THE CLIENT:
Named after founder Jill Foucré’s grandfather, a French chef and restaurateur, Marcel’s is one of the freshest and most innovative stores for cooking and food lovers. As a full retail store located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Marcel’s also features a unique state-of-the-art kitchen with classes for cooks of all ages. As Marcel’s business grew, two unique enterprises spun off: Marché, a gourmet wine and cheese shop and meeting hub for events and lunches, and Maison at Marcel’s, a customizable event planning and coordinating experience complete with on-site catering from a professional chef. All three enterprises are under the Marcel’s Culinary Experience brand.
THE CHALLENGE:
Increase Brand Awareness and Generate Web Traffic While Keeping Costs in Check
With three unique, but intertwined businesses under the Marcel’s Culinary Experience brand, advertising needed to be cost-effective, with distinct messaging. At the time of this new PPC initiative, both Marcel’s and Marche’ had their own websites, with different products and services. Details and information about Maison at Marcel’s was included in the Marcel’s website. Marcel’s Culinary Experience had previously initiated paid ad campaigns, recognizing the flexibility that digital advertising and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns offered. Over time, however, their ad spend continued to rise as their website traffic stagnated.
THE DISCOVERY:
PPC Ads Need Strategy and Optimization
Having worked with Custom Direct, Inc. on revisions for their websites, Marcel’s Culinary Experience hired the CDI team to build and implement a digital advertising strategy for each of their unique enterprises.
THE SOLUTION:
Diversifying and Optimizing Ad Campaigns
To best utilize their PPC ad spend, CDI recommended diversifying the budget between Google Search campaigns as well as Social Media Marketing. In addition, CDI recommended running a thorough keyword analysis on Marcel’s and Marche’s existing Google Search campaigns.
THE IMPLEMENTATION:
Creating Social Media Ads and Cleaning Up Google
CDI created a Facebook Business Profile and Facebook Ad Account to create and monitor Marcel’s Culinary Experience ads. A mixture of boosting key Facebook posts, such as specific classes Marcel’s needed to fill or cheese Marché was pushing, and several specific ad campaigns for each business’s Facebook page were created to drive potential customers from Facebook to their two websites. Keyword analysis was conducted to replace ineffective words with more relevant keywords to target the correct market for each of Marcel’s and Marché’s previously existing Google Search Campaigns, and a new campaign for Maison specifically, was added.
THE RESULTS:
Improved Website Traffic and Monitored Reporting
In the first year, Marcel’s Culinary Experience Google Ads campaigns average cost per click dropped by an average of 56% and conversion rate rose by 155%. Marcel’s website saw a 25% increase in web traffic from social media and 179% increase in web traffic from Google Ads. Marche’s website saw a 53% increase in traffic from social media and 33% increase in traffic from Google Ads. As a result of CDI’s successfully revamped PPC campaigns, Marcel’s Culinary Experience moved forward with the creation of a new, stand alone Maison website, where similar keyword research and campaign optimization brought a 100% increase in web traffic over the first year.