5 Programmatic Advertising Case Studies That Yielded Exponential Results
Advertising has come a long way from the early ’70s and with technological shifts, there are incredible options to reach the target customers effectively. We have witnessed the rise of programmatic advertising with the advancement in the digital world.
For the uninitiated, programmatic advertising can be described as automatic buying and optimizing digital campaigns through real-time auctions, where ads are bought at the same time when a visitor loads the website instead of buying directly from the publishers without human interference.
Programmatic advertising is becoming a star strategy and businesses spend almost $60 billion every year. It is forecasted by 2021, 88% of all digital display ad spending will flow via automation.
Explore these five programmatic ad case studies to comprehend how brands are building compelling and successful campaigns.
1. BoxFresh
Challenge:
The men’s footwear brand had lost ground to sports brands like Nike and Adidas over the last couple of years because of its reliance on brick and mortar stores over online sales. The brand aimed to re-establish its brand in the UK and German markets, establish a connection to drive loyalty and repeat business with its target customers.
It concentrated on creating branded casual men’s footwear but reached a point where one in four consumers preferred Boxfresh for their purchase.
Solution:
The brand focused on video-led campaigns advocating their brand ethos- simplicity, value for money, nonconformity and authenticity which are in alignment with target consumers’ own values. Ads on Facebook were segmented based on demographics and interests as well as through first-party based lookalike audiences build. Video campaigns provided tailored messages to the audience’s stage in the buying cycle.
With the newly launched e-commerce website, the brand initially did not retarget cart abandoners and purchasers but model and optimize lookalike audiences prospecting campaigns.
Result:
With a programmatic display campaign, the brand soared above Google benchmarks disrupting the competitive market. The assurance that the brand is connected with the audience own values, display adverts had a click-through rate (CTR) 233%higher than Google’s benchmarks in the UK and 800%higher in Germany. 85% of the users who visited the site through prospecting activities are new users.
The digital agency Europe regional head added,
“The storytelling technique has had incredibly positive effects on the creative performance, which has resulted in great return on spend for Boxfresh. However, it’s important to remember that display is not the final touchpoint in the purchasing journey. Using Cadence, Rakuten Marketing’s data insights and attribution platform, revealed conversion rates for SEO and PPC grew by 169% and 50% in the UK when display campaigns ran alongside other channels. Likewise, the average order value increased by 20%.”
2. ASUS
Challenge:
ASUS has barely 0.3% market share in the Indian Smartphone market. 34% of sales are online and have more than 35+ handsets. With a low market share, it is important to revive the brand and plan a programmatic campaign to attract customers at the buying stage and create brand awareness.
Solution:
The brand integrated real-time data to send feedback on the effectiveness of each audience combination to web ASUS with their OCMPID.
When a user likes something, he adds to the cart. This shows that the user has a higher chance of buying it. On the other hand, there is a chance that he could accept another better deal for a more fitting product. Therefore, the best way was to target the audience through ads based on the cart.
The brand divided the audience into various segments based on – price range, featured buying habits and buying characteristics of the user on Flipkart.
These ads were programmed to reach the consumer on a real-time basis and here it is – when a user adds an ASUS phone in the cart, the brand was informed of the effectiveness of the creative audience combination.
For instance, if a user adds Xiaomi with 3500 mAh battery, ASUS would target them with ads that had 5000 mAh batteries at an even better price.
Results:
Due to a real-time programmatic approach, ASUS met its target to sell more than 1 million units leading to targeting efficiency went up by 3 times. In less than a year, the ASUS market share rose from 0.3 to 3%, a 10x growth.
3. The Economist:
Challenge:
To increase the subscriber base and grab the reader’s attention who are reluctant to try the Economist. Using creative programmatic display, the goal is to reach 650,000 new prospects and stimulate a change in perception.
Solution:
The campaign utilized Economist content and headlines that contained humor, wit, and sparked curiosity. The publication analyzed the extensive audience data which included information on how subscribers responded to the publication’s web and mobile app. Using this data, the Economist determined what content attracted and when. The idea was to link Economist content to the stories ‘the reluctant readers’ were presently reading.
The advertising creative was built in real-time. It matched viewers’ profile and page context to the Economist’s feed before serving an ad to the right people with the right context. For instance, someone could see a featured ad that linked an Economist’s story on US cops using firearms to the story of a police shooting in the Guardian.
Results:
On a £1.2 budget,
- 3.6 million taking actions
- 650,000 new prospects
- ROI of 10.1
The Economists followed up this display campaign with another focus especially on millennials and social networks. It won the 2016 Gold Best use of Programmatic award.
4.Missing People
Challenge:
British charity ‘Missing People’ is an ideal example of how to maximize a small programmatic budget. The charity needs to rescue all the missing children across the UK. With the use of programmatic OOH advertising, it intends to increase reach and impact.
Solution:
Programmatic OOH will help the charity to target those who might miss or disregard print appeal. It also helped to understand that people respond to messages relevant to their area in which they live. And through programmatic it could make a more targeted and location-based appeal.
The move from print to digital was crucial for the charity as it helped to save lives and allowed ads to be adept, creative changing once a child was found.
Result:
Ross Miller, director of fundraising and communication said, “the use of e programmatic use of out-of-home increased the response rate from 50% to 70%.”
5. O2
Challenge:
In 2016, O2 intended to make its “tariff refresh” TV ad more engaging and attractive for a mobile audience. It also wanted to repurpose its TV ads and make them interesting for mobile users.
Solution:
O2 created a system whereby it could take data about mobile usage-device, location, and others to offer personalized messages and video ads based on the user’s profiles.
More than 1000 versions of personalized video ads were made that integrated real-time with the user’s device and location.
Coinciding with the company’s sponsorship of the Rugby World Cup, it launched a website for the users to create rugby-inspired avatars. Using data from the website, O2 launched a campaign targeting those who accessed the website, giving them a personalized video ad and addressed them by their first name and invited to visit the avatar site. It also included a personalized call-to-action button to know whether they have already created the avatar or abandoned the process before finishing.
Result:
Personalized ads had a 128 percent click-through rate and an 11 percent increase in engagement.
Wrapping up
So, are you ready to use programmatic advertising? Well, programmatic adverts have immense potential for all kinds of business in any verticals. Simple but brilliant creative programmatic campaigns can be created to reach the right audience.
Author Profile
- Neha Mehta
- Neha started her journey as a financial professional but soon realized her passion for writing and is now living her dreams as a content writer. Her goal is to enlighten the audience on various topics through her writing and in-depth research. She is geeky and friendly. When not busy writing, she is spending time with her little one or travelling.
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