By collaborating to develop an iterative test-and-learn approach between December 2017 and May 2018, Clinique found that its Facebook video ads provided an incremental 22% of online sales and an incremental 7% of in-store sales. What’s more, as a result of testing creative assets, the brand was able to pinpoint the most effective ads, improving results in real time.
Lindsay says: “It was the first time we had been able to link online and offline elements and understand what drove customers in-store. We were stepping into the unknown and we had thought it would be more difficult than it was. It has really changed the way we think. We can now consider campaigns more in terms of an integrated whole.”
Clinique didn’t know the offline effect of its Facebook video ads until it undertook a landmark six-month study to demonstrate their impact on metrics including in-store sales and product consideration
How Clinique deciphered the
in-store impact
of video ads
14 March 2019
"It was the first time we had been able to link online and offline elements and understand what drove customers in-store."
– Daniel Lindsay, Clinique
In-store sales remain an important part of beauty brand Clinique’s business, because it’s here that consultants can assist shoppers and showcase product benefits.
Recognising that its audience is increasingly shopping on the go, however, Clinique UK has made more products available online over the past five years.
And, with a significant chunk of its marketing spend now going on Facebook and Instagram, Daniel Lindsay, the brand’s consumer engagement manager, stresses how important it is to be able to assess the impact of these ads on sales in stores as well as online.
With a loyal fanbase, the beauty brand also has as a key objective the cost-efficient recruitment of new customers.
As such, working together with Facebook and media agency Manning Gottlieb OMD, it recently developed a segmentation of 14 different micro-audiences for a new moisturiser - Clinique Moisture Surge 72-Hour Auto-Replenishment Hydrator - looking at factors such as age, demographics, income, interests and life-stage.
Clinique used split testing and a Facebook conversion lift study to assess the impact of video ads and refine them over a six-month period. For online sales, it could already understand which ads led to people buying products on its site, but the brand had not yet been able to pinpoint whether Facebook ads drove sales in-store.
Clinique also used Facebook’s ‘brand lift’ tool, which can determine the additional effect a campaign has had on its audience’s attitude towards a product. It measured the impact of its ads on offline sales and found a 9.8 percentage point lift in likelihood to consider Clinique’s new moisturiser.
Nicolas Arrivé, measurement lead within Facebook’s marketing science team, says that for other brands looking to assess how their ads are performing across disparate channels and metrics, it’s “smarter” to use tools such as Facebook’s when you already have a strong hypothesis based on real data and experience. “It’s really hard to test meaningfully without a strong starting point. More important than any particular tool is this strong data-backed point of view on the customer.”
“More important than any particular tool is this strong data-backed point of view on the customer.”
22%
Increase in Clinique’s online sales
from Facebook video ads
7%
incremental in-store sales from the ads
9.8
Percentage point lift in consideration
of Clinique’s moisturiser
He says Clinique’s project also proved the hypothesis that customising ads to show real people and how they use particular products drives advertising effectiveness.
“Omnichannel purchasing habits are a challenge for retailers today and measurement is an area under a lot of scrutiny,” he continues. “Fortunately, Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland, Clinique UK’s parent company, anticipated this and has invested heavily in technology – in EPOS systems, CRM systems and in talent. Now it’s reaping the benefits and it’s ready for the new world and new challenges.”
Berna Berkmen, digital business director at Manning Gottlieb OMD, points out just how important it is to understand marketing effectiveness across channels. Even though consumption of media and advertising increasingly happens online, the in-store experience remains crucial - particularly in the beauty industry. “New product discovery still largely happens offline,” she says, “with customers wanting to feel products and check their texture.”
– Nicolas Arrivé, Facebook
And stressing the importance of testing market segmentations, which was a key part of Clinique’s campaign, she adds: “Today, we have more and more opportunities to drive personalised communications. But it’s important to know how far to take it, and when the investment is worth it.”
Clinique’s Lindsay says the brand has changed its behaviour as a marketing organisation significantly as a result of the knowledge it has acquired. “We learned what resonates, and it delivered us insight at a level we had not had before,” he says.
“And while it was a vast project and we needed a stiff drink afterwards, it will enable us to be more focused next time.” ■
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