# Case Study: The Category Everyone Was Investing In Was One Per Cent of the Demand | Crank Source: https://wearecrank.com/case-studies/wine-spirits-merchant-demand-sizing-2021 Search data sized a market before anyone spent against it — and found the strategic bet was a rounding error next to the core business. --- ![Wine and spirits case study: The Category Everyone Was Investing In Was One Per Cent of the Demand](/images/case-studies/wine-spirits.png?dpl=dpl_2uJjggmfov9ibhArygujfRBb3pax) Wine and Spirits Merchant — 2021 # The Category Everyone Was Investing In Was One Per Cent of the Demand Search data sized a market before anyone spent against it — and found the strategic bet was a rounding error next to the core business. Challenge A wine and spirits merchant weighing how much of its digital effort to put behind wine as an investment asset — a category attracting new competitors and a great deal of industry attention — with no measure of how many people were actually looking for it. Approach Size the demand before allocating against it. Measure total monthly search volume for the category, then measure the specific sub-category being considered, and hold both against the merchant's own share of visibility rather than its share of conversation. Outcome Wine generated 1.3 million searches a month. Wine investment generated 1,530 across 79 keywords — less than one per cent of the category, with the single best term drawing 300 searches. People were looking for wine first and investment a distant second. 01 ## Sizing the bet before placing it Across the category, 1.3 million searches a month. Across wine investment specifically, 1,530 a month from 79 separate keywords — under one per cent. The strongest individual term, the obvious one, returned 300 searches. A competitor had focused hard on that category and was ranking well within it. Ranking well inside one per cent of a market is a very different thing from winning the market, and the difference is invisible unless someone measures the denominator. 02 ## A share of search that overstated the visibility The merchant held 16.7 per cent of category search overall — a respectable number, and the one that would normally be reported. Restricted to the first page of results, that share fell to 10.2 per cent. Since roughly 96 per cent of clicks go to the first page, the reported figure overstated real visibility by nearly two-thirds. The business was not as visible as its own headline number said. 03 ## Absent from the terms that mattered most The merchant did not appear on the first page for a single one of the ten highest-volume terms in its market. On the term driving 30 per cent of its own website revenue it did not appear in the top fifty at all. On the term driving 16 per cent, it sat fifteenth. Its two strongest categories commercially were among its weakest in visibility — a gap that only appears when search position is held against revenue share rather than looked at on its own. 04 ## And the partner that converted worst and was worth most One referral partner delivered 53 per cent of all referral traffic and 63 per cent of referral revenue. It converted at 1.9 per cent against a 2.9 per cent site average — below par on the measure most accounts would judge it by. On spend it was the most valuable audience reaching the site: £71 per item against £25.61 overall, and £738 per order against £276\. A partner ranked on conversion rate alone would have been deprioritised, and the highest-spending audience on the site would have gone with it. 05 ## What this means for you Before you allocate budget to a category, measure how many people are actually looking for it. A competitor ranking first in a market of 1,500 searches is not beating you, whatever the industry conversation suggests. And check your share of the first page, not your share of search. Roughly 96 per cent of clicks never go past it, so the wider figure flatters almost everyone who reports it. ## What sizing the market before spending against it found 1.3mvs1,530 Monthly searches — the category vs the sub-category 16.7% → 10.2% Share of search overall vs share of page one 0 of 10 Highest-volume terms with a first-page position 1.9% conversion/£738 per order The referral partner that looked weak and spent most Drawn from Crank's search and website analysis conducted in 2021 for this wine and spirits merchant. Client not named. ## Want to know what this looks like in your own account? These findings came from asking straightforward questions before any budget moved. We're happy to do the same for yours. [ Talk to Wearecrank](https://wa.me/447457416922?text=Help%20my%20business)[Get in touch](/contact) [← Back to all case studies](/case-studies)