A case study on how paid search campaign optimization for a PDF software company had generated ~$1 million dollars of net revenue.

1. PPC at Foxit Software
Case Study

2. The Situation at Foxit Software
Foxit Software is a 500+ person, multi national company. I joined in 2016 with the title “Digital
Marketing Manager”. One of my first tasks was to prove that paid search could be profitable.
I had inherited paid search campaigns that consistently operated at a net loss of -30K in spend.
Even more interesting was that the company had a net loss over -$2MM over a 15 year period.
Management defended this performance as being brand focused, helping with general awareness but
lacked any evidence of lift.

4. Getting things straight
Documentation - Before making changes, I spent time to provide two levels of documentation: one
high level view for management and a granular one for me.
For reporting, I used API automation to provide real-time access to metrics, a company first that saved
me from manual entry.

5. Getting those ducks in a row.

6. Time for action
Keywords had not been optimized; redundancy matching of search terms between keyword match types
Automation let me prioritize on exact-match terms, pause poor performing keywords and ads. But programmatic rules offered the most control.

7. Examples of Effective Rules
Controlling cost per acquisition of keywords relative to search intent
Targeting positions for keywords based on time of day
Adjusting bids based off day of week and geography
Automating keywords (e.g. Negative Exact Keywords for broad and phrase)

8. Growth and Results
Sending high-intent traffic directly into the shopping cart landing page
Creating ads for multi-user licenses (B2B messaging)
Testing extensions (site link, review, callout)
Building out international campaigns for supported languages
By day 60, campaign performance operated at +$40K net per month.