Unlocking the Power of Paid Search

Challenge

Climbing, skiing and mountain sports equipment retailer Black Diamond depended on revenue contributions from paid search to reach its ecommerce goals, yet the company was experiencing diminishing returns and high costs with the paid search program.

Black Diamond turned to MERGE to reinvigorate their paid search program and make a case for an expanded media budget in the future. The retailer wanted the program to maximize revenue with the current allocated budget, perform efficiently and align with larger business objectives.

Outcome

MERGE’s paid search team focused their primary KPIs on revenue and ROAS, with a secondary KPI concentrated on site traffic. While clicks can be an excellent short-term metric, the team wanted to review longer-term metrics to show whether or not additional traffic resulted in incremental revenue, therefore an efficient return on investment. They took a full-funnel paid search approach that required multiple consumer touchpoints across tactics, including text ads, shopping ads, and Performance Max (PMax).

Results

Black Diamond achieved scalability and efficiency with MERGE’s paid search overhaul. By testing different products and features, the team learned which strategies yielded the best results. 

Before partnering with MERGE, Black Diamond was not on track to hit their new, aggressive goals for digital. Now, they have not only consistently met their new monthly search goals, but they have also proved out the value of their paid search channel.