Case Study
We planned, we executed, we delivered the results.
In all fairness, though the data is clear and our work speaks for itself, our U.S. Senate candidate’s knowledge and likeability (& his family’s) on the campaign trail made this massive undertaking in such a short timeframe possible. The videographer on the team was also very talented, greatly assisting us in pushing out highly engaging content to social channels that were further optimized for the website. Enjoy, and please let us know if you have any questions.
2022 U.S. Senate Campaign Case Study
Overview
The candidate publicly announced a run for U.S. Senate in November 2021 with a press release and website launch. He was relatively unknown statewide and faced stiff online competition for brand recognition around his name. He had no search engine rankings for keywords/phrases related to the race, his competitors, or his common name. Our candidate was also the last to enter of all major declared candidates.
Ci Labs would step-in to help and quickly launch a new website towards the end of December 2021. We would immediately focus on attaining search traffic for voters looking for our candidate specifically and for all those in the race, so branded and non-branded traffic.
Our Hypothesis
Prior to jumping on board to help this U.S. Senate campaign, Ci Labs was focused on working with white collar executives in blue collar industries, where we excelled at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Though we had no real political experience, we couldn’t say no to this unique challenge to assist a political campaign. We believed that our digital experience correlates to any space! All that is required is proper planning and execution. We were eager to prove this theory and boy, did we!
Due to the shortened time frame driven by our candidate’s late entry into the race, we used a small Google Ads budget to quickly ramp up our organic rankings. Within two months, organic traffic went from last to first in driving visitors to the website.
Quick Numbers
Cost Per Click (CPC) decrease
94.2%
Average CPC dropped from $4.28 to $0.25!
Search Results Increase
3,759,580%
Search impressions increase with new website.
The Services We Provided
CUSTOM WEBSITE: Utilizing the core skill of our team, which is Search Engine Optimization, the new website went from 200 search engine impressions to 150,000 as organic traffic became the #1 driver of total traffic!
SEARCH ADS: Dropped Search ad cost average click from $4.28 to $0.25!
SOCIAL MEDIA: Metrics show that we had more significant growth, activity, and impressions every month compared to all other race candidates. The data shows that our content was highly engaging and valuable to interested voters.
EMAIL: Our team handled the creation of email campaigns for supporters and interested voters, and MailChimp data shows that our average interaction rate for each email campaign was nearly 10% better than the national average.
PRINT & VIDEO: We directed all video creation, print pieces, pop-up banners, stickers, and vehicle wraps to create one of the most distinguishable brands of all candidates in the race.
TECHNOLOGY: Utilizing API’s we moved supporter data between multiple platforms that the campaign utilized for donations, volunteers, and voter outreach.
Traffic by Channel's Monthly
Organic search traffic, which was nearly non-existent, would quickly gain ground to become the #1 driver of traffic by mid-March after our second of three SEO updates were implemented.
Traffic by Channel's Overall
Website User Engagement Increased
The success of ad spending and organic search rankings comes down to the question, “are visitors finding the pages meaningful and engaging when they visit the website?” Our new website’s first full month’s (January) numbers showed visitors engaged with the changes.
Massive Organic Search Increased with Updates
In November ’21, the website had just four keywords that resulted in the candidate’s appearance on Google search results, with an average position rank of 24. By the end of May, we would see a 246,567% increase in keywords being tracked for the website as impressions increased 3,759,580%!
Huge Success with Organic Search Terms
Using the Semrush platform to conduct our research, we knew from the very beginning which keywords the candidate’s website would be tracked. The average positions below are spread out over six months, not the highest ranking ever achieved. The candidate had a common name which made our success so eye-opening.
Massive Savings in Cost Per Click (CPC)
Lowering CPC requires two things: showing your ads only to those interested in what your page offers and ensuring that when they arrive on the page, content that actually appeals to them. Content that is perceived as insightful renders lower CPC and higher organic rankings.
The focus of the ad spend was corroborated to help speed up the organic position ranking from a typical 6-9 month timeframe to a matter of weeks. Huge success!
Comparing the Social Analytics Growth of the Candidates
Most of the other candidates had more combined followers across all social channels when our candidate entered the race. The numbers below compare the final three months of the race (March-May) to the previous three months (Dec-Feb) for each candidate’s combined social channels.
Compared Social Analytics Engagement
Our candidate handily won overall cost per vote
We took the entire expenses for each campaign that was spent over the primary and divided it by the votes each candidate received. We handily won even as we were the last major candidate in the race and had limited statewide exposure.
In Summary
1) We extensively employed Semrush and the Google Suite tools during this campaign. We did not waste time on frivolous pursuits from our initial deep dive discovery, implementation, and ongoing adjustments. The results are clear that our holistic process is effective!
2) We conducted the research, optimized the web pages, turned on ad spending, and immediately found success. Our results were no accident! We knew what we could expect based on our research. We implemented, adjusted, and the results show we nailed it.
3) Anyone can do their own research, build their own website, write their own content (we rely on the client’s expertise while guiding and assisting), and manage their social channels. But it can be daunting when focused on so many other things! We plan well and execute effectively, as you can see by the numbers.
Organic Search Results Months Later
Our candidate’s website still sees high organic traffic results even months after the campaign completely shut down, and we haven’t spent another dollar. Like all our client websites, we design and develop them correctly so that our clients don’t have to rely on heavy ad spending for their traffic.
