School of Tourism Mexigo Google Marketing Challenge

Student first name and surname: Robert Ash

Other students involved (if group assignment): George Penfold; James Lawless; Rebecca

Stephens; Alice Tagliaferro; Eduard Danulet

Programme: Retail Management Level: H

Unit Name: Digital Marketing Unit Tutor: Philip Alford

Assignment Marker: Philip Alford

Date Due: 01.05.2015 Date Submitted: 01.05.2015

Declaration:

I have read and understand the University’s regulations on academic offences. I confirm that the

piece of work submitted is to be regarded as the final and complete version of this assignment. The

work submitted is entirely my own work or, where I have referred to the work of others, it is fully

and appropriately referenced.

Signed:

Robert Ash, George Penfold, James Lawless, Rebecca Stephens, Alice

Tagliaferro, Eduard Danulet

Date: 01.05.2015

..

Please note:

Students are expected to keep a copy of all written or electronic coursework which is submitted for

assessment. The University uses a range of methods for detecting breaches of Regulations

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are deemed to have accepted that your work may be scanned using such software.

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Mexigo Pre-Campaign Report

Client Profile | Mexigo is a relatively young Mexican casual dining restaurant founded in

Southampton in 2012 and is owned by Ian and Lyn Rayner who seized on the potential of the

Mexican food market in the area. Their website [eatmexigo.co.uk]1 was created three years

ago. After success in Southampton, Mexigo expanded into Bournemouth, opening a store in

the town centre.

Mexigo offer their customers a unique experience, which seeks to combine the best of

Mexican food and culture and provide customers with an experiential fast food alternative.

Mexigo are competitively priced within the casual dining market, and seek to drive

differentiation through offering customers a warm, friendly and welcoming dining

environment. They aim to provide the highest quality products with their food locally sourced

from farmers and suppliers, free from colourings, artificial flavourings and genetic

modification.

Marketing Analysis | Mexigo’s most prominent customer segment are those aged between

25 to 40 and these consumers are most likely to be financially stable, with few financial

worries and income above the national average. Mexigo operate in a heavily populated

student area, and continue to focus their targeting towards this consumer group. Income

amongst the student classification is generally low, and most will utilise overdrafts and other

forms of finance to fund their university lifestyle2.

31% of UK consumers eat out at least once a week; with the overall UK restaurant

market expected to reach £52bn by 20173. Market growth figures are expected to double from

1.3% to 2.5% over the next three years, driven by increased spending within the middle

classes. This is further underpinned by the increasing number of affluent consumers who are

cash rich and time poor, who often seek quick and easy meals to suit their busy lifestyle.

Mexigo are currently positioned within the branded casual dining sector, which is worth in

excess of £4bn, with figures predicted to reach an estimated £22bn within the next five

years4.

Speed and convenience is a dominant element within the overall Mexigo offer, with

pre-organised collection times available for customers who are seeking to take away. Mexigo

compete in the gap between with their main fast-food competitor, Subway and local Mexican

1 Mexigo website

2 According to CACI the ACORN consumer classification,

3 According to pwc: UK casual dining market report,

4 According to Ernst and Young: Restaurant and Casual Dining m

arket report,

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restaurants, Chiquitos and Coriander, differentiating themselves through a fresh, social fast-

food alternative.

In 2014, the Bournemouth economy was boosted by £722million from tourism, and a

further £375million from students5. Southampton has a population of over 239,000 and is

recognised as the commercial, cultural and retail capital of the South Coast and contributes

over £2bn to the UK economy each year6. Southampton is home to 42,000 students with both

universities combined whilst 74.7% of the city’s population are classed as economically

active7. Shifts in both weather and demographics provide Mexigo with seasonal

developments and variations within its operating environment. Differences in preferences and

spending behaviours will ultimately dictate both trade and marketing.

Current Marketing | The Mexigo website was initially used for information purposes

regarding company ethos and food but online ordering has since been introduced. Current

web marketing consists mainly of natural inbound marketing relying on the creation of

quality content. Mexigo align their content with customer interests in the form of meal deal

offers, naturally attracting inbound traffic that can be converted into sales and customer

lifetime value with 92.22% of traffic from search. Overall visibility of Mexigo’s website is

respectable but has room for improvement with just 16 external backlinks8 and a Google

PageRank of 2/109.

To enhance website visibility and promote Mexigo URL, social media sharing is

currently accomplished via two Facebook sites for Bournemouth and Southampton (1,194

likes; 1555 likes) and Twitter (1,333 followers). Mexigo uses social media to engage current

and potential customers in the Mexigo experience with the aid of text and food images. The

social media marketing component of the GOMC will give Mexigo a solid foundation in a

new marketing channel through Google+. Offline promotion is implemented through the use

of posters and flyers throughout Bournemouth, Southampton and the universities. Google

Analytics data for Mexigo could not be accessed and therefore a new account has been

created and website traffic will be monitored closely throughout the AdWords campaign.

Conclusion | Mexigo’s pre-dominant online marketing goal is to drive increased traffic to the

website with a strong carry over to the stores. As a young company with a limited marketing

5 According to the tourism office of Bournemouth borough council,

6 According to the Office for National statistics,

7 According to Discover Southampton,

8 According to MajesticSEO and Ahrefs.net site explorer,

9 According to prchecker.info,

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budget, Google AdWords provides a huge sale potential through search and the means to

satisfy the client’s goals.

Proposed AdWords Strategy | The AdWords campaign will be aimed at increasing traffic to

the website whilst improving online ordering and enhancing brand exposure. The AdWords

strategy will be comprised of three search campaigns and seven focused Ad Groups. Table 1

demonstrates the proposed account structure. The Brand Campaign for the homepage

reaches searchers who have heard about the Mexigo name, this campaign is aimed at

improving online ordering. The Students Campaign will target those searching for low-cost

food, meal deals and cheap drinks, and the Young Professionals Campaign will target those

searching for fresh and quick lunchtime food alternatives. Both the Students and Young

Professionals Campaigns will promote the social environment Mexigo offers.

Table 1: Three campaigns, seven AdGroups and sample keywords

Each Ad Group will use [exact] matching, “phrase” matching, +modified +broad

+matching. Negative keywords such as –delivery and –chinese will be used to improve

relevancy. Mexican related words like “fajitas” and “burritos” will be used to reach a wider

audience. Data from Search Query Reports, Analytics, Keyword Planner and Trends will

be used to develop the campaign. Once the campaign begins, Search Terms Report will help

identify additional new keywords and ideas for negative match keywords.

Quality score is essential to ad group performance, enabling higher ad positioning on

Google search. QS will be achieved through increased ad relevancy and CTR maximisation

and will aid in CPC optimisation. Ad serving will be set on even rotation and at least two ads

will be run in each Ad Group at all times to enable A/B testing. The Search Campaign

consisting of three campaigns and seven contextual Ad Groups has been created on the basis

of customer segmentation and product offering. A video campaign will be used to optimise

the budget with a short promotional video on YouTube. Ads will be optimised for desktop,

laptops and mobile devices with each group consisting of 2-3 ads, examples of which can be

seen in Table 2.

Campaign Brand Students Young Professionals

Ad Groups

Mexigo Convenience Availability

Price Food

Location

Drinks

Display Desktop / Mobile Desktop / Mobile Desktop / Mobile

Geo-Targeting Bournemouth / Southampton Bournemouth / Southampton Bournemouth / Southampton

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Table 2: Sample Google AdWords Ads from Students Campaign – Convenience Ad Group.

All three Ad Campaigns will be geo-targeted to Bournemouth and Southampton. Automated

Ad Extensions in the form of consumer ratings, previous visits and social extensions will be

shown beneath ads to improve visibility and CTR.

In terms of budgeting, the Brand Campaign will only be given 10% since it will pre-

dominantly target people who are already aware of Mexigo. The Students Campaign will

receive the largest percentage of 50%, with 40% allotted to the Young Professionals

Campaign. The delegation of budget percentage is based on client goals, higher traffic

estimates, and a greater expected CTR. Overall budget allocation will increase throughout the

campaign in order to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. Account optimisation and

keyword bidding decisions will be based off the analysis of information received from

Google Reporting tools. Manual keyword bidding will be adjusted each day to suit the

changing results of each campaign and correlating Ad Groups. The daily and weekly plans

for spending the budget are presented in Table 3.

Table 3: Proposed Budget by Week and Campaign

To evaluate the campaign’s success, KPIs for account performance will be assessed based on

achieving an average CTR of 1.0%, with a high of 1.5% at an average CPC of no more than

$0.65. A quality score of 6 or above will be sought in order to improve ad rankings and CPC.

Progress will be fed back to the client on a weekly basis.

Search Query: “fast mexican food” Search Query: “mexican fast food”

Brand Student Young Professionals Total by

Week 10% 50% 40%

Week 1: 20% $5.00 ($0.71/day) $25.00 ($3.58/day) $20.00 ($2.86/day) $50.00

Week 2: 20% $7.50 ($1.07/day) $37.50 ($5.36/day) $25.00 ($3.57/day) $75.00

Week 3: 50% $12.50 ($1.79/day) $62.50 ($8.93/day) $50.00 ($7.14/day) $125.00

Total by Campaign $25.00 ($3.57/day) $125.00 ($17.86/day) $95.00 ($13.57/day) $250.00

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Mexigo Post-Campaign Report

Executive Summary

Campaign Overview | Mexigo Burrito Bar is a causal dining restaurant located in

Southampton and Bournemouth, UK. Mexigo’s mission is to combine the best of Mexican

food and culture to provide a unique experience to customers with an experiential fast food

alternative. They provide the highest quality products with locally sourced produce from

farmers and suppliers, free from colouring, artificial flavourings and genetic modification, all

while remaining competitive on price. Since Mexigo operates with a limited marketing

budget, Google AdWords is an ideal marketing platform to continue growing the reach of the

business in a cost-effective manner. Three campaigns were created based on their alignment

with Mexigo’s business goals as well as their likelihood to capture the widest audience within

the geo-targeted locations: Brand Campaign, Students Campaign, Young Professionals

Campaign. The goals established for the campaign were to achieve an average click-through

rate (CTR) of 1.0% at an average cost-per-click (CPC) of $0.65, whilst maintaining a quality

score of 6/10 or higher.

Key Results | Overall, the established goals were not achieved, despite individual successes

within certain campaigns. The entire allocated $250 budget was spent on achieving an

average CTR of 0.38% by obtaining 30,270 impressions and 114 clicks at an average CPC of

$1.88. The Brand Campaign was most successful in terms of achieving a 2.0% CTR, whilst

the Online Video Campaign assisted in developing brand exposure further, achieving an

average view-rate of 10.72% at an average cost-per-view (CPV) $0.12. Despite the Students

and Young Professionals campaigns contributing to 29,221 of the overall impressions, they

only achieved a CTR of 0.29% and 0.36% respectively. This was due to a perceived low ad-

relevancy as a result of website text content being predominantly image-based, restricting

visibility on Google’s search terms. However, diverting ad URLs to text-heavier pages

minimised the damage caused.

Conclusion | The three-week AdWords campaign did not reach the established goals however

continual optimisation in the form of daily manual keyword bid adjustments, budget

reallocation, A/B ad testing, pausing of underperforming AdGroups, and structural

reorganisation based on suggestions from the Opportunities tab endeavoured to optimise the

performance of the campaign.

Future Recommendations | Business expansion is a direct product of visibility and Google

AdWords provides a unique platform for achieving this goal as was proven through the

success of the Brand Campaign and the online promotional video. It is recommended that

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Mexigo firstly undertake a website redevelopment to incorporate a larger volume of text

content that will improve relevancy of keywords and subsequently ads. Subsequently, it is

recommended Mexigo continue to expand their online presence through the use of AdWords

and Social Media as well as monitoring expansion via Google Analytics.

Industry Component

Campaign Overview | The three week AdWords campaign ending 1st April 2015 was

designed to achieve Mexigo’s online marketing goals of increasing website traffic and

enhancing brand exposure. Three campaigns were created around unique landing pages

within the client’s website: Brand Campaign, Students Campaign and Young Professionals

Campaign. Figure 1 demonstrates the final account structure. In total, the three campaigns

included 16 ad groups, 27 ads, and 240 keywords.

Figure 1: AdWords Account Structure

Account Structure

Brand

Students

Young Professionals

1 Ad Group

6 Ad Groups

9 Ad Groups

2 Ads

11 Ads

14 Ads

38 Keywords

104 Keywords

198 Keywords

Based upon search data from Google’s Keyword Planner, campaigns in figure 1 were selected

to reach the widest audience possible within the geo-targeted area of Southampton and

Bournemouth, obtaining the greatest increase in traffic to Mexigo’s website in the most cost-

effective manner. Overall success was measured in comparison to the original goals for the

AdWords campaign, which was to achieve an average click-through-rate (CTR) of 1.0% by

obtaining the highest possible impressions and clicks at an average cost-per-click (CPC) of

$0.65. Originally, the $250 budget was to be spent in gradually increased increments per

week at 20%, 30% and 50%. Table 4 shows the resulting budget amount spent by each

campaign.

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Table 4: Total Budget Spent by Campaign per Week

Brand Students Young

Professionals Video

Total by

Week

Week 1: (12.03.15-

18.03.15) $1.98 $22.03 $9.30 $0.91 $34.22

Week 2: (19.03.15-

25.03.15) $5.75 $40.07 $26.02 $9.87 $81.71

Week 3: 26.03.15-

01.04.15) $4.80 $49.54 $54.57 $25.50 $134.41

Total by Campaign $12.53 $111.64 $89.09 $36.28 $249.54

After week one, the daily budget for each campaign was adjusted according to CTR and

percentage of total clicks received.

Our team monitored all campaigns and suggested enhancements, but adjustments

were centralised to two team members to maintain accuracy and efficiency. A checklist of

daily tasks to complete was created, including adjusting daily budget, adjusting keyword bids

and pausing low volume keywords. The Search Terms Report was regularly checked to

identify new keywords opportunities.

Evolution of the Campaign Strategy | Due to budget constraints, it was predicted in the first

week we would achieve approximately 102 clicks by calculating the average CPC in

alignment with weekly budgets. However as a result of continually monitoring and

optimising budget usage, this target was exceeded by 11.76%. The Students Campaign and

Young Professionals Campaign received limited activity within the first week as budget

constraints led to low ad visibility. The decision was made to switch from Google’s

automated bidding to a manual bidding strategy in order to show the most effective ads more

frequently. This enabled the progression of the best-performing ads on a CTR basis, to be

featured on the first page of Google Search results.

Successful development of the campaign strategy resulted from the creation of new

Ad Groups based upon suggestions from the Opportunities tab and Search Terms Report

data. Within the Students Campaign, Price Bournemouth and Price Eat ad groups were

generated, contributing to 11.54% of the Students Campaign final CTR.

Three campaigns were run in the Google Search Network, whilst the Online Video Network

was explored with a professionally produced video advertisement, created to assist the Brand

Campaign in improving brand exposure. The Video Campaign provided a low cost, high

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Clicks Impr. CTR Avg. Pos. Avg. CPC Cost

Brand Campaign 21 1,049 2.0% 2.7 $0.60 $12.53

Student

Campaign 53 17,977 0.29% 2.5 $2.11 $111.64

Young

Professionals

Campaign

40 11,244 0.36% 1.8 $2.25 $89.89

Total exc. Vid

Campaign 114 30,270 0.4% 2.3 $1.88 $214.06

Clicks Impr. Views View

Rate Avg. CPV Cost

Video Campaign 13 2,751 295 10.72% $0.12 $36.28

Total Inc. Video

Campaign 127 33,021 - - - $250.34

coverage channel, achieving a view rate of 10.72% at an average CPV of $0.12, resulting in a

4.07% CTR over the course of the final two weeks.

Keywords were initially devised from text within the ‘Menu’ page with the goal of

enhancing relevancy and ultimately quality score. However, text content was predominantly

image-based and so we discovered this restricted visibility on Google’s search terms. To

minimise damage, ads were re-directed to other text-heavier pages, however the problem

could not be directly resolved as these pages contained minimal keyword opportunities.

Key Results | The Mexigo AdWords campaign increased page views by 127, with an average

CTR of 0.38% by obtaining 30,270 impressions and 114 clicks at an average CPC of $1.88.

Mobile devices drove the majority of traffic, with 62% of clicks generated through a

smartphone or tablet. Mobile sessions were a fundamental component of the campaign,

delivering an average CTR of 1.2%, +0.8% ahead of the campaign average. Geographically,

56% of traffic was made from the Bournemouth area, driven by a strong performance within

the Student Campaign within the region, which delivered 28% of the total number of clicks.

This is in line with industry reports suggesting 18-25 year olds are the highest users of mobile

and tablet devices10

and are more likely to use such devices when browsing for restaurants

and bars11

. Table 5 outlines the AdWords performance details by campaign.

Table 5: Overall Performance Summary

10

As cited by Mintel’s Social and Network trends 2014 11

As cited by Mintel’s 2014 digital marketing trends

9

The Brand Campaign had the highest CTR due to the greatest relevancy of its

keywords, such as ‘mexigo’ and ‘mexican recipes’, which delivered an average click through

of 10.8% and 6.5% respectively. The Brand Campaign consistently delivered a high CTR at

a low average CPC of $0.60. This was accomplished through the application of broad key

terms and a strong click through of ads, as seen in Table 5. The Student and Young

Professionals campaigns delivered a significant proportion of overall impressions and thus

achieving the goal of increased brand exposure. Although the ability to convert into site visits

was not fully utilised, with an average CTR of 0.29% and 0.36% respectively.

Figure 2 highlights the increase in clicks gained throughout the campaign, and

illustrates the volatility within the average CPC during the allocated time period. This was

partially driven by high value keywords such as ‘mexican dining’ and ‘takeaways’ within the

Young Professionals Campaign. Figure 3 indicates a negative correlation between budget

and the average position of ads, demonstrating the relationship between allocated budget and

ad exposure.

Ensuring the campaign utilised relevant ads was critical to its success. A keyword

combination proven to be successful was the word ‘bars’ followed by some indicator of

location such as ‘in Bournemouth’. An example of an ineffective keyword was the use of the

word ‘quick’ to push through traffic to the Students Campaign, which on average received a

CTR of 0.0%.

Table 6 below illustrates the most effective campaigns with clicks used as the

measureable factor. The reasonable success of these ads can be attributed to a number of

factors highlighted through A/B testing and keyword bidding. Enriching the customer

experience was identified as the integral reason behind the overall campaign success, with

industry expert’s eConsultancy suggesting the integration of call to actions essential12

.

12

According to eConsultancy

$0.00

$50.00

$100.00

$150.00

1.5

2.0

2.5

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3

Figure 3: Avg. Pos and Budget by week

Avg. Pos. Budget

$1.55

$1.60

$1.65

$1.70

-

50

100

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3

Figure 2: Clicks and Avg. CPC by week

Clicks Avg. CPC

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Call to actions and customer-focused communications such as Order online and

Lunch time meal deals were used respectively. In addition, the team adjusted the keyword

bids using the Estimated Top Page Bid column to ensure the ads achieved optimum visibility.

The average ad position was 2.2 across all campaigns, which was deemed acceptable and in

line with positional guidelines suggested by Google13

.

Keywords that received impressions but no clicks were paused as they represented an

inefficient spending of the budget. Quality Scores lower than 5/10 and low search volumes

were kept active because some of them obtained an acceptable CTR such as ‘Mexigo

Southampton’ with a 6.67% click through.

As a result, the overall account achieved its highest daily CTR on the Saturday 28th

March of 4.42% shown in figure 3 above.

Conclusion | Overall, the AdWords campaign performance did not reach the established

targets for CTR by 0.62%. The entire $250 budget was spent on achieving an average CTR of

0.38% on the Search Network, by obtaining 30,270 impressions and 114 clicks at an average

CPC of $1.88. The low CTR and clicks can be contributed to the Mexigo website design

where words are displayed within an image, resulting in low quality scores due to a perceived

low relevance of ads by Google. The low quality score led to a higher than anticipated

average CPC, $1.23 higher than the forecasted $0.65. The development of the video

campaign, with a view rate of 10.72% and 4.07% CTR provided a low cost method for better

utilising the budget at an average CPV of $0.12.

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As cited by Google AdWords guidelines

Campaign Ad Copy Clicks CTR Avg. CPC

Student Campaign

17 0.54% $2.26

Brand Campaign

15 4.42% $0.60

Young Professionals

Campaign

10 0.96% $2.28

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Future Industry Recommendations | In order for AdWords to be a viable marketing tool

for Mexigo, website development is crucial. It is recommended Mexigo realign their

marketing strategy to create unity within their digital marketing channels, such as AdWords,

YouTube and Social Media. Maintaining Google AdWords is an essential element within the

overall marketing strategy, continuing to focus on the primary marketing objectives of

increasing web traffic and brand exposure.

Learning Component

Learning Objectives and Outcomes | The Google Online Marketing challenge was a great

opportunity for the team to develop Google AdWords knowledge, such as how to utilise tools

such as the Opportunities tab and Keyword Planner, as well as respecting the importance of

strict budget planning and allocation. By gaining professional experience in client interaction,

the team was able to provide the client with valuable, authentic material in line with the

company goals. The team set the personal objective of heightening and developing individual

knowledge of Google AdWords and its complimentary components.

Building a relationship with the client enabled us to clearly define a set of common objectives

beneficial to both parties. Overall, the team developed a sound understanding of account

structure, optimisation techniques, and paid search performance metrics that can be

transferred to the client.

Broad match keywords were used throughout the campaign as they provided a greater

insight into what terms were actively being searched. Due to inconsistency within search

terms, this was seen as the most effective keyword type as “phrase “and [exact] search types

could have limited impressions. During the second week of the campaign, the team made the

decision to pause underperforming keywords and ads with a CPC in excess of $2.95, with

lower than 3 clicks. This resulted in a reduction of the average CPC to $1.60 achieved in

week two, as illustrated in Figure 2 above. The geo-targeting impacted the reach of the

campaign but enabled ads to remain in line with the client’s desire to attract students and

young professionals from the local area.

Group Dynamics | Effective work prioritisation was a considerable factor our group needed

to take into account. Individual members of the group had various external work

commitments, which created conflicts in their ability to complete work on time. This initial

finding required our team to take a proactive approach to workload management. As a team,

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we consulted and arranged deadlines which were firstly tailored to each group members

workload and secondly in line with our overall group deadlines. An integral part of this

process was aligning the skillset of individual team members to the required tasks, ensuring

work produced was of the highest quality. The group members’ expertise included: Project

Management, Business Analysis, Marketing and Creativity. Overall the GOMC was a

thoroughly enjoyable and ultimately rewarding experience that enabled our team to work

with a live client and create a successful campaign that was mutually beneficial for both

parties involved.

Client Dynamics | Despite the group’s preconceptions of communication difficulties,

Mexigo were extremely supportive throughout the campaign, ensuring a continual dialog on

performance and strategy. The group’s relationship with Mexigo was fundamentally

influenced by their recent expansion into the Bournemouth area, seeking to exploit not only

on the campaign itself but the groups knowledge of the local community and consumer. With

minimal expertise and a relatively small marketing budget, Mexigo empowered the group to

take full control over the businesses marketing strategy, which provided a competitive

advantage as the team identifies with the targeted Students and Young Professionals customer

segments. A strong working relationship with the Mexigo owners; Ian and Lyn was forged as

a result, which filtered down to front of house staff enabling the group to create a working

relationship with all members of the operation. The group are satisfied with the choice of

client and the working relationship that was built throughout the campaign.

Future Learning Recommendations | Prior to the launch of the campaigns, the team

devised a checklist of daily tasks to record any changes made during each session in

AdWords. However, the checklist was not utilised to its full capacity and in some instances

screenshots were taken of changes to keyword bidding, resulting in confusion over who had

altered what and when. If we were to participate in the GOMC again, the team would be

stricter in recording daily changes to gain clearer insight into what impacted the campaign

results. A Google Analytics account would have been set up in advance in order to monitor

the impact AdWords had on website traffic. Overall, this challenge has provided the team

with a deeper understanding of the impact digital marketing can have on attracting customers

and influencing purchases. It has also provided authentic experience using Google AdWords

and how team dynamics are a large factor of getting the most out of campaigns.

Robert Ash, George Penfold, James Lawless, Rebecca Stephens, Alice Tagliaferro, Eduard Danulet