The first step during onboarding was setting up an API connection for all channels that fed into a centralised report that was previously updated each day manually. We ran a 3, 6 and 12 month data pull across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads using Google Analytics data, in addition to a lookback at peak the year prior. As part of this reporting set up we built out a multi channel funnel tracker, allowing us to assess the historical impact of campaigns on the conversion path and decide how we can leverage this where opportunities presented themselves and where efficiencies could be made. With us working towards a blended CPA, these steps were essential to give us the answer to the questions such as:
– What impact have these campaigns had on the overall conversion path?
– How can we fill gaps with minimal impact to a >85% auto bidding adopted account?
– Does anything need actioning immediately and how much resource will this take?
Learnings from 2022 were no surprise, the high volume, high converting keywords see a surge in demand, plus additional categories for Mother’s Day related terms. Last year’s approach on paid search was cautious and activated too close to peak, this year we needed to maximise on demand and surging conversion rates ahead of the two days prior to peak, as Arena had an allocation of flowers that must be sold, in addition to potential restocks throughout the week.
Once we had a thorough understanding of the data and presented our strategy to the board, we took a proactive approach and dived straight into; budgeting, query funnelling (due to excessive cross matching), audience application, updating assets, launching app campaigns, and much more. We built automated performance updates to run hourly for twice daily marketing team calls, each day starting with a retrospective on the previous day’s conversion paths to give direction on setting targets, making optimisations and deciding on how to shift budget allocation.
A key revenue driver was last minute gifting, once next day delivery cut offs had been reached and demand was high, many retailers scale back on media, we saw this as a huge opportunity to push gift subscriptions and benefit from reduced click costs for the final stretch whilst Arena still had stock available.
