Helping Mid-Tier Advertisers Create Profits With Paid Ads
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Protecting customers one cell phone case at a time.

Based in Encinitas, CA, Antenna79 set out to make a true difference in the world. After developing a patented technology, Pong introduced a cell phone case that directs harmful EMF and radiation away from the user. Unlike most other cases that can actually increase radiation from phones, Pong-dedicated products have set out and succeeded in making the world a safer place.

On top of their lab-tested and proven radiation protective cases, Pong’s cell phone protection exceeds expectations with military-grade drop protection and a sleek, elegant design. With a Pong case, you are taking proper health measures without compromising style in the process.

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Reduce Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

The Pong team has alway supported online efforts to honor both their product and the company. The issue that they encountered was “Cell Phone Cases” is an expensive market to compete in. Competition in the space was steep, and a higher price point often took Pong out of the running early on. Despite this, we saw a lot of room for improvement within the program.

The overall goals for the paid media program were to increase awareness, improve conversion rate and conversions as a whole, which would lead to more transactions and revenue all while spending less on advertising budgets.

Although the previous agency Pong retained had done a good job laying the foundation for paid search, it was the task for Tower33 to take over and rehaul the overall paid media program. As we worked closely with the Pong team to ensure paid media properly supported all company efforts, we were tasked with making sweeping improvements across the board.

As we got our hands on the paid search program, we noticed a lot of really good data to base our changes on. We found multiple areas to improve across ad copy, extensions, active keywords, average position and much, much more. On top of what we wanted to do on the paid search side, it was imperative that we worked closely with the Pong team to make sure we properly supported sales, new announcements, articles and anything else they were pushing on their side.

 

Phone Cases, Phone Cases Everywhere

As a relatively new company, Pong faced a lot of issues that many young companies come across: setting up an online presence that allowed the customer to get to know the new product with minimal budgets, while still driving sales through their website at the same time.

When Tower33 took over, cost-per-acquisition was extremely high. The barrier to entry in the cell phone space is difficult. With so much competition, it was naturally raising the CPA (cost-per-acquisition) beyond a level that was comfortable. No matter how good the product is, it can be quite a task to get potential customers to purchase a case, even if it has health-saving benefits.

Within the budgets allowed, we were tasked with separating ourselves from the competition in a way that both drove awareness for the product but also quickly allowed customers to buy. The sales cycle for a cell phone can, in most cases, end up being extremely short; we had a lot to do in a short period of time.

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Our Approach

Understanding what the product was capable of, we had to get potential customers on board quick, and we had to get them emotionally vested in their health. The best “tricks up our sleeves” were actually not tricks at all. Speaking directly to what the cases did – protecting users from radiation – was the best way to get people on board as we appealed to their need to protect themselves.

This meant we needed to rework and craft new and updated experiences across all of the areas of our ongoing programs:

  • Ad Copy
  • Destination Landing Pages
  • Remarketing
  • Sales Support
  • Spot Targeting
  • Dynamic Remarketing
  • Shopping Campaigns

 

Our final strategy boiled down to these improvements being made to the customer experience, shown in order from the 1st touch to the last:

 

1st Touch – Paid Search

  • Refine ad spending and campaign structure.
  • Better utilize and distribute budgets based on booked revenue performance.
  • Balance keyword mixture between sales-driving and awareness.
  • Test ad copy to be more relevant; increase quality score.

 

2nd Touch – Dynamic Remarketing and Shopping Campaigns

  • Serve ads with products potential customers have looked at.
  • Serve Google search results with Pong products.
  • Allow products to be in front of customer’s faces and seen.

 

3rd Touch – Remarketing

  • Utilize static and text remarketing ads to serve to non-purchasers.
  • Test imaging to better fit the site.
  • Test copy to ensure right messaging is present.
  • Optimize remarketing lists to utilize highest performers.

 

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The Results

We had a goal to drastically improve every metric across the board. So we did just that.
We were able to reduce cost-per-acquisition, decrease CPCs, and increase conversion rate, allowing us to reduce spend while driving a higher ROI.

As we tackled this program, we made sweeping changes as quickly as we took over, but we also methodically went about testing ads as we worked closely in supporting Pong’s efforts. We used existing data to make paid search updates as well as live data to make quick changes as performance was occurring.

Comparing mid-2014 to early-2015 (omitting holiday seasons to ensure similarities), we saw numerous data-based improvements:

 

[pods name=”case-study-result” slug=”pong” template=”CS Result”]