Background
Ghost Controls is an industry leading manufacturer of reliable automatic gate openers for private residences and businesses alike. Their innovative low voltage solar-optimized gate openers and accessories are perfect for minimum maintenance, do-it-yourself installation. The company believes life is too short for noisy, temperamental gate openers, so their patent-pending products are backed with a lifetime warranty to boot. No ghosting necessary.
Key Metrics
$4 million
Made from Paid Search
400%
Increase in Purchase Volume from Paid Social
537%
Increase in Paid Search Revenue
$21
Back for Every $1 Spent on Paid Social
Before working with Logical Position (LP), Ghost Controls managed their digital ads in-house… with modest success. At the time, their eCommerce sector represented a fraction of overall sales, which still relied largely on traditional retail space to merchandise the product. They were able to grow early brand awareness on Amazon, but sacrificed autonomy in the process. To build on the momentum, LP developed a digital strategy that factored in customer lifetime value to better determine short-term and long-term growth goals. This ultimately made the decision to invest in their direct to consumer eCommerce channel…very, very easy.
Despite advertising sparingly, customers were already searching for Ghost Controls by brand name. This helped our team divide shopping campaigns by separating new acquisitions from returning customers. By segmenting search terms that contained the trademark (“Ghost Controls”) from those that did not (“automatic gates for sale”), our team was able to focus on shopping ads that aligned with the desired customer acquisition and retention goals.
Once our paid search campaigns proved profitable, LP suggested paid social remarketing to target distinct market segments separate from search ads on Google and Microsoft Ads. The search ads were focused on like-audiences to target consumers already searching for a similar product. On the other hand, Facebook and Instagram ads went after consumers who weren’t actively searching—but might be intrigued by similar interests and past buying behavior.
The paid social ads started with a small $300 budget for both Facebook and Instagram. Budget aside, the conversions were great, which signaled an easy opportunity to scale…considering the pre-established demand. From there, Ghost Controls trusted LP to begin paid social prospecting, which grew their budget significantly. However, this also enabled our team to understand the ideal target audience by analyzing different messaging and creatives to learn what demographics and locations engaged with our various campaigns.
Finally, the unheralded hero of this story is the Facebook pixel, which provided invaluable data alongside their customer email lists to create best-of-class lookalike audiences to attract new buyers. Targeting similar lifestyle markets based off of purchaser commonalities and shopping behaviors uncovered new buyers more likely to purchase. We tested different types of promotions on a range of interest-based audiences, such as store-wide discounts versus product-specific discounts to find our conversion sweet spot.
The strategy for both paid search and social required a broad shift when COVID-19 struck in March of 2020. Ghost Controls struggled with maintaining inventory, which was a problem that affected businesses nationwide. As such, LP shifted the ad strategy based on varying inventory levels in response to the growing demand for eCommerce transactions. Thankfully we were able to leverage historical data to highlight the most profitable performers and succeed despite the circumstances.
537%
Increase in Revenue from Google Ads
440%
Increase in Revenue from Microsoft Ads
204%
Increase in New User Site Traffic
451%
Increase in Sitewide Revenue from Paid Search YOY
This combination worked well for Ghost Controls. Sitewide revenue from Paid Search ads increased 451% year-over-year—from $732,000 to over $4 million. Revenue from Google Ads is up 537%, and 440% for Microsoft Ads. New user site traffic is up 204%, thanks to paid search efforts.
Our sales outlook on social media is looking equally bright, and our team is continuing to scale those campaigns. On the Facebook platform alone, overall purchase volume has quadrupled, with conversion value increasing by 460%. Social media is continuing to drive new traffic to Ghost Controls’ website, increasing visibility and brand awareness. Since leveraging paid social prospecting, sales have grown by 5x, increasing from $25,000 to over $123,000 within weeks. For every $1 Ghost Controls is spending on paid social, they’re making $21 back.
The success from Ghost Controls digital marketing has eclipsed their traditional offline sales channels (in-store and print media). They recently had their very first million dollar month in March of 2020—a huge milestone in any environment, but especially impressive given the global pandemic. Since then, we’ve continued to grow their business over the summer season and break records, even amidst inventory issues and the uncertainty around COVID-19.
Breaking sales records during uncertain times and a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic is next to impossible—but Logical Position is not your average digital marketing agency.
