Challenge
As a global data center provider, Equinix looked for a B2B digital marketing agency that could integrate with their global marketing teams. Equinix brought on Obility to build on Equinix’s high growth from 2016-2017 and continue that growth into 2018 & beyond. Obility provided campaign insight into where money was being spent and what was working (and not). Ultimately, Equinix wanted more leads at lower cost while reaching prospects throughout the lifetime of their customer journey…and they wanted this done in more than 15 countries around the world! Objectives Provide more conversions at lower cost Provide prospects with an ideal customer journey Do it in over 15 countries
Solution
Equinix developed a collaborative Global Governance & Testing framework with a regional focus on local priorities. Obility then aligned with Equinix’s internal strategist and all regional managers, setting up separate bi-weekly meetings to get familiarized with the local strengths/weaknesses and planned execution of the new campaigns. While legacy campaigns were being maintained, Equinix and Obility built a well-defined budget system across regions allowing for continual testing. When tests proved successful, Equinix’s budget structure allowed for rolling out of successful tests into core campaigns with higher budgets, to continuously build a stronger foundation. Regions benefited from the new budgeting model because budgets were tied to specific campaign activation globally, and regional spending remained focused and consistent. A set amount was devoted to awareness and testing campaigns giving the regions stable leads. Testing did not interfere with lead generation for regional stakeholders. Regional prioritization followed budget & asset testing governance ensured advertising was fresh and effective within each country. Obility developed a new strategy consisting of a complete campaign restructure driven by a new offer alignment strategy and testing different offers, as well as new ad copy tests. Search Campaigns Search campaigns restructured at a more granular level and focused on core keyword themes [that show intent], set up in a way that allowed for efficient ad testing. RLSA Campaigns Dedicated Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) campaigns built for core keyword themes, and multiple audiences layered onto generic search campaigns to increase or decrease bids on various audiences. Retargeting Campaigns Retargeting in multi-phased campaigns and custom made for each country were relaunched to focus on website engagement and progressing Equinix narrative thorough content over time. Audience & Topic Campaigns Custom audiences, as well as topic, interest and affinity campaigns were launched using effective layering. Equally important, negative topic, interest and website exclusions were added to all display campaigns to ensure ads were placed only on top quality websites. Language Translations In cases where non-English language is spoken (e.g. German, Portuguese, French), Obility worked with local teams to ensure keywords and ad copy were properly translated. How we did it: Obility coordinated with Equinix’s internal strategist to set up a Global Governance framework that provided consistency and flexibility for localized testing. Obility communicated with Equinix’s regional stakeholders to ensure campaigns were properly aligned with each region’s unique needs: New campaign structure based on historical performance Budgets were re-allocated based on Obility’s “Test-Almost-Core” optimization strategy, ensuring top performing areas are saturated with budgets Keyword groups & offers re-aligned to ensure ideal customer journey Integrated with content and product marketing teams to update content offerings Dedicated native language campaigns launched
Results
From Q2 2017 to Q4 2018, Equinix saw significant improvement. Lead conversion costs dropped by 61% globally, while lead volume increased by 99%. The below chart indicates, campaign performance has become much more efficient—seeing more leads at much lower costs. Equally important, Equinix has been able to scale this success. New campaigns continue to drive more conversions, at lower costs. As the scatter plot below shows, Equinix is now able to drive leads in volume without diminishing returns.
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