Niche Retail puts search engine marketing to the test
In a complete reversal of the spendthrift advertising policies of the early days of e-retailing, more online merchants are keeping a sharp eye on marketing expenditures – even when they’re already posting profits instead of mounting losses. To test its results from paid-placement search engine advertising, Niche Retail LLC, an operator of nine web sites, pulled most of its placements on Google and Overture for three days this summer.
The results were immediate: a dramatic drop in online activity resulting in a 70% decline in sales. It then reinstated its paid-placement programs--but with a twist. Some keywords performed so well in natural search results that they didn’t need help from paid placements, Brad Sorock, co-founder and CEO, tells InternetRetailer.com. “It all comes down to the bottom line,” he says. “We’re operating in the black, but we want to raise the bottom line and see more net profits.”
Sorock adds that effective search-engine marketing is helping to drive sales at Niche Retail’s newest web site, BicycleTrailers.com, which launched in July. “Sales are going better than expected,” he says.
Niche Retail, whose sites also include JoggingStroller.com, TrekkingPoles.com, WaterBounce.com, RadarSource.com and EliteCarSeat.com, worked in-house and with PeakPlacement.com to improve its use of keywords for better results in natural searches. In some cases, such as with the key words “jogging stroller,” it realized a 12% sales conversion rate without paid placement. “So we decided to spend more to get key words in the right places,” Sorock says. “If we can place in search results organically, that is enough reason to drop a key word from pay-per-click.”
Sorock says that improved site placement of the jogging stroller key words has consistently led to JoggingStroller.com’s appearing within the first two results of web searches, and that dropping the complementary paid placements for the same words did not result in a decline in sales.
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