StartupTalky

Tag: ppc

  • How Intercom Grew its Customer Base with SEO?

    When we talk about SaaS startups, we can find many names that have performed well in their respective segment. But Intercom is one such company whose growth has outperformed the growth statistics of some of the industry’s biggest names, viz., Hubspot, RingCentral, Zendesk, Shopify, and more. A closer look at the market growth rate highlights how Slack is the only SaaS startup besides Intercom to have witnessed such massive growth. But what exactly added fuel to Intercom’s enormous success? The answer is SEO and content marketing.

    Intercom used killer SEO strategies to become one of the fewest SaaS startups that rakes millions in ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue). At present, the company has an ARR of over $50 million. Keep reading if you’re interested in learning how this company skyrocketed its ARR without spending heavily on advertising and marketing.

    Intercom Leveraging the Power of Dynamic Keyword Insertion
    Targeting Keywords that Bring Intercom the Highest Quality Traffic
    Intercom’s Killer Off-Page SEO Strategy
    Doing SEO Differently: A Thing to Learn from Intercom

    Intercom Leveraging the Power of Dynamic Keyword Insertion

    If you use SimilarWeb, you can find the top websites that drive the most traffic to the Intercom website. The highest share of traffic comes from the Intercom app itself. And the other traffic comes from websites that use Intercom on their website. Let’s take SimilarWeb, for example. This company too uses Intercom to streamline, organize, and personalize their customer communications. Hence, whenever you visit their website and click on the live chat box, you will notice something like this:

    Similarweb on Intercom

    Did you see the “We run on Intercom” at the bottom of the chatbox? This message contains a link to their official website.

    If you visit any company website that uses Intercom, you will find a similar message in the chatbox. You’ll instantly be redirected to a particular landing page that Intercom created for the traffic coming from the respective website when you click on it. The SEO team at Intercom used dynamic keyword insertion in these landing pages to make the messaging more personalized. For example, you can find the name of the company + Intercom that you visited earlier in the landing page’s headline. It is done to enhance personalization for referral traffic.

    Intercom uses the “we run on Intercom” tactic with dynamic keyword insertion to get maximum conversions from the referral traffic. If you’re finding it difficult to convert your referral traffic, you can do something similar.

    Targeting Keywords that Bring Intercom the Highest Quality Traffic

    Intercom has achieved two goals by targeting the right keywords. One is becoming an authority website, and the second is ranking for hundreds of keywords on top of SERPs.

    What makes this strategy unique is ranking for specific keywords that solve one core user problem. Intercom was very clear from day one about focusing more on solving a user problem and not stuffing the blog with keywords to rank for specific keywords. And guess what, it worked excellent for them.

    If you go by the technical SEO terms, it is fair to say Intercom relied on “Semantic SEO.” Semantic keywords are identical phrases or words that are very similar to the primary keywords. When you use terms matching the search query, Google uses its advanced AI algorithms to find the search intent and match the user with the most relevant content piece.

    So if you were unable to rank your website on SERPs and drive organic traffic, you should try replicating this tactic from Intercom that delivered phenomenal results.

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    Intercom’s Killer Off-Page SEO Strategy

    Every company relies on off-page SEO to get more traffic and engagement on their blog posts or official website, and Intercom is no different. Intercom used the Medium Publication feature to get more reach and shares on the published content. You can still find their publication named Inside Intercom on Medium. But unlike most companies, Intercom doesn’t simply re-publish their blogs on Medium almost instantly after publishing them on their website.

    You can notice a difference of two to eleven months between the actual blog post published on the Intercom website and the Inside Intercom Medium publication. This strategy ensures Intercom keeps getting traffic on old blog posts through Medium. A similar off-page SEO tactic is being followed by Hubspot too.

    But what made Intercom’s Medium strategy work was its selection of topics. Instead of optimizing for search engines, Intercom started publishing optimized content for people. Intercom noticed that opinion pieces, reaction posts, and personal accounts were getting more engagement than the traditional blog post content. It is why they started publishing more on startups, product management, design, etc., and chose topics that would make people read their publication blog posts.

    But writing compelling and engaging blog posts wasn’t the only thing that did wonders for Intercom. The company merged enticing CTAs with every blog post to maximize website traffic. Almost all the Intercom Medium articles had four common CTA links:

    • Intercom blog
    • Other relevant blog links published on the Intercom website
    • The author’s Twitter profile, and
    • The Intercom home page

    Finding platforms where prospects hang out and using the same platform for repurposing content worked great for Intercom. You should try this amazing off-page tactic too.

    Doing SEO Differently: A Thing to Learn from Intercom

    SEO is the best way to make people find your company or products right when they need them the most. It is also a great method to drive consistent free traffic to a website in the short and long term. While many companies are trying their best to ace the SEO game, not everyone managed to crack the SEO code that works best for their website. Luckily, Intercom is not one of those companies. Intercom chose to do SEO in its own unique way.

    After analyzing the Intercom website, we found that the company uses a strong off-site and on-page SEO strategy. From refraining to use keyword stuffing for higher rankings to branching out to other publications to gain more eyeballs- there’s a lot Intercom did to dominate the SERPs for the right keywords and receive consistent traffic. Sure, Intercom also invests in PPC and content marketing efforts, but its prime traffic comes from its SEO efforts.

    Conclusion

    Of all the SEO strategies Intercom uses, we’ve listed above the most relevant tactics that have contributed to Intercom’s massive growth. If you’re a company struggling to improve its SEO efforts, try implementing the above-discussed SEO tactics for visible results.

    FAQs

    Why do people use the Intercom?

    Intercom is a Customer Communications Platform. It helps to target customers with content, behavior-driven messages, and conversational support.

    How many customers does Intercom have?

    Over 25000 businesses are the customers of Intercom.

    What is the revenue of Intercom?

    Intercom has an ARR of over $50 million.

    Who are the top customers of Intercom?

    Top customers of Intercom are:

    • Amazon
    • Lyft Business
    • Atlassian

  • Pay Per Click (PPC) – What Is It, Important Metrics, and Benefits

    Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is a form of online advertising in which advertisers pay publishers a fee every time their ad is clicked. It is a common way of driving traffic to your websites.

    Search Engine Marketing is the most essential and popular form of PPC marketing. Search engines allow advertisers to link their ads when a keyword relevant to their product is searched by a user. For instance, if we search, “black watches,” ads from different online shopping stores might show up on the top of your results page.

    What is (PPC)?
    Important PPC Metrics
    Benefits Of PPC Advertising

    What is (PPC)?

    Pay-per-click is most commonly associated with search engines like Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Amazon Advertising etc. Advertisers have to bid for keywords relevant to their target audience to secure a position to display their advertisements, search offerings or product listings on these engines. All these services are managed under a PPC pricing model. PPC is used to lessen the costs of digital advertising while retaining profitability and setting goals.

    Google PPC Search Ad
    Google PPC Search Ad

    Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest have also adopted the PPC form of advertising known as Social PPC. These ads target groups on the basis of demographics, interest or other information gathered by a particular platform.

    In social PPC, the advertiser determines the viewership of the ads, in contrast to it being led according to the user’s search terms. These ads appear on the user’s feed or timeline. The advertisers usually pay through two bidding systems: CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions).

    Important PPC Metrics

    The success of a PPC campaign is essential to the success of a company. Thus, the metrics used to determine the effectiveness of a PPC campaign are:

    Conversion Marketing

    Conversions are the crux of the deal i.e. how often does a click result in a sale, it is what you are ultimately concerned about. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is a specific type of conversion measure and usually refers to the cost of getting a customer.

    Quality Score

    It is a number that Google assigns to the quality and relevance of your ads, keywords and landing pages. A quality score is essential in determining the position of your ad in the search engine.

    Impression Share

    It measures the rate of potential impressions that your ads are getting. For example, if there are 1000 searches for a keyword and your ad shows up 750 times of those 1000, then your impression share would be 75%.

    Click-Through Rate

    It is the measure of people who actually click on your ad to the number of people who see the ad. A low CTR might indicate that an ad is either irrelevant or isn’t compelling enough. Calculating and comparing CTR is a quick way to determine whether an ad is under or overperforming.

    Benefits Of PPC Advertising

    There are multiple benefits of using the method and strategy of PPC when it comes to advertising.

    Ads Cater to People Who Look For Them

    Ads are only displayed for potential clients who search for relevant keywords and look for particular results. This gives an advertiser more control over when, where and how an ad can be displayed.

    Easily Accessible

    Anyone, be it a startup with limited resources or just a company looking for an entry into the world of digital marketing can quickly catch up and even get a head start with the help of the PPC marketing method.

    Measurable Tactics

    PPC advertising campaigns can be strategically set up and designed to measure accurate effectiveness. You can calculate and even determine the exact amount of profit return on your investment.

    You Pay When Someone Clicks

    With most advertising methods, you have to pay a hefty cost just for securing a position for your ad. It does not ensure any visits or sales to your business. One of the most essential benefits of PPC is that you only pay when someone interacts with your ad, ensuring a chance for profit.

    Reduces Inequalities and Widens Opportunities

    With PPC you can compete with mega giants of the business who have been around for a while even if you are a website or a startup in its very initial stages, it lets you compete for customers and provides you with an edge in the world of marketing.

    Budget Friendly

    In most types of advertising, with rudimentary standards, you are stuck with a particular pricing method. PPC allows you to set your own budget and work according to it. It does not discriminate between an MNC or a small-town startup.

    Helps in Achieving Brand goals

    It offers your company brand exposure and directs traffic to your website, helping in increasing sales and profits. It can introduce your brand to people who haven’t heard of it before, thus, it creates a name for the company in the market.

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    FAQs

    What is PPC?

    PPC also known as Pay-per-click advertising is an advertising method where advertisers pay a small fee if a user interacts with their ad.

    What is an example of PPC?

    If an advertiser sets up an ad, and when a user searches for the keyword, for example, ‘best digital marketing course’, Google will position your website on the top search results.

  • Oxedent – Make Your Business Reach New Heights with Stunning PPC Management Services!

    There is a lack of access to digital marketing for small businesses looking for ways to grow their business. Big agencies don’t really work for the SMEs and people/agencies that work for SMEs are not effective at making them profitable from online ads spend. Biplab Poddar started Oxedent with the mantra to make them profitable, not just maintain the digital presence. The company has created an online advertising strategy exclusively for SMEs that turn their Online Ads into a profit center.

    Read this article about Oxedent, how it works, founder, tagline, business model, challenges, growth, and future plans.

    Oxedent – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Oxedent
    Headquarter Kolkata, India
    Sector PPC Management, Online Ads management
    Founder Biplab Poddar
    Founded 2017
    Parent Organization Oxedent Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
    Website oxedent.com
    Contact hello@oxedent.com

    About Oxedent and How it Works
    Oxedent – Target Market Size
    How was Oxedent Started?
    Oxedent – Product/Services
    Founders of Oxedent and team
    Oxedent – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    Oxedent – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Oxedent – User Acquisition
    Oxedent – Startup Challenges
    Oxedent – Growth
    Oxedent – Future Plans
    Oxedent – Recognition and Achievements

    Check out this List of the Best Startups in Kolkata | Exhaustive List of Kolkata Startups [Updated]

    About Oxedent and How it Works

    Oxedent deals with Pay per click (PPC) management which includes Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads campaigns setup, and management.

    The company has been successful in executing 250+ projects since the last year across 54+ countries with the maximum clients from the UK and EU Countries.

    “We ensured that our clients get the maximum of the ads spent. Our average client sees a 6.5x ROI, meaning every $1 they spend on ads we gave them a sale of $6.5. We want to expand to a 50 people team and expand our reach to the Australian market.”, says Biplab Poddar, Founder, and CEO of Oxedent.

    The company is working on building a SaaS app which won’t just automate the campaign setup and optimization but also make the campaigns profitable for eCommerce businesses. E-commerce business owners will be able to tell the app their advertising goals and the system will choose the audience, ad platform channels, placements to get the most out of their ads spend and increase store revenue.

    Oxedent – Target Market Size

    There are an estimated 20 million – 24 million e-commerce sites across the entire globe, with more and more being created every single day. Only about 2M of them generate $1000 per month in sales. On the other hand there are 2.05 Billion active people shopping online. So there is clearly a gap or limitation in the way e-commerce businesses advertising online.

    Also read: ADOHM- Optimizing Digital Marketing Campaigns for the Indian Businesses!

    How was Oxedent Started?

    Biplab Poddar, the owner of Oxedent, pursued a B.Tech Degree from Kalyani Government College in Electronics. Like all other parents, it was expected from him too, to get a 9-5 job in an MNC and get his life settled. But it was way too different from what he thought.

    Biplab started doing paid internships right from 3rd year of his college and helped many startups with their digital marketing who were just starting up and can’t afford full-time employees. Going forward he started learning advanced techniques and tools of Digital marketing.

    “I read an interview of a freelancer making $30000 per annum from consulting on digital marketing to foreign clients, then I learned about freelancing platforms like PeoplePerHour and UpWork. I created a profile immediately, got my first job in about a few weeks. It was a London based Law firm, I helped them create Google AdWords campaigns, and they are still my client”, recalls the Oxedent founder.

    This was the turning point of his life and since then, he never looked back and was making a handsome sum of money every month in the final year of his engineering days. Poddar never wanted to join a full-time job but was unable to convince his parents and had to join a full-time role as Digital marketing manager in a real estate company.

    The founder paralleled freelancing with his job and continued like this for 3 months after college. More companies were inquiring for his services and single-handedly he couldn’t deliver.

    “Then finally the fire in me made me quit my job to be on the crest on a wave and hired more digital marketing enthusiasts, trained them, and made them a part of my team. It was September 2017, I registered Oxedent as a Pvt. Ltd company”, says Biplab.

    Oxedent – Product/Services

    The company is into PPC management services and the biggest USPs are:

    • They’re ROI & Focused
    • One of the few Google Partners
    • They only do PPC unlike other agencies that do everything from social media management to SEO, email marketing etc.

    Relevant read: Digital Marketing Agencies of the East: The Rise of Online Marketing

    Founders of Oxedent and team

    Biplab Poddar is the founder and CEO of Oxedent.

    Founder of Oxedent
    Biplab Poddar

    They are a 9 person team at the minute. They maintain a very friendly environment in the office, all of the team members are under 30 so there is a lot of work and a lot of parties.

    Hiring: It doesn’t matter if the candidate has a college degree or not as long as he/she knows what he does (PPC) and how to make campaigns generate sales.

    Oxedent has its name derived from the term “Oxygen” for the company acts like oxygen to the brands who are suffering due to online absence and who need a complete transformation in the digital sphere.

    Oxedent Logo
    Oxedent Logo

    The company has a distinct clear vision to break through the clutters of internet marketing agencies, hence the name Oxedent, far unique than the typical “solutions”, “info” in the names of most marketing agencies.

    Also read: C Com Digital: A 360 Degree Digital Marketing Agency

    Oxedent – Business Model and Revenue Model

    The company has a very simple flat fee business model based on your marketing budget. This is a list of ad spend vs company price:

    Ad Spend (INR) Oxedent’s Fee (INR)
    70K-100K 20K
    100K-150K 25K
    150K-200K 30K
    200K-250K 35K
    250K-300K 40K
    300K-350K 45K
    350K-400K 50K
    400K-450K 55K
    450K-500K 60K

    Oxedent – User Acquisition

    Biplab already had a client base and a strong portfolio since he was doing freelancing for 2 years before he started the company. The company has got its first 100 clients organically through the website. They also have an amazing blog where they share how-to, strategy and step by step articles on Google Ads, Facebook Ads, conversion rate optimization(CRO).

    “As I mentioned earlier most of our clients are SMEs and they try to run ads of their own and look for help online and found through our blog and we help them get maximum ROI from their ads spend”, says Biplab Poddar, owner of Oxedent.

    The team hasn’t spent a single Rupee on ads in the first one and half years but focused on creating content that helps business owners utilize the Online Ads to scale their business/sales. They have 100+ amazing articles on their blog that brings them 80% of the website traffic.

    They also have tie-ups with UK and USA based digital marketing agencies and offer white label PPC services to their clients.

    Relevant read: Pulno – Ace the SEO Game with This Website Audit tool!

    Oxedent – Startup Challenges

    Hiring the right talent was/is a challenge in Kolkata for a very niche service (PPC management). When Poddar was managing clients’ ad campaigns single-handedly, he ensured all of them are profitable (made sure they get at least $4 in sales for each $1 they spend on ads). While growing the client base it was his main concern that the quality of his works is the same and clients get maximum ROI.

    Biplab Poddar initiated a training program called ‘oxedent mini’ where he teaches PPC & CRO to candidates with digital marketing experience and then hire them, to maintain the quality of his service and highest ROI for the clients.

    Oxedent – Growth

    • Operating locations: The majority of the clients are from the UK, EU Countries, Middle East, and the USA.
    • Revenue: About 1 crore
    • Profit: 25-30 Lacs
    • Userbase/Client base: The team has worked with 250+ clients so far. They are currently working with 18 clients.
    • Notable clients: Tata Housing, UNICEF Ireland, Boy London.

    The revenue of Oxedent has grown from 22 Lacs in the first year to 47 Lacs in the second year to 1 Crore in the third year.

    Also read: Mad Influence – Get the Best Influencers to Promote Your Business

    Oxedent – Future Plans

    There are an estimated 20 million – 24 million e-commerce sites across the entire globe, with more and more being created every single day. Only about 2M of them generate $1000 per month in sales. On the other hand, 2.05 Billion active people are shopping online. So there is clearly a gap or limitation in the way e-commerce businesses advertising online.

    Oxedent is building a SaaS platform where the e-commerce business owners can reach engaged shoppers with buying intent and only spend on ads channels and audiences that are likely to generate sales and revenue. The platform will automatically suggest the best advertising channels, keywords, ad copies by scanning their website, and products.

    Oxedent – Recognition and Achievements

    Oxedent Awards, recognition, achievements
    Awards won by Oxedent