With 22 million subscribers and $17 billion in revenue, AT&T Wireless is the third largest wireless carrier in the United States. The company delivers advanced mobile wireless voice and data communication services – including cell phones, phone plans, features and accessories – to businesses and consumers throughout the U.S. AT&T Wireless employs more than 30,000 people and is based in Redmond, Wash. Integrated marketing is standard practice, says Marketing Manager Les Kruger. "We make use of promotions, email marketing, reseller programs, and banner ads to build our customer base." Search marketing is also part of the mix, and the company has also used Google AdWords™ for the past year.
| "Conversions
through AdWords ads have been higher than they have been through
other channels, meeting our metrics. And traffic has been heavy,
steady, and perhaps most important, steadily growing." |
Challenge
Kruger says AT&T Wireless has two goals
for its AdWords program: "to increase customer acquisition and to lower
the cost of acquiring" these new customers. Rather than setting hard-number
goals at the beginning of the program, he says the company "looked to
grow Google search marketing over time to significantly grow the number
of low cost-per-acquisition customers we acquire online."
Results
A "gross add" is the industry measure for
acquiring a new customer by purchase of a plan and a phone. By optimizing
their AdWords campaign – "we've added keywords and have automated
our bids," Kruger says – the number of leads has grown. "Conversions
through AdWords ads have been higher than they have been through other
channels, meeting our metrics. And traffic has been heavy, steady, and
perhaps most important, steadily growing," he notes. Since January 2004,
customer acquisitions through the Google campaign have increased 50
percent.
Because his team can track campaign performance daily, Kruger says they
continue to optimize for even better results. "As we grow our keyword
list, and better understand this space, our results continue to improve,"
he observes. "We can make changes as often as necessary, and we're very
fond of the ability to test creative and landing pages." He also makes
use of the industry information Google's vertical markets provide such
as volume of vertical traffic, cost data, and the competitive landscape
related to search advertising for the telecommunications market. "As
search marketing continues to be a highly efficient, trackable way to
acquire customers, we've continued to grow our ad spend with Google,"
says Kruger, who adds, "search marketing programs such as Google AdWords
represent the lowest-cost, scalable marketing channel we've found."
About Google Advertising
Google AdWords is currently used by thousands of businesses
worldwide to gain new customers in a cost-effective way. AdWords uses
keywords to precisely target ad delivery to web users seeking information
about a particular product or service. The program is based on cost-per-click
(CPC) pricing, so advertisers only pay when an ad is clicked on. Advertisers
can take advantage of an extremely broad distribution network, and choose
the level of support and spending appropriate for their business. For
more information, go to www.google.com/ads.
