Author: Coegi

The CPG Digital Marketing Playbook

Posted on by Coegi

Ready to take your CPG digital marketing strategy to the next level?

 Download our comprehensive guide to CPG advertising today. 

The world of CPG marketing is exciting and bursting with growth opportunities. In fact, e-Marketer reports retail and CPG will be the top industries for ad spend growth in 2022, both expected to increase by more than 30% year-over-year. With these opportunities comes significant competition, but strategic CPG marketers can create smart media plans that build meaningful impact with their most qualified audiences.

In Coegi’s CPG Playbook You Will Learn How To: 

  • Understand and leverage the latest digital marketing and ecommerce trends impacting CPG brands
  • Create the optimal media mix by understanding the most effective channels for CPG advertising 
  • Implement cookieless solutions to reach your target audience on digital channels
  • Measure the results of omnichannel CPG marketing campaigns

How to reach your target CPG audience with digital marketing? 

Leverage consumer data to gain a robust understanding of your customers and apply cookieless targeting methods to future-proof your strategy. Do in-depth audience research accompanied by channel testing to determine the optimal media mix for your brand. 

How to create the optimal CPG marketing channel strategy?

How can your marketing support your overall sales strategy? Incorporate key e-commerce and digital marketing tactics into a holistic marketing strategy placing your brand at every customer touchpoint, while also optimizing for reach and addressability. 

How to measure the results of your omnichannel marketing?

In this playbook, we outline the tools, technologies, and techniques needed to showcase meaningful CPG marketing ROI. Learn how to activate the right data partners, align your marketing with business goals, track incremental results and, finally, create a customized measurement framework for your brand. 

Download the CPG Digital Marketing Playbook now to level up your strategy. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us to set up a discovery call. 

What CPG digital marketing channels will give your brand the most bang for your buck? 

CPG brands typically lead the way in adopting new marketing tactics, so it’s important to stay ahead of the curve.

The Top 10 CPG Marketing Channels

Social Video

Video ads are one of the most engaging mediums to capture user attention. As a result, video produces meaningful marketing results on social platforms. In particular, short form video is impactful in driving both branding and performance goals in as little as six seconds. 

Why is social video effective for CPG brands? 

CPG video ad spend will increase by 38% in 2022. Video-first channels such as YouTube, TikTok, and now Instagram are excellent because consumers choose to visit these platforms to learn and be entertained. Think how-to makeup tutorials for beauty brands or recipe videos for food and beverage brands. 

How to use social video successfully: 

Use short-form video to show your brand personality and bring messaging to life. Additionally, show your product or service in action, demonstrating real-life use cases. Finally, make optimize your video for mobile viewing and follow other creative best practices outlined here. 

Social Commerce 

48% of all social media users made a social commerce purchase in 2021 and 77% of Millennials and Gen-Zs use social media to shop. These purchases are being driven by trends such as live commerce, in-platform shopping tools, and improvements to in-app purchasing processes. 

Why is social commerce effective for CPG brands? 

Today, product discovery is taking place on social media. Platform algorithms optimize to showcase brands and sponsored posts in ways that feel organic to the user. CPG brands can cash in on the opportunity to position their product in front of engaged audiences by using various social commerce applications to find their niche consumer groups. 

How to use social commerce effectively:

Explore various ways in which your brand can be discovered on social media, whether through promoted product posts, influencer live streams, or social marketplaces. Then, create a seamless purchase process and have a measurement and pixel strategy in place to capture the resulting sales. 

Read more: Social Commerce 101

 Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing ad spend will surpass $7B in 2022. These digital creators are both storytellers and social media experts, well-versed in creating authentic messaging which resonates with their followerships.

Why is influencer marketing effective for CPG brands? 

Influencer marketing is not just an awareness play. Creators are increasingly driving the social commerce landscape. Tactics such as livestream commerce, discount and affiliate codes, and shoppable posts support down-funnel conversions for CPG brands, while also building brand affinity and trust.

How to use influencer marketing successfully:

Allow creators to make authentic content that is not overly scripted. Social media users want to see relatable content which feels authentic to the platform they are on. Learn from the social expertise of influencers and their cultivated communities.

To learn how to choose the right influencers for your brand, watch this video.

Connected TV

As of 2021, there were nearly 214 million CTV users, and that number is projected to increase to 230M by 2025. With the proliferation of cord-cutting, connected TV is becoming a dominant channel in the digital advertising space. 

Why is CTV effective for CPG brands? 

Connected TV advertising delivers high impact video content on the largest screen in the household. CPG brands can showcase their products and tell their brand story with greater flexibility than traditional TV, while also achieving incremental reach. It also allows for greater addressability through contextual and behavioral targeting, so CPG advertisers can speak to refined audience groups.

How to use CTV advertising successfully: 

Communicate your message with quick 15-30 second ad placements that are visual and compelling to your target audience. Also, be strategic with your channel selection. Rather than running only on one platform, such as Hulu, maintain appropriate frequency and extend reach with cross-channel integrations. 

Listen to our CTV podcast episode: The Future of TV 

Digital Out of Home (DOOH)

According to the OAAA, Americans now spend 70% of their time outside of the home, an increase of 50% over the past two decades. As audiences become increasingly mobile, DOOH is making its way back as a staple in omnichannel marketing plans. 

Why is DOOH effective for CPG brands? 

DOOH placements are a great way for CPG brands to achieve mass market reach with greater flexibility, improved targeting, and quicker activation. Brands can test and swap creatives to cater messages to core audiences and contextual placements. Additionally, you can control spend by only showing up when and where an individual is most likely to convert. 

As more digital screens become available, the DOOH inventory options and contexts are only rising. For example, food and beverage brands can advertise on grocery store screens, gas station kiosks or bars to drive quick purchases. 

How to use DOOH advertising successfully:

Understand the format and scale that your message will be delivered in. Additionally, use a clear font and a simple message to convey your message in the 3-6 seconds. 

Learn more: The Digital Out of Home Primer 

Paid Search

Paid search gives brands the opportunity to have preferential placement on search engine results, while only paying for click-based engagements. Ad spend in this channel increased 39% in 2021 and is expected to rise in 2022. 

Why is paid search effective for CPG brands? 

This channel is particularly important for CPG brands seeking to drive eCommerce sales. 40% of all product searches begin on search engines, so PPC is the key to being discovered by new, in-market audiences. 

How to use paid search advertising successfully:

Support your paid search efforts with organic website search engine optimization.  30.5% of eCommerce traffic comes from SEO, so it must go hand-in-hand with PPC to support your overall search strategy. 

SMS Marketing

Nearly 300 million US consumers will redeem short message service (SMS) coupons in 2022. As a result, SMS marketing is rapidly growing due to its effectiveness in driving quick, inexpensive conversions and high engagement rates. 

Why is SMS messaging effective for CPG digital marketing?

Many CPG marketers now use SMS as a strong purchase driver. After being alerted about a special sale or new release, customers are prompted to redeem a discount code, view a new product drop, or check out a new sale. This can push audiences to complete a purchase they have been considering. In-message links and discount codes also offer a more clear way to track attributable conversions.

How to use SMS marketing effectively:

Tie SMS marketing into loyalty programs to facilitate a value exchange with customers. You are then able to collect their contact information. In turn, they receive your special offers, coupons, and are the first to know about new offerings. Lastly, make sure you are compliant with the TCPA guidelines. 

Amazon Advertising Platform

Amazon Ads is expected to exceed $32 billion in revenue by 2023, accounting for an estimated 76.2% of US eCommerce ad spending in 2021. It is the undisputed leader in eCommerce with a wealth of valuable consumer data. 

Why is Amazon advertising effective for CPG brands?

Amazon offers multiple ways for CPG brands to engage with its vast audience by advertising on-site or across the open internet. The platform data provides visibility into millions of consumers’ shopping behaviors. There are various ad formats for point of purchase advertising as well as opportunities for awareness and consideration tactics that will ultimately lead to increased sales. 

How to use Amazon Ads successfully:

Utilize real-time data to target in-market audiences with Sponsored Product Ads. Additionally, expand your reach with lookalike audiences who are similar to your best customers to enhance awareness and consideration.

View our blog post: How to Drive Full-Funnel Advertising Results on Amazon 

Retail Media

Retail media refers to media placements owned by retailers using their first-party POS data. These can be executed on retailer sites or programmatically on social and display channels. This channel now accounts for one in every eight dollars of digital ad spend. 

Why is retail media marketing effective for CPG brands? 

Retail media is now the third largest digital advertising channel in the US, making it a pivotal part of any CPG strategy. Brands are seeing more full-funnel implications of retail media’s high value shopper audiences. CPG advertisers can take advantage of eCommerce site ads as well as programmatic placements to find retailer audiences and take them from awareness to point of purchase with closed-loop measurement. 

How to use retail media advertising successfully:

Use retail media in a holistic, connected plan. Connect media across social, ecommerce and DTC channels to ensure they are supporting each other and driving customers through the funnel.

Read to learn more: Retail Media’s Impact on the CPG Marketing Mix

High Impact Display

Display ads served programmatically or purchased via direct buys offer CPG brands the opportunity to make a splash with their broad awareness and consideration campaigns. 

Why is display advertising effective for CPG brands? 

Display provides a great opportunity to drive engagement by helping stop the scroll and generate interest. CPG brands can also use high impact display ads to retarget audiences who have interacted with the brand’s website or social channels. This keeps your brand top of mind. Plus, it helps support campaign efforts as customers move through the purchase funnel. 

How to use high impact display successfully:

For CPG brands, we recommend using dynamic creative for personalized and interactive offers which drive measurable actions, rather than standard banner ads. Create various creative collateral tailored to your unique audience groups. 

To learn about additional channels and tactics for CPG brands, download the complete CPG Digital Marketing Playbook. 

Targeting Tourism Audiences With CTV Advertising Campaigns

Posted on by Coegi

The Brief

A state tourism client tapped Coegi to implement a CTV advertising campaign with the primary goal of driving awareness. We used a test-and-learn bidding strategy to identify optimal bid numbers across platforms. This allowed us to allocate the client’s budget across the most impactful CTV channels. Using this strategy, we achieved more even spend, higher unique views, and improved cost efficiency.

Highlights

2.75MM
Total Views

470,867
Unique Reach

$0.31
Cost per Unique Reach

Challenge

In programmatic CTV advertising campaigns, platforms will often optimize spend distribution towards total views. This oversimplification causes premium placements like Hulu to consume a disproportionate amount of the budget.

That risk was actualized when early reporting showed 99% of campaign spend going to Hulu and only 1% driving views on other high-indexing channels. As a high-impact platform, Hulu was important, but we wanted to ensure we were using other channels to expand the audience reach and maintain cost efficiency. 

Solution

Our specialists manually adjusted and optimized bids across different channels to create an even spend distribution. The goal was to identify the “sweet spot” that would give each strategic channel an appropriate amount of the budget.  Once the optimal channel mix was identified, the spend evened out to be 60% in Hulu and 40% distributed among other channels.

By serving ads to more niche channels such as Travel Channel, HGTV, and Discovery, we were able to reach key audience segments and boost overall ad performance. This generated 2,750,490 total completed video views, a cost-per-view of $0.05, a unique reach of 470,867 and a post-per-unique-reach of $0.31. 

Premium CTV channels can consume a disproportionate amount of budget. Correcting these standard optimizations with a manual test-and-learn strategy is necessary to find the ideal budget spend and maximize cost efficiency.

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Connected TV Advertising | The Comprehensive Guide

Posted on by Coegi

Ready to get started with connected TV advertising?

To many brand advertisers, television is the ultimate brand-building and storytelling medium. The TV is the largest screen in the house that rightly commands the lion’s share of the advertising budget.

Programmatic TV buying is beginning to take hold and will become a dominant buying procedure in the not so distant future.

Why Connected TV?

A key differentiator of CTV is in its use of audience data, allowing for addressability that can’t be replicated by linear TV.  Advertisers can use can first and third-party data, lookalike modeling and retargeting to connect with consumers across tactics and at every step in their journey.

This is possible because of cross-device mapping. This allows a user’s audience profile from other devices to integrate with their connected TV.

Unlock Coegi’s comprehensive guide to automated buying strategies for the new era of connected TV advertising.

The CTV/OTT advertising market is rapidly growing and ever-evolving as more and more consumers move to streaming services. Many marketers have questions such as: 

  • What is programmatic TV buying? 
  • What are the best buying tactics for CTV advertising? 
  • What are the emerging trends for the future of CTV/OTT advertising? 
  • How to determine your ideal TV advertising strategy? 

In this guide, we answer these key questions and more to enable digital marketers and media buyers to tap into the lucrative Connected TV opportunity. 

Download the guide

5 Marketing Tactics to Drive Travel Bookings

Posted on by Coegi

The travel marketing industry is rebounding as stir-crazy leisure travelers, vacationing families and business travelers are eager to explore new places and experiences. How can travel and tourism brands ensure they are incorporated in those travel plans? 

Here are 5 ways to drive travel bookings:

1) Show Up In The Research Phase

The purchase funnel for travel brands is shrinking as travelers are shortening the trip planning process. 

Speed and agility is crucial for travel brands to ensure they appear as a top option for their relevant audiences during the research and discovery process. Optimize digital discovery and drive travel bookings by doing the following: 

  1. Optimize paid search presence to show up for relevant, high value queries
  2. Activate audience search retargeting on display and social to stay stop of mind as the customer moves from research to the planning and booking phases
  3. Work to gain quality reviews on owned websites and travel sites

2) Segment Customers To Provide Personalized Offers

Carefully segment your existing customer list and use AI to inform personalized messaging to each group. Understand their unique motivations and deliver the offer most likely to resonate with them. 81% of consumers say personalized experiences are very important when vetting travel and hospitality brands. 

So, consider who you are talking to. Are they solo travelers seeking adventure? Or young families seeking a cost effective, kid-friendly trip? Or are they foodies looking for luxury and avant garde dining experiences?  

Once a trip is completed, the customer journey should not end. This will leave you constantly scrambling to find new audiences to fill your funnel rather than cultivating brand loyalty. Instead, explore how you can entice past travelers with a new trip or experience based on their past interest. 

3) Adjust Creatives And Channel Placements To Reflect Your Target Audience

It’s important that you don’t create a one-size-fits-all approach when marketing to future travelers. Consider demographic attributes such as age and lifestage to choose the most impactful channels to reach them on when making travel plans. 

Key stats and trends shaping the travel and tourism industry today

Not accounting for differences in media consumption and sources of authority will inevitably cost your brand dollars. Instead, carefully tailor your campaigns to reach audience segments on the channels they are most active on and deliver the style of content they trust and are already seeking out. 

4) Look Beyond Standard Media Metrics To Gauge Success

How can you measure the results of these campaigns and make sure your carefully tailored campaigns are driving the desired results? Simple media metrics, like impressions and clicks, often do not tell the whole story. For travel brands, incorporating advanced measurement studies such as foot traffic lift can provide a clear view of how marketing tactics impacted incremental increases in visitors. 

5) Use Non-Media Data To Understand The Travel Climate

In a 2020 report, Google analysts stated that traditional data and analytics for travel patterns “do not account for more immediate upper funnel demand drivers, such as the progression of COVID-19, government travel sanctions, and dynamic flight availability.” Using more advanced, macro-level data can help brands gauge the travel climate from an industry-wide perspective. 

Coegi worked with a tourism client to create a proprietary data solution to track Covid-19 and consumer interest in travel using CDC data and real-time interest indicators. We used this tool to score geographies based on the safety and likelihood of travel within each region. This allowed for real-time insights to inform media buys and campaign flighting strategy and media planning. 

For more strategic tips to drive travel bookings, view our complete Travel and Tourism Marketing Guide. 

Drive Travel Consideration by Leveraging Local Collaborations

Posted on by Coegi

The Brief

A travel and tourism client proposed a collaboration with a local chef to boost traveler consideration for their location. Using a cross-channel social media strategy, our teams saw strong results across Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest with below benchmark CPAs for this co-branded campaign.

 

Highlights

126
Tour Guide Downloads

800K
Instagram Post Engagements

2.47%
Facebook CTR

Challenge

Our travel and tourism client tasked Coegi with executing a co-branded, mid-funnel campaign to boost website traffic as well as increase awareness. We were given high quality ‘how-to’ video creative from the popular chef. By presenting this to targeted audiences in mid-funnel campaigns, we were able to drive travel consideration among key audience groups.

Solution

We used a multi-channel paid social media strategy to target each platform’s specific audiences. Pinterest encapsulated the ‘foodie’ audience, while Facebook and Instagram’s goal was to drive the large travel audience to their site. Both platforms included look-a-like and retargeting segments to reach engaged users. Success was based on key website actions such as landing page views and post engagement.

This multifaceted strategy provided strong results. The Instagram and Facebook campaign achieved a CPLPV of $0.67 that came in well below our benchmark of $1.83. In addition, we also saw a 2.47% CTR, well above the 0.90% benchmark. The Pinterest campaign, despite having a smaller percentage of the budget, generated nearly 1.7MM impressions with a post engagement rate of 1.27% including 1,365 pin saves.

Key Learnings

  • Well-curated and professional creative catches eyes. This pushed our audience down the funnel quicker than most – generating 126 Tour Guide Downloads.
  • By partnering with an authentic, trusted figure such as a local chef or celebrity, travel brands can boost their image and drive audience engagement. 
  • Using “how-to” style Pinterest posts have a higher likelihood of being saved. This ultimately drives site traffic and brand awareness.

The Metaverse, Crypto and NFTs: How Marketers Can Prepare

Posted on by Coegi

Confused as to why The Metaverse, Crypto, and NFTs are dominating the marketing conversation? You are not alone – many marketers are struggling to define these topics and understand their impact on their brands and overarching marketing strategy.

While the future implications are uncertain, all brands should start paying attention now. These trends are no longer reserved for only high tech brands as the metaverse is entering the day-to-day consumer experience. Like early investors in crypto who are seeing massive payouts today, first-adopters of these new technologies into their advertising strategies are likely to have a major advantage over brands that do not.

View The Metaverse, Crypto and NFTs: Webinar on-Demand:

Coegi and our guests from Wachsman and Pop Marketer explore the impact of these changes and ways your brand can be on the forefront of these emerging trends.

Emerging Social Platforms: Advertising Beyond Facebook

Posted on by Coegi

When marketers think of social media, they often default to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Although these platforms are important, there are other emerging platforms that may be a better fit for your target audiences. TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, and Tumblr are five high potential emerging social platforms to consider in your marketing channel strategy.

TikTok Advertising

This is a key social media platform for creating, sharing, and discovering short-form videos. TikTok gained over 1 billion users since its launch in 2016 and is among the top ten most used platforms today. Despite its massive popularity, many marketers are uncertain on how to engage with its unique audience and format. TikTok is important to consider for its incredible algorithm and mass exposure opportunities.

Unlike other platforms, content is shown to users by a curated, algorithmic system known as the ‘For You’ Page. The ‘For You’ page generates a continuous feed of primarily organic content blended with sponsored content. This element grants every video the opportunity to go viral. This is beneficial for small businesses looking for low-cost awareness and for larger businesses wanting to maximize engagement. Our post The Do’s and Don’ts of TikTok Advertising offers greater insights on building effective advertising campaigns on TikTok.

Snapchat Advertising

Snapchat is a mobile messaging platform to share photos, messages and videos. Unlike most platforms, Snapchat uses disappearing content. Users connect with others by expressing themselves and living in the moment, and marketers should to do the same.

Snapchat ads are essential for brand engagement. Advertisements show up between friends’ stories and people can easily swipe up to interact. According to insider data, 319 million people use Snapchat every day and 75% of Snapchat users are Millennials or Gen Z. Snapchat ads are extremely successful for ecommerce brands as fashion, novelty items, and impulse purchases perform well. However, advertisers in all industries can find success by delivering authentic content that makes users feel connected with your brand.

Reddit Advertising

Reddit is a social news website and forum where users participate in discussion and rate content. As of 2021, the platform has over 430 million monthly active users and 130,000 active communities. The interface consists of subreddits about topics where users have the opportunity to engage in valuable conversation. Marketers can leverage the platform to reach niche audiences in these specific interest groups. Some popular subreddits to consider for your marketing strategies include college admission, agriculture, health & wellness, telecommunications, or public health. For more in-depth tips on reaching niche audiences on Reddit, check out Advertising on Reddit: Reach Your Niche Audience. 

It is important to consider users’ hesitancy toward having branded content in the Reddit environment. Users dislike overly promotional language and are likely to skip over it. Content with a UGC creative feel is extremely beneficial. Users are more likely to engage with content specific to the community. 

Pinterest Advertising

Pinterest is a social media platform for sharing visual content, discovering new interests, and deep diving into passions. With over 431 million monthly users, the platform allows users to share posts, also known as “pins,” with other users and find communities with similar tastes.

Although over 60% of their users are female, Pinterest appeals to an increasingly diverse audience. Male and Gen Z user categories are gaining traction with 40% year over year growth. These users have strong purchase power with 45% having a household income over $100K. Users treat the platform as a source for inspiration; therefore, creative and innovative posts tend to have high performance. Promoted posts are part of the expected user experience. This makes Pinterest a great place to drive conversions with shoppable ads, while initiating brand awareness among key interest groups. 

Tumblr Advertising

Tumblr is a microblogging platform where users can post multimedia content. It is extremely versatile with media formats including text, photo, link, chat, audio and video. Although the platform peaked in popularity in 2014, it is still ranked among the top fifteen social media platforms with over 500 million active users. Tumblr presents many unique advantages for brands. For example, Sponsored Posts are useful ads visible to users through their dashboards. They blend in with organic content and are strongly welcomed with Tumblr creators. In fact, 70% of consumers perceive a brand more favorably after seeing a Sponsored Post and over 50% research the sponsor afterward.

The platform skews slightly younger with Gen Z accounting for over 61% of new Tumblr users and 48% of active users. Ads with comedic, dramatic or informational tones typically perform best on the platform. Brands looking to resonate with these users should strategically consider their creative messaging to align with these audience preferences. 

Choosing Your Best Paid Social Media Channels

As you are considering social tactics, consider these emerging social platforms and the opportunity they can provide. Many of these channels are well established, however much of their advertising capabilities are largely untapped. This means you can capitalize on whitespace where your brand can cut through the noise and reach enthusiastic audiences. When selecting which emerging social platforms to leverage, be sure to consider the campaign objective and if the platform aligns with your goals. 

Additionally, it’s critical to have a holistic understanding of the audience demographics and their sentiment around ads on the platform. Ensure your creative strategy results in a positive experience that drives results and increases learnings. If you want to stay up to date with the newest trends on social media, be sure to check out Nine Easy Ways to Stay Up to Date Social Media.

How to Drive Job Applicants for Healthcare Recruiting Campaigns

Posted on by Coegi

The Brief

A hospital client tasked Coegi with developing a digital healthcare recruiting campaign to drive interest and qualified website traffic for open job positions. Using a combination of social and display tactics, we were able to generate a significant increase in website visits and drive new job applications from a niche audience. 

Highlights

1,496
LinkedIn “Apply Now” conversions

10,000
page views from Display

0.63%
Facebook CTR

Challenge

The ultimate goal was to drive maximal website traffic. But Coegi understood it was critical to ensure the visitors were qualified potential applicants. Due to restrictions on employment-based ad campaigns, the team was creative with data usage across platforms, especially Facebook. Additionally, the client was recruiting for multiple positions, each with different qualifications. This resulted in separate creatives and messaging for each job position, adding a layer of complexity to campaign execution. 

 

Solution

We identified three primary channels for this healthcare recruiting campaign: LinkedIn, Facebook, and programmatic display. 

LinkedIn:

Linkedin was chosen to reach the job-seeking audiences while they were searching. Plus, because they could use job title targeting to be confident the intended audience was being reached. This tactic led to the highest number of “apply now” conversions.

Results: 1,496 application form submissions

Display:

Display was chosen to drive site traffic. Data segments allowed the team to reach niche job titles relevant to the target audience. Using custom data segments allowed for granular job title targeting, while also reaching a larger number of likely users. We ran all job titles in one campaign. Each ad set was targeting a specific job field driving users to unique landing pages. 

Display Results: Nearly 10,000 recruitment page views

Facebook: 

With Facebook, we navigated targeting limitations since employment is a special ad category. This forced a more general targeting strategy focused more on consideration, driving scale for the campaign. Like display, this was primarily used to drive site traffic and make job seekers aware of open positions. 

Facebook Results: 0.63% CTR, 5,650 interview page views, 8,783 career page views

This cross-channel strategy allowed us to target niche job titles and drive high site traffic, despite limitations. Healthcare and pharma brands often defer to brand awareness campaigns due to restrictions in targeting sensitive audiences and compliance laws. However, this campaign showed how health-focused brands can shake that mold and achieve out of the box, lower-funnel goals, such as recruitment, using strategic digital media plans.

How Curiosity Can Improve Your Data Analysis

Posted on by Coegi

Efficiently analyzing data and providing ongoing campaign optimization recommendations is critical for driving the best results for our clients. However, the complexity and rigidity of data sets can make the most meaningful insights difficult to accurately uncover. In order to elevate your analysis and provide better insights for your campaign performance, you must stay curious, using knowledge and creativity to bolster your approach. 

Moving from Data Analytics to Data Insights

Analytics and insights – they are closely related, but not the same. Analytics is a way we approach a problem that is standardized and repeatable. But what we’re really after is turning these numbers into insights. For instance, you might see that a lot of people clicked on your ad – analytics. But going further to ask ‘What does the high click-through rate mean? and deciding how are you changing campaigns based on that knowledge – that’s insight. 

In other words, analytics are repeatable, standardized processes to understand data and gain information. Insights are what we do based on that information. 

When running a campaign, there are often thousands, sometimes millions, of data points to analyze. Even when campaign goals and KPIs are clearly defined, it can be difficult to immediately identify the more subtle and complex insights hiding within the numbers. That is where curiosity and creativity come into play – we start looking for whatever stories the data can tell.  

The Benefits of Using Curiosity in Your Data Analysis

Asking thoughtful questions and keeping an open mind about what you see in the data helps identify unexpected opportunities and avoid pre-existing biases in your analysis. This allows patterns to appear in the data and provide beneficial insights for future campaigns. No matter what kind of data you are working with, there is always a learning to uncover.

For example, perhaps you have a channel that is unexpectedly driving better sales numbers than others. Instead of broadly accepting the success of the campaign, investigate why that channel did well so you can apply those learnings and build on that success. Stretch your mind to stretch your data and let it come alive for your brand.  

Avoiding Analysis Paralysis

Anyone deeply entrenched in data analysis will know it is all too easy to get buried, and even lost, trying to extract every bit of intel from the data. And while we want to glean as much insight as possible, it can be difficult to know where to stop once you start down a rabbit hole in an effort to get every morsel of information. At some point, the return on that time investment will diminish and you’ll start coming to the same conclusions, just from different angles. 

It’s critical to strike a balance, understanding when it’s valuable to take more time to really dive into the numbers, asking a variety of questions before taking action on the insight. Quarterly reviews, post-campaign reporting, planning phases – these are all times when deep analysis and questioning of the status quo is beneficial. 

Guide Curiosity with Measurement

When you start to dig, the data can seem like an endless hole if you don’t know what you’re searching for. But if you root yourself in your overarching measurement strategy, centering on your business goals and each channel’s role in helping achieve that success, it will become much easier to determine if your media is working or not. 

It is always best to spend more time upfront talking through the strategy as a whole before you begin analysis. Then it will all come into play and be very easy. The amount of time you spend should be way more upfront than it is actually building out final data visualizations and dashboards. 

Key Takeaways

Curiosity and data analysis – yes, they do go together. Applying creativity and allowing space for human intuition and insights is key to data storytelling. But to be an effective and productive data analyst, you need to balance the art and science. Keep in mind what is and isn’t reasonable. Live for the data. Explore it and search for the stories that it weaves together. But, avoid investing your valuable time on a dark rabbit hole that leads nowhere.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0oazN9M1wEDclax3GipHM0
Data Strategy Podcast Episode

Navigating the World of Marketing for Crypto Brands

Posted on by Coegi

The growth in cryptocurrency’s popularity is undeniable. The global value of cryptocurrency is over 2.29T, more than the GDP of Canada or Italy. And crypto users are engaging for multiple reasons. Sure, there is the appeal from an investment and transactional standpoint, but part of it is certainly novelty and curiosity.

As crypto brands begin to think about capitalizing on this upward trajectory, consider how to tackle marketing in a way that is sustainable, effective, and innovative.

Think Beyond “Crypto Enthusiasts” When Targeting Consumers

It, of course, makes sense to target those who are already involved with crypto when introducing and/or growing your brand. However, these are not the only individuals you should be seeking to influence. It’s important to do your due diligence with research. There are the crypto curious “normie” audiences who maybe haven’t taken the leap to making their first investment, but just need a little education from the right brand to move forward. There are the heavy stock investors who could be seeking to diversify in times where stock portfolios are fluctuating heavily. Also, there are individuals who don’t necessarily care to use crypto to accumulate enormous wealth. Instead, they are looking for mechanisms like crypto to enable a future of financial freedom.

Conversely, sometimes you need the niche audiences that are only interested in one specific type of cryptocurrency, such as Ethereum. Regardless of the situation, it’s important to dive deep into each unique crypto brand, understand the value propositions of their products and services, and leverage research to explore creative audiences and contextual environments.

Finally, it’s important to align creative messaging with the audience journey. You should talk to someone who is crypto-savvy much differently than someone simply looking for financial freedom. One is likely to have a quicker road to conversion while the other requires more time for awareness and education.

Lean Into Digital – But Understand The Limitations

Digital advertising offers brands the ability to reach the target consumers at scale, gathering data that allows for key brand learnings and the ability to tie exposure to action. However, with many ‘emerging’ industries, there are some platforms that either restrict or prohibit any advertising regarding cryptocurrency. Be sure to do due diligence on all platforms under consideration to understand which hoops you have to jump through.

Some programmatic channels we’ve found to be effective for marketing cryptocurrency brands include: display, Twitter, LinkedIn, Search, Facebook and Instagram. We have also seen a lot of value in endemic placements on major crypto-focused publications. There is high contextual relevance and also perceived trust running alongside other crypto-related content.

Seek Buying Efficiency – But Also Enjoy Making A Splash At The Right Time In The Right Place

Implementing an optimization strategy based on testing and learning will naturally allow cryptocurrency marketers to find ways to drive improved efficiency and effectiveness. It allows you to find the right channels, audiences, and creatives to drive increased brand lift, lower cost per action, and build overall brand growth.

Yes, you can accomplish this by combining proper campaign analysis using advanced measurement and analytics insights. However, incorporating third-party data, such as financial indicators, can be an innovative way to know when to ramp up spend and make a greater impact. Maybe a downturn in the NASDAQ means it’s time for a high value placement on Forbes? Or even a big billboard in Times Square?

The world of cryptocurrency is exciting and challenging in the best way. Marketers working with these emerging fintech brands should have a mindset of curiosity and determination to drive the strongest results.

Still curious? For more insights, view our webinar on-demand: The Metaverse, Crypto, & NFTs: What Marketers Need to Know.

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