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Reaching customers that are not looking for you

by thomasindustries
4 replies
  • PPC/SEM
    • |
Hey everyone,

I'm new to this forum and came here because I've got a hard question that I'm struggling with. It would be great if some of you could maybe point me in the right direction.

I started an online store a while ago: www.randomrudolph.com. Rudolph is a robot that orders completely random products from Amazon, for your friends. And by random I mean that no one knows what is ordered until the person that receives it opens the package. I expect people will usually want to use this as a gift for someone, so that's how I'm presenting it to the users. It costs $20. I make money by taking a $2 dollar margin from that cost.

I've told some friends about this and one of them ended up buying it for her mother.

A few days ago I started advertising on Google Adwords. I spent $70 so far advertising on keywords similar to "unique gift ideas", with an average CPC of $0,60. With a $2 margin I know I will never be profitable with this on the short-term, but I thought that maybe I could get the idea to spread this way and that it might go viral. But that $70 lead to 0 conversions. I think this can be explained by that a lot of people will think "hey this sounds funny what's this" and click on it without an intent of really purchasing something, but more with the intent of finding out what it's about. I paused this campaign now.

I also started a different campaign on the Google Display Network, because there you can also target on demographics and interests. So here I can be a bit more specific and target tech-savvy people in their twenties. I don't have results for this yet but I'm not expecting too much here either.

Bing could be an option if it's cheaper, but even if I cut my CPC by half, it still won't be profitable.

I'm starting to get the idea that the people I want to reach are not really looking for me. They're looking for a "funny gift" or "unique gift". I am targeting those, but it's not specific enough. Is PPC maybe not suitable for this product? Or am I missing something? Are there other networks that could give me better conversions? And if not, what other strategy besides PPC would you suggest?

Thank you very much for your reply.
#customers #ppc #reaching #sem
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    I think you are completely violating amazon terms, but that's just me.

    It sounds like a terrible idea anyway.

    You need to market it as a gag gift, because it can't be taken seriously
    by anyone. Unless they are looking for surprise gag gifts, (hey, there's
    a tagline) they are going to surf on out. People searching for unique
    gifts want something unique for the person they are buying for--not
    a gag gift.

    Repeat, it sounds like a terrible idea.

    Paul
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    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi thomasindustries,

      Why don't you send me $20 and my robot will randomly select a strategy to market your random shopping service?

      If you think that is a terrible idea, you are probably right.

      I'm not sure what a person would possibly find appealing about paying for products they probably don't want, and likely cannot use. I would be surprised if there was any market for your service, but hey that is the point of testing, right?

      Have you thought about reversing the idea?

      For example you could build a robot shopper that studies a person's social media accounts and then precisely selects the perfect gift based on the persons social profile. Or, have them fill in a psychological survey and select a gift based on there survey answers. That might have some appeal and be in a similar vein to what you have already created.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jarvis Edwards
    I don't know much about Amazon but how about changing the angle of your marketing?

    Instead of the "unique gift ideas" angle, why not use a "secret santa" angle or something along
    those lines? That would be more inline with your concept of the robot choosing a random gift for a person.

    You'd just have to think of a creative way to "package it and deliver it" (virtually). "Santa's robot" is another idea you can work into doing so.

    Now as far as Google adwords, remember that you are selling something that people don't even know they want, in a marketplace where people are searching for exactly what it is they want, by keyword.

    So there is a conflict of interest, especially considering Google's high CPC. Without "proof of concept" you are throwing money down the drain.

    If you can work your idea around a holiday promotion for example, like I said, you can probably get some traction and end up with a nice niche site or even a holiday money-maker.
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    Jarvis Edwards - Copywriter & Marketer
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    • Profile picture of the author justcolorado
      I think it is a very interesting idea. Buying gifts is such a pain. The idea of just buying something at random is really fun because it might be something awesome that you never would have bought. There is a huge chance you will get totally the wrong product for the person, but it might be funny, and they can always just re-gift it to the right person.

      It would be a killer service if you had access to amazon's suggested gifts of a customer based on their previous purchases. Do they provide an API for that? That thing is usually dead on the money at suggesting what I would like.

      Before you invest time and money into trying to make viral campaigns. I would spend a little more on PPC with the intent of losing money just to see if anyone is willing to buy it at all. If 1,000 people viewed the page and nobody buys Then you already know for sure it is not a commercially viable idea and move on no need to try any other channels. If you end up with a few sales after 1,000 visits then it might be worth investing time in some other marketing strategies.
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