How PPC Advertising Brought Business to Saraf Furniture
How a family furniture maker used pay-per-click advertising to sell directly to customers online, and the six PPC lessons any business can take from it.
By Suren, Founder & Growth Strategist at Gufy · Published · Last updated
Pay-per-click advertising let Saraf Furniture, a family furniture maker, reach customers directly instead of relying on middlemen and shop visitors. The lesson for any business is the same: PPC works when it puts a specific product in front of someone already searching for it, sends them to a page that matches, and is judged on sales.
This article tells the story briefly, then sets out the lessons.
A note on figures: an earlier version of this article quoted specific results for leads, revenue and return on investment. The original source for those numbers is no longer available for us to check, so they have been removed.
The business
Saraf Furniture makes solid wood furniture, mainly from Sheesham wood. It began as a family business and was already exporting to markets including England and Germany when the next generation, led by Raghunandan Saraf, decided to sell to customers at home as well.
In 2014 the company launched its own online store, Insaraf.com, to sell directly to customers.
The challenge
Selling furniture online meant competing with much larger marketplaces. The company had three aims:
- Become known nationally, not just to trade buyers.
- Generate leads and online sales through its own website.
- Bring the right visitors to the site: people looking for solid wood furniture, not casual browsers.
It also had to explain what made its products different, which is hard to do in a crowded market with a small brand.
What they did with pay-per-click advertising
The approach, as described in accounts of the company's growth, had three parts:
- Search ads for specific products. Ads were shown to people searching for the kinds of furniture the company made.
- Regular changes to the ads. Ad copy and formats were updated to keep them relevant and to learn what people responded to.
- Website content that matched. Product and landing pages were written to show the quality of the furniture and to continue the message of the ad.
Over time the company also used remarketing to bring back visitors who had looked and left, and it extended its reach to business buyers such as hotels and offices.
Six PPC lessons from the story
1. Start where demand already exists
Search advertising reaches people at the moment they are looking. A furniture maker does not have to persuade someone to want a bed. It has to be there when they search for one. If people already search for what you sell, search ads are usually the first channel to test.
2. Be specific
"Furniture" is expensive and vague. "Solid Sheesham wood double bed" is cheaper and reaches someone who knows what they want. Narrow, descriptive search terms let a small business compete with large ones.
3. Match the page to the ad
An ad for a particular bed should lead to that bed, with its price, photos and a way to buy. Sending every click to the homepage wastes the money spent on the click.
4. Explain what makes you different
A small brand cannot rely on being known. The ad and the page have to say plainly why this product is worth choosing: the material, how it is made, the guarantee, the delivery.
5. Bring people back
Furniture is a considered purchase. Few people buy on the first visit. Remarketing keeps the product in front of people who have already shown interest, at a lower cost than finding new visitors.
6. Track sales, not clicks
Clicks are easy to buy. What matters is which keywords and ads lead to enquiries and orders. With conversion tracking in place, budget can move towards what sells.
How to apply this to your own business
- List the specific things you sell that people already search for.
- Choose a small set of precise search terms for one product or service.
- Write an ad that says what is different about it.
- Build one page that continues that message and makes the next step obvious.
- Set up conversion tracking before you spend.
- Run it for a fixed period with a fixed budget, then keep what produced sales.
For why a budget that is too small teaches you nothing, see Marketing Budget for a Tech Startup Without Revenue. For lead generation on social platforms, see Meta Ads Lead Generation for Local Service Businesses.
Common questions
What is PPC advertising?
Pay-per-click advertising is a model where you pay each time someone clicks your ad. The most common form is search advertising, such as Google Ads, where your ad appears when people search for words you have chosen.
How does PPC bring in business?
It puts your offer in front of people at the moment they are searching for what you sell. Because you choose the search terms and the area, and pay only for clicks, a small business can compete for specific customers without a national advertising budget.
Does PPC work for small businesses?
Yes, when the campaigns are narrow. Target specific products and specific searches, send each ad to a page that matches it, and measure sales or enquiries. Broad campaigns pointed at a homepage are where small budgets disappear.
How long does PPC take to work?
Ads can bring visitors on the first day. Learning which keywords and ads bring customers takes a few weeks of data. Plan a fixed test period before you judge it.
Where Gufy fits
Saraf Furniture is not a Gufy client. We wrote about it because it shows the principles clearly. Gufy runs paid acquisition for startups, with the landing pages and tracking that make it measurable.