Alludo Software Realizes 35% SEM Cost Savings Through Brand New Optimization Framework

Overview

‍‍Alludo, a renowned Canadian software company and former Corel Corporation, is a leader in graphics processing. Known for products like CorelDRAW, PaintShop Pro, and WordPerfect, Alludo has diversified its portfolio to include Mind Manager, Parallels, and WinZip, under KKR's ownership.

Challenges‍

Heavy Investment in Branded Keywords:

‍ Given the popularity and established brand recognition of Alludo's software, there was a substantial investment in branded keywords. However, this approach limited the exploration of new market segments and lessened the focus on broader audience engagement.
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Lack of Innovation in SEM Tactics:

The existing SEM strategy lacked fresh ideas and innovative approaches, leading to stagnation in account performance. The leadership sought new hypotheses and creative strategies for improvement.
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B2B Channel Integration:
Another significant challenge was aligning the digital marketing efforts with Alludo's B2B channel sales. The company needed to establish a synergistic relationship between its digital-direct units and B2B channels to optimize the marketing and sales performance of the same software products.

Strategies

‍Phase 1: SEM Efficiency Optimization
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Budget Reallocation Recommendations by Location: Analyzing the percentage of purchasers per location, assessing market share potential, and adjusting budget allocations to optimize spend in markets with greater opportunities.
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Audience and Channel Targeting Observations: Segmenting audiences by age, gender, household income, etc., and correlating these segments with trends in CPC, conversion rates, and cost per purchase. This targeted approach aimed to improve ad spend efficiency and ROI across our campaigns.
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Ad and Landing Page Relevance insights: emphasizing the alignment of ads and landing pages with user search queries. For instance, testing action-focused landing pages for non-branded campaigns, particularly for non-Mind Map ad groups. These pages prompt the installation of MindManager, followed by tutorials and template offerings, enhancing user engagement and conversion rates.
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Ongoing Experiments: Implementing a roadmap of tests with clear KPIs. This included strategy templates for evaluating test success and explanations of specific testing procedures used in software lead generation. Tests focused on incremental gains in specific locations and the effectiveness of branded keywords.
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Educational Support: Providing Alludo's team with advanced knowledge on ad platform controls, updates on Google's betas, and new functions, ensuring they stay abreast of technological advancements and platform changes.

Phase 2: B2B Channel Alignment
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- Developing and implementing strategies to synergize Alludo's digital marketing efforts with its B2B channel sales, focusing on integrating digital direct tactics with paid search and social advertising to enhance B2B relationships.
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- Providing insights and recommendations to be implemented in the Paid Social campaigns on LinkedIn for two of the portfolio brands.
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- Recommendations on how to improve the campaign's effectiveness for the B2B-specific paid search campaigns and how to collaborate with the larger strategy that is Digital Direct.

Results

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- SEM Performance Enhancement: The refined strategies led to improved Google Ads campaign efficiencies for Mind Manager, WinZip, and CorelDraw.
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- B2B Synergy Realization: Successfully aligned digital marketing strategies with the B2B channels, enhancing marketing and sales effectiveness across the portfolio.
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- Created a projected savings model that would save about 35% of monthly spend that is being used with inefficient marketing procedures.
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- Accounts with $2M+ in Google Ads spend that our team evaluated and provided direct opportunities for cost-savings as well as unlocking growth that directly impacted a positive ROI for the brands.