Case Study Written By and Campaigns Managed by Sarah Kingsley & Hannah Bartkiewicz – both specialists in our Digital Marketing team.

The world of online marketing is changing fast, and adding a worldwide pandemic into the mix makes this statement even more true. Right now, most restaurants and retailers are halting their advertising spend; however, now it’s more important to stay relevant in the consumers’ minds.

There are several answers to these questions:

1. Online searches have increased as Consumers spend more time searching the internet for updated information about openings, closings, and changes in hours – if your business can’t be found, the business will go elsewhere.
2. While other businesses have paused their marketing, your business has an opportunity to stay visible and relevant, and at a lower cost. With less competition, you can capture more of the market while paying a lower Cost Per Click (CPC).

Restaurant 

This restaurant was receiving positive results in their monthly reporting; however, based on the current climate they decided to make some changes to their Facebook advertising campaign. Notice the spike in results.

The Restaurant received a boost in results on March 18^th, after creating an ad that promoted the restaurant’s new online ordering services.  They also changed the message in their other Facebook ads to promote online ordering and curbside pickup. On March 25^th, the restaurant changed the message on all of their ads to include the addition of new delivery services.

By changing the restaurant’s social media message, Virginia Media helped the restaurant stay relevant and visible to Facebook and Instagram users. If this restaurant had halted their marketing efforts, they would never have seen this double-digit increase in reach.

Retailer

From March 1 – March 28, the reach of a local retailer increased by 19% from the prior month, The Facebook impressions were at 119,880, which was a 20% increase from February. This increase occurred when then the content of the ad was changed from “come on in” to “shop online” on March 20.

The President’s Day Sale spiked on February 17th. It’s clear that there was an increase in reach after the messaging in the ads was changed while maintaining an ideal frequency of 2.6 per social viewer. This change in messaging surpassed the spike of a temporary sale and plateaued for the second half of the month.

 This example illustrates the need to communicate a change in business models through the customers’ advertising message. By educating the public about their business changes, these two businesses saw an increase in website traffic by over 100%. While many businesses are dropping their advertising budgets because of their loss of revenue, Virginia Media was able to help these two businesses increase their revenue through their normal spends just by changing the narrative and helping them tell their stories to their own customer base.