Brand Strategy - Mason Interactive

Yesterday we wrote about the challenges and solutions we’er seeing in real time. Today I want to share something that’s part of our internal mantra.

Communicating Bad News.

I have never been fired fired for missing a client’s goals.

I have been fired by many clients for not telling them that we were going to miss a goal.

I’ve been fired by many more clients, for not suggesting ways to hit the goals we’re forecasting to miss.

Meaning, If you’re going to miss you goals by 30%, and we have clearly articulated this bad news, and we’ve clearly articulated fall-back positions, including but not limited to…

Forecasting for a client “well, we’re behind on revenue, but we can get there. It’s going to cost X dollars., and ROAS will suffer, but we can do it.”
Saying to a client, “well, we can preserve ROAS/CAC/CPL, but we’re going to have to reduce our topline goals by Y%, and here are the six places we recommend actioning to really chase these pockets of efficiency”

…then the client will generally appreciate that advice, and trust us more in the future. Nothing solidifies a relationship like going through bad times with transparency and sincerely.

Some more tactical – but still good! – ideas could be:
- Reducing targets
- Offering a deeper discount
- Starting the sale earlier
- Send more emails – for real, send more emails. Don’t be precious about it.

So that’s my advice…

…to anyone starting out in this industry. Your managers are looking at your client retention, and the best way to retain clients is to be transparent and honest. Clearly, loudly, emphatically communicate bad news, as long as it’s A) backed up by day and B) you provide solutions.

If you’re not already a Mason client, book a consultation with our team and we’ll work on a tailored approach for your brand, together.

Holiday is here. We’ve frozen PTO, we have twice a day check-ins with most clients, and most of those, seven days a week.

Challenges

We have tons of data showing that “holiday” is actually a 2.5 month event, from mid-Oct., through the end of December. We’ve counseled our clients to start their sales earlier, and we track each client’s actual daily revenue against their target daily revenue.

Meaning, if you want to make $1,000,000 in November, you need to make $33,333 a day. If you’re actually making an average of, say, $25,000 a day, that’s a delta of $8,333 a day. That seems like it might be small enough hill to climb, if you’ve got a 35% off sale starting Saturday the 19th

But if you want to make $1,000,000 in November, and you’re actually making an average of, $10,000 a day, that’s a delta of $23,333 a day. That is a big hill to climb.

Solutions

Be Proactive – We’re recommending that partners supply creative with an increased discount (20% vs 25%) in the event that we need to swap in order to be more aggressive in market
Be Flexible – Base and stretch goals are going to be key to winning your Holiday push
Be Nimble – ROAS floors are a great way to strike while the iron is hot. Confirm ROAS bands with your team to speed up decision making in the moment

Results

We do have clients who exceeding their goals. In that same hypothetical example, imagine client who is making an average of $40,000 a day MTD – they’re ahead of their goals by 7K a day. It’s the 15th of the month – that means that they’re $105K over their target.

I’d much rather be in a place where we’re ahead of targets on Thanksgiving, than behind. Even if that means starting a sale ealier.

If you’re not already a Mason client, book a consultation with our team and we’ll work on a tailored approach for your brand, together.

Holiday planning for e-commerce brands is underway, and every year we proactively take this time to position our clients for success in preparation for the busy Q4 holiday shopping season. Historically, Cyber Five was the key revenue driving period for brands, but YoY data indicates that consumers are starting their shopping earlier, and many have already made a purchase.

In the current macroeconomic climate, we are preparing for another year of uncertainty. As your agency partner, we want to be transparent about the market trends and data we are gathering from our partners at Google and Meta.

Key Challenges & Observations

Consumer purchasing is split making each month critical
- October = 32%, November = 32%, and December = 36%
- One miss = ⅓ of holiday
Consumers are shifting away from branded searches
- Aggregate total:
  - Branded: -3%
  - Generic: +1%
Consumers are on the lookout for deals and open-minded about who they buy from
- 36% said they purchased a brand different from their preferred brand to get a better price
- 30% shopped at a store that was not their preferred store
- 56% will hold off on buying gifts until they are on sale
Free shipping options and fast delivery have become table stakes for retailers during Holiday
- Besides price, the top factor that determines where holiday gifts are purchased from:
  - Free Shipping/Shipping Speed
  - Convenience/Proximity to Store Location

Source: Google Internal Data, 2020-2022.

Ways to Win Your Holiday

Be Proactive – We’re recommending that partners supply creative with an increased discount (20% vs 25%) in the event that we need to swap in order to be more aggressive in market
Be Flexible – Base and stretch goals are going to be key to winning your Holiday push
Be Nimble – ROAS floors are a great way to strike while the iron is hot. Confirm ROAS bands with your team to speed up decision making in the moment

Quick Stats: Think With Google

People are shopping earlier than ever
- 26% of shoppers globally have already begun their holiday shopping.
- Many people research and shop months in advance of events, and this year is no exception

Those who have already begun their holiday shopping want help with:
- 47%: Gift ideas and inspiration
- 44%: Starting gift lifts
- and 18% have already made a purchase

Unboxing videos, written recipes, home improvement blogs, and more all help to inform buying decisions

67% of YouTube viewers surveyed have made a purchase as a result of sponsored content
- Video ads can help brands deliver relevant, personalized experiences to audiences at their most engaged moments

64% of U.S. holiday shoppers who used Google said they did so for “discovery and inspiration”
- Visual shopping experiences such as lifestyle photography, videos, and customer reviews can make lasting impressions

Omnibuyers: Searches containing “near me in stock” have grown in the US by more than 90% YoY
- Omni Buyers are paving the way for “intuitive shopping,” where people browse and find inspiration concurrently, online and offline, across multiple product categories
- In the US, people are shopping across seven categories in a two-day period
Searches containing “cheap and best” have grown globally by over 40% YoY
76% of US shoppers want to buy higher-quality products that last longer
- Promote your deals, shopping, and return benefits, in-store inventory, and store pickup options in your messaging and on Search

Best practices for making your holiday advertising shine

If you’re not already a Mason client, book a consultation with our team and we’ll work on a tailored approach for your brand, together.

Introducing Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns

It’s no secret that Meta platforms’ performance is impacted by Apple’s iOS 14.5. Apple’s relentless focus on user data privacy resulted in signal loss, changes to targeting capabilities, and most critically, measurement.

Our view: Instagram and Facebook aren’t broken, they’re different. As industry standards evolve, so do the platforms we use, whether for social connections, community and brand building, or business growth and development. This makes the landscape more uncertain, the data more difficult to read, and the insight more challenging to articulate.

Meta has rolled out Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns globally. ASC use artificial intelligence to enable e-commerce and retail direct-to-consumer brands to potentially achieve better performance, greater personalization and more efficiency through advancements in AI + machine learning. These campaigns provide greater flexibility to control creative, targeting, placements and budget, and more opportunities to optimize campaigns that drive conversions.

What are Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns and how does it work?

Simply put, ASC falls under Meta’s new suite of Total Advantage tools. While Advantage tools are designed to automate a specific part of a manual campaign, Advantage+ focuses on automating a campaign from beginning to end or part of a manual campaign (e.g., placements or creative).

Here’s a simple overview:

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns offer end-to-end automation and support dynamic and static ads

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns combine Prospecting and Remarketing strategies in one campaign

Meta does not see ASC replacing existing products, and it is recommended to test and learn across current Business as Usual (BAU) campaigns

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns are designed for Broad reach, removing campaign restraints

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns are designed to automate creative, resulting in less audience saturation

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns can test up to 150 creative combinations, reducing creative fatigue

If you’re looking to make your advertising operations more efficient and drive performance at the same time, Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns are worth looking into. If you’re not already a Mason client, book a consultation with our team and we’ll work on a tailored approach for your brand, together.

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:

For a longer description of this, please check out YouTube channel.

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.

Google is constantly rolling out new capabilities to make ad targeting more accurate and efficient. Performance max campaigns are a part of that toolbox. Here’s a quick video from Google that sums them up:

We’ve said it time and time again – the marketing landscape is changing. Ad platforms shifting to prioritize user privacy means we have to rethink our approach.

Implementing Google’s tools and solutions available today will help brands prepare for the next generation of performance marketing. Performance Max campaigns are one piece of the big puzzle to help us in that transition.

Now, let’s get into how we can use performance marketing campaigns to maximize campaign performance.

What are Performance Max Campaigns?

Performance max campaigns are a part of Google’s new approach for making local and shopping campaign management more efficient. They allow you to access all your Google Ad channels from a single campaign–freeing you to allocate more time to other aspects of your ad strategy.

Source: Google

How do they work?

Leveraging automation, performance max campaigns will mix your visual creative, copy assets, and audience signals to figure out what combination of them performs best on each channel your ads appear on. You can even preview how these varied combinations will appear before publishing.

Source: Google

Your ad campaigns’ audience signals will be paired with machine learning to make sure your ads reach the audiences with the highest intent at the right time. Owning your brand’s first-party data is crucial for the targeting to work, and here’s a quick post on how to do that.

Source: Google

Let’s take Guesswork out of your Google Ads.

If you’re looking to make your advertising operations more efficient and drive performance at the same time, Performance Max campaigns are worth looking into. If you’re not already a Mason client, book a consultation with our team and we’ll work on a tailored approach for your brand, together.