CASE STUDY: How RS Components achieved effectiveness with online marketing

Background

RS Components, a distributor of electronics and maintenance products, wanted more growth from its e-commerce site.

Aim

RS Components needed to reach qualified customers and increase traffic to its website as prospective customers searched for electronics, maintenance and automation and control products online.

Execution

RS Components rolled out a stand-alone search marketing campaign using Google AdWords. The campaign started in 2010 and is still ongoing. The brand leveraged the flexibility of AdWords to control every aspect of the campaign, from keywords to ad copy, geography, time and matching.

The company set up different ad schedules for different geographies, based on conversions data from Google over a 24-hour period, and pushed CPC (cost per click) automatically during certain time-periods for more effective advertising.

It expanded keywords in accordance with SQRs (search query reports) extracted from the system on a weekly basis to streamline the traffic. An internal system was set up to manage these keyword expansions on a per-geography basis.

The company also worked with Google to examine and re-arrange its account structure, making it scalable and easy to manage.

Apart from AdWords, RS Components is present across multichannel customer touchpoints, including electronic direct mail, online banners, LinkedIn ads, direct mailers, parcel stuffers and print ads, as well as tradeshows and exhibitions.

Results

The search marketing campaign has increased traffic to RS Components’ site by more than 200 per cent over the past two years. Additionally, the campaign accounted for 60 per cent of new customers acquired and helped increase e-commerce revenue by 53 per cent in the first six months of the company’s 2012 financial year.

Search engine marketing is now a key driver of the company’s sales and contributes more than US$100 million in revenue across Asia-Pacific.