FitForCommerce is a leading ecommerce service connector, connecting ecommerce merchants with great services to help their business grow. They also act as more or less the UN of ecommerce, providing support for some of the biggest ecommerce conferences in the US, including IRCE (which we just got accepted to speak on Google Shopping at! Sorry, couldn’t hold my excitement in).
They have really cool questionnaires that help retailers investigate how effective services really are by asking tough questions. We took the liberty to answer those questions publicly so our audience could learn a little bit more about CPC Strategy and why our service is loved by retailers.
General:
How long have you been in this business?
CPC Strategy took off January of 2007, so we our nearing our 6th year of business.
What size or types of clients fall into your “sweet spot”?
Generally speaking, the clients that fall into our sweet spot are online retailers that make more than $1 million in revenue, have around 500 products or more, and have a marketing budget of at least $3000/month.
What additional or supporting services do you offer (e.g. management, implementation)?
Other than our main area of service, we do offer supporting services in comparison shopping. We have a Google Adwords program for paid search. Additionally we have an Amazon Marketplace program that helps retailers land products on Marketplace faster, which we found to be a usually painstaking process.
Last, we also provide Google Analytics consulting services to just about every one of our clients’ campaigns, helping them understand meaningful metrics in the process.
What references can you provide? Who are some of your other clients?
For the sake of our clients’ convenience, we may make reference information available upon request. However, we do work with companies such as Sears, Omaha Steaks, Payless Shoes, Sperry’s, Tommy Bahama, Seagate, Deluxe Office Supply, and more than 150 other mid-market online retailers. You can check out a few of our client testimonials here.
Organization:
How do you plan to work with our team? What process and communication approach do you suggest?
We assign each of our clients a dedicated account manager, who is accessible by phone or email. Our account managers figure out each client’s ROI goals, assess those goals, and then estimate the amount of time it will take to achieve those goals. They can work either very hands-on or hands-off with each client, depending on the individual preferences of the client.
Additionally, our tech team handles, optimizes, and send outs data feeds quickly and efficiently.
Is your company a one-person shop or are you representing a consultant company?
CPC Strategy is a full-service solution consultant company.
Who is your engagement manager?
Our sales team will be the first to engage a client but each is then assigned an account manager, who will work exclusively with the client. If you’d like to get engaged, give us a call at (619) 677-2453.
How many other engagements will this person be managing?
Unlike other consultant agencies, where an account manager is typically given responsibility for 100-200 clients, our account managers handle about 15-20 clients each.
How many other people are on the project team?
CPC Strategy has 10 account managers, 3 in sales/marketing, 3 in technology, 2 contractors, and 2 interns.
Skills & Expertise:
What key skills are you bringing?
The skills we provide are centrally in the domain of comparison shopping campaign management. This field ranges from analytics/metrics, data feed management, and CPC bid management.
What expertise are you providing?
With two former PriceGrabber employees at the head of CPC Strategy, we are fortunate to be granted with an insider’s perspective on the industry of comparison shopping. This helps us understand each CSE objectively so that we can ensure each retailer is spending their money effectively.
Our expertise lies in every aspect of CSE campaign management, which ranges from technical expertise (data feeds and analytics) to management expertise (bid management and optimization).
While you advertise a broad array of skills, what is your most common type of project?
Our main type of project is full-scale comparison shopping campaign management. If you’d like a free assessment of your current campaigns, check us out here.
Project and Deliverables:
Do you have a project implementation methodology? Please describe the phases, key deliverables, client contact points, team structure, and roles and responsibilities.
Our methodology is as follows. We first receive the contract from the client. The client then sends us a master feed with all of their products’ information. 7-10 days later, we will have set up merchant accounts and data feeds specific for each CSE. If the client is new to comparison shopping campaigns, we will expedite the process of setting up and launching a CSE account.
The next step is working with the retailer/client to install tracking pixels from each major CSE on the client’s website, and these pixels are necessary to make adjustments to data feeds and bids. Google Analytics is then set up to cross-check the data from the tracking pixels and is also used as a primary metrics source for CSEs without their own specific tracking pixels.
At this point, we check to see if each data feed has been approved by the CSEs, and if they are, we will set up the client with their own account manager. The account manager will revisit the agreed upon strategy and goals with the client.
The rest of the process is up to our account manager to pull weekly reports of product performances as a whole, on each engine, and in other various categories, and this will facilitate the optimization of data feeds and bids for the client.
How do you want to conduct this project? Are you comfortable with the reporting structure I have in mind (you may not be reporting on a daily basis to me)?
After an account manager is assigned, the client may contact the AM as much as he/she desires.
What are the stages and the deliverables for each stage?
Stage 1: Sign up and establish/assess goals of the client.
Stage 2: Analyze weekly product performance reports from each CSE.
Stage 3: Implement CPC bid optimizations on the product, brand, sub-category, and category level multiple times a week and cut products that waste ad spend. Beginning Day 1 of launching on CSEs, the client does not have to manage anything else.
What is the work product at the end of the engagement? Do I have complete ownership rights upon delivery? Will you simply call my competitor and offer the same package to them after we finish?
CPC Strategy is a consultant agency so there is no tangible product at the end of the engagement, however, the end result will be more profitable and efficient comparison shopping campaigns. Your data feeds are kept private and you have complete ownership rights to them.
Will we have the tools and the knowledge to move the project forward after you leave?
The client will most likely not be able to move the project forward after leaving because it requires specific skills, manpower, and expertise to manage comparison shopping campaigns efficiently and effectively. You can, however, begin to learn comparison shopping engine strategies with CPC Strategy here.
Pricing:
How do you charge for your services? (Time & Materials? Deliverables? Fees?)
We charge a client $1000-3000 a month depending on the number of products the client has, the size of the company, and the product category the client specializes in. We will give a quote to a potential client on the first business call.
Do your fees include expenses, travel time, and other miscellaneous charges?
We have no fees, even startup fees, of any kind.
What is the payment schedule? Are payments tied to results?
The client is responsible for paying the CSEs for the costs per clicks (CPCs). Our contracts are month to month. We also charge in arrears, meaning we will do the work then charge once we’re done, and we prorate charges for partial months.
Do you have a standard contract to review?
We do have standard contracts for the client to review.
