Ciena

Our ability to reach quality prospects and generate meaningful customer acquisition numbers has clearly proven that PPC can be used effectively for B2B sites with long sales cycles…

Ross Jenkins

Ciena Corporation

The Company

Ciena Corporation delivers communication network platforms, software and professional services to transition networks for maximum business, operational and end-user value.

With industry-leading functionality and performance, Ciena’s offerings form the foundation for many of the largest, most reliable and sophisticated telco, cable/MSO, enterprise and government networks across the globe.

The Challenge

Ciena recognized a potentially viable lead generation opportunity in search marketing, however they determined they didn’t have the necessary in-house resources to fully manage the process. Also, because Ciena’s networking solutions are often sold for customer projects of significant size and scope, the Company’s sale cycle can be a long process.

Furthermore, the complexity of Ciena’s product portfolio combined with a long sales cycles meant the identification of key online marketing success metrics was more difficult than for a traditional Ecommerce business. As a result, Ciena decided to look for a company to help adequately measure the success of its online marketing campaigns.

The Solution

Ciena Corporation hired Engine Ready in mid-2005 to takeover all phases of its search marketing campaign setup and on-going management.

Additionally, Ciena looked to Engine Ready for guidance in developing key performance indicators (KPI) that would lay the foundation for measuring performance, campaign analysis and future strategies.

Clearly, it was unlikely that Ciena could sell a multi-million dollar solution from the single interaction of a visitor clicking on a pay per click (PPC) ad. However by asking qualifying questions in its online form, Ciena could determine if the visitor was a good prospect for further sales follow-through.

Engine Ready assisted Ciena in fine-tuning the entire online lead generation process and placed a strong focus on the quality of leads attracted via search marketing. Extensive testing of all key search marketing components, including Ciena’s online form, helped lead Engine Ready to meeting Ciena’s goal of attracting higher quality leads without sacrificing quantity.

The Result

Within 4 months of taking over the management of Ciena’s online marketing accounts, Engine Ready’s comprehensive testing was beginning to show significant increases in qualified traffic at reduced cost per leads. In fact, Ciena’s cost per lead, originally at $12, declined 50% to $6.

In addition, landing page and online form modifications not only led to an increase in the quality of the leads, but better enabled Ciena to distribute leads throughout its organization for the most productive future sales development.

Testing of ad placement revealed that the best quality leads were coming from the content network in Google AdWords and content match in Yahoo Search Marketing. Bidding was adjusted as needed to deliver the right mix of ads to the content networks and search networks. After Engine Ready’s testing and continued management of the accounts, pay per click now drives nearly 60% of Ciena’s subscribers worldwide.