Discount Supplements: Creating a revenue machine through SEO, PPC and Paid Social
THE RESULTS
3:1 to 12:1 | ROAS increase |
37% | increase in online revenue |
40% | increase in new customer aquisition |
Combining brands to maximise search footprint
The health and nutrition industry has seen a lot of transformation over the last decade becoming much more mainstream. Despite this, business revenue for Discount Supplements had been diminishing for 5 years, in line with a decline in the popularity of the core bodybuilding market. Their brand search volume had been decreasing over this period and as a result, they were becoming more and more reliant on paid channels to deliver customer acquisition, and with rising costs in this area, it was quickly becoming unsustainable for them. We were asked to look at the strategy as a whole and identify a way to improve their overall digital approach.
Historically, Discount Supplements traded under two brands: Discount Supplements and Monster Supplements. This was challenging for two reasons, the first it required twice the management splitting the resource, and the second that they were both essentially the same businesses competing against themselves for market share. We identified 3 areas that needed to be addressed;
- Combine the two brands to maximise resources and create a single proposition that can compete in search
- Reduce reliance on sale messaging by updating creative across social media ads
- Take a profit-driving approach to paid search to be more competitive against competitors
Discount Supplements were once a market leader in the fitness space, with both their brands heavily focused on the hardcore bodybuilding market. When that sector declined they struggled to capture the audiences of the growing health and nutrition sector.
Having two brands compounded this issue. So, we proposed a strategy to merge the two existing brands into a single website, and reposition the brand message based on current and predicted trends. This would have several benefits:
- Combine resources for more effective use of time and budget
- Increase market share with a single brand (resulting in 1+1=3)
- Make it more cost-effective to compete against newcomers in the market
Migrating two websites into 1: Magento to Shopify
When we merged the two brands - and their websites - we also migrated to the Shopify platform. This meant we could rectify the technical issues the site was experiencing on Magento, increase page speed and create optimised product collections based on user intent. Shopify also had the benefit of making stock management much more straightforward.
We worked closely with Discount Supplements to make sure the migration addressed and removed all of the problems they’d identified as well as making the improvements we’d specified.
Fixing the technical issues
The existing sites were built on the Magento platform and, with little maintenance, had become cumbersome and awkward to use. This caused issues when Discount Supplements wanted to make changes. But, more importantly, it was significantly impacting their organic visibility due to a range of technical issues that had been created.
Page Speed
Page speed was a significant issue. The site took far too long to load and failed Google's page speed scores across all devices. We identified a range of issues contributing to page speed problems. These included un-optimised large images, redundant code that was still present on the site and several apps that were no longer needed.
Most of these issues would be fixed as part of the migration to Shopify. However, one area where we could have an immediate impact was an upgrade to their web server. As soon as this was complete, there was a clear performance improvement, despite the old sites still being in use.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content on the sites was having a major impact on performance. There were three main problems.
Firstly, there were many category pages targeting the same keywords (like pre-workout supplements). Because the CMS was so awkward to use, and with some turnover in key staff, some pages had been recreated several times for different promotions. This meant that there were several pages targeting the same terms, making it impossible to optimise.
Secondly, many of the product listing pages lacked unique content. This made it difficult for the user to understand what they were looking at and caused duplication issues for Google. The top level pages - such as protein powder - had some variation, but these were repeated on sub-category pages like whey protein or vegan protein.
Finally, pagination was causing a duplication issue. All of the pages on the site were being indexed, rather than just the main pages. Because the products were very similar, Google was seeing the product pages as duplicate content. This meant we needed to implement a solution to prevent pagination indexing issues with Google.
Orphaned pages, crawl bloat and indexation of test sites
Because the site was old, with little maintenance, we identified a ton of crawl bloat (where pages that no longer need to be indexed are still being submitted to Google.
After running a crawl, we found over two hundred pages across the blog and old product pages that no longer needed indexing. We also found many orphan pages, which were not linked to through the site’s navigation but were still relevant. These were relocated on the site, making it easier for Google and other search engines to crawl.
We also addressed the biggest indexing issue of all - that Discount Supplements’ test sites were indexable by Google. We immediately removed these.
Structured Data
The structured data on product pages was not implemented correctly. This meant that not all of the rich information attached to products was being pulled through to Google.
This meant Google was not able to factor key information into its assessment of product pages. It impacted search results, and also had a negative effect on click-through rate when results were shown.
As can be seen in the data below, vital information like customer reviews was not being pulled through.
Building a site structure that reflects user search behaviour
It was clear from the various category pages that both Monster Supplements and Discount Supplements were focusing heavily on the body-building category. We knew that this as a term and category was on the decline, with weight training becoming significantly more mainstream and more focussed on health than looks (as a conversational topic anyway)
After extensive keyword research, we identified the core keyword themes that were either:
- On the decline and needed less focus
- Where on the increase and needed more focus
- Where completely new to Discount or Monster supplements
Things like “diet whey”, “protein bars” and “vegan protein” were all categories that existed on the site but were not nearly as high in priority as others that were seeing declines such as “weight gainer”. We also introduced new categories like “collagen”, “energy gels”, “keto” and “vegan” that were underutilised across the site.
Using this we introduced a new site architecture across the site that was much more directed to how users were searching now and in line with how future trends were likely to go. This was implemented as part of the new site migration and optimised over time, with new product listing page content and a full knowledge base strategy.
Executing a smooth migration
The final piece of the puzzle was to complete a successful SEO migration. As we were involved heavily with the process we were able to implement our tried-and-tested migration approach. This included three phases.
Pre Migration
For a successful migration, we do all the hard work up front and before launch day. If you get everything right in advance, the whole process is much smoother.
Launch Day
When the new site launches, we perform extensive checks to make sure nothing unexpected is happening.
Post Migration
The work doesn’t stop after a successful launch. Keeping a close eye on site performance is vital, so we know whether rankings carry over to the new site and improve as expected.
Our migration resulted in huge performance improvements for Discount Supplements in the first month:
- Organic Traffic: Up 9%
- Organic Revenue: Up 15%
- Overall Revenue: Up 47%
- Conversion Rate: Up 20%
Scaling Paid Social from 3:1 to 10:1 return on investment
Discount Supplements were reliant on repeat purchases from their existing customer base. With new competitors entering the market and providing consumers with more choice, they were often priced out with cost per click (CPC) and other costs increasing.
This made it hard to cut through, especially across Facebook and Instagram. So, they were reliant on sales messaging to capture new customers. This reduced their profitability and return on ad spend (ROAS).
We identified two areas for improvement that could increase return on ad spend significantly.
- They were under-utilising first-party data that could be used to target high-intent users
- There was too much focus on promotional offers
Targeting a high-intent audience
Discount Supplements had a large customer base and a wealth of first party data. One of the first ports of call was to build campaigns leveraging this data more effectively.
Customers in the supplement space can be fickle. So, we engaged users quickly to keep Discount Supplements in the front of their minds. We used a low-funnel approach to retarget recent purchasers and browsers with similar products, which increased the value of each site visitor, and each purchaser.
Increasing the value of website visitors in this way not only made the budget go further, it also let us be more aggressive in the initial customer acquisition phase.
Alongside our own targeting strategy, we also plugged Discount Supplements’ first-party data into Facebook, and asked them to find more customers that look like them (with careful parameter setting and guidance from us).
Building a brand with creative first
Before we came on board, all of Discount Supplements’ creative was focussed on promotions, pushing specific offers with codes and offers. This meant the users that were engaging were price-driven, and unlikely to be brand loyal.
After reviewing customer data, we identified that Discount Supplements had many repeat purchasers who demonstrated brand loyalty. So, we applied the consumer decision-making model and identified how best to speak to new customers who were nutrition or health-focused rather than the declining body-building audience.
We filmed and edited high-quality videos, showcasing the brand and its products. Multiple variations were designed to hit people at each stage of the consumer decision-making model;
- Identification of need
- Informational search
- Review of alternatives
- Purchase actions
We put these in front of people who were already in the market using first-party customer data. This resulted in a significant increase in the number of high-intent users engaging with Discount Supplements.
Combined with the re-marketing strategy, this created a significant increase in ROAS and revenue generated;
- 27% increase in Average Order Value (AOV)
- 724% increase in revenue
- 3:1 to 10:1 Increase in ROAS
A 60% increase in revenue by targeting high-profit products within Search and Shopping.
In addition to the changes to the Paid Social account, we made some changes to get more value from the Google Ads account. This was also struggling to grow, due to high customer costs.
The account was working on a blanket ROAS target which treats all products equally. But, we knew that Discount Supplements had several products with significantly better margins than others. We adjusted the ROAS target based on these different margins so we could be more aggressive in specific areas. This made the account more competitive.
Targeting high-profit products to maximise marketing spend
We analysed past product and sales data to identify the areas that drove the most profit, had high conversion rates, high average order values and strong repeat purchase rates.
We modelled different ROAS targets for each area and researched how users interacted with and decided to buy these specific products.
This allowed us to create a Search and Shopping strategy that targeted these areas first and foremost. We used supplementary product feeds, updated ad copy and assets, and landing pages tailored to specific audiences.
The result was an immediate improvement to ROAS. This created a profitable foundation that could be expanded through a multi-channel approach to cover wider product areas.
- 3:1 to 12:1 ROAS increase
- 37% increase in online revenue
- 40% increase in new customer acquisition
By taking a strategic, data-driven approach across SEO, PPC, and Paid Social, we helped Discount Supplements reverse their five-year revenue decline and transform their marketing into a scalable, high-performing revenue machine.
Through a brand consolidation and site migration, we improved search visibility and user experience, leading to an immediate 15% increase in organic revenue and a 47% jump in overall revenue. Paid Social became a powerhouse, with ROAS skyrocketing from 3:1 to 10:1, while targeted optimisations in Google Ads pushed it even further to 12:1, contributing to a 60% increase in revenue from high-margin products.
Most importantly, we didn’t just fix short-term issues—we built a sustainable foundation that allows Discount Supplements to compete more effectively in the evolving health and nutrition market. With a stronger brand position, improved profitability, and a data-driven acquisition strategy, they’re now primed for long-term growth in an increasingly competitive space.
Share it with friends
Our Work
We’ve worked with a variety of companies to produce outstanding results. From internationally recognised brands to small family-owned businesses, we’ve gotten to know our clients inside out to produce perfect projects and create captivating campaigns that truly express their message and values.
