The Challenge

Avnet needed Sitewire to implement a paid search campaign capable of generating revenue from electronic component sales. These sales needed to hit a specific ROI target outlined by Avnet.

The Approach

Almost every paid search campaign starts with keyword research, but Avnet’s primary customers are electrical engineers, and it’s tough to figure out what an electrical engineer wants. Quite often, electrical engineers may not even use words when performing a search. Without words, or spaces between words, traditional keyword research practices become useless. So, a new keyword discovery process had to be implemented.

To ensure a successful search campaign, part number keywords were selected. The selected keywords were dissected, cut up, and used with and without dashes in an effort to find the most popular forms. During this process, Sitewire found patterns within keyword phrases, common words used in conjunction with part numbers. As a result, Avnet’s part number keyword list was expanded five times its original length.

To complicate matters, there were still several other demographics to be considered, namely the hobbyists, the information seekers and the users searching for irrelevant parts. Did you know that a “BP104” is a Silicon Pin Photodiode but is also a 10-inch Car Subwoofer? Or that a “LM150” is a 3 Amp Adjustable Regulator but is also a Label Maker and Shop Vac? Fine-tuning an advertising campaign dealing with such specific subject matter, it was critical that Sitewire remove irrelevant search results. Avnet was selling products with relatively low margins, leaving no room for waste; all spending had to result in relevant traffic or the campaign objectives would not be met. In order to successfully reach the proposed campaign goals, Sitewire incorporated well over one thousand negative keywords into Avnet’s pay per click (PPC) campaign.

Keeping in line with finding consumers closest to the “Action” point of the Consumer Life Cycle (point of purchase), Sitewire focused much of its attention on relevant users searching within the “Consideration and “Action” phases.

After identifying only relevant searchers, Sitewire implemented a strategy pointing users to the most relevant landing pages within the Avnet Express site. These pages were built specifically with their part number searches in mind. Sending users to extremely relevant landing pages not only created an optimal user experience, but also lead to a wildly successful campaign, one that shattered Avnet’s ROI objectives.

The Result

Sitewire was able to optimize campaign performance and increase ROI 95% in the spring of 2010, a 77% increase over goal since January of the same year. As recommended, Avnet increased its budget, proportionate to the exceeded goal and increase in ROI. Sitewire has since been able to deliver the same ROI results with the increased budget. As a result, Sitewire and Avnet are now implementing a global strategy based on this successful campaign model.