The Problem: Injected Ads Undermine LD Products’ Customer Journey
10.53% Hijacking Rate
Since its inception in 1999, LD Products has grown to become the leading aftermarket provider of printer cartridges in the U.S and has been recognized numerous times for its focus on delivering exceptional customer service.
That commitment can also be seen in LD Products’ significant efforts and investment into optimizing their online customer journey to improve profitability while further growing their brand.
However, the widespread problem of Customer Journey Hijacking is designed precisely to skim that profitability and was targeting a large percentage of LD Products site visitors. This customer-side problem involves unauthorized product ads that are injected into consumer devices and browsers. Visitors impacted by these invasive promotions viewed ads featuring competing products and offers, damaging LD Products’ conversion rate and online KPIs as a result. Since these ads are injected directly into the consumer’s browser, traffic hijackers have been able to secretly skim online revenue while flying under the visibility of enterprises.
When Namogoo reached out to LD Products about the impact of this problem on their online KPIs, they were aware of the issue and were searching for a comprehensive solution that could deliver transparent and verifiable results. After viewing actual screenshots showing the variety of injected ads appearing to their site visitors, Sr. Optimization & Consumer Insight Manager Hayley Kuan and the LD Products team wanted to investigate Customer Journey Hijacking further.
“We knew about ad injections installed on the consumer side, but were a little skeptical about how prevalent they were and how they impacted conversion. We were looking for a solution that could clearly demonstrate the problem and the impact of removing it from our customer experience.”
The Solution: Turning Unwanted Ads into Disappearing Ink with Customer Hijacking Prevention
While testing Namogoo’s Customer Hijacking Prevention solution, the LD Products learned that 10.53% of their website visitors were being subjected to unauthorized ad injections. They also saw first-hand the competitor ads that were being served to their hijacked visitor segment — many of which offered lower-priced products.
“We’re in the aftermarket and remanufactured space and price is one of the major things that our customers pay attention to. When we found out that our competitor’s products and prices were appearing on our site, it was eye opening. Partnering with Namogoo has let us take back control of the customer experience and protect our brand reputation.”
Many ad injections are cleverly designed to blend in seamlessly with the layout of the site page, misleading customers to believe they were a part of intended user experience, something that was particularly disturbing to the LD Products team.
“People visiting our site could assume these ads are a part of our brand. From our site design to our service, we spend a lot of time creating a memorable shopping experience for our customers. Seeing these ads distort that was the opposite of what we want for our customers.”
The LD Products team was also able to see the impact to their key sales funnel KPIs of removing these disruptions with Namogoo’s solution, as their conversion rate increased markedly.
The Business Impact: Conversion & RPV Sharper with Disruption-free Customer Journeys
After preventing Customer Journey Hijacking with Namogoo over the past two years, LD Products has seen a consistent uplift in top online KPIs, achieving an overall conversion rate uplift of 3.21%, and increasing Revenue Per Visitor by 3.84%.
“We were really pleased to see such a high conversion rate. An increase of over 3% was significant for us and the uplift in RPV was equally impressive.”
While reviewing the results, the LD Products team also uncovered that the hijacked visitor segment was converting at a much higher rate than the rest of their traffic. These visitors are generally more active online and therefore download extensions, apps, and other free software services more often. Many of these services come pre-bundled with ad injections. When Preventing Customer Journey Hijacking for these highly engaged visitors, LD Products saw them convert at more than 2.5 times the rate of visitors unaffected by ad injections.
“The data on this segment showed that the customers who were affected by ad injections were more likely to convert. It was interesting to see how much higher they converted than average when you stop these ads from disrupting their experience.”
Adapting Successfully to the Impact of COVID-19
With social distancing the norm and many employees switching to a work from home routines during the COVID-19 pandemic, LD Products has seen a major shift in buying behavior as more customers invest in inkjet printers and home office supplies. With more relying on eCommerce than ever, LD Products is able to make the most out of that opportunity by preventing unwanted friction from the customer journey.
“With so many new visitors finding us online, it’s important that they experience our website the way we intend them to and get an accurate first impression of our brand. Now that we don’t have to worry of intrusive ads detracting from that experience, we can help them find the ink they need faster and free from distraction.”
