Online sales are a key source of revenue for Distrelec, which is why the B2B enterprise did much of its advertising via Google Shopping and manually managed Google Ads  campaigns. However, while this setup generated a high amount of traffic, it was unable to consistently cover highly specific search queries for item numbers and similar terms, which nevertheless frequently came up.

In order to close this gap, improve market visibility and increase the return on ad spend (ROAS), Distrelec has begun relying on a solution developed by Webrepublic software engineers: the adFeeder. adFeeder replaces manually managed Google Ads campaigns with an automated campaign management tool based on a product data feed.

These campaigns cover all specific product search queries and add around another million keywords per market to the Shopping campaigns. adFeeder campaigns are compared with Distrelec's product range and updated on a daily basis – a huge improvement on manually managed campaigns that were only updated every quarter. The ROAS achieved by the adFeeder campaigns in June 2017 across all 22 target markets was twice that of the ROAS from Shopping campaigns.

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Project overview

Initial Position

Distrelec was advertising its products using Google Shopping and Google Ads campaigns – but eventually saw their limits. An analysis of search behavior among Distrelec's target groups demonstrated that customers frequently search for products using highly specific keywords such as item numbers like «MCP3221A5T-I/OT» – behavior that strongly indicates an intent to buy. The problem is that Google Shopping is optimized to cope with search queries for product names such as «A/D converter 12-bit SOT-23».

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Goals

  • Visibility: Distrelec wanted to find a customized solution that would improve the visibility of its products across all relevant and specific search queries in the Google search network. The gap in coverage for search queries related to a high intent to buy (e.g. item numbers) needed to be closed.
  • Efficiency: The complex campaign structure (a total of 22 markets, around 500 campaigns and 3.5 million AdGroups), massive range of products (160,000 products per market) and the resulting data volumes had to be more efficiently managed. The campaigns needed to advertise the current product assortment, meaning new products had to be advertised immediately and ads for out-of-stock or obsolete products immediately paused.
  • Performance: Distrelec wanted to increase the return on ad spend across all its markets.
adFeeder campaigns are the ideal supplement to existing Shopping campaigns. In June, the ROAS produced by adFeeder campaigns was twice as high as the ROAS for Shopping campaigns - with revenue increasing as well.

Angel Muñoz

E-Business and Digital Marketing Manager, Distrelec Group

Measures

  • adFeeder: Webrepublic software engineers supplied Distrelec with the inhouse-developed adFeeder system, and tailored it to suit the customer’s specific requirements. The technical solution replaces existing Google Ads campaigns and supplements the Shopping campaigns. As a result, Distrelec can deliver both adFeeder and Shopping ads on the same search results page depending on the search.
  • Automation: adFeeder automatically generates ad texts and keywords using the product data feed and dynamic ad templates. The ad texts are optimally tailored to the search behavior of users thanks to customized templates and include relevant information (e.g. item numbers, net prices and product categories). The campaigns are updated every night with adFeeder. As soon as a product is sold out, the corresponding ads are paused. They are automatically reactivated when the product becomes available again. This prevents products that are out of stock from being advertised, which can frustrate buyers and needlessly increase ad spend. If a new product is added to the online shop, a new AdGroup is automatically created with the corresponding keywords and ads. To ensure that information is consistent across the adFeeder and Shopping campaigns, both draw data from the same feed.
  • Optimization: Bidding strategies can be defined in adFeeder based on margins and product relevance. Databased results from the adFeeder campaigns are then fed into the optimization of Shopping campaigns.

Distrelec SERP

When a user searches for the article number «34 sma-50-0-3» an adFeeder ad will be displayed on the left and a shopping ad on the right.

  • Sector:retail (electronics, technology)
  • Webrepublic customer since:2015

Results

  • Scaling: Distrelec uses adFeeder to manage a total of approximately 500 campaigns, 3.5 million AdGroups, 10.5 million text ads and 16.5 million keywords across 22 markets; manual campaign management at this level of complexity would be impossible.
    While manually-set-up campaigns were only updated every 90 days as a result of the immense amount of effort involved, today updates take place every 24 hours. Thanks to adFeeder, new products can be introduced and advertised within a day.
  • Relevance: The high relevance of adFeeder text ads for target groups is demonstrated by a four-fold increase in CTR for the target group compared to Shopping campaigns, measured across all markets.
  • Return on ad spend: The new adFeeder campaigns systematically cover search queries that display a greater intent to buy (for example, item numbers) and exploit market potential that has been left untapped up until now: in June 2017, the adFeeder campaigns achieved a ROAS that was twice as high as that for Shopping campaigns, together with a 64% increase in revenue.
Webrepublic's adFeeder system has enabled us to manage massive amounts of data. We are able to control a total of 500 Google Ads campaigns with 3.5 million AdGroups and 10.5 million text ads automatically, which would have never been possible manually. This means we are updating our campaigns on a daily rather than quarterly basis, thereby ensuring that we are always promoting our current product range.

Nagore Fernandez

Search Marketing Manager, Distrelec Group