New PPC Strategy & UX Fixes Leads to Huge Revenue Growth: Loop Generation

When we took over Loop Generation’s PPC account, the company had experienced very little success with paid advertising and most other marketing channels. Following an initial audit, we rebuilt and launched new PPC campaigns with a focus on Google Shopping, whilst also carrying out a number of UX fixes on their website. Fast-forward just four months and the sustainable fashion brand has seen a 1908% increase in PPC revenue when compared to the previous period.

About Loop Generation

Based in London, Loop Generation is a leading online retailer of pre-loved fashion and beauty products. They strike a unique balance between sustainability and luxury, selling second-hand items from some of the biggest designer brands out there, including:

• Gucci
• Balmain
• Hermès
• Prada
• Fendi

Their aim is to contribute to circular fashion and sustainability by keeping high-quality fashion items in a constant loop!

Scroll through the images below to see the sorts of products that Loop Generation has on offer.

The of Rise Sustainable Fashion

In recent times, sustainable fashion has gained traction due to growing concerns over the environmental impact of the fashion industry. Young consumers – particularly Gen-Z – are becoming more aware of the impact of fast fashion and the negative consequences of textile waste. As a result, they are seeking out brands that prioritise sustainability and ethical manufacturing practices.

According to a recent study, 60% of young consumers are ready to “ditch fast fashion”. Brands such as Loop Generation tapping into this growing environmentally-conscious audience.

Client Objectives

Loop Generation voiced their desire to compete with the likes of Vestiaire Collective, Cudoni, and other pre-loved designerwear retail/reseller giants. In turn, they had three main goals:

1. Generate a larger volume of sales and revenue at a higher ROI (with an increased PPC budget)
2. Acquire more new customers
3. Increase brand awareness and recall

Through a tailor-made combination of PPC marketing and UX design, we were able to achieve all three.

Our PPC Strategy

Our initial PPC audit revealed serious account mismanagement from Loop Generation’s previous agency. Whilst restructuring their PPC account, we rectified a number of issues that were leading to wastage spend.

Focussing primarily on eCommerce campaign types and strategies, we then launched the new-and-improved PPC Campaigns on 3 October 2022.

Performance Max & Standard Shopping Campaigns

• Shopping feed attributes were enriched and optimised, meaning that products would benefit from…

1. Increased exposure
2. Giving Google a helping hand to determine if listings are relevant to specific search queries, thus reducing the risk of wastage/irrelevant spend

• We set up local inventory ads and free local listings. This enabled us to promote Loop Generation’s in-store inventory. In Google’s words, local inventory ads are designed “let local shoppers know that your store has the products they’re looking for, at the moment they search on Google.”

Additional Search & Local Campaigns

• Trademark brand protection: this involves bidding on trademarked keywords to prevent competitors or unauthorised sellers from using them in their own ads. It’s an unfortunate but necessary precaution that businesses must take to prevent confusion among consumers and maintain brand integrity.
• Non-brand campaigns for upper-funnel keywords: we targeted terms such as “secondhand designer clothing” and “preowned designer menswear” to help reach new customers. Upper-funnel keywords are a great way to get your brand in front of potential customers early in the decision-making process, thus influencing their consideration of the brand later on.
• Designer brand campaigns for best-selling designers: importantly, we always made sure to target those with the most items in stock. Best-selling items will typically have the highest conversion rates and, thus, produce the best ROI.
• DSA (Dynamic Search Ads): these ads targeted priority brand and product category pages. This campaign type can identify new and potentially highly profitable search terms, and then match them to relevant, dynamically generated ad copy.
• Local campaigns: we optimised the client’s pre-existing local campaign as it was already performing well. This campaign type is designed to help businesses provide their potential customers with the information that they need to decide when and how to visit their shops.

UX Improvements

Driving traffic to an eCommerce store means nothing if you cannot convert it. In fact, PPC traffic that does convert incurs a direct cost! That’s why, when we launch any PPC campaign, we often propose to our clients that we carry out a UX audit to identify any user experience issues that could impact conversions. This is exactly what we did for Loop Generation.

Our UX audit revealed a number of user experience issues and, more importantly, recommended a number of fixes that led to improved campaign performance. These included:

• Improving the homepage layout: shortcutting users to the most popular category and brand pages on-site (i.e. the most relevant and useful content).
• Improving website navigation: users were heavily reliant on the site search function as many of Loop Generation’s top brands and categories were not accessible via the main menu. We made sure the homepage promoted these popular brands and also recommended adding an “All Designers” link to get users to their goal more efficiently.
• Making product filters more relevant and intuitive.
• Standardising call-to-action buttons: we ensured that all CTA buttons used a consistent colour palette. Several of them – including add-to-cart – did not utilise the highly contrasting CTA green shade.
• Foregrounding the promotion code input field: the promotion code input field was hidden on mobile – we made this accessible.

Although UX issues will often lead to wastage PPC spend, most marketing agencies will entirely overlook the impact they have. Our PPC and UX experts always work together to ensure that this never happens.

The Results

Spend was upped and Loop Generation undoubtedly reaped the rewards of this more aggressive (and more targeted) approach…

Date range: Oct 3, 2022–Jan 31, 2023 compared to Jun 4, 2022–Oct 2, 2022

It’s also important to note that overall traffic and performance experienced noticeable improvements:

• 2.95% increase in site-wide conversion rate
• 121% increase in site-wide sales
• 112% increase in site-wide revenue

Loop Generation even experienced a 377% increase in first-time customers when compared to the previous period. We are currently encouraging the client to tap up their CRM database to really take advantage of this new online audience and maximise their customer lifetime value (CLTV)!

The Halo Effect

Despite no SEO or social media activities being carried out pre or post-PPC launch, organic traffic leveraged 41% more users and 198% more revenue over this period. This phenomenon is known as the “halo effect” – a cognitive bias where a positive impression of a brand in one area can influence people’s perception of it in other unrelated areas.

In this context, it describes the positive impact that a PPC campaign can have on other marketing channels. Increased visibility and traffic generated by Loop Generation’s PPC ads led to increased brand recognition and authority. Organic traffic, therefore, also increased!

Client Objectives: COMPLETED

Is Your PPC Account Overspending?

Whether your marketing efforts are being carried out by a third-party agency or in-house marketers, it’s very important that your business does not get complacent. So, ask yourself:

When is the last time that you scruntinised your PPC strategy or your website’s user experience?

PPC accounts require constant optimisation in order to be as effective as possible. Equally, your website UX is integral to the success of any marketing campaign.

If you want to find out more about our PPC management and UX design services, book a FREE 30-minute discovery call and see what we can do for you. Having operated in the online retail industry for over decade, we specialise in growing eCommerce businesses.