Context and need
This Client needed visibility in a very short radius around a local business, with a very modest budget, in a large French city. Their qualified leads are mainly passers-by and local residents who can benefit from a local offer.
More distant but still qualified prospects are difficult to target with available advertising tools because they perform the same keyword searches as unqualified prospects. They are also indistinguishable using audiences : their interests do not allow them to be sufficiently differentiated from other internet users.
In addition, a major infrastructure in the city is located nearby. It generates a high volume of rather unqualified passing-by prospects.
Implementation
Organic traffic
Adsellum quickly implemented local SEO for the Client’s business in two locations, initially without even a website but with proper content. These efforts were successful and were furthered with a common website.
However, a more proactive approach with paid advertising was adopted for one of the locations with a new dedicated website because the problematic location was linked to the other well-referenced location, but the induced traffic was not sufficient.
Furthermore, SEO efforts attracted prospects from wider areas, even from abroad. However, the target area is very small, and the organic traffic from within the target area remained insufficient.
Website
The Client only needed to generate leads through contact forms and phone calls, so a simple website was sufficient. A mobile-first approach was used to leverage geolocation for more effective ad targeting.
This was an easy and economical solution for the Client, and it also ensured that :
- the activity was correctly highlighted by a short text of around 250 words;
- phoning and/or filling a contact form is easy to do;
- all visual content (photos, videos) are well presented and easy to explore further, the website looked sufficiently professional;
- the website was rather slow (Speed Index at 3.5 seconds on mobile) but loads its first elements quickly and without disturbing the layout so that users are not annoyed;
- the website responsive design was very effective for screens smartphones;
- regulatory and legal requirements were observed.
The simplicity of the offer reduced the need for monitoring, so the built-in analytics solution was sufficient, even though it was limited and did not feed data back to the advertising platforms. This choice also avoided using a large and intrusive cookie banner that would have negatively impacted the advertising results.
Since website visitors were already qualified when they clicked on the ads thanks to the lead acquisition method, the Client did not plan to use A/B testing or any other in-depth site improvement method. A more complex website would have only hindered users with a large and intrusive cookie banner.
Online advertising
Google Ads Display
Prospects are reached through a low-budget Google Display campaign with a surprisingly high number of impressions, despite its very limited scope.
Prospects are clearly segmented based on the value of the Client’s offer to create targeted ads. A careful selection of available audiences corresponding to the identified segments ensures that prospects are better targeted.
A separate campaign with its own low budget includes all internet users within the target area, as some prospects cannot be identified more precisely. It is used to discover new relevant audiences or any other relevant information about prospects.
Waze Ads
In addition, Adsellum set up a cost-effective Waze campaign for the Client, which reached and interacted with motorists interested as they passed by and by issuing reminders one or two days later. These motorists are an important target for the Client’s business. They have to be reached without being redirected to the business location while they are driving.
Results obtained with the Adsellum system
The system controlled the Google Ads Display campaign, adjusting bids, bid modifiers per audience, devices and targeted radii. After initial work to improve the advertising content, CTR and CPC quickly improved to satisfactory levels that matched sector average performances. Then Adsellum’s system started managing the campaigns. Progress was made over a period of several months, gradually, as additional developments were made to further adapt the system to such demand.
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| CPC in cents | Between 11 and 14 | Between 5 and 6 |
| CTR in % | Between 0.36 and 0.53 | Between 0.85 and 1.20 |
The system adapts well to uncertainties, resulting in a relatively stable average CPC. In particular, it handles the unexpected loss of low-cost advertising space well, likely due to intermittent campaigns from other advertisers in the area. The goal is to opportunistically take advantage of whatever advertising space is available, rather than focusing on maintaining a specific volume of traffic. In fact, traffic volume remains quite high, given the considerable amount of total space available, even in the very narrow diffusion radius.
Notably, the system efficiently adjusts bids per device, favoring mobile screens. This avoids over-soliciting local residents via their televisions, computers, or tablets.
Conclusions
The Client’s local business reaches its prospects and acquires customers at a low cost. With the same budget, the Client can get more traffic from more qualified prospects. Implementing a more technically complex solution does not currently seem to be in the Client’s best interest. Using Adsellum’s system optimization capabilities to aim broadly but at a lower cost is sufficient. Total traffic volume can be adjusted by modifying budgets.
The main benefit of Adsellum’s system in such a situation is that it saves management time for clients who do not have the time to learn how to use advertising platform interfaces. Campaigns can run for months without human intervention under the system’s supervision, freeing up clients to focus on improving the advertising content whenever platforms offer new capabilities to continue to improve results.