Forbes estimates that Americans see hundreds, if not thousands of ads per day. With that many messages being sent each day, strategy and placement are paramount. Back40 works closely with clients to identify their audience, establish clear goals, and build a strategy that turns clicks into customers. That’s exactly what our digital marketing team did for Biloxi, a wholesale market show organizer.
After seeing success with Back40’s Google and Facebook ad campaign the year before, Biloxi returned for a second project: an intensive short-term run to promote an upcoming event. Though it wasn’t the digital marketing team’s first time working with Biloxi, the first step remained the same: research.
“Initially, we conducted research to make sure we had an accurate idea of their target market, plus we always look at what competitors are doing to see how we can do it better,” said Back40 Digital Marketing Account Manager, Lilli Myers. This process also includes in-depth keyword research to ensure Biloxi’s event website would populate when relevant terms were searched.
Since Biloxi’s objective was to raise awareness and attendance for an upcoming event, the Back40 team developed a strategy that ensured ads would be seen by people in the geographic area of the show, with interests that aligned with the wholesale gift show.
Then came implementation. The approach was two-pronged, combining Facebook ads and a new Google advertising option called Performance Max which allows ads to appear in search results, as well as YouTube, Yahoo, and other frequently visited destinations.
“We made sure we were targeting geographically in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina, and some of Texas,” Lilli said. “So we did the keyword research and on Facebook we also honed in on user interests.”
Soon Biloxi’s ads were up and running, but the work wasn’t done. Back40’s team handles digital marketing as an ongoing process that is always open to optimization. They continued to test details like captions, headlines, and images to boost ad performance during the one-month run.
“We monitor what is working and what is not, so we can swap things as needed and continue to improve click-through rates as we go,” Lilli explained.
The perennial process paid off. The Biloxi campaign saw a 12.3% click-through rate on Facebook. For those unfamiliar with digital marketing, a 2-5% click-through rate – the percentage of people who see and then click on your ad – is generally considered a success.
For the client, this percentage made a measurable difference, bringing more digital guests to their website, which turned into more physical attendees at their event.
