How Grainger Used Google Adwords to increase conversions by nearly 1,000%

Sneak Peak:

Read this case study to know how a retailing company made a combined use of Dynamic Search Ads and remarketing lists for search ads and could increase conversions nearly 1,000%. Company: Gainger Industry: Retailing Tool Used: Google Adwords Result: Nearly 1000% increase in conversions Business Type: B2B

The Brand & the Story

One of the leading broad line suppliers of maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) products, Grainger founded in 1927 in Chicago. The company servicing various businesses and institutions was recently prized as the 15th largest e-retailer in the U.S. and Canada, on the basis of Internet Retailer’s 2013 Top 500 Guide. Though the retailing company is using AdWords since 2004 for advertising everything whether motors or office supplies, however with over one million items growing daily in its product inventory, the company wanted find out a more efficient way of managing keyword lists and ad copy for such a vast & dynamic product catalog. Gainger wanted to show the customers the right products at the right time saving not just their time & money but that of their customers as well. The retailing brand also wanted to create relevant ads for the company’s full product catalog maintaining the number of hours spent on managing AdWords every week. The planned to make use of Dynamic Search Ads for generating relevant ads based on the company’s vast & dynamic product catalog as well as the remarketing lists for search ads for re-engaging the customers. Implementing these two new strategies that they added in the list of their Adwords plan helped them increase the conversions by nearly 1000%.

Gainger’s objective behind using Dynamic Search Ads and Remarketing

Being a company selling over one million individual products as well as with new items hitting the shelves daily, it wasn’t easy for Grainger to manage keyword lists & ads for the company’s vast & dynamic product catalog. Though they were already using AdWords to advertise their most popular products, they wanted to devise something new that could help with a more effective way to do that.

Gainger’s strategy for using Google Adwords

Grainger planned to make use of Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) & remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) in Google Adwords for extending the company’s advertising reach. Dynamic Search Ads that work by itself in generating ads based on website content helped the retailing brand in showing the customers the ads with a headline based on their search terms as well as the text tied to the company’s most relevant landing page whenever they searched for relevant items on Google. This made the Grainger.com website to be crawled regularly in turn making the ads to reflect the company’s current products & inventory levels. This how the company helped its customers in finding what they needed to keep their business running. With the help of DSA + RLSA capabilities, Grainger could easily expand their keyword coverage, making it easier for customers to find the products they needed from over one million products offered by the company.

Implementing remarketing to keep the products top of mind

To make more productive, Gainger started implementing remarketing lists for search ads also that helped them in showing relevant ads on Google to those customers who had previously made a purchase on its website. The retailing brand already had an idea of higher chances of these shoppers converting again later and made use of RLSA for keeping itself top of mind. In fact, the use of these features in concert also helped them in indentifying new keywords that can then be added to standard keyword lists. Leading to spike up in overall keyword coverage it dramatically reduced the amount of time the dedicated by the team for keyword management at the same time.

Words by Parvez Patel, Vice President, Digital Marketing and Merchandising, Grainger

“Grainger helps customers find what they need to keep their business running. With over a million products offered, DSA + RLSA capabilities enable us to expand our keyword coverage, making it easier for customers to find the right products.”

The Success: Going beyond the expectations

The combined campaigning of Dynamic Search Ads and Remarketing brought stellar results for the retailing brand. Grainger could easily increase the return on ad spend (ROAS), conversions, and click through rate (CTR) for the new ads by nearly 1,000% compared with the company’s non-brand search ads. In fact these two strategies worked so well for the company that they are expanding it to their international efforts.

Words by Patrick Holt, Senior Search Marketing Specialist, Grainger

“Combining DSA and RLSA significantly increases performance—so much that we’re trying to find ways to increase the number of ads we can show each day. This strategy enables us to broaden our reach while improving efficiency.”

The highlights of the Ad Campaigns:

• Nearly 1000% lift in ROAS compared with non-brand search ads
• Nearly 1000% spike up in conversions compared with non-brand search ads
• Nearly 1000% increase in CTR compared with non-brand search ads