Case Study

The Client: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) is a leading coffee importer, processor and retailer, dedicated to providing the richest aroma and flavor, for the highest quality coffee experience. "We travel the globe to purchase the finest coffees, batch roast them to peak flavor, and vacuum package them fresh for your enjoyment."

The Challenge:
GMCR had been managing a successful PPC campaign in-house for a number of years. GMCR marketers felt they had reached a plateau with these campaigns, but did not feel they had the internal resources to commit to the research, testing and analysis that would be required to start moving the needle again. In addition, the company was seeing significant increases in the sales of Keurig Brewers and their single cup coffee selections, K-Cups. Ken Crites, Director of Consumer Direct for GMCR, said: "We knew we were sitting on a huge growth opportunity and wanted to quickly yet efficiently seize the moment."

The Plan:
GMCR partnered with @WSP to establish cost-per-acquisition targets by product category and establish lifetime values by product and category to allow @WSP to manage bids and spend more effectively. @WSP used branded terms as well as carefully selected/tested generic and niched terms to keep the GMCR brand top-of-mind for current customers and to acquire new customers. The primary focus was placed on increasing single brewer sales and Café EXPRESS coffee club subscriptions.

Phase I strategy was to reorganize existing campaigns, including new ad grouping and negative keywords, and introduce new testing to decrease average cost-per-click (CPC).

Phase II strategy was to then increase budget and visitors within an established sales-to-cost goal.

The Results:
Phase I: Within three months, the Cost-per-Click was cut in half while the number of clicks and conversion rate remained the same.

Phase II: Over twelve months, through continuing testing, single brewer sales revenues increased by 260% and Café Express subscription revenues increased by 289%. All of this was achieved while remaining in the "sweet spot" of targeted CPA's.