Founded in 1989, Talk America (www.talk.com) started out as a long distance provider to residential and small business customers. By 1997, the Reston, Va., company had built its own nationwide long distance network, and in 2000, expanded its product line to offer a bundle of local and long distance phone services to residential and small business customers. Today it is a multimillion dollar company with 1,300 employees nationwide. In 2003, Talk America won a coveted J.D. Power and Associates Award for customer satisfaction, and ranked highest among all local telephone services ranked in the survey.
| "Our
e-commerce leads have increased almost seven percent, [and] our
post-click conversion rates are approximately five times higher
than standard campaigns." |
Approach
Online Marketing Manager Kyle Maddock says
Talk America has long used online advertising in its marketing mix,
starting with an exclusive arrangement with AOL in 1997. By 1999, he
says, the company began to expand into such web channels as banner advertising
as well as agent and affiliate programs, multi-level marketing, email,
lead generation and other tactics. All of these efforts are meant to
"target prospects in the regions where we provide service," says Maddock.
Seeking ever-better results from online marketing, Talk America launched
its first Google AdWords™ campaign in 2002. The immediate goal:
"promote sales of our local and long distance bundled plans at our target
cost of acquisition."
Maddock says implementation was "very simple and straightforward. The
campaign was up and running within a week." Even more impressive, he
notes, "We were able to see results and optimize the campaign within
a month."
Results
"Our e-commerce leads have increased almost
seven percent, our post-click conversion rates are approximately five
times higher than standard campaigns, and our channel-wide churn rates
are very low," Maddock says. "AdWords has delivered a very successful
campaign." He adds that the AdWords campaign has also resulted in cutting
cost per sale in half – even, he notes, as it "dramatically increases
overall sales."
In generating these new highly qualified leads, Maddock says, AdWords
demonstrated real advantages. "With over 700 keywords and virtually
real-time access to campaign reporting online, we have been able to
quickly and efficiently optimize our marketing." He especially liked
being able to use local targeting to divide his AdWords campaign into
regionally focused groups. "We could focus our spending by prioritizing
our keywords at an individual level," he says, which meant his team
"successfully increased Google keyword sales 10 times versus our first
month campaign, while cutting our cost per acquisition in half." As
for Google's account management team, Maddock says they have been "best
in class," adding, "They make smart decisions fast to help optimize
our campaigns and work diligently to resolve issues, increase sales,
and always make sure we are aware of changes in network technology that
affect our business."
Summing up his AdWords experience to date, Maddock says, "It's the best
way to gather qualified leads for your product when they are interested.
And it drives prospects efficiently from broadcast media and other offline
campaigns to your site." Which is why Talk America will "definitely
continue to use Google advertising in the future," he continues. "In
my opinion, if you can't convert prospects to customers using keyword
advertising on Google, you're in the wrong business."
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.
