Search case study: AdWords helps improve order rate at butchers by 50%

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Scottish butcher’s Macbeths revamped its keyword strategy last summer and saw a large jump in our sales and ROI, increasing order rate by 50% in one year. This case study looks at how a local business can use paid search to beef up both sales and customer numbers.


Set up 25 years ago, Macbeth’s Butchers is a family-run business which specialises in rearing beef on its very own farm and selling it to caterers and private customers. It also sources tamb, pork, venison and game – all from local suppliers – to offer its customers a complete range of products. The company has been using AdWords for three years.

As well as AdWords, Macbeth’s Butchers uses a range of other marketing tools, including social media, print ads in monthly food magazines, and occasionally trade shows and farmers markets.

They currently invest 25% of their marketing budget in online methods. However, they intend to increase this figure this year, while also decreasing the amount they spend on print which is not delivering as strong a return.

Jock Gibson, Business Manager, says: “We re-jigged our keywords last summer and saw a large jump in our sales and ROI. In fact, we’ve increased our order rate by 50% this year alone, which is pretty impressive.” Macbeth’s Butchers found AdWords very easy to set up. Not only did it increase the quality and quantity of traffic to their site, it also enhanced their conversion rate, too. The company plans to keep investing heavily in AdWords and focus on spending more time getting the most out of the service.

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