The economy is slowing, and it costs more to advertise online, but we do have clients who are successfully navigating this environment.
July’s GPD report shows that the United States Economy is slowing. Consumer spending grew at its slowest pace since the first initial months of the pandemic, as Americans bought fewer cars, couches and other products.
At the same time, the Cost to Advertise online is rising. Our Aggregate Client portfolio CPM is up by 16% Year over Year, and Cyber-Five Week was up close to 40% in ’21 vs ’20.
So there is no doubt that we are in a challenging space.
Here are three commonalities we see across winning brands in our portfolio:
Winning clients are using Promotions to entice new users. Nobody wants to be in a promotional environment, and not all successful clients are relying on promotions, but every client leveraging promotions, is closer to hitting their goals. It is true that given A) the rising CPM’s and B) the economic environment, consumers are searching for promotions.
Winning clients are Bundling their products to increase AOV (Average Order Value). Clients are bundling starter kits, bags, curated selection of sets, treatments, and more. By increasing Order size, these clients are driving more profits.
Winning Clients use Product Launches to give the impression of “Newness.” The clients we see with the most success, have either A) a cadence of new launches or B) the impression of a cadence. By which I mean, it’s best to have a monthly or quarterly new product launch. But if you don’t have this cadence, you can give the impression. For example, you could bundle your red and brown shirts in the fall as a Seasonal Launch. Or a heartier flavor soup in the winter, the same way.
So while we do face strong economic headwinds in the face of rising CPM’s and a decline in consumer spending on goods, the clients who are being most successful leverage all three of the above tactics: Promotions, Bundles, and Newness.