Driving 61% of Web Traffic with Search Ads and Blog Content

Key Takeaways

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Content Strategy – Focus on Educational Content. In 2020, Vaay added two content sections to its website: Magazin and CBD 101. Magazin features editorial content and CBD 101 focuses on educational articles and covers such searchable topics as “what is CBD” and “legal status of CBD in Germany”. While Magazin helps to establish thought leadership, CDB 101 helps to drive traffic — three times more inbound search visits land on CBD 101 page compared to the magazine.

Paid Search Tactic – Direct Ads to Stand-Alone Landing Pages. Vaay actively leverages search ads to capture relevant traffic. However, the brand doesn’t direct consumers to its e-commerce website, vaay.com, but deploys several stand-alone landing pages (itsvaay.de, letsvaay.com, iavaayvaay.com) to capture traffic and redirect it to vaay.com. This way, Vaay minimizes the risk of having its e-commerce website punished by Google.

Digital Strategy – Avoid Using CBD/Cannabis-Related Keywords in Landing Pages. Vaay is able to successfully run search ads to its stand-alone landing pages (i.e: itsvaay.de) because none of them carries any CBD/cannabis-related terms. Vaay branded the landing pages as per their style guide but they dropped any ingredient mentions or photos that show CBD products. Landing page copy refers to Vaay’s SKUs as “wellness” and “well-being” products.
Digital Strategy – Comprehensive Eco-System to Drive Results. Vaay's eco-system is designed to widen the top of the funnel – the brand invests time and effort to continuously produce high-quality long-form education content and establish thought-leadership in the domain. This enables them to channel relevant traffic to its e-comm website and convert it into customers. Paid search ads complement Vaay’s organic content efforts, maximize the outcomes and yield short-term results.

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Vaay has been aggressively driving traffic to its website, adding on an average of +30% new visits MoM since its launch in Dec 2019.

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Vaay maintains a balanced mix of inbound traffic sources, where organic search and display ads demonstrate the fastest MoM growth.

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Vaay developed an elaborate content strategy aimed at establishing thought leadership and driving organic search visits. By the end of 2020, Vaay equalized the amount of traffic coming from branded and non-branded terms (51% vs. 49%).

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In July 2020, Vaay added two content sections to their e-commerce website:  the magazine and CBD 101.

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The magazine (published in German and English) covers topic ranging from CBD product pricing to “what is nano-cbd?”

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CBD 101 focuses on educational content, such as the current state of research and why cannabidiol is special.

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Since the launch of the magazine and CBD 101 in July 2020, Vaay published 45 articles in total, each around 1,200 words.

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The educational CBD 101 section drives 3X more organic search traffic than editorial content in the magazine.

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Vaay complements its SEO efforts with paid search ads. Rather than directing consumers to the main website (vaay.com), Vaay created three stand-alone landing page under different domains.

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Vaay runs search ads to these one-pagers, which then redirect users to the vaay.com website.

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Vaay manages to successfully run search ads to these landing pages because there are no mentions of CBD, cannabis or any other “trigger” terms in the web copy.

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Vaay effectively leverages both organic and paid search channels to widen the funnel of inbound traffic and increase visits to its main e-commerce website.

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