Google Ads Call-Only campaigns help OSN reduce cost per acquisition by 82%
About OSN
Direct-broadcast satellite provider serving the Middle East and North Africa
Formed in 2009
Headquarters in Dubai Media City, UAE
Goals
Overcome very high cost per acquisition
Approach
Activated call-only ads in Google Ads
Results
Reduced cost per acquisition by 82%
OSN is a direct-broadcast satellite provider serving the Middle East and North Africa. It offers world class entertainment such as movies, sports and TV shows from major networks and studios including Warner Bros., Paramount, HBO, Fox, Disney, Sony, Zee Network, MGM, Universal and DreamWorks.
Facing a very high cost per acquisition, OSN improved the mobile experience by making their website responsive. The mobile-friendly site decreased page load times, which contributed to a growth in mobile traffic from 67% of overall traffic to 79%.
At this point, OSN together with Starcom MENA started applying a remarketing strategy on Google platforms to retarget users across screens and devices via a multi-channel approach. To drive quality calls on mobile devices, OSN adopted click-to-call extensions in Google Google Ads1. The calls were automatically directed to dedicated lines to enable measurement. OSN found that sales generated via these numbers drove down the cost per acquisition by 65%. In many instances, OSN and Starcom MENA were seeing more calls received by these lines than clicks from the click-to-call ads, so they realised people were dialing the numbers shown in the search ads manually.
Since the click-to-call extensions were showing almost 100% on mobile and desktops, OSN wanted another way to generate more calls. The OSN and Starcom teams decided to start using Google Ads Call-Only campaigns to retarget users who had visited the website but had not subscribed. When these users searched for OSN keywords on mobile devices, the Call-Only ads would appear, prominently showing OSN’s phone number and business description alongside a call button. Clicks on these ads would only generate calls without linking to OSN’s website.
"We retargeted users who bounced off the OSN website assuming this was a strong indicator of questions not being answered. The performance results of our campaign proved the validity of our hypothesis, and we look forward to scaling our solution further,"
- Mohamed Helmy, Performance Manager, Starcom
In this way, OSN was able to drive inbound calls to dedicated phone numbers and to track qualified calls and sales received on those numbers separately. This showed a reduction in the cost per acquisition of 82%. Looking forward, OSN is planning continue the partnership with Starcom MENA to expand the Call-Only ad strategy beyond remarketing as a way of targeting users who are in the consideration phase and have never been to the website.
"We are now better informed in our investment decisions and are equipped with the right tools to leverage different touch points in the consumer journey. Overall, we have managed to maximize performance across multiple sales channels and increase efficiency,"
- Hanan Hammad, Senior Digital Marketing Manager, OSN
