1 Calvert Marine Museum

AdWords Business Pre-Campaign Strategy Report – Calvert Marine Museum

Client Overview

Client Profile: The Calvert Marine Museum (CMM) is a public, non-profit, educational

museum located in Solomons, Maryland. CMM has 65 employees and is dedicated to the

collection, preservation, research, and interpretation of the culture and natural history of

Southern Maryland. The museum explores the areas of paleontology, estuarine biology, and

maritime history. CMM’s educational programs serve as a linchpin for its services. CMM

also hosts concerts from May to September in a small to medium sized venue. Year-round

facility rentals for both formal and relaxed settings are also offered. Cove Point Lighthouse is

rented out 85% of the year, and Harms Gallery is popular for hosting corporate events.

Five employees comprise essential marketing personnel. CMM was dedicated in

October 1970, and its doors officially opened on June 29, 1975. Its website

(calvertmarinemuseum.com), maintained by Exhibits Graphic Tech, Rachel Reese, was

developed in 2004 and re-mastered in October 2014. CMM maintains a social media presence

through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Google +. Other online

channels include music calendars and e-mail marketing. Primary offline channels are print,

radio, and sponsorships. In terms of other relevant information, CMM raises money by

dedicating exhibits to patrons that finance them.

Market Analysis: The majority of CMM’s customers are parents, grandparents, and their

children, aged 12 and younger. The majority of these customers live within 30 minutes of the

museum, but some customers travel from over an hour and a half away. CMM also has a

museum membership program in which members receive certain benefits, such as purchasing

presale concert tickets. With about 3,000 members and stagnant membership rates, CMM

expresses the need to reach more customers and thus acquire more members.

CMM competes with different organizations for each of its concert, museum, and

facility rental offerings. Respectively, its main competitors for each of these offerings include

St. Leonard Volunteer Fire Company, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, and Holiday

Inn. Potential competitors include other local museums, concerts, and event venues.

CMM has a wide variety of product offerings but is best categorized in the US

Museum Industry. For key industry characteristics, 4,959 US museums make up the $9.8

billion industry. This mature industry is expected to grow 2.5% in the next five years. CMM

experiences medium industry competition (72.9% smaller museums), and low market share.

2 Calvert Marine Museum

Industry data is not available for digital marketing, but museums spend an average of 4.3%

revenue on marketing. Digital marketing spending is projected to increase 15.5% in 2015.

CMM positions itself in the market as an entertaining, educational museum,

specializing in the Chesapeake Bay and its inhabitants. Its unique selling point stems from its

diverse mix of exhibits, clubs, facility rentals, and concerts. The summer months constitute

CMM’s peak season. During this time, it has a higher facility rental rate and hosts concerts,

which serve as the most substantial revenue streams. CMM maintains a unique industry

position through paleontology, estuarine biology, and maritime history exhibits.

Current Marketing: CMM’s website provides information on events, concerts, family

programs, museum memberships, facility rentals, and educational resources. Strengths of the

site include its wealth of information, aesthetic appeal, and social media accessibility.

Weaknesses of the site include its complex structure, repetitive information across pages, and

the lack of installation of Google Analytics. Google Analytics is to be installed prior to the

beginning of the AdWords campaign. CMM’s website has 18,147 external backlinks and a

current Google PageRankTM of 0/10, because they recently redesigned their website.

CMM enhances its online presence with various social media sites including

Facebook (11,251 likes), Twitter (888 followers), and Instagram (380 followers). CMM posts

Facebook updates approximately once per day. In the future, CMM plans to increase its

social media presence, through Google+ and YouTube. Other online marketing methods,

such as online music calendars and e-mail marketing, focus on concert promotion.

CMM’s offline marketing includes print media such as posters, flyers, and newspaper

ads. Outdoor advertising with road signs is used to advertise concerts. CMM also writes the

Bugeye Newsletter, produced quarterly and mailed to subscribers. Other offline advertising

methods include local radio ads and a Papa John’s sponsorship. CMM uses trade ads with

Comcast to show pre-produced commercials on regular TV networks. The call-to-action of

these commercials encourages ticket sales on CMM’s website.

Conclusion: CMM’s online marketing goals are to: 1) increase the number of museum

members, 2) increase member engagement, and 3) increase overall awareness of facility

rental, concerts, and museum events. CMM is a nonprofit with a limited budget, making

Google AdWords the ideal advertising platform to allow it to reach customers in a cost-

effective manner. Advertising through Google AdWords will also give CMM the advantage

of reaching customers who are already searching for their services.

3 Calvert Marine Museum

Proposed AdWords Strategy

The proposed Google AdWords strategy for Calvert Marine Museum includes five

campaigns and 33 focused Ad Groups. Table 1 shows the proposed account structure to

highlight CMM’s offerings. The Brand Campaign focuses on searches specific to CMM.

The Information Campaign targets people searching for CMM’s hours and admission fees.

The Concert Campaign is centered on information and ticket sales for the concerts at CMM.

The Facility Rental Campaign includes Ad Groups for both the lighthouse and exhibit hall.

Ad Groups such as vacation, wedding, family, and corporate rentals further segment these

searches. The Birthday Parties Campaign features themed party packages for children with

Ad Groups focusing on children, kids, and themed parties.

Table 1: Campaigns, Select Ad Groups and Sample Keywords

Brand Information Concerts Facility Rental Birthday Parties

Calvert Marine

Museum Ad Group

Hours

Ad Group

PNC Pavilion

Ad Group

Lighthouse Rental

Ad Group

Kids’ Birthday

Party Ad Group [calvert marine

museum]

[marine museum

solomons hours]

“PNC pavilion

concert”

+rent +covepoint

+lighthouse

[book kids

birthday party]

[calvertmarine

museum.com]

[calvert marine

museum hours]

+heart +PNC

+pavilion

“lighthouse rental” -teenager

Marine Museum

Ad Group

Directions

Ad Group

Barenaked Ladies

Ad Group

Wedding

Ad Group

Themed Birthday

Party Ad Group [marine museum

solomons island]

[directions to calvert

marine museum]

+barenaked +ladies

+solomons

“wedding reception

calvert county”

“dinosaur themed

birthday party”

[marine museum] [directions to CMM

solomons]

[barenaked ladies

concert tickets

maryland]

“wedding venue

maryland”

[pirate theme party

for kids]

“Phrase match,” [exact match], +modified +broad +match, and broad match will be

used to effectively reach searchers. Adding negative keywords such as -ocean city and -cheap

rentals improves ad relevancy and Quality Score. Keyword selections are based on market

research, landing page content, and insights from Google Keywords Planner and Google

Trends. Dynamic Keyword Insertion {DKI} will be used in the Birthday Parties

Campaign to make party theme ads more relevant to search queries. As the campaigns run,

the Search Terms Report helps identify new search terms with high potential. Table 2

shows examples of the geo-targeted Lighthouse Rental Ad Group ad copy.

Table 2: Sample Google AdWords Ads

4 Calvert Marine Museum

Table 3 shows the proposed budget for each campaign. Since the Brand

Campaign has high organic rankings, it receives the smallest budget. Although the

Information Campaign is expected to maintain a higher click-through rate, it receives a

smaller budget because of low expected search traffic. The Concerts and Facility Rental

Campaigns have the highest budgets because they represent the most profitable activities at

CMM, and are expected to have the highest amounts of search traffic. The Birthday Parties

Campaign is expected to receive slightly less search traffic than the higher budgeted

campaigns. All of these campaigns are centered on CMM’s main goal of increasing

awareness and participation, leading to increased membership.

Table 3: Proposed AdWords Budget by Week and Campaign

Brand

(12%)

Information

(13%)

Concerts

(30%)

Facility

Rental (30%)

Birthday

Parties (15%)

Total

Week 1

(20%)

$6.00

$0.86/day

$6.50

$0.93/day

$15.00

$2.14/day

$15.00

$2.14/day

$7.50

$1.07/day

$50

Week 2

(30%)

$9.00

$1.29/day

$7.50

$1.07/day

$22.50

$3.21/day

$22.50

$3.21/day

$11.25

$1.61/day

$75

Week 3

(50%)

$15.00

$2.14/day

$12.50

$1.79/day

$37.50

$5.36/day

$37.50

$5.36/day

$18.75

$2.68/day

$125

Total $30.00

$1.43/day

$32.50

$1.55/day

$75.00

$3.57/day

$75.00

$3.57/day

$37.50

$1.79/day

$250

All campaigns will be run within the Search Network only to allow a greater focus on

relevant users searching for CMM or its related services. Continuous use of A/B split testing

can identify the best performing ads, increasing campaign success. Ad rotation will be set to

rotate evenly, being manually optimized to increase clicks after sufficient data is collected.

Manually bidding on keywords assists in obtaining low cost-per-click (CPC) keywords. Geo-

targeting will be used in each campaign to target an 80 kilometer radius around CMM,

including adjacent counties. Ad extensions such as sitelink extensions, call extensions,

location extensions, review extensions, callout extensions, and social extensions will be

utilized to make ads more relevant and visible, increasing click through rate (CTR). Due to

the increasing number of searches on mobile devices and CMM’s mobile-friendly website, it

is beneficial to enable mobile ads to reach users at the exact time they are searching. For

example, these ads can reach those looking for directions to the museum on mobile devices.

Calvert Marine Museum’s primary AdWords goal is to increase awareness and

involvement. CMM’s projected CTR of 1% at an average cost-per-click (CPC) of $1.15

should generate 21,739 impressions and 217 clicks. Account success will be measured using

the above goals for CTR, CPC, impressions, and clicks.