Case Study on Office Furniture Sales - George Walkers

Intro

In August 2019, our client was George Walkers, a New Zealand company that buys and sells used office furniture. George Walkers is a typical example of a New Zealand family business. Managed by a father and daughter team, the company is based in Auckland and works with clients in and around the city.

In addition to buying and selling furniture, the company also works on office planning, organizing corporate relocations, storage, and furniture transportation. Thousands of products pass through the company’s office regularly. And in order for the business to work at this pace, and for the goods to not overflow the warehouse, it’s important to organize a stable flow of orders, which required setting up PPC advertising.

Initial Data

• Client’s website – Georgewalkers.co.nz
• Advertising system – Google Ads

Before contacting us, the client had Google Shopping set up. 🔍But after checking the settings, talking with the customer further, and getting the completed brief, we decided to redo the shopping campaign and add ads on the search network and remarketing. As such, Auckland and nearby cities were set as GEOs. Through the project, we tried different options for the structure of advertising campaigns, abandoned campaigns with low conversion, and gave the customer recommendations on how to improve the site.

Objectives

To ensure stable demand for the client’s furniture, we established the following goals and objectives:

• Relaunching their product campaign on Google Shopping
• Setting up search ads for major product categories
• Setting up a banner campaign on GDN (Google Display Network)
• Launching remarketing to bring potential customers back to the site

Course of Action

Our main actions were about increasing CTR and reducing the cost of conversion:

• Using dynamic search ads with 15 title variations and 5 description variations
• Using all ad extensions to enlarge the search snippet

We also needed to adapt advertising for the dramatically changed situation. When employees were transferred to remote work during the coronavirus pandemic in New Zealand, we decided to make a Home Office campaign for people working from home 🏠. So we created banner ads and prepared home office-related keywords. A corresponding section was also created on the site. The campaigns ran for a few months, and then we discontinued them since there were few conversions. While working at home in quarantine, people still used generic keywords like ‘used furniture.’

Implementation

Google Shopping

An effective setup on Google Shopping depends on the quality of the product feed, which displays all products with all possible parameters ranging from dimensions to promotional prices. The more data the system receives about the product, the more accurately the ads are targeted. Initially, the customer’s feed data was not sufficient for high-quality advertising. As such, we prepared the reference terms for the programmer. And we received an improved feed, we relaunched the ad. The data is uploaded once a day through Google Merchant Center, which allows you to show users up-to-date data on any item in the assortment.

Search Ads

Initially, we made the structure of the search campaigns, focusing on product categories, which looked like this:

1. Chairs
2. Desks
3. Filing Cabinets
4. Tables
5. Partitions
6. Brands
7. General – a campaign with general queries, divided into different groups:

• Second Hand Office Furniture
• Showroom
• Used Office Furniture
• Other General
• Cheap Office Furniture

We established conversions for the following target actions 🎯:

• Clicking on the e-mail on the site or copying it.
• Sending in an application form on any page.
• Calling from the site (call tracking).

Initially, bids were set manually at the level of 2-3 SERPs, then we switched to the smart Target CPA strategy.

We adjusted advertising in this form for several months. Bringing in a few conversions, the results did not live up to expectations. The General campaign led to the best results. Therefore, we stopped advertising campaigns that went to different types of furniture. We did leave the Campaign with general queries, Google Shopping, remarketing (with regular banners), and the branded campaign with keywords to the client’s name.

We added an advertising campaign regarding competitors. 📢In these kinds of campaigns, the main thing is not to use title substitution, so as not to receive a pre-trial claim from a competitor whose name we used as a request. This was the main point that we overlooked and we received a claim from one of the competitors who were ready to sue us. The conflict was avoided, as we promptly fixed the error and did not allow it again.

We launched a Smart GDN campaign, but the client didn’t really like the results. The conversions were quite expensive and not very targeted. Therefore, Smart GDN had to be discontinued.

Additional Advertising

We used the following additional ad methods:

• Quick Links: All Products Page, About Us Page, Free Floor Plan Order, Free Design Plan Order, Company Services.
• Phone Number.
• Specifics: ‘Fast Delivery’, ‘Family Business’, ‘Affordable Furniture’, ‘Save up to 70%’, ‘Custom Solutions’, ‘Installation Service’, ‘Sustainable Furniture’, ‘Auckland Delivery’, ‘Used Furniture’, ‘Save money.’
• Promotions: ‘100% free consultation’, «100% free floor plan’.
• Location Extension – established customer’s location. Linked the client’s Google Ads and Google My Business account to display ads on maps as well.
• Structured snippet.

Results

Trying different campaigns, we have achieved indicators that were completely satisfactory to the client. The campaigns running today have the following results:

• Overall search campaign: 196 conversions at an average cost of $27,19 NZD
• Google Shopping: 53 conversions at $44,51 NZD
• Remarketing: 11 conversions at $52,50 NZD
• Brand Campaign: 7 conversions at $1,49 NZD

As a rule, George Walkers’ customers don’t order just one chair or table, but a complete set of office equipment or workspaces. Therefore, the conversion cost fully satisfies our customer, who still consistently receives new customers and can see how their investment is paying off.

Conclusion

Working on the George Walkers project, we once again saw how important it is to not only competently set up PPC advertising, but also to be ready to change it quickly and respond to the current situation in the world and competitors’ claims while always being in touch 💪. It’s this approach to carrying out PPC advertising that our clients appreciate, and why they stick with us for ongoing cooperation.