Marc’s stands proudly as a prominent grocery and drugstore chain, holding its position among the
top 100 in the industry. Like clockwork, Marc’s runs seasonal campaigns such as their annual back-to-school campaign, but they wanted to shake things up this year. This is where we stepped in.
As marketers, we know the key to a successful campaign is all in the targeting. You want to be in front of the right people at the right time, with the right messaging. So that’s just what we worked on! Through careful iterations and research on shopper profiles, we were able to hone Marc’s back-to-school campaign to target their ideal audience. By aligning our efforts with their audience’s interests, we yielded some great results!
Marc's is a regional supermarket chain primarily located in northern and central Ohio. They offer a wide range of grocery products, including fresh produce, meats, dairy, bakery items, as well as general merchandise. With schools restarting in just a few weeks, their back-to-school campaign is in full swing. As a store that provides quality products and competitive prices to its customers, this back-to-school campaign strives to establish Marc’s as a stress-free go-to for school supplies.
Marc’s Back to School
For this campaign, we’ve added a unique landing page that adds value to parents’ and guardians' shopping experiences. The page allows guardians to search for their child's school and access the school supply list. This thoughtful feature simplifies the back-to-school shopping process so that parents have everything they need all in one place.
Where’s the Innovation?
To effectively reach the intended audience for this campaign, we’ve refined Marc's targeting strategy to encompass geolocation targeting, demographic specificity and retargeting. We’re focusing on specific zip codes near Marc's existing stores to engage local shoppers. Moreover, we’re directing our efforts toward mothers with a track record of frequenting grocery stores.
Additionally, we installed two kinds of pixels to bolster this campaign: Facebook and conversion. Implementing a Facebook pixel within our running programmatic ad represents a cutting-edge approach to retargeting for Marc's. Each time the programmatic ad is displayed, its impression is monitored to create a retargeting audience on Facebook. This allows Marc's to reach the same audience on Facebook, creating a seamless and consistent brand presence.
The primary advantage of this is twofold:
- Enhanced Targeting: By incorporating third-party segments from the programmatic platform that may not be available on Facebook, Marc's can create a more refined and precise audience for retargeting. This approach ensures that they can effectively target specific customer groups, such as grocery shoppers of competitors, increasing the chances of driving conversions.
- Top-of-Mind: By retargeting the same audience on Facebook, Marc's can reinforce its brand message and offerings, ensuring that potential customers remain engaged and aware of its presence. This sustained visibility keeps Marc's at the forefront of customers' minds, making them more likely to consider the company for their shopping needs.
Implementing a conversion tracking pixel within the programmatic ad represents a sophisticated approach by Marc's to understand and attribute conversions effectively. This pixel tracks the conversion journey of individuals served programmatic ads.
The tracked conversions are not limited to the campaign's objectives; they encompass broader actions, such as "checkout success" or a page view of Marc’s’ coupon sign-up. The core idea behind this tracking strategy is to assess the effectiveness of programmatic ads in driving conversions, even if the user didn't directly click on the ad.
Doing so gives us valuable insights into how programmatic ads impact customer decision-making. This data helps us understand which ads and audience segments are most successful in driving conversions and staying top-of-mind with potential customers and which need reimagining.
Campaign Success
With over 250,000 impressions and a conversion rate of 6.1% (slightly above average), this campaign shows promising potential for success. Particularly on Facebook, we're observing an impressively low cost per impression (CPM) of $2.04.
Though this initial success is excellent, it's important to emphasize that all campaigns, whether seasonal or not, require diligent monitoring and continuous improvement to achieve lasting success. Keeping a close eye on performance metrics and promptly iterating on strategies help us maximize a campaign's effectiveness and achieve even greater results.
At thunder::tech, we understand that complacency is the enemy of progress, and our proactive approach is fundamental to providing our clients with a competitive edge in the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape. By consistently fine-tuning strategies and staying ahead of the curve, we are able to deliver exceptional value to our clients.
As marketers, we have learned that starting early and embracing innovation is vital to crafting impactful seasonal campaigns for our clients. Our work with Marc's back-to-school campaign reaffirms the importance of staying agile and keeping our audience at the forefront of every marketing endeavor.
Are you looking to launch a successful digital advertising campaign that leverages cutting-edge strategies?
Contact us to explore how we can help you achieve your marketing goals!