In July 2014 Jane Earl, the owner of Ilam Florist, was at her wits end. She was engaged in a stand-off with a web agency over a new ecommerce website they were building for her florist business.
The project had dragged on for several months. Jane was disappointed with the website but the agency appeared to have little interest in working with her to get the site to the point where she felt happy with it. And she had already paid them more than $10,000 upfront.
At this time, Jane’s existing website was nowhere to be seen in Google search results for terms such as ‘florist christchurch’ ‘flowers christchurch’ etc. The site was getting little traffic and making virtually no sales.
No wonder she was at the end of her tether!
So Jane approached me for advice. I recommended she terminate her dealings with the agency that had been messing her around for months and told her I could build her a new website for around half the price they had quoted. Furthermore, I assured her I could get a steady stream of buyers coming to the new website within 24 hours of it being launched – using Google Ads.
And over the next few months, I also promised the new website would rise to the top half of page one in Google search results for the relevant keywords.
So, Jane accepted my proposal and I didn’t mess around. The new website was launched in less than 4 weeks from start to finish.
The power of Google Ads
I set up a Google Ads campaign targeting prospective customers not only throughout New Zealand but also internationally. I realised many people living overseas wanted to send flowers to family and friends in Christchurch. So I targeted those prospective customers with Google Ads in Australia, the United States, the UK, Europe and Asia.
By the end of the first month with the new website and marketing campaign, Jane was delighted. She had never sold as many flowers online – not to mention a big increase in phone orders coming through the new site.
Over the next few months, Ilam Florist rose up the rankings in Google search results and was soon in the top 5 for the key search terms such as ‘florist christchurch’ and ‘flowers christchurch’. And we also got the business listed in Google Maps.
Website flower sales are rising month by month
At the time of writing this case study, just over two years after launching the new website, Ilam Florist’s online sales are still increasing steadily month by month. We are continuing to fine tune the Google Ads campaign to get more clicks for less money. We have worked out how much it is profitable to invest to get a website sale – and making sure we stay within that pre-arranged amount.
For a business such as a florist, Google Ads is a particularly powerful form of advertising. When people need to send flowers, they almost always go to Google first. They search for a florist in the city where they want to send the flowers to. They’re usually in a hurry, so will pick the businesses that appear at the top of the search results.
Once they click on the ad and get to the florist website, the challenge is then to make the purchase of the flowers as easy as possible. (I have fine tuned this process through trial and error.)
The bottom line…
If you get Google Ads done correctly and have a website that converts the visitors into customers, you have a winning formula! That’s what I have achieved for Ilam Florist. And it’s what I can achieve for your business too!
You are welcome to contact me and see if we’re a good fit to work together. Call +64 3 377 3637 or use the contact form.