Success Stories Success Stories
When Peter Tham joined HBM to lead its sales force in Southeast Asia, he knew he faced a daunting task. HBM, a German company specializing in testing, weighing and measurement solutions, was completely new to the region. No one had heard of HBM or was aware that the company offered its services there. In the Singapore office, outfitted with only a small start-up budget, Peter and his colleague needed to grow HBM’s entire business operations in the region, including lead generation, customer acquisition and post-sales support.
The situation would have daunted many seasoned businessmen, but Peter tackled the challenge head-on. “I did a lot of research on broad advertising on a shoestring budget, and it seemed like online advertising, especially search engine marketing, was the way to go,” he says.
Peter decided to sign up for Google AdWords™ and put his marketing dollars to work.
“Like any other businessman, I had considered using traditional media to spread the word. However, HBM’s product range is very extensive, and our products can be used in diverse industries such as automotive, aerospace, agriculture, marine and research. Relying on traditional media would have been too expensive, as we needed to advertise broadly across many different verticals. Moreover, we would have no way to monitor and measure the results,” recalls Peter.
“Google AdWords is working very well for me, and I’m definitely satisfied. I would definitely recommend it to any business – AdWords is like having your very own dedicated marketing department that works 24/7 for you.” Peter Tham, Associate Business Development Manager, HBM
HBM saw a 50% increase in leads less than a month after using AdWords.
“Advertising with Google AdWords makes perfect business sense because HBM ads appear whenever potential customers search for related keywords. With AdWords, I get the best of both worlds – I can reach out to potential customers across multiple countries in Southeast Asia, and I can target my communication to niche audiences.”
The extensive outreach of AdWords is particularly important for Peter and his colleague, because they simply had no time to cold call potential customers.
“AdWords draws interested customers to us, so we can spend our time and energy attending to each potential lead and converting it into sales.”
AdWords also appealed to Peter and his managers in Germany because its results were measureable. “AdWords offers reporting tools that allows me to draw up statistics showcasing how the marketing budget is spent and the impact of that spending. This way, we can easily share with our German-based bosses what is happening here in Singapore, and they get the same degree of visibility and transparency they would have received if they were overseeing the campaigns themselves,” Peter said.
Peter had no problem picking up AdWords, thanks to a great teacher. “The Google AdWords Learning Centre is an excellent learning resource. I invested one entire day exploring the Centre, and it’s time well spent because now I am a pro at AdWords, simply by following the website’s easy-to-read, step-by-step instructions.”
“The fact that AdWords is easy to use is critical for our mental well-being! The two of us are already swamped enough overseeing the business operations, and there is no time for us to tinker with a complicated advertising tool!”
Peter started using AdWords in March 2008 and in less than a month, the company has experienced a 50% increase in the number of leads and a 100% increase in clickthroughs to the company website. He is thrilled by how successful his Google AdWords campaign has turned out in such a short time.
“I wasn’t expecting to see results so soon," Peter said. "The first three leads I got were enough to cover 50% of my initial advertising cost.” Right now, out of every ten leads obtained through AdWords, three convert into sales.
“Google AdWords is working very well for me, and I’m definitely satisfied. I would definitely recommend it to any business – AdWords is like having your very own dedicated marketing department that works 24/7 for you,” concludes Peter.