Case Study - Game - SEO & PPC

Objectives

In October 2007 GAME approached bigmouthmedia to help replicate their strong high street success in the multi-channel online world. Knowing that gamers are a particularly savvy online audience who search with specific games in mind, the strategy was focused on ensuring GAME could be found in both the natural and paid search space for the long list of computer games which are available on the site.

The key objectives of the campaign were:

• Rank on the first page of Google UK’s natural results for the top consoles (including Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii) at the key Christmas trading period
• 100% rise in orders from search
• Achieve an ROI target of over 35:1 with PPC and 50:1 with SEO
• Hit a specific CPO target with PPC
• Combine SEO & PPC strategies to yield maximum ROI
• Ensure PPC budget is not spent on any terms where there is zero stock

Our Solution - SEO

As GAME generates a large percentage of their annual orders during the 10 week period leading up to Christmas Day, it was necessary to have all SEO recommendations carried out well in advance so these had time to take effect, ensuring GAME were on the first page of organic results for key pre-order titles. These actions included:

• Ensuring proper migration during platform upgrade to guarantee the change did not cause a drop in SEO traffic
• Distributed press releases online to build quality links into the site which aid SEO positions
• Trained staff internally to write optimised SEO copy on the product pages
• Developed and optimised product feed to tap into Google Product search, which appeared in the main Google search results as part of their universal search changes
• Optimised video content on the site and syndicated to the main video search engines
• Worked with GAME to improve the SEO capabilities of the page templates

Our Solution - PPC

Bigmouthmedia ensured that GAME’s entire product inventory was included in the PPC campaign, and that strategic PPC landing pages were in place which worked in conjunction with the organic listings – all in time for the Christmas shopping period. The PPC actions undertaken included:

• Input of full product inventory (with misspellings) into the PPC campaign, with each individual game having its own budget, specific bid strategy and creative copy (with price points in each PPC advert)
• Development of quality, keyword rich PPC landing pages
• Analysis of Hitwise data to predict key games of the year and allocated PPC budget accordingly to be ready for searches
• Worked closely with the GAME marketing department to ensure TV advertising offers were reflected in PPC advertising
• Set up a PPC campaign on the Zavvi brand on 2nd Dec (the day they became unable to fulfil online orders) to capitalise on significant traffic volumes in peak ecommerce week

Responsive account management ensured bigmouthmedia predicted the titles with largest search volume (using Hitwise), and always altered our bids and advert copy based on price and availability

Constantly evolving keyword research allowed bigmouthmedia to update search strategy with the keywords which users were typing in. The Christmas rush saw huge demand and scarce supply for the top products, which meant that users changed their habits and began searching for terms such as “Wii Fit in stock”. We spotted this trend early and ensured it was catered for in our campaigns.