AdWords Case Study - Publishing

Background

This client published a journal and wanted more people to subscribe to his online newsletter. In this case each subscription counted as a conversion.

Here's a chart showing the number of conversions he got in the period 1st November 2006 to 11th January 2007.

It shows how their conversion levels were dropping off steadily in November, partly as a result of the Google Slap when Google changed its pricing rules.

I took over management of the account on 1st December 2006.

At that time conversion numbers leveled off before showing an expected drop during the Christmas holiday period. After that they have moved sharply upwards.

Does this prove anything?

That graph may look good, but does it prove anything? Actually it doesn't!

You can often increase conversions simply by spending more with Google by increasing bid prices left, right and centre.

So look at the graph below. It shows clearly how my client's conversion costs started to drop the day after I took over management of their AdWords account. Conversion costs have declined steadily and yet the number of conversions has risen dramatically.

What you are seeing here overall is roughly a doubling of conversions and a 25% reduction in cost per conversion.

William Charlwood