How Discovery Ads doubled conversions without extra budget

Author: Maryna Pylaeva

Context specialist

Reviewer: Halyna Lyman

Head of PPC specialists

2023-07-12

Client:

Ukropak,Ltd (ukropack.com.ua) — online store selling packaging materials and equipment (polyethylene tape, packaging equipment, vacuum degasser for products). Official dealer of POLIVEKTRIS, PLASTICBAND brands in Ukraine.

Goal:

Receiving calls from potential customers and presence of the website in search results on targeted queries.

Cooperation:

2019 — December 2022

Project features:

• narrow niche;
• lack of call tracking;
• ad campaigns are suspended for the weekend;
• there is no option to purchase the product directly on the website.

  The "Purchase on site" service is not implemented due to several reasons:

  1. Expensive equipment - there is no room for spontaneous purchase.
  2. Complex technical specification of the equipment - professional consultation is required prior to purchase.

Working on the project

During the first stages of cooperation, we customized:

• search advertising campaign by product category;
• an advertising campaign with dynamic search ads to cover relevant low-frequency search queries.

In the contextual media network, we launched two campaigns: remarketing and ad campaign on cold audiences.

The company's specialists decided not to launch a brand advertising campaign due to the lack of frequency for branded queries.

During the period from 01/04/20 to 01/04/21, we received 146 conversions.

Given the high cost of equipment and failure to track purchases or checkout (the main macro conversion in the account is "Click by phone number", however, not every call leads to a sale), it was essential for our specialists to reduce the price of conversion.

We decided to test Discovery ad campaigns (you can learn more about this type of ad campaigns in Google Ads reference). This type of ad campaign is not as popular among advertisers as search or GDN, yet we've seen their pros in this regard:

• the possibility to familiarize users with your products before your competitors do;
• attract clients cheaper than in search and GDN-campaigns.

Aweb specialists launched two Discovery ad campaigns: targeting cold audiences and remarketing. As a result, for the period from 01.04.2021 to 01.04.2022, we received 314 conversions (+114%), and the average price per conversion decreased by 48.54%

42.5% of the total number of conversions received were brought by Discovery ad campaigns

Conversions received by ad campaign type

In the second half of 2021, Google Ads presented a new type of ad campaigns — Performance Max, a distinctive feature of which is versatility and ad impression on all Google platforms: CMMS, Search, YouTube, Gmail. In this case, the algorithm independently selects the appropriate playset to show ads to the required audience (see reference for more details).

Taking into account a large amount of statistical data accumulated while working on this project, we decided to test a new type of ad campaigns, by launching the groups of Performance Max objects for all product categories, as well as for the major competitors of Ukropak.

Considering the successful performance of the media ad, our team suggested that the client prepare videos to launch the video ad. After receiving them, we launched it for a cold, similar, and interest-based audience.

Results

We have received 1,733 conversions (+415.91%) from April 1, 2022 to April 1, 2023 with a 273.74% decrease in average price per conversion, compared to the previous period.

Conversions received by the type of ad campaign

Discovery ad campaigns have not lost their relevance even after the launch of the Performance Max ad campaign.

Conclusion:

1. In the process of testing various hypotheses and advertising tools provided by Google Ads, we came up with the conclusion that the best result for this project is achieved by media ads (Discovery Ads, video ads).
2. When using media ads, it is vital to work responsibly with the audience. Properly selected audiences and the quality of prepared creatives are the key to the success of media ads.
3. Google Ads provides a wide range of advertising tools, yet you can find the most effective promotion strategy only by testing and experiments. It is important to remember there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
4. Increasing conversions without a significant increase in budgets is an achievable goal.

Projects participants:

Project manager: Kateryna Tymoshenko

PPC-specialist: Maryna Pylaeva

Head of the Contextual Advertising Department: Halyna Lyman