This company is a money management firm specializing in global investing, serving affluent individuals and prestigious institutions. For almost 20 years, the company has been a pioneer in the industry with groundbreaking research and innovative capital markets technology. Their corporate website was developed to serve two main purposes — increase online lead generation and improve brand awareness.
Specifically, marketers for the site were looking improve the site’s visibility on non-branded keyword phrases in order to improve the number of leads generated from natural search optimization (SEO) efforts. Additionally, the company was also running a pay per click (PPC) advertising campaign to increase the number of prospective new investors who download their stock market outlook report. The sole objective of this campaign was for website visitors to downloading the report.
Natural Search Engine Optimization Challenges
Money management and financial websites are highly regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in terms of what marketers can and cannot say about their products and services. This can hamper search engine marketing efforts because of limitation placed on the content and keywords that can appear within the site.
Another challenge was the lack of customized meta data within the html code of the website. Some search engines consider meta data as an important criteria in how well a website will rank within its search results.
The site also lacked keyword-rich copy and there were various pages that contained content that focused on too many conflicting topics. Both of these issues made it difficult for search engine spiders to traverse the site and make appropriate decisions about the site’s subject matter. As a result, this lowered the chances of various Web pages attaining rankings on any of the company’s target keyword phrases.
The lack of content within the site also decreased the chances of obtaining directory listings, because directory editors prefer content-rich pages. As a result, the site did not have any directory listings within Yahoo!, the second largest search property according to market share.
Finally, there were a limited number of relevant, external links pointing at the website. The site was therefore missing opportunities to enhance brand exposure and reach qualified audiences from external websites containing related subject matter.
Pay Per Click Advertising Challenges
When the company came to iProspect for search engine marketing services, they had already initiated a PPC campaign with another vendor and their cost per acquisition (CPA) was unacceptably high.
One reason behind their high CPA was their targeting of too many overly-broad keywords that brought in multitudes of unqualified leads that kept costs up and conversion rates down. Additionally, the creative that was developed for their PPC campaign was generic and not focused on the targeted “conversion event” (downloading the stock market outlook report). They also lacked a bidding strategy and a campaign goal, and they were unable to effectively track their results.
As part of their research for a new vendor and an improved PPC strategy, the company conducted a “test” between iProspect and another paid search management provider.
Natural Search Engine Optimization Solutions
At the outset of the campaign, iProspect researched and analyzed the language patterns of people searching online for money management and investing information and services. As a result of this analysis, the team modified the client’s list of keyword phrases and performed an in-depth analysis of the website’s content so pages could be organized into “themes” or “topic areas” that mapped to the new list of targeted keywords – with an individual page that contained relevant content targeting each keyword phrase. iProspect also worked with the client to enhance the content on various pages by strategically implementing keyword phrases throughout. In addition, the team optimized the meta data through the creation of customized site optimization tags that were implemented across the entire site.
To address SEC regulation issues, iProspect worked with a more targeted keyword phrase set, made many revisions to the list during the campaign based on feedback from the client, and worked closely with them to gain approval from their legal department. On certain pages, content was condensed and target keyword phrases were used less frequently to abide by SEC guidelines.
The iProspect team also devised a relevant content endorsement™ strategy to improve the quality and quantity of external links — from partner and affiliate websites with related money management information and subject matter — pointing at the client’s website. At the same time, iProspect obtained a directory listing for them within Yahoo!.
Pay Per Click Advertising Solutions
During the client’s PPC test period, iProspect dissected the client’s keyword set to weed out the keywords that were generating unqualified leads. This included the addition of “negative keywords” which prevent an ad from being shown if certain keywords that are not relevant, or too broad, are included within the search phrase/text area that Google uses to match ads and content. iProspect also implemented a maximum target CPA restriction to reduce costs and increase conversions — as their keyword bids had previously not been restricted to a target CPA.
Additionally, new ad creative that more adequately described the conversion action (downloading the stock market outlook report) was developed and implemented. iProspect also placed key code tags within various URLs to monitor conversions from engines, keywords and campaigns that generated the qualified leads. iProspect’s efficient tracking system allowed the client to easily review results on iProspect’s extranet, available to them 24/7.
At the end of the test period, iProspect was selected to take over management of the client’s entire pay per click advertising campaign.
Results
Within six months, visibility on the first page of search results increased by 65%.
During the same time, the number of monthly search referrals increased by 224%.
The number of external links recognized in Google increased by 470%.
The client started with a $290.68 CPA. Six months later, CPA was less than $25.
The conversion rate from PPC efforts increased from 1.06% to 3.07% in six months.
The number of conversions increased from 106 to 527 in six months.
The client reported that they were receiving significantly more qualified leads. Therefore, the client increased the PPC spend to generate an even larger number of conversions.
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