July 22, 2015

Leading Gift Retailer Uses Programmatic Buying to Boost Efficiency

Buyagift is a provider of gift experiences and activity days. Each week, on behalf of loved ones or colleagues, the retailer delivers thousands of once-in-a-lifetime experiences to unsuspecting customers. Sociomantic were tasked with driving incremental online sales

Sociomantic Labs drives incremental sales at scale for e-commerce marketers with programmatic display advertising solutions for desktop, mobile and Facebook.

Programmatic display for retail 

The objective

Buyagift tasked Sociomantic with driving incremental online sales at a sustainable marketing cost while demonstrating the breadth and durability of its cutting-edge product portfolio.

The challenges

Buyagift already had an established performance display programme as early as 2011, but now sought a cleaner, more flexible performance display solution: it needed to be transparent in execution, flexible enough to complement the brand’s unique business calendar and robust enough to reach the right audience, at the right time, on the right device.

An innovative approach to performance display

Buyagift favours exploration of new technology and methods. Since the inception of its partnership with Sociomantic, the desire was to pursue the most advanced display channels across the ever-changing digital media landscape. Sociomantic listened, and attuned its product portfolio to Buyagift’s needs, enabling access to the right users at the right time, initially across desktop, and subsequently expanding into Facebook and mobile, all at sustainable marketing costs.

Programmatic buying (RTB)

Sociomantic’s proprietary real-time bidder analyses real-time user profiles in combination with streams of shop, performance, and yield data to calculate the perfect price for each display ad impression while optimising campaigns to Buyagift’s cost-of-sale goals.

HTML5 for cross-device reach

By leveraging Sociomantic’s HTML5 bannering technologies, Buyagift is able to reach users with dynamically personalised ads not only on desktop, but also across mobile web and in-app inventory, including Apple’s Flash-free iOS and Safari browser.

Effective cost per action (eCPA)

Buyagift was one of the first to adopt the eCPA model as a performance measurement. Sociomantic’s transparent programmatic buying solution meets the retailer’s need for a clear understanding of their investments.

Custom segmentation

Sociomantic works with Buyagift to refine strategies for targeting different customer segments, thus enabling the retailer to differentiate different ROI targets and messaging mechanisms for new, existing and returning customers.

Dynamic creative optimisation

For each impression won, Sociomantic’s product recommendation engine programmatically personalises the banner in a matter of milliseconds, helping Buyagift to increase revenues by showing customers viewed gifts or experiences in addition to related new offers that drive clicks and conversions.

Facebook Exchange

As a certified Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD), Sociomantic partnered with Buyagift as early adopters of the dynamic News Feed placement, reaching users on the world’s most popular social network with individually personalised adverts and significantly expanding the overall reach and visibility of the brand.

The results

Buyagift found Sociomantic’s approach and subsequent results so favourable that it chose Sociomantic as its exclusive display retargeting partner from November 2013.

Customer success metrics during 2013:

Revenue: Sociomantic delivered 42 per cent incremental revenue on top of that generated by the incumbent vendor for the test period August – October 2013.

Conversions: Once exclusive for the period of November 2013 – January 2014, Sociomantic generated 56 per cent more revenue for Buyagift, outperforming the incumbent during the same period the previous year, resulting in an average order value (AOV) of 25 per cent higher than what the incumbent delivered.

Post-click conversion rate: The post-click conversion rate across Sociomantic’s campaigns averaged 4.39 per cent for the test period August – October 2013: 20 per cent higher than that of the incumbent.

“Sociomantic’s commitment to transparent and cost-efficient display campaigns proves valuable for any e-commerce marketer looking to stay ahead of the curve,” says Christiana Kyriakides, Performance Media Manager at Buyagift.co.uk. “I’m very happy with our ongoing partnership across desktop, Facebook and mobile, and I’m looking forward to exploring further exciting opportunities for Buyagift with Sociomantic.”