CBD Oil Case Study: Google Ads For CBD Tinctures & THC Edibles
This CBD oil case study will provide a high-level overview of a current Google Ads search campaign we’re actively managing for a client who is marketing CBD products.
We strategized and executed a national Google Ads campaign for CBD Tinctures and THC edibles targeting Canada.
The following case study on advertising hemp-derived CBD products will discuss a Google Ads campaign for CBD consisting of 2 Ad Groups (CBD tinctures+THC edibles) and 20 keywords with various match types optimized for conversions.
The time period for this CBD oil case study is 30-days, from August 1 – 31, 2019.
Executive Summary
- E-commerce Conversion Rate: +56% (0.63% vs 0.41%)
- Online Transactions: +242% (65 vs 19)
- Revenue: +163%
- Unique Purchases: +160% (172 vs 66)
- Quantity Sold/Units: +220% (243 vs76)
- Ad Click-Through Rate (CTR): 6.95%
- Average CPC: $1.36
- Conversion Rate: 2.93%
- CPA: $46
The Client
Our client for this case study is an online retailer of hemp-derived CBD products focused on online sales for various CBD oils/tinctures and a selection of THC edibles in Canada. To respect their privacy we will leave them anonymous.
They are a relatively new CBD company that had been in business for approximately 2-months when they came to us to ask for help in growing their new hemp CBD business.
We’ve been working with them for the last 4-months at the time of writing this case study.
Our work started with a comprehensive SEO and UX Audit of their brand new website.
We then implemented a new SEO and keyword strategy including writing and publish 4 x 1200 word SEO optimized blog articles each month.
In addition, we began running sponsored content native ads on some of the world’s most popular websites to drive highly qualified people to their website to read our blog articles and browse our client’s online CBD store.
After 2-months, we began 2 Google search advertising campaigns focused on online sales of CBD tinctures and THC edibles.
Here’s how we achieved an increase in online revenue of 162%, at a 3% conversion rate and a CPA of $35 USD in just 30-days!
The Background
After a comprehensive analysis of our client’s website analytics and e-commerce sales, we determined that a hyper-targeted Google Ads search campaign for CBD tincture/CBD oil would be the most profitable strategy for us to implement in order to reach the client’s revenue goals.
However, during the e-commerce analysis in Google Analytics, we were able to identify that THC edibles are steadily increasing in page views, time spent on product and category pages, as well as boosting online sales.
The client was unaware of this so we were happy to bring it to their attention right away!
We then suggested that we run a THC edibles campaign using Google search ads alongside the campaign for CBD tincture. The client agreed but wanted to wait for 2-weeks before we launched it live.
We began to strategize and craft the CBD oil campaign so that we could launch asap. Both the client as well as our team were equally excited to get things started asap.
Our Process
Every effective Google Ads campaign for CBD products must start with research. This includes keyword research as much as it includes target audience research and competitor research.
Step 1: Research Target Audience
We highly recommend targeting your Google Ads campaign to a specific unique audience.
This way, your search ad, landing page, and entire customer journey can remain congruent and consistent. This provides users with the best experience which will likely lead to sales.
Step 2: Research Current Competitors
We start by researching and identifying current competitors for ads promoting CBD oil and CBD tinctures.
This helps us discover who we’re bidding against and who’s ads we need to beat for impressions and clicks.
Step 3: Keyword Research Part 1 – Competitors
After we’ve identified the top competitors for Google ads selling CBD oil, we use keyword research tools like hrefs, SpyFu, and SEMrush to determine the keywords our client’s competitors are currently bidding on.
We’d use this data to pick and choose the most profitable keywords to use in this particular client’s campaigns. It’s not always the same keywords – the secret sauce is also in the audience targeting.
Step 4: Keyword Research Part 2 – Long-tail
Since we don’t believe it’s effective to just copy a competitors campaign, keywords, and ad copy, we take a deeper dive into keyword research to identify more specific, long-tail and semantically related search terms.
We’ve done this many times and we always find semantically related, keyword search terms that are fairly competitive but competing CBD companies aren’t using.
All it takes is one profitable keyword phrase that no one else is using for you to drive a ton of qualified traffic to your website and increase online sales.
Step 5: Write 6-9 Search Ads and Settle on the Top 3
Once the CBD keyword research is done, we’re ready to start writing drafts of search ads that will hopefully out rank and outperform any and all competing ads.
We share our ad draft copy with our client and discuss any tweaks or edits that may be required.
Step 6: Optimize The Landing Page Experience
The entire user journey from the ad impression to the ad click, to the landing page experience and the checkout experience, is super important and must be optimized for users and for conversions.
We noticed that our client had a “regular” product page that they wanted us to use as the landing page. It was like every other CBD oil product page you’d see.
We suggested some conversion rate optimization (CRO) tweaks to the copy and layout on the page which resulted in an increase/spike in conversions 2-weeks into the start of the initial campaign!
Step 7: Google Ads Campaign Setup
Next step is to get into the Google Ads manager and set up the campaign.
This includes:
- Setting keywords
- Determining keyword match types
- Optimizing daily budget
- Setting bidding amounts
- Audience targeting
- Writing Ads
We did all the above and added 2 Ad-Groups, one for CBD Tinctures, and another for THC Edibles.
Step 8: Launch, Monitor, Tweak, & Manage
This is where the fun begins. Once the above is all in place and optimized to our satisfaction, we launch the campaign.
We typically allow a Google Ads search campaign to run for 3-5 days to 5-7 days before we make any tweaks to the original strategy, keywords, targeting, etc. This is because the search ads algorithm takes time to learn and target to provide us with the most effective campaign.
Below is a screenshot summarizing this Google Ads campaign.
Our CBD Google Ads Campaign Results
Here are the Key Performance Indicators that measure the success of this campaign.
The time period is 30-days: August 1-31, 2019.
Google Ads Data:
- Total Clicks: 3.243
- Total Impressions: 46,667
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): 6.95%
- Average CPC: $1.36
- Total Conversion: 95 (online sales – average order value of $108)
- Conversion Rate: 2.93%
- CPA: $46.54
Google Analytics Data:
- E-commerce Conversion Rate: +56%
- Online Transactions: +242%
- Revenue: +163%
- Unique Purchases: +160%
- Quantity Sold/Units: +220%
Can These KPIs Be Improved? YES! They Can
The image above shows the Google Analytics website data for August 2019. The second image above that summarizes the Google Ads campaign.
So, are these numbers good?
YES! Especially for just the first 30-days!
Our goal for the next 30-days is to optimize this campaign to bring down the cost per acquisition (CPA) for both CBD tinctures and THC edibles.
Remember – this case study data is only showing the first 30-days of the tinctures campaign, and only 2-weeks of the edibles campaign.
Our goal was to generate immediate sales for the client and we did that.
But, we have more work to do which involves bringing down campaign costs. Cost per click and cost per acquisition specifically.
Our goal for the next 30-days is to bring down the CPA to closer to $30-$40 USD.
We Can Help Manage Your Google Ads For CBD Products
If you’re ready to step up your marketing strategy and want to try Google Ads for tinctures, edibles, or other CBD products, please contact us for a free 30-minute phone consult or email us to request a quote.
We’re Ready To Help You Grow!
