising for the Client.

The budget did not merge by cutting off non-working geos, keys and campaigns, which made it possible to get more sales from conversion campaigns, reduce the price per transaction, and increase the return on investment.

If you want the same - send a request! We will consider your project and develop an optimal development strategy for it, taking into account the specifics of your niche and the project.

Our specialists will set up and launch advertising campaigns, and also will carry out ongoing work to optimize campaigns and increase their effectiveness.