Overview
Pets Place is the biggest pet care shop in the Netherlands, Boerenbond is one of the most famous Dutch garden centres, together they have 180 stores.
Situation
The marketing team at Pets Place Boerenbond (PPBB) is focused on executing an ambitious growth strategy to become a dominant force in the market. To achieve this, PPBB’s wanted to “always be one of the main options” when Dutch consumers search for physical stores to purchase their products. They will then expand their presence across all relevant networks (social, navigational, and dictionaries).
The marketing team was looking for ways to use online marketing to increase footfall to the stores, supported by offline conversation data from Google. Although PPBB was aware that other relevant networks could increase store traffic, Google was by far the most significant one. First, they wanted to focus on the essentials, ensuring they integrated their shop locator, local inventory feed, a strong photography presence, and complete review and content strategy
GMBapi.com and the Local Search Strategy
In order to make all important information available for Google’s Local Search, PPBB started optimising their GMB listings. To align the ownership structure, they synchronised all of their location information on more than thirty different networks. These networks included Uber, Facebook, Instagram, TomTom, and Apple Maps.
A content and review plan was then created. This strategy ensured that PPBB was able to easily post content across all the various networks while still being relevant to specific types of stores. Their brochures are primarily advertised on Facebook and Google Business Profiles. The brochures delivery areas have been converted into distribution zones on GBP and Facebook, making it possible to utilise the collected data in online marketing. Future omni-channel marketing efforts will know which catchment regions are best for increasing foot traffic to a specific store.
Then, last but not least, we integrated all local product inventory data to the listings. This has helped push down Google Ads costs by approximately ten percent, providing a huge saving. It also helped raise local visibility significantly.
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Our Solution
PPBB achieved its goal of making results insightful and time-saving through GMBapi.com. It was a decision heavily influenced by the team’s direct support, GMBapi.com’s A/B testing capability, and the software’s ability to save time on review strategy. A/B tests run on small groups of stores allowed PPBB to learn quickly; once the impact was evident, PPBB scaled it.
The Results
- 400% INCREASE IN IMPRESSIONS ON LOCAL SEARCH IN THREE YEARS
- 10% INCREASE In conversion rate
- 400 hours saved by local tooling
400% Increase in Impressions on Local Search
The investment in providing a great user experience on Local Search was shown to deliver positive results immediately. PPBB’s stores have seen a percentage increase of 400% in impressions on Google Search and Google Maps over the course of three and a half years.
The first impact has been made between the first nine months of 2020 (read : pandemic included) and 2019, a year in which COVID-19 barely impacted customer behaviour. That stage was mostly about enriching the Google Business Profiles of the stores. Potential customers found PPBB’s stores 80% more through discovery searches. The marketing team’s biggest surprise: users who find PPBB through local search also significantly increased the website sales.
PPBB then started focussing on raising the conversion rate of the Google Business Profile listings. Fresh photos of the stores were added, and we saw an increase of ten percent in conversion rate. We then moved forward to integrate our live local inventory feed (products available at the store), and we saw a drop in the costs per click and cost per acquisition. We started using Google Ads to enhance results.
The last step was creating local communities via Facebook Store pages. Some stores created vibrant local communities, with lots of on and offline engagement, going on dog walks and sharing tips. We support those communities with a weekly relevant post.
400 Hours Saved
By investing in the right tool, PPBB saves approximately four hundred hours per year. The reporting of results, monitoring of account health and incoming reviews, have both been entirely automated. Posting content across all the local digital assets is a piece of cake. Start your free GMBapi trial today.
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GMBapi helps businesses structure and manage their presence on Google My Business, Apple Maps, TomTom, Here, TripAdvisor, and many other platforms. Our team will assess your Google My Business account for free.
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