Inkubook, an Author Solutions brand, is an easy-to-use online photo book creation service that allows people to turn their random collections of digital photos into drop-dead-gorgeous photo books in minutes. From scrapbooks to calendars, cookbooks to corporate photo books, Inkubook offers solutions for all of your photo collections. With Inkubook, it's simple to upload photos and then drag and drop them onto creative layouts to make a fantastic book. Inkubook users can invite friends to contribute text and photos, which makes collaborative book-making fast and fun. And, in an increasingly competitive industry, Inkubook has the support and experience of an industry leading corporation to keep them ahead of the curve and ahead of the competition.
As a part of the Author Solutions family of brands, Inkubook has the benefit of years of online experience and internet marketing savvy. Author Solutions is a leader in self-publishing - the fastest-growing segment in number of titles published over the past five years. Author Solutions has worked with over 50,000 authors and 80,000 titles and has developed Publishing Services platforms that enable publishers, retailers, communities, and printers to become a publisher for the first time or dramatically take costs out of the business. With names such as AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Xlibiris, and Wordclay included in their family of brands, Author Solutions is an established success in online publishing and lends years of expertise to Inkubook.
Inkubook: A New PPC Client Can Reduce Cost-Per-Lead From The Beginning
As the new player in the online photo book creation market, Inkubook had their work cut out for them. But, as an Author Solutions brand, they already had a leg up in the online competitive space - Hanapin Marketing. Having worked with Author Solutions and other Author Solutions brands for years, Hanapin Marketing was ready to jump in and make Inkubook another Author Solutions success.
To gain momentum and quickly increase traffic and leads to the site, Hanapin Marketing got straight to work on a PPC strategy to help launch Inkubook to the top of the stack of online photo book creation sites. Developing a PPC strategy from the ground up is no easy task, and detailed goals were set immediately so that everyone involved could clearly their forward progress. First, as a new website and new player in the industry, increasing impression and leads to the site was the primary goal - Inkubook needed to build awareness among their target audience. Second, Inkubook wanted to keep their cost-per-conversion (CPC) in check, working on ways to reduce CPC from the outset. The team started by putting all their efforts into researching and testing keywords, testing and adjusting landing page options to keep a large and steady initial growth in overall impressions and conversions. At the same time, the Hanapin Team monitored Inkubook's CPC and looked for strategies to reduce spending while still maintaining the growth needed to launch this new service.
Hanapin's strategy for Inkubook proved that you don't have to break the bank to see amazing results from a new PPC campaign:
- In just one month, Hanapin increased Inkubook's conversion rate almost 93% in Google and over 85% in Yahoo!, all while staying on budget and reducing CPC by nearly 50%. Some SEM firms will tell you that you need to build your impressions and leads up first if you are new to PPC, then you can turn your attention to reducing your initial spend. Not Hanapin. You can work on strategies to reduce costs right from the beginning, building an efficient and successful campaign from the ground up.
- Even with cost-reduction tactics in place, Hanapin Marketing increased Inkubook's overall impressions over 1100% and increased the number of conversions by over 5100% in the first four months of the campaign.
- Through testing ad text and different landing page options to determine Inkubook's best performing options, the Hanapin team increased total click by almost 40%. Hanapin doesn't forget that sometimes you have to try different things to see where you get the best pay off. Adjusting keywords and bidding strategies is only a part of the work with a well-managed PPC campaign.
"Two things I never forget when working with a new PPC account: first, budget is always a factor and we should always be working to reduce spend and maximize a client's investment; and second, keywords and bidding isn't all we do. You have to look at every aspect of a PPC campaign; copy, landing pages, keywords, timing, placement, everything; to get the best result. That's what I do with Inkubook and that's what I do with all my clients."
Joe Kerschbaum, Senior Search Marketing Consultant