Baby Central

The Challenge

Baby Central’s founder is a software engineer and had worked on SEO with Cogney founder, Doug Pierce, at the hotel company where she was the CTO prior to setting up her own business. Already impressed by what he had accomplished before, she hired Doug to set up the site’s online advertising as soon as Baby Central began growing.

The Strategy

In order to set up a successful search advertising campaign, it was crucial to assume the shoes of the Hong Kong mother -- almost literally -- because ad copy had to speak directly to this shopper. One particularly successful advertising tag line was “Stop lugging your stroller around on the crowded streets of Central!” Similarly, Cogney studied how Hong Kong mothers searched for both baby products and advice. The former was crucial for effective SEM, while the latter helped us frame blog content and advice that would boost the website’s authority. It was this kind of inquiry that we taught the owner to make before authoring any new piece of content on the site.

Along the same lines, we discovered that one of the best ways to reach Hong Kong moms was to advertise against popular brand names. This way, moms would know that their favorite brands were stocked at Baby Central. Similarly, we set up remarketing ads to show products related to a customer’s original purchase, e.g., diaper customers were served ads promoting baby formula. All throughout, Cogney conducted rigorous A/B testing, winnowing away weak advertising copy and keywords while reallocating ad dollars to boost traffic and conversion.

Cogney’s SEM campaign led to a doubling of transaction volume within a matter of months, and with a consistent return on ad spend of 12x, the company, not surprisingly, has steadily increased its online marketing budget and asked Cogney to establish its presence on Google Shopping.

Cogney began working with the Baby Central six years ago and continues to handle the company’s online advertising.

Services

Online Advertising: Google Search Ads, Google Shopping, Facebook Ads, and Remarketing

The Keys to Success

The number one most important factor in the success of this client’s SEM has been understanding the unique and sometimes unusual culture of Hong Kong expatriate parenting, its specific customs, pain points and requirements.

The fact that the owner of Baby Central is herself a software engineer who understood the importance of digital marketing resulted in the speedy implementation of our recommendations.