Bailey Nelson has gone from the Bondi Markets to 110 stores globally in 10 years. As an omnichannel business, they’ve been using Google Ads to engage with consumers who are actively looking for eyewear – before they even step into a store.

In 2012, Peter Winkle and Nick Perry took out a stall at Sydney’s Bondi Markets to launch what they thought would be an online-only eyewear brand. Quickly realising that people wanted to touch and try on glasses, they opened their first store in Paddington, offering quality eyewear frames at affordable prices.

Today, Bailey Nelson’s Australian-designed eyewear and optometry services are now available at 110 stores in Australia, as well as new locations in the UK, Canada and New Zealand. As Bailey Nelson has grown, they’ve continued to use Google Ads at different stages of the funnel, from engaging interested audiences in new markets to discover their local Bailey Nelson store to always-on campaigns that capture and convert customers who are ready to buy online.

 

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Eyes on search marketing

Like many small businesses, Bailey Nelson was looking for a cost-effective solution to reach people who were searching for what they sell. So, from the get-go, they used Google Ads.

“We’ve used Google Ads from day one, from trying to drive customers to our original website through to educating people about new stores that we open,” Peter tells Kochie’s Business Builders.

Search engine marketing (SEM) using Google Ads is where you bid on keywords that your potential customers are searching for, so your ad can appear in front of them at the right time. You have control over your advertising budget and pause or adjust it whenever you like.

SEM is highly targeted advertising. Not only does your ad only show up to people who are searching for the keywords you picked, you can further choose to show your ads just to people in a certain geographical area and at certain times of the day. You can even use age, gender and other filters to show your ads to even more specific demographics.

“Google Ads is a great channel for us because it allows us to educate customers,” says Peter. “They’re specifically looking for a service like prescription glasses or sunglasses and are in a local area where our stores are. When we open a new store, often people don’t know us. Google Ads works well to be able to target a very tight geographical area and provide customers with information about who we are and what we do.”

Watch: Bailey Nelson’s Google Ads story

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Choosing the right keywords

When you set up a Google Ads campaign, you can use Google’s keyword planner to find out what types of things potential customers are typing in so you can target your ads.

Some of those keywords may be brand or product specific. “If someone’s searching for the Bailey Nelson Palmer glasses, we want to make sure they can find them on our website straight away,” says Peter.

Other keywords might be more generic and enables Bailey Nelson to get in front of potential customers looking for what they sell. “If someone types in ‘prescription glasses’, they may want to buy them that day because they’ve lost a pair or they know they need to see better,” says Peter. “So being able to educate them about what we do, provide a link to book an eye test or come into a store is really effective for us.”

Measuring your ROI

When you’re investing in any form of marketing or advertising, you need to know your money’s working for you. Google Ads provides reports, insights and ongoing tips so you can track your progress. This means you can increase your spend on keywords that are performing well.

“We know that about 90 per cent of our customers go to our website before they come into a store,” says Peter. “With Google Ads we can track how many people view our site and then book an eye test. That allows us to know how much we can spend to show those ads.”

Seven years ago, only 10 per cent of Bailey Nelson’s eye test bookings were made online. Now it’s shot up to 60 per cent.

“We find that for every dollar we spend on Google Ads, it drives about $5 to $10 in return. This is fantastic for us as a growing business and our ability to open new stores and grow our customer base,” says Peter.

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A vision for other people’s vision

As this optical challenger brand continues to grow, the goal is to help even more people improve their vision.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for growth and we believe we could double the size of the business in our store footprint over the next three or four years,” says Peter. “There’s lots of areas where we know customers are searching for us online and going to our website. They’re finding us, but there isn’t a store near them. We’re looking forward to expanding into those areas and serving those customers better.”

Head to Bailey Nelson’s website for more. Find out more about how Google Ads can help your business here.

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with Google Ads.