High transaction retailers, do we have a fear of missing out (FOMO)?
Is it necessary to Blitz our markets during the ‘Big 5’ peak holiday retail weekends in a calendar year, or is it just another revenue stream for marketing agencies?
As an investment management company who owns a multi-state automotive group as well as a national marketing agency, we have been challenged many times to provide insights into the importance of these investments:
- What do the numbers show……?
- Why can’t you just use the current budget we already have in place….?
- What do your stores do…?
- How do you gauge success…?
In addition to the active monthly recurring investments we place as retailers and marketers to attract our in-market consumers, our data proves that a tailored and strategic campaign with a pre / post-weekend wrap of 7 to 10 days is most successful.
Success is defined as securing the direct actions of website visits, form submissions, chat engagements as well as in-store activity and ultimately retail sales. This strategy stands in direct opposition of the cookie-cutter campaign for only the isolated dates of the targeted weekend itself.
We have compiled our collected data in order to share and provide answers and insights to these questions.
Big 5 Retail Holiday Periods:
- Memorial Day
- 4th of July
- Labor Day
- Black Friday
- End of Year (December 20 – 31)
Performance for the following Channels:
- Facebook Ads (FX Ads)
- Facebook Lead Ads (FBLA)
- Display Ads
- Email Blasts
- All “ZMOT” Consumer Traffic during each blitz period
Holiday Blitz “Direct Actions” or “Conversions” include:
- Tracked Phone Call events
- Tracked Chat Lead events
- Tracked Form-Fill events
Holiday Blitz “Metrics Evaluated” include:
- Conversions on-site
- Users to dealer sites
- New Users to dealer sites
- Sessions to dealer sites
- Sessions-per-User on-site
- Pageviews on-site
Reviewing Social Traffic from Facebook Ads to Dealer Websites
Summary: Across all Blitz campaigns wherein dealers participated in Facebook Ads, we saw an average increase of almost 30% in Direct Actions / Conversions, 20% increase in Users, and almost 19% increase in New Users. There was nearly a 20% increase in Sessions on-site, and just over 18% increase in Pageviews. Overall, the results show that our social marketing for these Blitzes led to increased conversions while re-engaging shoppers that had previously visited the site and expanded Dealers’ visibility to new users, leading to increased page views on-site.
Reviewing Performance of Traffic from Display Advertising to Dealer Websites
Summary: Across all Blitz campaigns for dealers that participated in Display Advertising we saw an average increase of almost 45% in Direct Actions / Conversions, nearly 30% increase in Sessions-per-user, and just over 37% increase in Pageviews-per-session. Overall the result shows that our Display marketing for these Blitzes led to increased conversions while re-engaging shoppers that had previously visited the site, leading to increased page views on-site.
Reviewing Performance of Traffic from E-mail Blasts to Dealer Websites
Summary: Across all Blitz campaigns for dealers that participated in running E-mail Blasts we saw an average increase of almost 46% in Direct Actions / Conversions on-site, nearly 55% increase in Users, almost 50% increase in New Users, nearly a 46% increase in Sessions, almost 9% increase in Sessions-per-user, and just over 4% increase in Pageviews-per-session. Overall the result shows that our E-mail blasts for these blitzes gathered the highest engagement from existing customers who would spend more time-on-site, browsing more pages and reach previous shoppers.
Reviewing Performance of Dealer Participation in Blitz Campaigns
Dealers that participated in just one channel of an individual Blitz Campaign experienced the least increase in specific metrics such as Users, Pageviews, and Pages-per-session.
Dealers that participated in just one Holiday Blitz Channel:
- 6% average increase in Conversions on-site
- 3% average increase in Users to dealer sites
- 35% average increase in Sessions-per-User on-site
- 9% average increase in Pageviews on-site
- 18% average increase in Pages-per-session on-site
Dealers that participated in two Channels of an individual Blitz Campaign experienced increased results in specific metrics such as conversions on-site or increased users.
For Dealers that participated in two Blitz Channels:
- 6% average increase in Conversions on-site
- 33% average increase in Sessions-per-User on-site
- 27% average increase in Pages-per-session on-site
Dealers that participated in all three channels of an individual Blitz Campaign, experienced the best overall performance for all seven metrics. This further reinforces that integrating all channels together, in a complementary approach, will give the best possible targeting and engagement across existing customers (from the Dealer’s CRM) and audience reach. Adding in the participation of Facebook Lead-Ads, dealers saw great lead generation on top of their increased Impressions and Clicks – 45% and almost 47% respectively.
For Dealers that participated in all three Blitz Channels:
- 23% average increase in Conversions on-site
- 37% average increase in Users to dealer sites
- 35% average increase in New Users to dealer sites
- 33% average increase in Sessions to dealer sites
- 34% average increase in Sessions-per-User on-site
- 27% average increase in Pageviews on-site
- 12% average increase in Pages-per-session on-site
In conclusion, as a retail dealer, we have a responsibility to capitalize on increased consumer interest and activity as represented in the ‘Big 5’ Retail Holiday Weekends each calendar year. As a marketer, we hold the responsibility to guide the investment, message, frequency and conversion tools to ensure our dealerships are placed in the best position to attract, engage and convert our interested buyers.
Integrating our responsibilities, working together to strategically deploy a unified campaign message pre / post-holiday weekend and aligning the in-store experience for our consumers will ensure the maximum success for our efforts.
