Online Ad Expert Case Study

Client - International Travel Agency

When the eventual founder of Online Ad Expert began working with this mid-sized travel agency in late 2006, the company already had a solid PPC presence on the three major search engines - Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Because the travel agency jumped on the Pay Per Click bandwagon very early in the history of PPC in 1999, they leapfrogged over other agencies with similar resources.

Despite the company's success with PPC, they recognized that their growth necessitated a dedicated PPC specialist. Within weeks of beginning work with the company, OAE founder Jerod Solomon had identified and fixed several shortcomings in what was thought to be a healthy PPC system.

1) There were numerous keyword "gaps," which were filled by painstakingly selecting additional keywords for each product that the travel agency offered. Through this process, the total number of keywords for which the company advertised increased from just over 700 to more than 2,400.

2) Keyword match types were not always used correctly, which eliminated valuable traffic in many instances, while also bringing in irrelevant, costly traffic.

3) There was no system in place to calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) for each product that the travel agency advertised. Not only did Jerod begin to track the amount spent on advertising each product, but he also correlated these numbers with sales in order to determine product-specific ROIs, rather than a simple ROI for PPC expenses in general.

4) There was no procedure for reallocating advertising funds from one product to another for the purpose of increasing profit. Because Jerod had already calculated the ROIs for each product, he was able to redistribute PPC expenses to create the most efficient and profitable PPC system possible. This was accomplished by creating a redistribution algorithm that took into account not only individual product ROIs, but also volume and several other variables.

The result of these efforts was an almost immediate increase in revenue. Within four months of beginning work with the travel agency, the company's sales increased by 54%, and the average cost of customer acquisition decreased by 12%. For a company that was already a multi-million dollar business with a pre-existing PPC strategy, these improvements were staggering, especially considering the short time period in which they were achieved.

This methodology, level of service, and willingness to develop
customized, innovative solutions became the foundation for Online
Ad Expert even before it opened its doors. The same principals
continue to drive the company forward to this day.