Foxminded Success Story: Achieving 100+ Conversions per Month with the Discovery Campaign

Task: Setting up contextual advertising on Google Ads
Industry: Coding courses with practical experience on real-world projects
Location: Ukraine
Duration: 6 months (December 2020 – May 2021) (compared to the previous period, June – November 2020)
Total advertising budget: $5100

Initial setup:

1. This project is highly interesting and unique. The company has developed its own methodology that focuses solely on real-world projects, without any theoretical content.
2. The Google Ads account consisted of multiple search campaigns, each targeting different geographical areas for specific courses. Additionally, DNS campaigns were also separated based on geography and course.
3. There were low conversion rates in terms of phone calls and submitted forms. Prior to our involvement, the company received only 206 requests, resulting in a conversion cost of $13 per conversion over a six-month period. The primary objective was to increase the number of customers.

Goal: Increase the number of conversions

Solution:

1. We conducted an analysis to determine the sources of conversions. After examining the data, we discovered that the majority of conversions were generated through Dynamic Search Campaigns and Branding efforts.
2. To improve performance, we focused on optimizing the campaigns that had been successful and reset the ones that were not yielding results. We re-allocated the advertising budget, primarily directing it towards effective keywords and campaigns. Initially, we collected keywords and search queries from all campaigns, including Dynamic Search Campaigns. We identified the ones that showed promising conversion potential and created a separate campaign with a higher budget, utilizing the maximum conversion value bid strategy. For other keywords, we assigned smaller budgets and set manual bids. Although the first campaign generated conversions, they were costly and did not meet our expectations.
3. Next, we began actively testing various campaigns and strategies. This allowed us to implement numerous interesting strategies, including:

• adding audience groups based on interests (derived from Google Analytics) 
• creating custom audiences based on selected keywords and search queries that had previously generated conversions. These audience groups were integrated into the Display Network campaigns.
• additionally, we experimented with different geotargeting options.

As a result of these efforts, we observed a significant improvement. Conversions increased from 3 to 4, and the cost per conversion decreased to $31,8, which was $27,75 less than the previous period.

As part of our testing, we decided to explore a new type of Google campaign called Discovery, which was relatively new at the time.

The Discovery Ads format provided an opportunity to display personalized and effective ads to users who were actively browsing the internet and likely to engage with the ad and the brand. Google's machine learning algorithms were utilized to identify the optimal moments when users were most likely to interact with a brand. Essentially, these clickable image ads were presented to an audience that potentially had an interest in ordering a product or service, even without being aware of it.

Ultimately, this strategy proved to be highly successful. Over the course of six months, we achieved a total of 593 conversions at an average cost of $2,1 per conversion.

During our campaign optimization process, we dedicated efforts to creating and testing visual materials tailored to different segments of the target audience. This included developing content for general audiences, as well as specific groups such as women, men, and individuals interested in changing their profession. Additionally, we conducted tests using various audience types, including website visitors, YouTube viewers, interest-based audiences, and event-based audiences.

After conducting thorough research and analysis, we discovered an optimal strategy known as ‘audience-creative.’ This approach involved displaying carousel ads specifically to visitors of websites similar to ours. This strategy proved to be highly effective in capturing the attention and engagement of our target audience.

Conclusion:

Discovery campaigns have proven to be highly effective in acquiring new customers. However, it is crucial to conduct thorough testing and experimentation with different visual materials and target audiences to identify the most successful combinations.

Through our efforts, we successfully achieved our goal of increasing the number of conversions. Over the course of the campaign, we witnessed a remarkable 277.63% increase in conversions, with an average monthly increase from 34 to 129 conversions. Additionally, we were able to reduce the cost per conversion by an impressive 49.31%, lowering it from $13 to $6,5 per conversion.

These results highlight the effectiveness of the strategies implemented and demonstrate the positive impact of our optimization efforts on the overall campaign performance.