About Cisco Systems
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) enables people to make powerful connections–whether in business, education, philanthropy, or creativity. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make networks possible–providing easy access to information anywhere, at any time.
Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University. Since the company’s inception, Cisco engineers have been leaders in the development of Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking technologies. Today, with more than 71,000 employees worldwide, this tradition of innovation continues with industry-leading products and solutions in the company’s core development areas of routing and switching, as well as in advanced technologies such as home networking, IP telephony, optical networking, security, storage area networking, and wireless technology. In addition to its products, Cisco provides a broad range of service offerings, including technical support and advanced services.
Cisco sells its products and services, both directly through its own sales force as well as through its channel partners, to large enterprises, commercial businesses, service providers, and consumers. Learn more about Cisco Systems.
What was Cisco looking to achieve?
Cisco was looking to drive more engagement with its Partner Marketing Channel with a thru-marketing program. Cisco’s Partner Marketing Demand Generation team was tasked with building scalable paid search, paid social, display, remarketing, email, and webinar campaigns to market on behalf of its Channel Partners. The end goal was to get Channel Partners signed on the run marketing campaigns with a combination of their own marketing dollars as well as utilizing Cisco’s Partner Marketing Funds and DISTI Marketing Development Funds (when available).
Once these campaigns were launched the task was then to optimize the campaigns, show a demonstratable and measurable return, and use those results to get more Channel Partners engaged.
How We Exceeded Cisco’s Expectations
Another contractor had been tasked with building this program and the results were lackluster to say the least. After spending about a year trying to build out the campaigns and program, they had managed about $100,000 in marketing spend (while another $100K was left in the marketing accounts and left unspent) and generated $0 in opportunities. Most of the marketing was going into display where the creatives and messaging where very Cisco-brand focused.
A completed rebuild was in order. After stopping all display campaigns, we rebuilt 5 different paid search campaigns focusing on Cisco products and categories. From there we developed new landing pages for all campaigns, packing marketing assets rather than offering the traditional “one form for one asset” offer B2B companies frequently use.
The initial launch of the first 5 paid search campaigns proved successful and that we were on the right track. In the first quarter of the new campaigns we were able to generate a 4:1 ROAS.
Original ROAS: 0
Initial Launch ROAS: 4:1
After the initial success of the program we built 18 additional paid search campaigns, built new banner ads to use in remarketing, and developed a webinar program fueled by a new series of emails partners could use to drive enrollment. We also developed a social media program where we curated social media content and posted them to partner accounts.
This all took place over the following two quarters where we saw ROAS go from 4:1 to 20:1
Original ROAS: 0
Expanded Launch ROAS: 20:1
The final phase of the project saw expansion of Partner participation and of the available marketing budget. We also oversaw the implementation of a keyword bidding platform (increasing the paid search ROI from 20:1 to 42:1) and a more robust webinar platform which drove opportunity value from $6 million annually to $60 million annually.
Original ROAS: 0
Final Phase ROAS: 42:1
Financial Impact
The financial impact of our marketing optimization efforts was dramatic. The all-in program budget, including ad spend, tools, and marketing platforms was $2 million annually. The initial ROAS was $0, and the total value of the program was less than $1 million (driven from email only).
The last four quarters of this program drove a total of $80 million in opportunities for the Cisco partners involved, and the Partner ROAS on paid digital was 42:1.