SEO for a website at the development stage for an online store of elite alcohol: a case study from Elit-Web agency

The project was made by:

Konstantin Buravikin, Project Manager Department
Eric Klyuev, Head of SEO

Service: SEO at the stage of website development.
Project: winetime – an online store of elite alcoholic beverages.
Region: Ukraine.
Term of work: 3 months.
Task: development and optimization of a new website.

In our work, we often encounter the fact that when creating websites with cutting-edge design and updated functionality, not every online business owner pays enough attention to SEO optimization of a new web resource at the project development stage. And this then leads to the fact that precious time is wasted until the online business starts working at full capacity.

However, the owners of the Winetime online store did not make this mistake. They turned to the Elit-Web team and set a task to develop and SEO-optimize the new website. In the long run, this made it possible to save several months, not to waste time on making the necessary technical improvements, and to achieve faster traffic growth to the new web resource and bring it to the top of search results.

What is special about the Winetime online store

The company is known for operating in Ukraine since 2010. During this time, it has grown into a national chain of gastronomic stores offering elite alcoholic beverages and related products from around the world.

Winetime’s priorities include controlling the high quality of its products, developing ethno-gastronomic culture and complying with Ukrainian legislation on alcohol sales.

Purchases made at Winetime can be a unique gift for the holidays or a worthy addition to a wine collection. The company’s experts regularly hold tastings and master classes to reveal to their customers the secrets of combining food with wines of different brands and introduce them to a variety of flavors.

Winetime

In response to the challenges posed by restrictions in certain areas of life due to the pandemic and military events in our country, Winetime set out to increase its online presence and create an effective online store that could quickly reach the top of search queries.

Work on SEO optimization of an online store of elite alcohol

The Elit-Web team was tasked with performing SEO optimization of the project at the stage of developing a new website, checking technical and usability parameters, and forming an extensive structure of the web resource. This was to improve the site’s visibility in search.

To solve these problems, Elit-Web specialists have planned their work in the following areas:

  • forming the optimal structure of the new website and semantic core;
  • technical support of the project;
  • content optimization.

Step 1. Formation of an extended site structure

The specialists decided to start working on the project by developing a website structure that could meet the expectations of consumers in the process of choosing goods. When creating categories, subcategories, and filters on the online store’s website, the following features were taken into account:

  • for wine and spirits, subcategories were defined – the presence of sugar in the drink (for wine), type, country of origin, region, producer, volume, grape varieties, etc;
  • for food and beverages – type, type, manufacturer and country of origin;
  • for accessories – type, purpose and country of origin.

We also took into account the combination of food with different alcoholic beverages.

категорії та підкатегорії Winetime

Detailed elaboration in these areas became the basis for the next stage of semantic core development.

Step 2. Compiling and thoroughly studying the semantic core

In order to understand what queries people use when searching for products related to the site’s topic and to further optimize the content, our specialists spent a lot of time collecting the semantic core of the new site.

Six teams specializing in SEO promotion were involved in this task. The queries were obtained from various sources: Serpstat, Google Ads Keyword Planner, search tips, Google Analytics, phrases used by competitors, and other resources. The result of this work was a starting list of more than 500 key queries that were prioritized.

фільтри Winetime

Then, based on the semantic core, the specialists planned to create optimized website content to increase its relevance to users’ search queries.

Step 3. Works on technical optimization of the site

To successfully launch the new project, it was necessary to ensure its error-free operation. To optimize the web resource, our team suggested that the developers implement the following changes to the site:

  • check the quality of adaptation for mobile devices;
  • create a template for generating meta tags;
  • correctly configure Canonical, Hreflang attributes, sitemap and other important elements;
  • create page addresses of the web resource in a convenient and understandable format that allows users and search robots to easily understand what the page is about;
  • implement navigation elements on the website.

Particular attention was paid to improving usability, with separate recommendations for the development of each type of page. All these measures helped to make the new project technically flawless so that we could focus on other areas of SEO promotion in the future.

Step 4. Thorough analysis of the target audience

The target audience research was conducted to, firstly, clearly understand who is interested in the company’s products, and secondly, find out the likely reasons for not returning to the online store for repeat purchases.

аналіз цільової аудиторії winetime

Based on the data obtained, our specialists offered:

  • focus on the mobile version of the website, as the majority of customers aged 25 to 34 make orders from mobile devices;
  • develop loyalty programs to encourage repeat orders. This can include creating a personal account, introducing a bonus system, creating a wish list, and sending email newsletters.

By implementing these recommendations, a new website will quickly gain high rankings and have a high conversion rate.

Main results of the project

The result of this project was a new Winetime online store that had a branched structure with a large number of pages and categories. It was fully prepared for a successful quick launch, as it was optimized for search engines. Thanks to the parallel SEO work and website development, the client saved several months that are usually required to optimize and create content for such a large number of pages. In the process, the Elit-Web team prepared an expanded list of keywords for future pages and terms of reference for content creation, formed meta tags, and developed an external optimization strategy.

Our experience shows that it is very important and strategically correct to engage in SEO at the stage of website development. This helps to quickly index a new project and has a positive impact on the site’s starting position in search results. The use of predefined keywords and the implementation of a prepared content strategy allow you to fill the pages of a web resource with material that meets the needs of the target audience. All this work creates the foundation for effective search engine optimization and saves resources.

The project was made by:

Natalia Bersenova, Project Manager at Elit-Web
Anton Sinyavsky, Head of Performance Marketing at Elit-Web
Dmitry Fialka, SEO specialist at Elit-Web

Service: SEO-promotion.
Project: anabel-arto.com — an online store of branded lingerie.
Region: Ukraine.
Term of work: 5 months.
Objective: to improve the site’s position in search, increase conversion.

Головна anabel-arto.com

A beginner in SEO may think that all projects are similar to each other. However, only a true specialist can notice the nuances and features of each project, and most importantly, emphasize the strengths of the site.

The owners of Anabel Arto set the Elit-Web team the task of bringing the online store’s website to a new level – to increase traffic and achieve more conversions. The client planned to develop a new website with different language versions, but while work was underway, the business had to continue to operate. Therefore, we decided to develop a new web resource and SEO-optimize the working version in parallel. This complicated the work of SEO specialists, but a competent approach and a clear strategy allowed us to achieve the planned results.

What is interesting about the Anabel Arto online store

The online store Anabel Arto is known for offering high-quality branded items: lingerie, home and sportswear. The brand already has its own fans who have become regular customers. They value style and comfort in any circumstances. The catalog is filled with modern models with a comfortable cut.

anabel-arto

The structure of the website of an online lingerie store is quite consumer-friendly, and to make the choice more comfortable, visitors have the opportunity to read detailed product descriptions. Each product page lists available sizes and style features. This makes it possible to choose the right products and enjoy them during regular use.

Work on SEO optimization of an online store of branded lingerie

Elit-Web was tasked with increasing traffic to the online store’s website and improving its visibility in search. To achieve this goal, the specialists decided to work on several areas in parallel:

  • initial technical optimization of the web resource;
  • working out the semantics and filling the site with unique content;
  • external optimization of the web resource.

Step 1. Technical optimization

At the first stage, the specialists examined the current state of the site and analyzed the main technical features of the project in detail. The key focus was on the quality of metadata, page indexing, website loading speed, duplicate content, and other parameters.

In the course of this work, the main shortcomings were identified and a plan was drawn up to eliminate them. Next, the specialists worked on On-Page SEO.

Step 2. Semantic core analysis and content optimization

First, the experts evaluated the ranking of the Anabel Arto website in search. They compiled 2 lists: a list of key queries that were used to promote the site earlier and those that were trending in this topic. The analysis of these lists showed what needed to be changed in content promotion and which key queries should be integrated into the landing pages to improve the position of the online store in search results. These queries were then prioritized.

In addition, it was decided to use information requests as part of the promotion strategy. In this regard, it was proposed to expand the blog on the website and set up cross-references between pages with different functional purposes.

Step 3. External optimization of the web resource

Since it was planned to “move” the site to a new domain and create different language versions in the future, the specialists had to work in such a way as to improve the link profile of the site, on the one hand, and to maintain the weight of these links in the future.

The following work was done in this area:

  • prepare texts for posting on trust resources;
  • an anchor list for placing crowd links has been created;
  • as part of SERM, we worked with feedback.

Before placing the links, the specialists checked the sites for relevance to the site’s topic, absence of penalties, etc.

Main results of the project

The SEO strategy proposed by the Elit-Web team helped the client achieve good results. This is evidenced by the dynamics of improving the position of the web resource. In particular, after the work was done, there were so many key queries in the top of Google:

The percentage of key queriesImproved performance compared to the previous reporting period
Top 35%+1%
Top 1010%+1%
Top 3023%0%

The position of the main queries showed positive dynamics.

запити anabel-arto

The average position of the site in search results also grew. For example, in just one month, it improved from 23.4 to 18.

Середня позиція анабель-арто в пошуку

The result of improving the visibility of the web resource in search was an increase in traffic to the site. That is, the efforts of SEO specialists were not in vain. On average, the number of conversions from organic search grew by 3.15% per month.

органічний пошук

In total, the number of visits from organic search increased by 10.99% in the five months of the project.

The main result of the work on the SEO optimization project for the website of an online lingerie store was an increase in the conversion of the web resource and an increase in client revenue by 27.65%.

дохід анабель арто

The obtained results of SEO promotion demonstrate the success of the strategy proposed by our team and the professionalism of our employees. All the work was aimed at attracting the target audience ready to make purchases. This allowed us to achieve an increase in the client’s company’s revenue.

The project was made by:

Tetiana Zhukivets, Project-manager at ITForce
Nelly Khlyapova, PPC specialist at ITForce

Service: Google Ads.
Project: lanota.com.ua — an online store of musical instruments with delivery in Ukraine.
Market: Ukraine.
Period of writing: November 2022–January 2023.
Promotion goal: increase in sales of goods.
Task from the customer: increase the demand for the company’s products.
Result: +353 transactions with Performance Max (29.31% of the total).

Google Ads is one of the fastest ways to reach target customers online. The contextual advertising takes into account the demand and requests of users. How exactly?

Paid advertising allows you to show ads to potential customers who are actively looking for the products or services you offer. This means that you show ads only to those users who are actually interested in your product. This allows you to achieve high conversions and use your advertising budget efficiently.

Today we are going to look at the case of the musical instrument store lanota.com.ua.

1. Client — an online musical instrument store

The client turned to ITForce with the task of setting up contextual advertising to increase demand for the company’s products.

The assortment of the client’s company:

  • wind and keyboard instruments;
  • acoustic systems;
  • guitars and equipment;
  • percussion instruments;
  • studio and DJ equipment;
  • Hi-Fi and Hi-End equipment.

Competitive advantages of the customer:

  • a wide range of products for beginners and professionals in different price categories;
  • all products are certified with a certificate from the official manufacturer;
  • goods from the store have a guarantee for exchange, repair or return, subject to the rules of operation;
  • the customer can order goods with payment upon receipt, which allows you to make sure the quality of the goods before paying for the order;
  • when choosing a product, the customer can get a free consultation from the call center manager in an online chat.

The client’s website was created on the Horoshop platform, so to set up contextual advertising, a specialist needs access to the admin panel. The e-commerce block in Horoshop is already built into the website, so specialists can use the data feed for advertising purposes.

At the beginning of our cooperation, we created and set up Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts.

2. Setting up contextual advertising for an online musical instrument store

We have been working with the client since May 2022 and have already presented the results of our work in the case study. We set up campaigns in:

  • search network;
  • shopping campaigns (Shopping and later Smart shopping).

But. The fact is that Google Smart Shopping campaigns will cease to exist on September 16, 2022. Until then, advertisers had to convert these campaigns to Performance Max.

Setting up and operating Performance Max

In September, we started transferring Smart Shopping campaigns to a new format – PMax.

Features of Performance Max campaigns:

  • marketing, geo-targeting, and advertising goals are set up;
  • budget;
  • text, images, videos for ads;
  • product feed;
  • Google Мій бізнес;
  • Google Merchant Center;
  • dynamic remarketing feed;
  • business data feed;
  • audience signals (optional);
  • Google audiences (manually targeted).

The data is required to pass moderation and allow campaigns to be launched. Display locations for Performance Max campaigns:

  • Google search — the top of the page;
  • YouTube — before, during, or after watching a video on YouTube;
  • Gmail — ads may appear in the inbox of a Gmail message;
  • Google Discover Feed is a Google feature that allows users to receive personalized articles and news in the Discover panel on the home page of a mobile device or on the Google home page;
  • Google Display Network — Google’s contextual media network.

Google’s suggestions for transition.
Instructions for setting up Performance Max campaigns.
ITForce recommendations for working with PMax.

Examples of ads customized for the customer’s website:

Оголошення клієнта в пошуку та контекстно-медійній мережі
Fig. 1 – Client ads in search and contextual media network
Оголошення кампанії Шопінг
Fig. 2 – Announcement of the Shopping campaign

Let’s take a look at the performance of all advertising campaigns from September to November 2022:

Performance Max for an online musical instrument store
Fig. 3 – Operation of all types of campaigns in the customer account

The first thing we can see from the screenshot is that out of all the launched campaigns, Performance Max immediately became the leader in terms of the number of clicks and transactions made. But Shopping still brings significant results — this campaign ranks 2nd in the account by the number of transactions.

Performance Max has been working in the client’s account since 10.09.2022. As of November 1, 2022, we have the following data:

  • Performance Max brought the majority of views (60.3% of sessions out of 100%);
  • the transaction conversion rate in the general PMax campaign is higher than in other campaigns and higher than the average account rate (although in the branded PMax it is 0.33%);
  • almost 60% of transactions were generated by 2 Performance Max campaigns.

Next, we focused our efforts on maximizing PMax efficiency.

3. Performance Max results November 2022 – January 2023

List of completed works since November 1, 2022:

  • processing of Google recommendations;
  • updating and optimizing high-cost keys without transactions;
  • adding non-targeted queries to the list of negative keywords;
  • adding audiences to the Observations;
  • adding new titles and descriptions to adaptive search ads;
  • improving the quality score of ads;
  • reallocation of budgets in campaigns;
  • excluding regions without transactions;
  • change of bidding strategies for certain campaigns;
  • setting up new campaigns for a specific product brand;
  • set up and launch trade ads for the Casio brand;
  • set up and run a Performance Max campaign for the Generator’s product category;
  • verify and set up new tracking goals.

What data do traffic channels provide us with for 3 months:

Розподіл транзакцій між каналами трафіку
Fig. 4 – Distribution of transactions between traffic channels

Paid search (also known as contextual advertising) still dominates all traffic channels. It brings the vast majority of transactions — 86.49%.

It should be noted that music equipment is not a product of wide or everyday demand. The client’s product groups belong to a specialized niche. People don’t buy a new guitar, mixer, generator, etc. every day. That is, music products are goods of a balanced decision, not an impulsive purchase. And when setting up and launching a context, you need to take this into account.

For example, we have the following statistics on website visits from advertising:

Поведінка користувачів під час покупок (листопад 2022 - січень 2023
Fig. 5 – User shopping behavior (November 2022 – January 2023)

Please note that:

  • 110 716 sessions on the site were brought by advertising;
  • 1,957 additions to the shopping cart;
  • 970 completed transactions in total from paid traffic.

The client’s sales funnel is very wide: 110,716 times users looked at products on the website. Of these, 1,166 (1.77%) visitors went on to add a product to the cart, and 970 of them (0.88%) completed the order properly. We have an approximate ratio of 1 to 100.

That is, people are looking at products more often, studying the characteristics, comparing products and offers of websites with each other. And finally, they choose the best and most acceptable option for themselves. You need to be prepared for the fact that not every user who clicks on an ad will end up adding an item to the cart or making a transaction. In this case, the task of contextual advertising is to attract interested users – those who have an interest and intention to buy.

At that time, it may take some time before a customer buys a product: from 1 day to several weeks. To understand this information, let’s take a look at the Associated Conversions report (the report takes into account conversions from all traffic channels).

*Conversion is not only a purchase, but also adding an item to the cart, starting the checkout process, clicking on a phone number, etc.

Асоційовані конверсії магазину музичних інструментів та обладнання
Fig. 6 – Associated conversions of a musical instruments and equipment store

From the screenshot, we can see that the time between the first viewing of a product page and its purchase can be 29 days. And most often, visitors return to the site within the first week after viewing the product. This is the delayed effect of contextual advertising.

Now let’s take a look at the performance of all paid advertising from November 1 to January 31.

Приріст кліків по рекламі (всі рекламні кампанії, налаштовані ITForce)
Fig. 7 – Increase in ad clicks (all ad campaigns configured by ITForce)

Black Friday was at the end of November, and we saw an increase in ad views. And the campaigns we set up in January were especially effective — the screenshot shows a rapid increase in the number of ad clicks. At the same time, we had a predictable increase in advertising costs, and the CTR remained at about the same level.

*CTR (Click-through rate) — the ratio of the number of clicks on an ad to the number of its impressions. It is measured as a percentage. It is used to measure the effectiveness of online advertising.

Витрати на рекламу листопад січень
Fig. 8 – Advertising expenses (November 2022 – January 2023)

It is worth noting that January is usually characterized by a decline in demand for goods, especially high-value goods (and music equipment is a high-value product). Instead, our client saw an increase in website traffic. This is partly explained by our findings above — the delayed purchase decision and associated conversions.

Now you can see the performance of each campaign separately:

Показники всіх налаштованих кампаній в акаунті клієнта
Fig. 9 – Indicators of all configured campaigns in the customer account
  • 87.69% of users were brought by advertising;
  • 55.62% of transactions were generated by contextual advertising;
  • 56.75% of revenue was generated by contextual advertising.

Now let’s look at the overall effectiveness of advertising in January/October (we did launch PMax in September, but in October the campaigns learned enough and we got quite acceptable data):

Порівняння реклами за січень 2023 та жовтень 2022
Fig. 10 – Comparison of advertising in January 2023 and October 2022
  • 80.71% — increase in users;
  • 62.35% — increase in sessions;
  • 9.85% — increase in transactions;
  • average order value increased by 24.64%;
  • 98.24% decrease in the bounce rate on the website;
  • 36.92% increase in revenue.

January is the month after the winter holidays (Christmas and New Year), which means that the purchasing power of the population is no longer high. Nevertheless, the ads worked well, and our client received both an increase in transactions and revenue. In return, we managed to reduce the bounce rate by 98% (i.e., the users attracted by the ads were more targeted).

If we take those Performance Max campaigns that ran in October 2022 and January 23 and compare their performance to see if they’ve become more effective, we’ll get this:

Порівняння роботи кампаній Performance Max (січень 2023 жовтень 2022
Fig. 12 – Comparison of Performance Max campaigns (January 2023 / October 2022)
  • +17.85% increase in the number of users who clicked on the ad;
  • +49.26% to the average order check from 2 PMax campaigns;
  • +41.15% increase in return on advertising spend;
  • +40.90% growth in sales revenue;
  • -5.6% decrease in the number of transactions.

Yes, indeed, we have slipped in terms of the number of orders placed from these 2 advertising campaigns: compared to October, the client received 5.6% fewer orders. Instead, we managed to increase the average check by 49.26%. Sales revenue also grew significantly: in January, the owner of the music store received +40.9% more revenue compared to October.

Regarding the return on advertising spend: for advertising to be effective and cover the costs of launching and attracting users, ROAS should be above 100%. In January, compared to October, we had a ROAS of 13,193%. This is much higher than 100%. This means that the PMax campaigns we set up are effective and fully recoup the client’s costs.

Now, let’s take a look at the results of all the configured Performance Max campaigns. As a reminder, as of January 2023, we had 3 PMax campaigns running:

  1. a campaign based on Smart Shopping;
  2. a campaign for the Harley Benton brand;
  3. a campaign for the Generators product group (the campaign was launched on January 10.
Всі кампанії PMax
Fig. 11 – Performance Max campaigns as of January 2023

The Performance Max group of campaigns brings to the client:

  • 39.55% of visits to the website from advertising;
  • 29.61% of all transactions, which is almost a third;
  • 29.46% of revenue from all contextual advertising.

In general, we can say that the customized Performance Max campaigns have brought significant results – they generate a third of the client’s sales.

The advertising set up by the ITForce specialist meets the goal of the customer’s request – sales of products have increased. The revenue generated from the sale of music products and equipment fully recouped the costs of advertising and customer acquisition. We continue to work on optimizing and improving contextual advertising.

Service: SEO-optimization
Region: Ukraine
Project: online store of inexpensive women’s clothing, a new brand, the main range – casual wear, knitted suits, dresses.
Objectives: increase organic traffic, improve visibility in search results

An integrated approach in e-commerce projects in the initial stages allows you to get the desired result faster, as well as spend less on optimization in the future. After all, the foundation for further effective work has already been laid. Planning and consistent implementation of certain steps provide positive dynamics even in highly competitive niches.
The project included SEO-optimization at the development stage, as well as further work on search engine optimization.

Organic orders received: 232
Traffic growth: +338.95%
Transaction growth: +93.33%
Income growth: + 157%.

Guideline works

  1. Analysis of the market and competitors.
  2. Preparation of a list of recommendations for search engine optimization at the stage of development (technical recommendations).
  3. Defining priority product categories for promotion.
  4. Creating the semantic core of queries, clustering.
  5. On-page optimization.
  6. Preparation of a content plan in accordance with search trends in women’s clothing.
  7. Crowd marketing.
  8. Linkbuilding.

Work progress

Analysis of competitors in the niche for search engine optimization is based on research:

  • site architecture, available landing pages, categories, filters and optimization of their pages;
  • domain history and age;
  • the volume and frequency of content updates;
  • traffic sources, their ratio;
  • mass of links and rates of its growth;
  • evaluation of the usability of the site for users.

After conducting such a comprehensive analysis, we proceed to the preparation of technical recommendations for internal optimization of the site at the development stage.

The basic list includes: creating a valid robots.txt and sitemap, SEO-Friendly URL structure, 404 page preparation, Page Speed ​​checking, micro-markup, hreflang, page structure, categories, breadcrumbs, pagination, restriction of indexing of individual pages, etc.

Internal optimization of the site, Page Speed revision

Fig. 1 – Page Speed revision

SEO-optimization at the development stage allows you to take into account all the important points and not spend time on their correction.

At the next stage of optimization the following works were performed:

  1. Defining priority product categories for promotion.
  2. Creating the semantic core of queries, clustering.
  3. Creating metatags for information pages, product categories and products.
  4. Check the structure of the site, recommendations for additions.
  5. Work with filters and product cards.
  6. Usability check.
  7. Recommendations for image optimization.
  8. Checking speed indicators.
  9. Preparation of a thematic content plan for the blog.
  10. Setting a technical task for copywriters to create an SEO-relevant description of categories.
  11. Implementation of internal relinking.
  12. Tracking and analysis of behavioral factors.

During the formation of the semantic core attention is paid to determining the type of search demand on the client path map.
For example, the search query “buy a dress cheap”:

  • in the TOP for this query are the results from Google maps, pages of the corresponding category of online stores and marketplaces, etc.
  • to optimize for this query, we used content on the category page with query inclusion, internal relinking, blog materials, and external links.
Internal optimization of the site, page speed analysis

Fig. 2 – Analysis of pages

In addition to working with category pages, we also paid attention to product cards. For a positive customer experience, vehicles were prepared to prepare descriptions of clothing models, quality photo content. After all, it is important for the user to understand everything about the product before he makes a purchase.
For this purpose, blog materials are also well suited, in which you can talk about the features of caring for fabrics or creating images with clothes that are offered in the online store.

Internal optimization of the site, application of the blog materials

Fig. 3 – Application of the blog materials

After carrying out internal optimization we pass to external works.

Within the framework of this block:

  1. Analysis of the external link profile of competitors.
  2. Development of external search engine optimization strategy.
  3. Preparation of a content plan for articles with identified key queries.
  4. Analysis and selection of resources for posting articles with links.
  5. Crowd marketing.
  6. Tracking and analysis of results, making adjustments to the work.

The results obtained for the period April-August 2021

Case results for Quester-September 2021, optimization

Fig. 4 – Results for April-August 2021

Case results, a list of popular requests

Fig. 5 – A list of popular requests

As can be seen from the results, optimization at the development stage and further work give good results. However, we should not forget that Internet marketing is a complex story. That is why you should use other tools, such as social networks, advertising, etc.

As part of SEO-work, it is important to constantly monitor the results, as well as monitor the activities of competitors and the market as a whole. This allows you to respond to changes in a timely manner and make the necessary adjustments to maintain success.

The project was worked on:

Vasily Voloshin, Author of Immodest Marketer channel 

Service: contextual advertising setup 

Region: Ukraine

Project: Internet-store of auto parts

The customer’s task: to increase sales

Workflow

The project was recommended by another contextual advertising specialist. It came to work from scratch. 

What was done: 

  1. Developed ToR for programmers, on some pages added conversion analytics codes, transaction tracking, and the like. 
  2. The site was finalized in accordance with the Merchant center rules. 
  3. Product names and descriptions have been optimized, as well as errors and recommendations for the Google Merchant Center have been eliminated.

Advertising is done only through Google Shopping, i.e. other traffic channels do not take part in the project’s overall result. 

Thus, two advertising campaigns were run on this project. First, a simple shopping campaign, and when it “broke” the account, a smart shopping campaign was included. In the section of each company, you can see the result by selecting the desired ones and clicking “Show on the chart”.

In the beginning, only the simple trading company worked: it gave a return on investment of 1700%. Then the smart trading company started to work, and the smart trading company sagged a bit in profitability. 

Next, we see that the smart and simple trading companies work great. One is 3000% profitable, the other is 2000% profitable, in June and July there was a slump in revenue, also the profitability dropped. 

But in September and October, indicators have returned to a good level, show normal profitability and income. 

Results for the last month of the project

Data for October:

Expenditure: 7,759.82 UAH.

Price per click: 0.94 UAH.

Orders: 53

Income: 104,080.18 UAH.

Screenshot of income campaign

+ 80 calls

Screenshot Calls

November started with a good profitability, more than 5 000%

The total traffic of this project: click on All traffic – Sources – Channel and you can see that the other channels of traffic are almost not involved in attracting visitors. 

Results by channel:

  • the main share of traffic is Google CPC; 
  • next comes Direct; 
  • then Google Organic; 
  • and after that, tagged traffic from Google Merchant Center. This is the same free Google traffic, but it doesn’t come from Google Organic, it comes from Google shopping. 

If those products are added to Merchant Center and it’s moderated, you can get free traffic from Google Merchant Center. 

So we can see that there were 741 users from Merchant Center free traffic and there were 8 purchases of 14 thousand UAH. Those users came for free and made a purchase. Such results can be achieved by using Google Shopping.

The project was made by:

Daria Churikova, SMM Specialist of ITForce Agency;

Tatiana Zhukovets, Project-manager of ITForce agency.

Service: setting up targeted advertising

Region: Ukraine

Project: IKEA online store

The task from the customer: increasing the number of purchases on the site

Promotion goal:

  • increase in targeted traffic to the site;
  • an increase in the number of transactions.


About client


IKEA online store: furniture for home and garden in Ukraine.
Before contacting us, the company has been working on the Ukrainian market for a long time. The client independently tried to set up advertising on the Facebook and Instagram social networks to the existing product catalog, but there was no effectiveness.

Work progress

Before starting the launch of targeted advertising we analyzed the existing advertising campaigns and wrote a strategy for promoting and expanding audiences.
The client provided high-margin site categories. After that, we collected and proposed audiences by interest who are most likely to make a purchase of these products.

The proposed groups consisted of:

  1. Audiences of parents looking for toys, textiles, furniture for children of different ages.
  2. An audience looking for home improvement products. Perhaps renovating or planning a house relocation. Either they are newlyweds/married couples who have recently moved from another city or changed their homes. Products that may interest them: bedroom furniture, kitchen products, bed linen, pillows and other products for the home and creating comfort in the house.
  3. An audience that has a summer cottage or a country house and is looking for furniture for the garden or for the street.
  4. An audience that is similar in interest to our website visitors (Look-A-Like audience).

The implementation of the strategy included the following steps:

Step 1.
Advertising campaigns, which were previously set up by the client, were supplemented by our specialist, and added to them special offers to attract the attention of users of the “cold audience”. Top 20 marginal positions of the site were used as product offers.

Step 2.
To attract new users to the site according to the groups described above, we have created ad creatives and launched them with the aim of optimizing “Buy on site”.

Case study creatives for SMM promotion

Fig. 1 – Creatives for advertising campaigns

Step 3.
The remarketing campaign was set up using the complete product catalog of the site, as well as the goal of optimizing the “Purchase” of the product. Thus, users who were previously on the site, but did not make a purchase, saw our ad again.

Image 2 to the case SMM promotion

Fig. 2 – Launch of advertising campaigns at the end of March

Step 4.
Our specialists carried out optimization for the site audiences Since later one of the audiences showed low results, we turned it off. On the contrary, the LAL audience performed the best, so we scaled it.

Step 5.
For the second month of working with the project, we monitored advertising indicators. Frequency of ad impressions and click-through rates were important factors. They showed us which ad groups to turn off, which ones to increase the budget, and which ones to replace altogether.

A feature of this setting is the value of conversions from “cold traffic”, that is, from users who first saw our ad and have not yet been on the site. This value turned out to be higher than from “warm audiences” who were on the site, but did not make a purchase.
That is, the number of purchases from Traffic was lower, but in terms of value, these purchases exceeded the number from the advertising campaign on Conversions.

Intermediate result:

During a month of testing audiences and campaigns, we found the highest quality option with a conversion cost of $ 1.39 per purchase.

In just the first month we received:

  • 319,719 ad impressions,
  • 5568 unique clicks,
  • 769 additions to the Cart,
  • 155 purchases worth $8,615.86.

The total cost per month was $746.23.

Social networks

It is worth noting that when targeted advertising is launched, users are active on social networks and can also write to Direct Instagram and Facebook Messenger to order. Like posts, write comments and subscribe to an account.
It is advised to take this factor into account and make sure not to miss a single message.

Image 3 to the case SMM promotion

Fig. 3 – Reaching pages on Facebook and Instagram

Results for 2 months of work with the project:

  • 319,719 impressions of the proposed advertisement;
  • 9868 unique clicks;
  • 1206 additions to the Cart;
  • 241 purchases worth $12,746.39.


Thus, we were able to use the testing method to find interested audiences that showed the highest results.
Targeted advertising is a great way to promote a website, where you can easily place an order and pay for it immediately on the website. Also, an important factor can be considered the speed of loading the site – users from advertising can “wander around the site” for a long time, and it is important that the pages are loaded quickly.