Global Growth for Staar Surgical | PPC Case Study | Search Laboratory

The brief

Staar Surgical is a company specialising in a unique vision correction solution, known as Visian ICL in the US, and EVO Visian ICL in Europe, Asia, Canada and other countries. It is an implantable lens that works with your eyes to naturally correct your vision and can last for the rest of your life – however, the implants can also be removed.

As they are such a unique product in the eyecare industry, Staar Surgical needed help to promote their brand and products internationally. Known for our international expertise, and in-house global linguists, we were the natural choice to help them with their global paid strategy.

Staar Surgical had done some paid activity in Germany and Spain but needed help to find new market opportunities and expand internationally, whilst optimising their existing paid activity.

 

We are proud to announce that this work for Staar Surgical was shortlisted at the a US Search Awards in the Best PPC Campaign category and The Drum Search Awards USA.

The Drum Search Awards USA Finalist 2018 logo.

A graphic that says 'US Search Awards 2018 shortlisted'.

364%

increase in conversions

34%

decrease in cost per acquisition

208%

increase in budget

42%

conversions from remarketing

Objectives

 

Increase qualified visitors to the website, where they can then find local eye clinics and ophthalmologists who perform the Visian ICL procedure.

  • Increase performance while decreasing cost per acquisition
  • Provide recommendations for budget allocation across 182 markets
  • Prove value to stakeholders and increase spend budget.

Approach

Target audience

 

  • Aged between 18-45
  • Interested in travel, sports and entertainment
  • Searching for competing eyecare solutions, such as laser eye surgeries like Lasik and PRK
  • Geographical targeting includes over 180 markets.

The target audience is likely to be at various stages of the buying funnel. Some users might be close to converting, some might be just searching for information around contact lens alternatives. The objective of the paid strategy is to get Staar Surgical’s brand and product out there at all different stages of the buying cycle.

Strategy

 

Our international team used search impression share to identify new markets and opportunities.

Our multilingual digital marketing experts then localised the keywords and ad copy, depending on the needs of the individual market, and what local competitors were bidding on.

As the market presence grew to over 182 markets, the budget and bid adjustment strategy had to be carefully managed. Search Laboratory had to use past performance and new opportunities to guide this process. The team also started remarketing activity a couple of months after set-up, to maximise conversions.

Implementation and creativity

 

Due to regulations within the healthcare industry, (which differs in each market) there are limits to the type of information and the type of advertising that can be executed for this product. This was challenging as it means the ads can’t include too much information, however, our international team ensured that the ads were all localised to the individual markets and commercial trends, to maximise conversions and provide users with a customised experience.

Alongside international work, Search Laboratory’s paid team utilised their in-house proprietary software, AlertLab, to maintain the budgets proportionately.

AlertLab was our proprietary PPC campaign monitoring software. It allowed for rapid automated monitoring of large-scale campaigns that would be impossible to do manually. For Staar Surgical, AlertLab was used to manage the budgets between the different locations, enabling Search Laboratory’s paid team to spend their time optimising the campaign and find further opportunities.

Results

 

Over the course of the engagement, we have achieved the following results:

  • Increased conversions month on month by an average of 1,140% with an average increase in spending of 327%
  • Average conversion rate increase from 2.66% to 7.75%
  • Average cost per acquisition decreased by 81%.

Year-on-year

 

  • Conversions rose by 364%
  • Cost per acquisition decreased by 34%
  • 42% of account conversions come through remarketing
  • 34% of account spend is used for remarketing.

These great results have led to Staar Surgical taking spend from their other marketing channels and moving it to their paid campaigns.

“Search Laboratory has an international footprint and international team members that help us scale campaigns across the globe. They provide a huge value add as we know that a Google translation of an English campaign just doesn’t work.”

Ryan Black, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing, Staar Surgical

 

Looking to revamp your PPC campaigns?Get in touch to see how our award-winning team can help