Achieving Revenue Growth for Coldwater Creek and Soft Surroundings with Optimized SEM

Coldwater Creek and Soft Surroundings — both prominent brands in the fashion and retail industry — needed to revamp their search engine marketing (SEM) strategies to drive incremental traffic and revenue without significantly increasing their investment. Each brand required a flexible, highly targeted approach that could adapt to rapidly changing consumer trends and macroeconomic challenges affecting the retail sector. To achieve this, they turned to WITHIN for expert guidance in optimizing their SEM efforts.

WITHIN’s SEM team led the restructuring of the brands’ SEM accounts to improve efficiency and effectiveness. The approach included:

• Match Type Blending: A strategic mix of broad and exact match keywords was used in search campaigns. Exact match keywords targeted high-value queries, while broad match keywords acted as a catch-all to ensure comprehensive coverage and drive incremental traffic.
• Dynamic Budget Strategy: WITHIN implemented a dynamic budget strategy that allowed Google’s algorithm to maximize revenue volume at a given ROAS target. Combined with broad match keywords, this strategy ensured flexibility and maximized opportunities in real-time market conditions.

The implementation of WITHIN’s SEM strategies led to significant performance improvements for both brands.

Coldwater Creek experienced a 17% increase in revenue, surpassing performance during the Cyber Week period, all while reducing ad spend by 22%.

Soft Surroundings saw 76% revenue growth in the three months following the account restructure, while spending 4% less on media, highlighting the efficiency gained from the updated management structure.