I wanted to link over to this article from Online Media Daily because it includes some specific numbers around an effort to tweak a paid search campaign.
The gist is that Smith Micro (makers of StuffIt and other software) worked with Digital River to tweak their SEM campaign resulting in the following:
- “logged a 23% quarter-over-quarter increase in paid search results”
- “about an 80% uptick in delivery of trial products”
- “and a 3% lift to 18% in paid search e-commerce revenue.”
- “…and a 14% increase in sales from Apple Mac users”
- “Landing the consumer on the correct page gave Smith Micro “14% of the 20% overall lift in sales”
I’ve worked with Digital River and other SEM firms to tweak key words, landing pages, offers, and copy till I was blue in the face. It’s a tough business and to show any growth in an existing SEM campaign is notable.
What I gather from this example is that Digital River started to drive mac users to landing pages that offered mac versions of StuffIt and Smith Micro’s other applications. The increase in mac users, Apple’s market share is now at 20% in the US, propbably drove this SEM success. It’s a good example of taking an opportunity, tweaking the delivery, and ringing out a couple more pence in sales. Anyone in the software business should take note that Mac centric keywords and landing pages may pay off.
One last note, when I used Digital River as my SEM agency they were super secretive about the key words they bought and the return on those key words. They would only report on the aggregate number. I hope they have since changed their policy. If not, at the very least make sure DR reports the ROI on branded key words verse non-branded key words. Other than that I really like the folks at DR — they are very proffesional and their annual retreat is a blast.
