Servicestart increases ROAS by 105% with adxsearch

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1 Case Study Servicestart increases ROAS by 105% with adxsearch Overview Founded in Sweden in 2006, Servicestart is a leading intermediary for services, providing the best starting point to bring service seekers and service providers together. With a user base exceeding 300 thousand, the company has expanded into the UK and France, where it s quickly gaining traction. Completely free for consumers, Servicestart makes it easy to obtain relevant quotes from qualified providers in areas ranging from cleaning to home improvement, moving and more. The majority of Servicestart s web traffic comes from sponsored links advertising through GoogleAdWords and Bing Ads. With click-through-rates on Google AdWords alone jumping 25% in Q vs. Q and competition for keywords across all search engines growing, Servicestart is focused on increasing performance while maximizing return on ad spend (ROAS). Dissatisfied with the results from its (now former) PPC automation platform, Servicestart turned to the adxsearch platform.

2 Challenge Servicestart s primary concern was its high cost per acquisition (also known as cost per conversion or cost per action) as well as the revenue generated from paid search conversions. Consumers in our markets overwhelmingly turn to the search engines for services so it wasn t a matter of funneling our marketing budget into other channels but rather generating more return from our investment in paid search. We knew we just needed to do it better. Pål Källsen, CEO, Servicestart adx Search s (adx) primary goal was to increase the overall performance of Servicestart s Google AdWords and Bing Ads campaigns. To achieve this, it outlined the following objectives: lower CPA, increase conversions and ultimately, maximize ROAS. Solution In order to achieve Servicestart s objectives, the first order to business was keyword bidding optimization. Legacy PPC automation platforms do this in two ways: 1) Teams of bidding managers manually adjust bids on keywords based on yesterday s data OR 2) Built-in bidding automation technology automatically adjusts bids based on pre-set parameters. For example, Pay a maximum of $5 for keyword Housekeeper when conversion value increases. In the first case; where bidding managers are ultimately responsible, the chances for error increase, conversion opportunities are typically missed during non-business hours and teams base decisions on the previous day s data. Furthermore, the costs associated with maintaining these bidding experts are passed on to the client. In the second case; using standard bidding technology, bidding simply does not happen in realtime. In fact, bidding on a keyword usually happens once in a 24 hour period. Additionally, success metrics are focused on number of conversions versus the value of those conversions.

3 Why is real-time bidding SO important for advertisers like Servicestart? Clicks and conversions happen in real-time. So it only makes sense that Servicestart s campaigns react to that information in real-time by changing bids on keywords. This simple chart illustrates the difference between true real-time bidding and standard automated bidding solutions. Time Action True Real-Time Standard Real-Time 12pm Conversion up Bid up Bid up 3pm Conversion down Bid down No change 6pm Conversion up Bid up No change 9pm Conversion up Bid up No change 12am Conversion down Bid down No change

4 Furthermore, only real-time tracking together with real-time bidding would produce the kind of results Servicestart was seeking. Not only was Servicestart missing out on more conversion opportunities but on profitable conversion opportunities. Without true real-time bidding and tracking, Servicestart s former PPC management platform was only truly capable of focusing on the overall number of conversions. As such, its optimizer failed to take a critical metric into account: ROI/Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). In practice, it sacrificed more profitable product sales that have a lower volume, in favor of less profitable product sales that have a higher volume. In other words, the conversion counts increased, but not necessarily the profits. At the end of the day, which results are more impressive? A) 200 conversions worth $10,000 OR B) 100 conversions worth $20,000 FYI: B) can only be achieved with the adxsearch platform. So what can adxsearch do that the other platforms can t? adxsearch has managed to harness the brainpower of the brightest bidding teams and blend it with the most sophisticated computer algorithms. The result is smarter bidding. The smartest solution for paid search adxsearch is the first SEM optimization system to provide a synthesis of human expertise and innovative computer intelligence. In doing so, it actually performs better the more data you feed it. The core of the optimization is based on the theory of artificial intelligence and neural networks. Though not perfect in prediction and classification, neural networks outperform all other methods in every field for minimizing result errors, particularly in dynamic environments like Paid Search. The neural network algorithms are totally built in Erlang, a programming language used to build massively scalable real-time systems with requirements to handle massive calculations. What does all of this tech talk really mean? For Servicestart, adxsearch was able to remove the focus on budget and replace it with a focus on return.

5 Results After an initial training session, Servicestart s marketing team was given complete control of the adxsearch platform. Thanks to an intuitive dashboard and a platform based on artificial intelligence, they run the show! Not only have we doubled conversions and decreased our CPA by 30% but we ve increased our ROAS by an incredible 105%. Needless to say, switching to smarter search with adx has been one of the best decisions we ve made for our business. adxsearch s scalability means they ll continue to grow with us into new markets. Pål Källsen, CEO, Servicestart