Meet A Landy Winner: How Point It Won Best Overall Enterprise SEM Initiative For Its Microsoft Store Campaign

Seattle-based agency Point It took home the Landy this month for Best Overall Enterprise SEM Initiative for its work driving online sales for the Microsoft Store.

Point It was tasked with developing and managing text search ad campaigns that yielded more sales volume without sacrificing ROI through the holiday season last year. Among the challenges facing the team were stiffer competition and higher CPCs.

Point It worked with their client to set communication expectations before the holiday season kicked into gear. This enabled the agency to nimbly manage the campaigns and hit key KPI targets even as competition increased.

The campaign focused on driving more traffic to a new responsive mobile website while still meeting ROI thresholds. Tactics involved ongoing ad copy testing, sophisticated bid modifier management (which led to a bid management platform migration), audience targeting and creating optimized landing page experiences to increase conversion rates.

The team used a data management platform to build targeted audience segments that combined both first- and third-party data. Point It targeted these audience segments with tailored ad copy in AdWords RLSA campaigns, as well as on other display and social channels. RLSA campaigns also helped keep spend on high-cost head terms in check by limiting exposure to prequalified audiences.

“At Point It, we are hyper-focused on the shifting digital landscape to help our clients outperform their competitors,” said Katy Tonkin, Point It Vice President of Digital Strategy and team lead.  “Every company is facing some aspect of increased costs, whether it be from increased competition and/or changes in consumer behavior. It’s critical to a company’s digital success to get not just aggressive, but creative about finding new ways to continue to expand their reach.”

Despite CPCs rising by more than 50 percent during the holiday season last year, Point It managed to keep costs below competitive benchmarks shared by the search engines and offset the higher costs with significantly higher conversion rates. The campaign exceeded expectations in a highly competitive market.

“Our client trusts us to deliver results. Every year we bring new innovation to them thanks to our deep industry insight. This is why we are proud to say we received a Landy for the Best Use of Search for an Enterprise,” said Point It President Frank Coyle.

Kudos to Point It and Microsoft on a successful campaign and Landy win!