Cosmote offers a full range of telecommunications services, from fixed-line and mobile telephony to broadband to pay television and integrated ICT solutions. With digital marketing contributing less than 1% of total customer acquisitions across these products, the team decided to test new digital strategies to reveal untapped optimisation opportunities, reduce the cost per acquisition and pave the way for increased online investment. They ran a pilot project with a new landline and internet bundle, Cosmote Fiber.
About Cosmote
Telecommunications products and services
Part of OTE Group
Headquarters in Athens, Greece
Goals
Acquire new customers for Cosmote Fiber
Reduce digital cost per acquisition
Approach
Rolled out enhanced text and extensions across search ad groups
Achieved 100% coverage in search remarketing campaigns
Adopted Smart Bidding strategies
Combined similar audiences and custom in-market audiences
Used remarketing lists in display, excluding those who had already converted
Launched Gmail Ads
Results
15X growth in monthly leads from search
77% reduction in search cost per acquisition
10X increase in monthly leads from display
67% drop in display cost per acquisition
Cosmote focused on optimising search and display campaigns using advanced bidding solutions, sophisticated targeting with detailed audience signals, and following creative best practices in order to maximise campaign performance.
In search, the team rolled out three to five enhanced text ads per ad group, and achieved 100% coverage in remarketing campaigns. They also used all available extensions across ad groups and moved from a cost per click model to the Smart Bidding strategies Enhanced Cost Per Click (ECPC) and Target Cost per Acquisition (tCPA) where possible. They also rebuilt the overall campaign and ad group structure to allow for more granular matching of users’ searches to text ads.
In display, Cosmote’s marketers created both a new customer acquisition strategy and a strong mechanism for re-engaging past visitors. To find and attract new users, they employed a combination of similar audiences, custom in-market audiences, and keyword audiences.
To re-engage consumers who had already visited the website, they used remarketing lists and excluded those who had already converted to ensure a more personalised approach. As part of the display activations, they also launched a Gmail Ads campaign.
The results of the pilot surpassed every target that Cosmote had set. During the four-month test period, the team saw a continuous drop in cost per acquisition in both search and display alongside an increase in total acquisitions and higher quality traffic to the website.
In search, monthly leads grew 15-fold while the cost per acquisition dropped by 77%. In display, the new approach led to 10-fold increase in monthly online leads and a 67% drop in cost per acquisition.
When taking into account view-through conversions, Cosmote was surprised to see display’s cost per acquisition drop below that of search.
“Display emerged as a highly effective performance medium with higher return on investment than search,” says Director of Digital Transformation & New Business Development Spyros Louros. “This was a great learning from the experiment and made us rethink our approach around display and the role it can play across the funnel of purchase behaviour.”
Looking ahead, the team is emphasising the role that display can play in the lower parts of the funnel and in lead generation by leveraging the advanced audience signals and bidding strategies available in Google Ads. They’re also planning to expand the use of advanced bidding and audience solutions in search, aiming at 100% campaign coverage across Cosmote’s products and services.
