GFI Gold, a major player in the gold trading industry, wanted to broaden its product mix, attract a neophyte audience and increase conversions for both small and large purchases. Focused on growing its e-commerce sales and improving its digital marketing strategy, GFI Gold turned to CBTW’s Performance Marketing team for tailored solutions.
Challenges in Boosting E-commerce Sales for Gold Products
GFI Gold’s primary goal was to increase e-commerce sales, with a particular focus on small gold products aimed at younger, less educated investors. At the same time, they needed to maintain the trust of experienced investors who were making larger purchases. This dual-audience approach presented several key challenges:
- Market Volatility: Rapid changes in gold prices created both opportunities and risks, requiring frequent adjustments to messaging and content strategy.
- Diverse Audience Segments: GFI Gold needed to address two distinct groups—experienced investors confident in gold’s value and seeking larger purchases, and younger buyers looking for smaller, more accessible investments like gold coins or bullion.
- Product Diversification: GFI Gold aimed to move away from traditional gold trading to a more product-oriented sales approach, introducing new offerings to attract first-time buyers.
- Marketing Efficiency: Existing meta and Google Ads campaigns struggled with cost efficiency, while email marketing efforts failed to effectively engage subscribers and often ended up in Gmail’s promotions tab.
CBTW’s Performance Marketing Solution for E-commerce
CBTW developed a comprehensive performance marketing strategy to address GFI Gold’s unique challenges, leveraging personalized engagement and sophisticated ad targeting. Our approach combined strategic planning, creative development and data-driven optimization to target both experienced and novice investors, delivering consistent results despite the volatility of the gold market.
Here’s how we approached the mission:
A Collaborative Approach
Our first step was to establish close collaboration between our creative studio, UX designers, developers and media experts to ensure everyone was on the same page. We communicated daily with GFI Gold’s internal teams to integrate their business insights with our marketing expertise, allowing us to pivot quickly as needed and provide ad hoc support for the channels they managed in-house.
Performance-Driven Design and Messaging
To improve user engagement, we worked with our UX designers and developers to create custom landing pages specifically for GFI Gold’s performance campaigns. These pages were designed with conversion funnels in mind, helping to guide both experienced and novice investors to make confident purchasing decisions.
We also created visual assets that aligned with GFI’s funnel-driven approach. This meant targeting each audience segment with content and visuals that matched their motivations, whether they were looking for high-value gold investments or smaller, gift-like products.
Optimizing Digital Campaigns
For GFI Gold’s advertising efforts, we focused on optimizing Google Ads and Meta Ads for better ROI:
- Google Ads: We integrated real-time gold prices into the ads through a business data feed, providing up-to-the-minute information that prompted immediate action from buyers. A/B testing of landing pages helped optimize conversions, and we fine-tuned the targeting strategy by adding negative keywords and removing inefficient placements.
- Meta Ads: We implemented multi-testing of visuals and audiences, differentiating between neophyte investors and seasoned buyers. We tested both static images and animations, and used targeted lead forms to capture high-intent prospects, further reducing the cost per lead (CPL).
To ensure that these optimizations were effective, we implemented event tracking across the site to track user behavior in detail. This allowed us to make real-time adjustments to both ads and landing pages, ensuring a continuous cycle of improvement throughout the campaign.
Improving Email Engagement
GFI Gold’s newsletters suffered from low engagement, often ending up in Gmail’s promotions tab. To address this, we optimized the structure, technical & visual, of the emails to ensure better deliverability and higher open rates across devices.
Proven Results: Increased Sales and ROI for Gold E-commerce
The results of this performance marketing strategy were clear and measurable. In the year since we took over GFI Gold’s marketing campaigns, we achieved:
- +51.78% increase in digital sales through their e-commerce platform.
- +28.20% increase in total sales, driven by both new and returning customers.
On Meta:
- +110.67% increase in purchase conversion value.
- 185.05 return on ad spend (ROAS).
On Google Ads:
- +56.79% increase in purchase conversion value.
- 488.69 ROAS.
Client’s Testimonial
“The collaborative spirit and co-creation with CBTW have been remarkable. We worked closely, ensuring a full alignment on the project. Their approach amplified our vision, resulting in an outcome that truly reflects our ideas and aspirations. The creative synergy and mutual respect in this partnership make it an extraordinary experience.”
– Sandro Ardizzone, CEO GFI Gold
Conclusion
GFI Gold’s case illustrates the importance of adaptability and targeted strategies in e-commerce, especially in markets that are subject to rapid fluctuations in value. By carefully balancing the needs of different customer segments and continually refining its approach, CBTW helped GFI Gold position itself for sustainable growth in the competitive world of precious metals e-commerce.
