Mimic Pro
Just embarked on my Mimic Pro journey. Currently features are limited and inflexible, able to only sell 3 products, namely the Canon Rebel T7i, GoPro Hero 7, and Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10K. Not very sure how to best structure the content of the ad, and hard to judge what are the right choices to make as well, e.g. email, which mailing list and template to use.
Round 1 Email
Mimic Pro
Decided to go with the list containing 11,492 email address previously obtained from a digital camera blogger, using a 1:2 Column template. For the email subject, I used 'limited time offer' to induce a sense of urgency and encourage purchase. The use of product and brand title like 'GoPro Hero 7', 'Canon', and 'Panasonic' is used to encourage clicks from viewers who are interested in the brand or product, as the subject gives a preview of what the email content is about.
Email Content
I researched on the following products and came up with an email focusing on the feature and specifications of these products, but also using strategic terms to entice viewers to make a purchase, like 'rock bottom prices', 'just for a limited time', 'get yours today', and more.
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Ad Campaign
Shown below are the ads done for each of the three individual product, and the keywords I have assigned to each ad group.
Results -Â Round 1
Mimic Pro
Shown below is the results I have achieved from Round 1. From Round 1, I was able to achieve $17402 in revenue and $2977 in profit from my ad campaign. I was also able to get $12448 in revenue and $1695 in profit from my email campaign. Through analysing my ad campaign, it is seen that the Panasonic Lumix DMC LX-10K had the highest impression, clicks and conversions and a conversion rate of 5.77%, while the GoPro Hero 7 had the highest conversion rate of 5.8%. This could mean that the keywords assigned to the ad group of Panasonic Lumix DMC LX-10K has a greater search number, while the ad for GoPro Hero 7 was slightly better done, being more relevant, resulting in a higher conversion rate.
Through analysing my ad campaign, it is seen that the Panasonic Lumix DMC LX-10K had the highest impression, clicks and conversions and a conversion rate of 5.77%, while the GoPro Hero 7 had the highest conversion rate of 5.8%. This could mean that the keywords assigned to the ad group of Panasonic Lumix DMC LX-10K has a greater search number, while the ad for GoPro Hero 7 was slightly better done, being more relevant, resulting in a higher conversion rate.
Round 2
Mimic Pro
Just started on Round 2 of Mimic Pro. For this round, I will need to
Publish 3 landing pages
Create one ad campaign
Create 3 new ad group
Write at least 1 ad per ad group
Lastly, review my budget.
Landing Pages
Round 2
For round 2, we are given over 60 landing pages to choose from and do. While the recommended number of landing pages to be done is 3, I've decided to do 26 landing pages, including brand landing pages for Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Panasonic and GoPro.
For all my landing page, I have decided to go with the design of 'Buy Product Now', which allows me a 2 by 1 column landing page as shown below for the landing page for the Fujifilm X-Pro2.
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I have made changes to the Meta Description, using terms like "click here to find out more", "hottest trend", "now on sale", "cheapest in the market", "limited time offer", "while stocks last", to induce a sense of promotion and encourage clicks.
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I have also made changes to the main title, such that instead of just having the title of the product, it is "Fujifilm X-Pro2 Digital Camera Brand New".
My landing pages are focused on important product features and specifications. I did in-depth research on the products for all the landing pages done. The main text list the features of the cameras in details, for example the type of sensor, number of pixels, and such. For the sub-text, one column summarises the key features of the product, while the other list 'promotional offers. For example, save up to $1000, free gifts like camera bags, memory cards and more. These are to engage call-to-action and increased conversions.
Ad Campaign
Round 2
For Round 2, I have decided to create ad campaigns classified by brands, as I believe this will allow greater control over my ad campaigns, ad groups, and strategies. As such, I have made campaigns for GoPro, Olympus, Nikon, Panasonic, Canon and Fujifilm. I then realise that the practice campaign done in Round 1, cannot be removed when I tried to do so. As such, I decided to retain the practice campaign, but reduce the budget allocated to it.
Ad Groups
Round 2
For ad groups, I have done 5 ad groups for Canon and GoPro. As such, I have allocated the most amount of budget to Canon and GoPro. For Nikon and Fujifilm, with 3 ad groups each, I have thus allocated $600 to both campaigns. In Round 1, as Panasonic was the best selling brand, I have decided to put aside $700 for the Panasonic campaign, having an ad group on the Panasonic brand.
Ads
Attached below is a screenshot of my ad of Canon. With an average ad position of 2.0 in Round 1, a goal of my ads is to attain a better average ad position.
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Going through the Google Skillshop on Google Search Ads Fundamental and 'understand the google ads auction', I learnt that Ad Positions are determined by 'Ad Rank'. Ad Rank consist of six factors, namely, bid, quality of ads and landing page, Ad Rank threshold, competitiveness of an auction, context of person's search, expected impact from ad extensions and other ad formats.
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Thus, having known what to look out for and adjust, I aim to do better for this round, making relevant changes to my ads and creating effective landing pages.
Keywords
Shown below are the keywords I have assigned to Canon. I have picked keywords that are highly relevant with the ads that I have created and the product being featured. This way, I believe the conversions and clicks will be higher.
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For keyword bidding, I have set the default CPC for each ad group to be $1.50, while the max CPC for each keyword was positioned at a few cents higher. E.g. $0.72 suggested bid is allocated a $0.75 max CPC.
Round 2 Email Marketing
As my email results in Round 1 was satisfactory, I have decided to retain a similar style, but using different words in the email subject. Same as before, my email uses a 1 by 2 email template.
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For the email content, previously the email was focused on Gopro hero 7, Canon Rebel T7i, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-Lx-10K. For Round 2, I have decided to focus on the Sony A7R, Canon Brand page, and the GoPro Hero 7.
My choice of products to focus on comes from that the Sony A7R has one of the highest profit margin. I chose to focus on Canon's brand page as generally Canon products sell well. Lastly, GoPro has a lower selling price, and generally has the largest sales number. Thus, I decided to sell the latest GoPro camera which is the GoPro Hero 7.
Round 2 Results
Mimic Pro
Shown below is the results I have achieved from Round 2. From Round 2, I was able to achieve $231,637 in revenue and $24,563 in profit from my ad campaign. I was also able to get $4157 in revenue and $453 in profit from my email campaign. This meant that my Round 2 have been successful in a sense that there is a major improvement in revenue and profit, with my revenue increasing by 1231%, and profit increasing by 725%.
Through analysing my ad campaign, it is seen that my Canon ad campaign had the highest impression of 49683, highest clicks at 1437, and a conversion rate of 4.31%.
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For Round 2, GoPro achieved 43,699 impressions, 1,281 clicks, the highest conversion at 74, and a conversion rate of 5.78%. This meets my expectations for GoPro to have the highest sales volume.
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Additionally, my initial goal of improving the average ad position have also been realised, with the average ad position improving from 2.0 to 1.8. However, my conversion dropped from 5.46% to 5.03%. This could be from having keywords that generated impressions and reach, but did not generate clicks, due to irrelevance of ads or keywords.
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Round 2 Rankings
For Round 2, I came in third amongst my classmates for my revenue and profit, and eighth for my ROI and Reach. By analysing the rankings, I am able to aim further, and take higher ranking numbers as benchmark, and also know which aspects I need to improve more. As such, the rankings are extremely important.
Round 10
Mimic Pro
Fast forward to Round 10, we have finally come to the final stage of the Mimic Pro Simulation. At the moment, my ad campaign revenue for Round 9 is at $388,072, ranked eighth. My ad campaign profit is $39,204, ranked seventh. My email revenue is $12,399, while profit is $1,936. This puts me ranked seventh overall for revenue and rank sixth for overall profit.
Ads
Round 9
Currently:
Ad impressions are at 255,526
Ad clicks at 7559
Ad conversions at 377
And ad conversion rate at 4.99%
Ad Campaign
Round 9
In Round 9, there are 4 active ad campaigns, namely Sony, Nikon, GoPro, and Canon. Apart from Canon, all other campaign budgets are fully utilized, with the cost being equivalent to the budget. This meant that the total budget is being utilized, and no money is wasted where it could have been used elsewhere.
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For Round 10, I have decided to invest in Samsung, considering that the Samsung Galaxy NX has the third-highest profit margin. As such, I created a campaign for Samsung, and did Ad Groups for the Samsung brand, Samsung Galaxy NX, Samsung S4 Zoom, and the Samsung Galaxy NX1 28.2 MP Smart 4K Camera, putting aside $100 for it.
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With that, I increased the budget for Sony campaign from $550 to $621, as well as increased keywords, using keywords with high search volume, and middle to low competition.
For Nikon, I reduced the budget slightly from $571 to $550, and also increased keywords.
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For GoPro, I had to strategize more. Putting into consideration that I invested $2100 for GoPro, for a return of only $7390 in profit, while Sony gave me a profit of $7087, with only a budget of $550. As such, I decided to reduce the budget by $100, to $2000.
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Lastly, for Canon, I decided to reduce the budget by $50, to $1600. I have also increased the keywords assigned to the ad groups.
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Calculating the ratio of returns to budget for each campaign, and calculating them against the budget change for round 10, I am expecting an increase in profit of close to $1000.
Email Marketing
Round 10
Up till Round 10, I have been consistently doing email marketing every round. I have come to understand that, for myself, the mailing list consisting of 11,492 recipients and the 1 column template is more suitable.
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For Round 10, there is no change to campaign name, sticking to "the right camera, at the right price". I have changed the email subject to "Limited Time Offer - Sony A7R, A99, GoPro Hero 7, Canon, and Panasonic Cameras".
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This way, viewers know immediately what I'm offering, and also increase sales of products that yield a higher profit margin.
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For email content, unlike earlier rounds that are focused heavily on product features and specifications, the email I have done for round 10 is short and straight to the point, summarising the key benefits of the products, and special deals Kent's Camera Castle is offering.
Results for Round 10
My results dropped in round 10 compared to round 9. After analysing, it can be said to be a mistake to have done an campaign on Samsung, and reducing budget for the other campaigns.
Final Takeaway
Finally at the end of the Mimic Pro Journey, I have come to learn many things. Essentially, I have learnt how to set-up, create and execute a full digital campaign by creating landing pages, ads, keywords, email campaigns to optimise revenue, profit, clickthrough rate and conversion rate, utilizing a fixed budget, alongside learning from courses by Google Skillshop on Google Ads Search. Experiencing both ups and downs in my 10-round journey, I was able to better understand what is and how to properly position ads and landing pages, that encourages increased revenues and profits, and what could potentially backfire.
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Search Engine Optimization - Is about the improving quality of landing page, and driving more traffic to the webpage through increasing visibility of webpage on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.
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Moreover, the limitations set by Mimic Pro, while frustrating, served to draw out creativity from students, encouraging us to think out of the box, and also empathize with viewers, and match their needs accordingly.
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Search Engine Marketing - Is about increasing visibility of webpage on search engines, but through paid advertising. Aim is to optimize ads such that they have a good position, increasing impressions and clicks, and thus increasing conversion rate as well. These then lead to increased revenue and profit.
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Email Marketing - Sending of commercial messages to groups of recipients through email. Email marketing is a fast, flexible and cost-effective way of reaching new customers and retaining existing customers by encouraging continued website visits. Email marketing also allows for creation of targeted and personalized messages.
