These days, it takes more than strong brand and domain presence to convince consumers to make discretionary purchases. Online retailer HairExtensions.com also needed an approach to search engine marketing (SEM) as dynamic as the current marketplace - and the Jessica Simpson HairDo Hair Extensions and other popular hair products it sells. More specifically, it needed to be able to constantly test new creative content and spot cost-effective yet winning advertising opportunities faster than less-established retailers who flood the online marketplace with promotions for competitively priced products.

HairExtensions.com chose Webtrends Ad Director, a unique combination of SEM consulting and advanced technology services. After conducting extensive research, the Webtrends SEM team reorganized the online retailer's paid-search campaigns to target specific consumer traffic, rather than generic themes. In collaboration with Jorg Moltkau, vice president of marketing for HairExtensions.com, Webtrends launched dozens of different versions of campaign-specific creative content.

Within 60 days, nearly all key performance metrics exhibited significant improvements:

• Average daily units sold rose by 140 percent.
• Return on ad spend (ROAS) exceeded the goal by 116 percent.
• Click-through rates increased by 20 percent.
• Average cost-per-click dropped by 9 cents.

The Ad Director dashboard and detailed reporting have also helped Moltkau to better understand and track conversion drivers and consumer behavior across the site.