FAST IMPLEMENTATION
With only weeks before the launch of the new ad marketplace, the team needed a solution that worked right the first time. In that window of time, Elastic Site Search was deployed and worked exactly as they expected right out of the box.
NEW BUSINESS OPPS
With the Elastic Site Search implementation, EO Media Group discovered some new, unexpected business benefits including previously untapped and unknown revenue and ad opportunities.
INCREASE IN TRAFFIC
Since implementing Elastic Site Search, they’ve seen an increase in users, sessions, and new and returning users.
Company Overview
EO Media Group is a private, family-owned publishing and printing company with 11 newspapers throughout the Pacific Northwest.
EO Media Group’s Journey with Elastic
SEARCH NOT MAKING THE GRADE
EO Media Group grappled with how to improve search for a new ad marketplace on Capital Press, one of its key digital properties.
Their biggest challenge? The marketplace platform would revolve primarily around search. After using solutions from current newspaper vendors, WordPress search, and related plugins for their sites, they realized none could handle the forecasted hundreds of thousands of searchable bits of content or help them drill down into body copy for more relevant search results.
The EO Media team needed strong, customizable search with faceting and the ability to customize search queries, so Elastic Site Search Service quickly became an obvious choice.
IMPLEMENTATION AND IMPROVEMENT IN A MATTER OF WEEKS
Frustration ran high for the small team, which wasn’t in a place to invest a ton of money into developers to build something from scratch.
With only weeks before the launch of the new ad marketplace, the team found Elastic Site Search. In that window of time, it was deployed and worked exactly as we expected right out of the box.
Most importantly, Elastic Site Search provided the key capability of faceting and a feature they didn’t realize would make a huge difference — promoted listings. This alone pivoted the EO Media Group digital team to a new revenue model. In addition, they can consult the dashboard daily for metrics and insights that are both surprising and game-changing.
NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
With the Elastic Site Search implementation, EO Media Group discovered some new, unexpected business benefits specifically, unknown revenue and ad opportunities that were previously untapped.
For example, they found the term “livestock” was frequently searched. While the print publications had always sold to this industry, it wasn’t until the use of Elastic Site Search that they realized its popularity digitally and the target opportunity for ad revenue. With detailed metrics now available, EO Media Group can go after both new and former advertisers alike.
As their deployment deepens, the company has seen:
- An increase in users (43%), sessions (17%), and new (46%) and returning (31%) users, suggesting that the new platform is attracting more people more often
- -145% increase in ad revenue
- 175% increase in users viewing a second page after making search the primary way of navigating the site
- Advertisers selling out of products and services due to successful ad campaigns based on search
