Fairfax increases conversions with optimised paid search

In August 2006, Direct Access , a discount distributor of managed funds and subsidiary of John Fairfax Holdings Limited (Australasia's largest publishing group), sought to reduce the cost of acquiring new customers online.

Direct Access approached Amplify, an online consultancy specialising in marketing strategies, search engine marketing and web design, to manage their online paid search and to develop targeted landing pages to lower their acquisition costs.

Melanie Silva, General Manager Direct Access comments:

"We were spending more and more and getting more eyeballs viewing our pages, but we weren't converting this increased traffic. So we thought; something's not quite right here. We need an online marketer to take a look."

Increasing visibility online

Direct Access was confident it had the necessary suite of products to succeed in the marketplace. The problem was getting in front of the right prospects at a reasonable price and converting those prospects into sales.

Melanie Silva, General Manager Direct Access explains:

"We had a winning product, but we didn't have enough time or resources to market that product in a way that gets results - that gets sales online. So it was just a matter of finding experts who could do this for us. "

Analysis reveals improvement opportunities

Rax Huq, Amplify's Account Manager, analysed Direct Access' online strategy and found areas where improvements could be made to improve Direct Access' ROI.

• Direct Access was spending on keywords with low conversion rates
• The account structure was inefficient and difficult to manage
• Prospects were not being redirected to the most relevant landing pages

Rax Huq explains Amplify's findings:

"When we looked at Direct Access' online marketing strategy, we determined that they [Direct Access] would benefit from a targeted spending strategy on profitable keywords and ad groups. We also determined they should create more specific landing pages to address those keyword queries."

Targeted approach improves ROI

In late August and early September 2006, Amplify implemented its targeted strategy with immediate positive effect on Direct Access' Return on investment.

The results have been very positive:

• The Conversion Rate improved by over 100% in 5 months
• The Cost per Acquisition (CPA) dropped by 50% in the same time period
• Despite a lower spend, the number of visitors remained constant

Rax Huq discusses the results:

"There's more work to be done - especially on creating more effective landing pages, but we successfully reversed the trend of escalating costs and poor ROI. Now Direct Access is doing well in specific product categories, acquiring more customers and their costs are by enlarge coming down month on month. So far, so good!"

Contact Amplify to learn how you can 'amplify' your ROI while lowering your costs.