Through the implementation of our in-house bidding algorithm, we managed to increase both impressions and conversions by over 30% compared to the previous year. Simultaneously, we reduced the cost per acquisition by 47%.
Our client
BoD - Books on Demand has been an European pioneer and leading specialist in digital book publishing and self-publishing since 1997. Operating in eight countries, BoD's print-on-demand production and global distribution of books starting from a single copy, along with the publication of e-books, have expanded artistic freedom for authors and publishers, and enriched the diversity of titles in the book market. Google Ads play a central role in marketing all of BoD’s services and offerings.
Initial situation
We've been supporting BoD in the realm of search engine advertising since 2014. Over the years, we've consistently evolved the account and played a significant role in the company's online success. Furthermore, in the fall of 2019, BoD decided to further challenge their already good performance by incorporating our artificial intelligence, "BiddingLab". The initial focus was on the German market, aiming to optimize its advertising efforts using our proprietary Bidding Algorithm.
Solution
Since then, BiddingLab has not only provided agency support but has also been responsible for bid adjustments, keyword management, and geographical and time-based targeting. The automated generation of new and potential keywords, in particular, had a positive impact on performance. Ad texts were also recombined to achieve a more precise user engagement. All adjustments were aligned with the goal of maximizing budget efficiency. Leveraging account history, user behavior, and competitive analysis, our real-time algorithm executed over 300,000 bid adjustments during the testing period. Transparent reporting was available at all times to keep track of the changes.
Results and achievements
Within the first four weeks, there was a noticeable improvement in almost all relevant key metrics compared to the previous month and the same period in the previous year:
KPI | October 2019 vs. September 2019 | October 2019 vs. October 2018 |
Conversions | +25 % | +50 % |
CPA | -24 % | -50 % |
Costs | -5 % | -26 % |
These trends held true when examining the entire three-month test phase. Not only were the set objectives exceeded, but visibility also increased by almost 30 %. This fulfilled the client's desire to strengthen brand awareness during the critical phase of the year. Furthermore, the planned budget was undershot by as much as -30 %.
Looking at the results from October to December 2019 compared to the same months in the previous year, we can immediately observe the performance increase due to the tool's implementation:
KPI | October - December 2019 vs. October - December 2018 |
Impressions | +30 % |
Cost-per-click (CPC) | -41 % |
Conversions | +31 % |
CPA | -47 % |
Costs | -30 % |
Next Steps
Following a successful trial period, BiddingLab has become an integral part of BoD Germany's Google Ads strategy and has gradually been integrated into international accounts since 2020. Currently, the bidding tool is operational in 7 countries within BoD.
"As a non-traditional e-commerce company, we hadn't anticipated such a remarkable performance boost from BiddingLab. We appreciate the metrics-driven management and automated adjustments outside of regular business hours, which puts us a step ahead of our competitors.”
Iris Kirberg
Head of Marketing, BOD
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