A Growth Engine for Europe

Until 2005, Richard had worked for an online advertising agency, but then he and his wife decided to take over the operational management of her father’s tree nursery with a focus entirely on the e-commerce side of the business. First, they created a nationwide network of tree nurseries, carriers and gardeners who could skilfully plant the trees. Next, Richard felt prompted to target the foreign market: “I came into contact with a Swedish conifer nursery that wanted to sell their trees in Sweden through me. So I researched the way Google AdWords was used in Sweden, and then I looked at the search behaviour of potential customers there with the help of Google Global Market Finder.” There wasn’t much competition. Richard and his wife started with a small number of orders, but the volume increased very quickly. Now they’re delivering entire gardens to people’s homes. The couple have been using AdWords since 2010, and even today their marketing budget is spent almost entirely on AdWords. “90% of our business activity is currently taking place in Scandinavia, and our sales revenue has grown by 400% within one year,” says Richard. “Our dream for the future is that people throughout the world will be able to buy entire gardens online. With AdWords this is becoming a realistic option.”