Case Study:
Ag Tech

Modern Farming Company
Uses Google Ads On Its Way To
A Billion+ Valuation

Note: In order to comply with my contract, I must anonymize this case study.

Introduction:

 
Google Ads can be an excellent way to find potential customers , earn sales, and build your brand. But companies must be careful because it’s also easy to waste money on non-converting, un-interested, or expensive traffic.
 

Challenge:

 
My client is an agriculture startup who wanted to use Google Ads to build their brand, win customers, and continue to grow their business
 
The good news was that there was some search volume surrounding their technology and budding (no pun intended) industry. Yet, there was some difficulties. There were many “junk terms” mixed in with the good search terms. What do I mean by “junk terms”? For this company, “junk terms” fell into three buckets:
 
  • Non-Direct competitor products 
 
  • Industry information searches
 
  • DIY (do-it-yourself) searches
 
If we made the mistake of bidding on these terms, we would waste a large part of our budget.
 
Location was also a strong consideration. They were local, but expanding physical locations. Additionally, they knew they were going to need more VC funding.
 

Solution:

 
As a rule, I always recommend bidding on your own brand terms. “Wouldn’t people click through organically?” Not necessarily. This is an emerging industry and there’s no real “power-player brand.” People are fickle and ads are persuasive. It’s best not to risk it.
 
I recommend you place a big max bid on your brand terms. Google will give you a good CPC (cost per click) price since its your term. This will raise your competitor’s CPC. And hopefully dissuade them from buying any significant traffic from you.
 
After setting up a branded campaign, I decided that bidding on terms related to their technology and industry would be a good starting strategy. The amount of search volume indicated to me that there was a sizable audience looking for something like what my client was offering. Additionally, even if they never heard of my client, they knew the technology so they were familiar with the value proposition of the technology itself.
 
This turned out to be a good strategy.
 
Using this strategy we were able to keep CPCs low and maximize the budget. But more important than CPCs, we ensured the clicks we did get were RELEVANT to the business. Finally, location targeting was also important. We separated areas into different campaigns so we could control the spend. We wanted to be visible to potential investors, but we didn’t want that campaign to overspend. Splitting by location allowed us to control the spend.
 

Conclusion:

 
This campaign’s success is one of many reasons that this company received their new round of funding and billion-plus valuation. Since the funding round, we’re breaking into the consumer base at-large moving from a niche interest to appeal to the general population.

©Human Nature Marketing, 2021. Madison Wisconsin.