Bayou Metal Supply

Bayou Metal Supply is a distributor of Aluminum and Stainless-Steel pipe, sheets, and a wide array of related products. They specialize in supplying marine grade products but also sell into broader markets. Bayou has traditionally been mostly a regional company in the Gulf Coast, but with paid advertising and specialty marine products they have expanded nationwide. They partnered with us in 2021 to help them grow two companies, one focused on the commodity metal supply and another doing high tech metal fabrication for shipbuilding and heavy industry.

The Challenges

Bayou Metal Supply and Bayou Manufacturing’s executive management consisted of program managers and engineers with very limited marketing expertise. The company was growing but knew that an untapped source of business was from the internet. Their website was outdated and not helping them at all. They brought in a new COO with a US Coast Guard background who had us assess the competitive landscape and possible opportunity for digital marketing to deliver new leads AND better support their traditional marketing efforts.

They knew they had a great production team and expanding capacity in their growing facility in Slidell LA, but didn’t have a clear path to fill it with profitable new business outside of a small number of existing government projects.

A digital marketing partner was needed to understand their business, craft new messaging and develop a strategy to apply a process to developing new business leads.

Our Solution

We started with our complimentary detailed research on the opportunities from online search and looking at their competition as benchmarks for doing better. The more complex fabrication website was reworked first and then the metal supply business was upgraded. This was part of our Digital Marketing Strategy plan developed with their leadership.

Google Ads Done Right is Very Profitable

Once they had a great PLAN and the website basics in place, we knew there was a huge opportunity for getting in front of potential customers with Google Ads and related online advertising.

Bayou Metal Supply agreed to a three-month test period of a modest volume of Google Ads focused on their high profitability marine aluminum metal products from sheets to tubing. The ads program included custom setup and an aggressive fine-tuning period to optimize the campaign. Remarketing added the extra dimension that really lowered the cost per lead. Product focus was adjusted throughout the campaign to optimize profitability.

Inbound Marketing with SEO to Complement the PPC Google Ads

We also helped Bayou Metal Supply grow their web visibility in search engines to drive the right kind and volume of traffic from organic sources. Within one year, traffic was dramatically increased just from basic SEO work with them.

The Results

After the first two months, the cost per lead was under $40 and the current cost is less than $22 per lead. They have landed several really large orders form this advertising and the hundreds of smaller orders are all profitable and contributing to a fast-growing business.

An estimate of ROI from the Google Ads campaign is over 600% and a strong part of Bayou’s ongoing growth and expanding geographic reach.

Bayou before

BEFORE

Bayou after

AFTER

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