Learn Huissteden’s secret to transforming a temporary Covid sales boom into continuous success via Google Ads and comparison platforms.
Learn Huissteden’s secret to transforming a temporary Covid sales boom into continuous success via Google Ads and comparison platforms.
Huissteden, the market leader in the Netherlands’ and Belgium’s sewing machine industry, has built its legacy over 35 years. With a diverse range of over 1,300 products, they’ve catered to generations of sewing enthusiasts not just in the Netherlands but also in Belgium. Adapting to the times, Huissteden established their e-commerce store in October 2014, blending their traditional store values with modern online shopping convenience. Their dedication to their customers is clear, with a standout 9.5 rating from more than 9,170 reviews.
The arrival of Covid brought about unexpected changes to Huissteden’s operations. Their monthly e-commerce sales skyrocketed, experiencing a surge of 2 to 6 times their pre-COVID-19 average. This surge was primarily because people were spending more time at home and turning to hobbies like sewing. As life began to normalize post-Covid, the real challenge emerged: how to sustain this heightened revenue and profitability.
Previously, their Google Ads account was in the capable hands of their Magento developer. However, with the developer shifting focus exclusively to web development, Huissteden was looking for an experienced Google Ads specialist. While the account was set up competently, my task was to identify and capitalize on opportunities to maintain or further enhance revenue and profitability through strategic paid advertising.
The arrival of Covid brought about unexpected changes to Huissteden’s operations. Their monthly e-commerce sales skyrocketed, experiencing a surge of 2 to 6 times their pre-COVID-19 average. This surge was primarily because people were spending more time at home and turning to hobbies like sewing. As life began to normalize post-Covid, the real challenge emerged: how to sustain this heightened revenue and profitability.
Previously, their Google Ads account was in the capable hands of their Magento developer. However, with the developer shifting focus exclusively to web development, Huissteden was looking for an experienced Google Ads specialist. While the account was set up competently, my task was to identify and capitalize on opportunities to maintain or further enhance revenue and profitability through strategic paid advertising.
Our first step was to thoroughly audit the account, identifying all potential areas for improvement. With a lot of conversion data at hand, it was clear which campaigns and products were doing well. A key approach when taking over a data-rich account is to boost what’s working well and cut off what isn’t, reducing unnecessary ad costs.
To fine-tune our strategy, we implemented the target ROAS portfolio bid strategy, combined with shared budgets. This method lets Google’s algorithm aim for a specific return on ad spend (ROAS). By using shared budgets across multiple campaigns, we made sure no single campaign was held back by budget limits, allowing the best-performing campaigns to get more of the budget.
Our next step was setting up Performance Max campaigns. Getting the product feeds right was essential before launching these campaigns. The first few weeks showed mixed results, and we had to make some changes to the campaigns. But as we collected more data and made the necessary adjustments, these campaigns started to outperform the earlier Google Shopping ones.
With the success of Google Ads and an optimized product feed in hand, it made perfect sense to list on marketplaces and comparison websites. This broadened exposure allowed us to tap into a larger audience across diverse platforms.
To streamline this process, we utilized Channable. This tool enabled us to tailor the feeds to each platform’s best practices and optimize them based on individual platform performance.
Our objective was to ensure stability in revenue and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) from Google Ads post-Covid normalization, followed by a gradual budget escalation while maintaining similar ROAS levels.
After establishing consistent results through a Target ROAS Portfolio Bid Strategy and shared budgets, coupled with a shift from Google Shopping to Performance Max, we began to incrementally raise the budget every few months, ensuring minimal ROAS fluctuation. Within a year of stabilizing in the Dutch sewing machine market, we increased our budget by 76% and revenue rose by 62%. Although there’s potential for further budget enhancement, the client prefers a gradual approach. At times, the team was stretched to its limits, managing both the surge in orders and in-store customer service, while focusing on a new warehouse setup.
In the competitive marketplace environment of Amazon and Bol.com, Huissteden faced challenges in becoming the top seller due to frequent undercutting by cheaper merchants and the theft of their meticulously crafted product descriptions by competitors. Consequently, we shifted our focus to comparison websites, steering traffic directly to their site for higher conversion rates. This strategy led to a 129% increase in revenue from comparison websites, with a cost uptick of just 47%.
Our objective was to ensure stability in revenue and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) from Google Ads post-Covid normalization, followed by a gradual budget escalation while maintaining similar ROAS levels.
After establishing consistent results through a Target ROAS Portfolio Bid Strategy and shared budgets, coupled with a shift from Google Shopping to Performance Max, we began to incrementally raise the budget every few months, ensuring minimal ROAS fluctuation. Within a year of stabilizing in the Dutch sewing machine market, we increased our budget by 76% and revenue rose by 62%. Although there’s potential for further budget enhancement, the client prefers a gradual approach. At times, the team was stretched to its limits, managing both the surge in orders and in-store customer service, while focusing on a new warehouse setup.
In the competitive marketplace environment of Amazon and Bol.com, Huissteden faced challenges in becoming the top seller due to frequent undercutting by cheaper merchants and the theft of their meticulously crafted product descriptions by competitors. Consequently, we shifted our focus to comparison websites, steering traffic directly to their site for higher conversion rates. This strategy led to a 129% increase in revenue from comparison websites, with a cost uptick of just 47%.
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