Global Golf Company Overview
Since 2001, Global Golf has been offering huge values on close-out and pre-owned golf equipment to golfers of all abilities. Comprised of current and former PGA professionals, national award-winning merchandisers and even a former touring professional, their staff’s specialized knowledge of the game and the industry qualify them to recognize great golf deals that Global Golf passes along to its customers. This expertise has helped distinguish GlobalGolf.com as the leading seller of pre-owned golf clubs on eBay. From used golf clubs, new golf clubs, golf apparel and golf equipment, Global Golf showcases exclusive specials from all the top brands including Callaway, Taylor Made, Cleveland, Nike, Mizuno, MacGregor, Ping, Nicklaus, Titleist and much more.

ChannelAdvisor Complete Solutions:
Products:SearchAdvisor^TM, MarketplaceAdvisor^TM Premium, ChannelAdvisor Stores

ChannelAdvisor Complete^® combines on-demand software, integration technology and best practices to help retailers manage the complexities of selling across multiple e-commerce channels – more efficiently and more profitably – all through a single interface. Complementary components of the ChannelAdvisor solution, SearchAdvisor™ and ShoppingAdvisor™ work together for an integrated search and shopping solution that provides a winning retail combination.

Designed exclusively for online retailers, SearchAdvisor™ enables retailers to manage, automate and maximize campaigns across top search engines – including Google, Yahoo! MSN and Ask.com – without adding costly resources or missing ROI targets.

ShoppingAdvisor™ puts control back in retailers’ hands, giving them the freedom to market every product – easily and effectively – across the comparison shopping landscape. By enabling them to achieve unsurpassed relevancy and generate maximum returns, ShoppingAdvisor™ helps retailers isolate the most compelling campaign strategies.

Situation

In the past, Global Golf had experienced tremendous success on other e-commerce marketplaces with eBay and their own website using MarketplaceAdvisor and ChannelAdvisor Stores. But the formula behind search engine marketing was proving tough to crack. They started by experimenting in-house with a handful of keywords, but the results were hard to manage and weren’t on par with Global Golf’s high standards.

Global Golf wanted to expand their keyword base, but they found it difficult to identify the terms that delivered high returns. Their busy marketing staff was small and they couldn’t figure out how to support a desirable level of search marketing revenue with the appropriate amount of paid search budget. They needed to find the best combinations of cost-effective keywords, ads and landing pages to keep campaign costs down, increase conversions and create reliable selling power. Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t unravel the search marketing mystery.

“We were growing so rapidly, we couldn’t spare the manpower in house,” said Mitesh Patel, Global Golf’s Vice President and CTO of E-Commerce. “We needed a partner that could help us increase our revenues and stay within our paid search budget. Because their strengths go beyond their software, we knew we could trust ChannelAdvisor for the answers.”

Solution

When Global Golf approached ChannelAdvisor for help, their dedicated professional services team welcomed a challenge. They started off by reviewing Global Golf’s account history, their customers and their competitors, and then used SearchAdvisor, ChannelAdvisor’s integrated paid search solution to devise a full service approach to scale their search marketing campaigns efficiently and generate new sales.

ChannelAdvisor’s services team developed a project plan that included rigorous testing of campaign elements, including keywords, ad copy, bid strategies and associated landing pages, and closely monitored performance. They used the insights they gained to gradually increase the number of campaigns, ad groups, categories and keywords and identify the optimal ratio of ad groups to keywords.

Through a combination of interactive sessions and regular performance reviews, the SearchAdvisor professional services team was able to define best practices to automate Global Golf’s bid rules, stay within their desired metrics and build a high performing base of keywords. By continually refining the process and revisiting the exploration phases when conditions changed, Global Golf steadily improved their search marketing results, while consistently maintaining their profitability goals.

Results

Since the beginning of 2007 when they started with SearchAdvisor, Global Golf has doubled their search marketing spend and grown their daily average revenue over eight times. In addition, their keyword base has expanded by 333 percent.

Global Golf and ChannelAdvisor’s relationship has been truly collaborative with each side setting the bar higher. Through regularly scheduled account reviews and strategy sessions, they review past accomplishments and set new goals for the future. “We continually challenge ChannelAdvisor and they meet our expectations or exceed them every time,” said Patel. “They keep a sharp eye on the search marketing engines and are always proactive with suggestions.”

“We trust ChannelAdvisor to do their homework,” he continued. “Before they took us on, they immersed themselves in our world, studied our customers and understood our motivations. Their practical approach laid the foundation for a better solution.”