Objectives
The Zip.ch site is the new Swiss directory that wants to compete with the two market leaders local.ch and search.ch with a strategy based on simplicity and free indexing services aimed at individuals and businesses.
The site database is updated every week with official data from the Swiss Directories and includes millions of business and private references.
We have been mandated by Zip.ch to generate qualified traffic to the site in order to maximise the number of page views.
We were free to use all possible techniques to generate this traffic, but had to meet the following two constraints:
- Generate exclusively Swiss traffic and as qualitative as possible (pages/session, time spent on the site, etc.)
- Maintain as low as possible the cost per page view
Strategy
Our work was achieved in several phases, according to the different development stages of the website during 2015 and 2016. We focused on the two main national languages, French and German.
Phase 1 / Advanced Analytics Configuration and launch of dynamic advertising campaigns
First, we conducted an advanced Analytics configuration to track all the users’ actions, measure micro and macro conversions and qualify our audience. In particular, we installed a dataLayer on the site through which we can collect a multitude of dynamic data in Google Analytics, via Google Tag Manager, in order to expand our reports, group the data by type of pages and better characterise the users.
Launch of the first AdWords campaigns
Regarding the size of the site, close to 13 million of pages, we decided to operate initially dynamic ads, leaving it to Google to automatically generate relevant ads based on the content of the site.
The first results:
- 200,000 monthly page views
- a CPC of 0.3ct
- an unbeatable cost per page view of CHF 0.01
Phase 2 / The AdWords scripts and automatic generation of campaigns
The 200,000 monthly page views obtained through these dynamic campaigns, however, were far from adequate.
How to increase this volume by remaining focused on the tiny Swiss market and maintaining a cost per page of 1ct?
This is where the challenge became really interesting. The first track drove us to queries such as “category” + “locality”. The categories correspond to services, professions or sectors of activity. Local queries always being more important, especially on mobile, we knew we could count on a significant search volume.
To do this, we have developed AdWords scripts that have enabled us to generate thousands of “category” + “locality” campaigns from a Google Spreadsheet. At present, we are positioning ourselves with more than 840,000 queries, such as “dermatologue genève”, “restaurant zoug”, “taxi fribourg” or “architecte lausanne”.
This system extends the campaigns easily by introducing new categories or new localities. The campaigns are then automatically generated.
Personalised ads with dynamic insertion tags
For each query, we log the category, the locality and the number of results on the site in ads in dynamic ways. We therefore offer the users specific information corresponding to their research. The click rate is therefore increased. This is especially important because considering the limit of the very low bids, it was essential to obtain a high quality score to remain competitive. By personalising ads and landing pages, the quality of the campaigns is around 9/10.
The results:
- +300,000 additional monthly page views
- a stable cost per page view of 1ct
- more than 840,000 targeted queries
Phase 3 / ZipFeeder development
With the fixed limit for bids, it often happens that our ads simply do not appear in search result pages, despite an above-average quality level. So we had to find tricks to multiply the effectiveness of our AdWords campaigns.
Thanks to several customised scripts, we developed the ZipFeeder, a tool allowing us to synchronise our campaigns with the millions of business references on the Zip.ch site.
In order not to exceed the limitations of the AdWords account (max 20K keywords per ad group), we have segmented our campaigns per post code covering each Swiss locality.
In our concern for relevance and quality of the user’s experience, we used the final url for keywords, not for the ads, for each keyword to be linked with the corresponding business listing on Zip.ch. Whatever the query, the user reaches the right business page.
In all, we are positioning ourselves for more than 2 millions of keywords through 8,000 campaigns. The process of updating and generating campaigns is fully automatic and synchronised with the Zip.ch database.
The results
- 2 millions of targeted keywords
- 8,000 generated campaigns
- an automatic updating process and synchronised with the database
Phase 4 / Automatic control of 404 errors and pages without result
Each month, thousands of private and business entries become obsolete on Zip.ch, following removals or events of everyday life such as family reunification, deaths, etc. These outdated entries are removed from the Zip.ch database and thus cause 404errors. In addition, certain types of businesses can be non-existent in small localities.
Of course, we did not want to send users on pages without result. To make the user’s experience as qualitative as possible, we developed scripts to detect these errors and disable, in an automatic manner, corresponding AdWords campaigns.
Results
In July 2016, we achieved the client’s objectives with one million monthly page views.
- Zip.ch passed the million page views per month
- We maintain an unbeatable average cost per page view of 1ct (all channels) over the entire period
- The monthly average traffic increase in of +15%
This is a real success and we are proud to support Zip.ch in its development.