AVON Cuts CPCs with Single Auction Entry Test

Objective

AVON North America operates across two core business areas:

• The recruitment of AVON representatives in the field

• A robust e-commerce operation through AVON.COM

The objective was to reduce branded search CPCs by transitioning from a dual auction entry (representing both business units) to a single auction entry, while maintaining revenue, lead, and contract volume from branded search traffic.

Hypothesis Modelling

Before planning execution, a detailed cost-saving and benefit hypothesis was developed. This included clearly defined benchmarks, KPIs, and projected CPC and Quality Score changes. Historical product downtime, which resulted in media pauses, was used to model expected outcomes. The hypothesis was formally approved and scheduled for rigorous testing.

Data Overlay Strategy

Due to internal sensitivities—specifically the competitive dynamic between AVON and top-performing representatives—the new single auction entry (GWP experience) could not be shown to AVON.COM customers already linked to a representative.

To ensure audience integrity:

• Customer Match was used to exclude attached customers from GWP campaigns

• A collaboration with internal tech teams allowed real-time audience updates from DoubleClick to be passed via piggybacked AdWords pixels

• Checkout events were used to refresh audience segmentation dynamically

• Attached customers continued receiving the legacy dual-entry brand experience via separate campaigns

Conversion Volume Testing

AdWords Experiments couldn’t accommodate this test’s complexity. Instead, a phased rollout schedule was implemented:

• GWP experience tested at 25%, 50%, and 100% of branded search impressions

• Tests ran across different days, times, and audience slices

• A 4-month cycle ensured external variables were balanced out

• Performance was measured against baseline benchmarks for revenue, leads, and contracts

Creative and Copy Testing

Partnering with internal creative teams, multiple landing page iterations were tested to both validate the hypothesis and improve conversion performance. Variants ranged from simplified layouts to information-dense versions. These were served to split audiences across multiple weeks, allowing for informed LP optimisation.

Understanding Success

Success was monitored in real time against the original KPIs:

• DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM) tracked outbound clicks as separate campaigns, allowing cost to be correctly attributed to each business function

• DCM Floodlight tags were used to track event “leaks” from static page elements

• Insights from these tools ensured that budget allocations were accurate and performance impact was clear