Kettlebell Kings Google Ads Case Study

FROM BACKROOM STARTUP TO AN INC. 5000 COMPANY

The Real Story Behind the Phenomenal Success of Kettlebell Kings

Located in Austin, Texas, Kettlebell Kings is hailed as a runaway success story of internet marketing. The company was launched in 2013 by Jay Perkins and Chad Price and offered free shipping – a USP in the existing kettlebell market. Alongside their kettlebell range, they are also a provider of sporting apparel and workout kits, providing holistic fitness solutions. 

THE CHALLENGE

In 2014, Kettlebell Kings were using a US digital marketing agency. The agency used a unified marketing platform, and Kettlebell Kings were, therefore, unable to directly access the Google Ads account. Sales were proving costly, and a lack of negative keywords was allowing poor quality web traffic to drive up costs.

Due to the poor performance of the agency, Kettlebell Kings began working with Click Convert. Initially, we provided training and mentoring services, creating a second account to compare results. When we analyzed the Google Ads account, it became clear that there were large discrepancies between the true costs on Google’s platform and the costs that had been communicated by the previous agency. 

The insights gained have enabled us to continuously refine performance and improve ROI for Kettlebell Kings. We later took over the entire management of the account.

THE APPROACH

In 2014, Click Convert became Kettlebell Kings’ principal agency. Our approach of analyzing new digital marketing systems and developing strategies to maximize returns has produced exceptional results. Be it Search, Shopping, Display, Native ads through to Artificial Intelligence ad systems, our approach has consistently driven record-breaking sales growth year on year.

Search

Over time, we utilized multiple strategies to keep our growth on an upward trajectory and improve our market share. RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads) provided the cornerstone of this growth and enabled us to push high intent traffic through to the site in order to increase sales year on year. By reducing the bid on low performing demographics and audiences, we refined the way we utilized Search in Kettlebell King’s overall digital strategy.

Shopping

In an increasingly competitive market, achieving consistent sales proved to be a challenge, requiring ever-evolving strategies. Through the use of early adoption Showcase Shopping and custom dashboard reporting, we sought to influence the buying decision at every stage through varying, relevant messages. We found that, on average, there was a 12 day period between the first search impression and the ordering stage.

With this information, we segmented the Shopping campaigns to target different search queries at different stages of the buying cycle. This enabled us to maximize ROI for longtail search terms, while maintaining a presence for more general search terms using trend analysis to optimize budget throughout the year.

Display

Our Display strategies have responded to constant evolution as our client base expanded and we gained increasing insight into the changing customer journey. Through building multi-layered audiences, we developed a tiered approach to remarketing, delivering impressive results. With a data-driven approach, we designed specific product landing pages which delivered pertinent messages to users at each stage of the buying journey.

Video

We identified YouTube as an integral element of reaching new users as part of an overall growth strategy to increase brand awareness. This required careful planning when creating content and curating the YouTube account. We focused on reaching in-market audiences interested in purchasing fitness equipment. As well as this, we narrowed down to key, high performing demographics which enabled us to only target higher intent users who would then go on to do intent-based queries on Shopping and Search. This meant that we could evolve our video content output to continue to engage and introduce new prospects to the brand. Again, we used cutting edge techniques and early adoption of new features known to give us a competitive advantage and to continuously improve performance to Google best practices.

THE RESULTS

Click Convert was able to grow Kettlebell Kings’ sales by 300% within six months. One year after Click Convert began work on the account, Kettlebell Kings’ revenue had increased by 900%. From a startup business, they were now rapidly expanding, with demand often outstripping supply. In 2016, Kettlebell Kings were able to attract new investment, allowing the business to develop further. Today, Kettlebell Kings is the market-leading supplier of kettlebells across the US and Canada