Bonmarché are many things, but they’re not barking. They knew it was time to breathe some new life into their online marketing
Bonmarché.
Case study.
Finding Lisa.
Bonmarché are many things, but they’re not barking. They knew it was time to breathe some new life into their online marketing, particularly search, which had become a bit stale. Found were hired to freshen it up, and fast.
But working on this campaign came with two big challenges:
- Competition in UK retail, especially fashion, has been cut-throat in recent years. Online has fundamentally changed the rules of the game
- When it approached Found, Bonmarché’s online sales were heavily reliant on returning users; our research showed this was a declining group
Data Driven Insights.
Art? Pah. The philosophy underlying all Found’s search and paid media activity is shaped by data science. We’re firm believers that you can only truly understand customers based on their actual, demonstrated behaviour. It’s an approach that delivers the strongest marketing results by a distance — facts beat fiction every time.
Our first priority was to understand who Bonmarché’s customers really were. Using their ideal customer profile — ‘Lisa’, the ‘youthful in attitude’ 50-64 year old shopper — as a starting point, we turned to Google Analytics to uncover who “Lisa’ really was online: how she thought, what she might respond to, where she might be.
We used market research partners, GWI and Hitwise, to drill down into what motivates ‘Lisa’: how she consumes content online, what brands she trusts, what she values and which platforms we would find her on.
This approach was then adapted using our own bespoke keyword clustering tool and state-of-the-art forecasting algorithms to measure and classify search opportunities within the fashion industry.
What the client said
"Since working with Found, we have seen a clear increase in ROI. As a trusted partner, they have played an important role in our significant online growth by persistently looking to drive great performance and working closely with the Bonmarché team."
Stuart Lee - Head of eCommerce - Bonmarché
Paid Media Execution.
Using the insight gathered in the audience analysis, we were able to create lists based on granular profiles of Lisa and used them to augment our search activity:
- Bids were adjusted based on Lisa’s propensity to purchase
- Lookalike remarketing lists were created for each segment for prospecting
- Ad copy was tailored to each audience based on key findings
Intent Led Search Structure.
By taking an audience-led approach to our search campaign structure, we were able to optimise and manage campaigns with clear objectives for each audience. In practice, this meant that a ‘Generic – Dress’ campaign was duplicated as both an RLSA campaign and a Prospecting campaign. That way we were able to segment targeting, creative and bidding for each.
Engaging new audiences - Acquisition & Prospecting.
Historically, Bonmarché had been very reliant on repeat customers, so increasing our generic search presence was crucial. At the same time, a completely fresh approach was needed if we were to meet our ambitious revenue and ROI targets. Backed by research, a prospecting strategy was launched that would broaden the targeting and bring a fresh flow of new users to the Bonmarché website.
- Bidding on Search lookalike audiences
- Increased generic investment while reducing brand bidding
- DFSA Campaigns (55-64, new users)
Social Support - Lisa logs on to social platforms multiple times daily.
Our analysis showed that ‘Lisa’ is gregarious and socially active online, generally logging onto social platforms multiple times each day. To reach Lisa in her natural environment, we utilised Facebook ads to support our search strategy and used tailored content-led creative and customer interest targeting.
Facebook Prospecting
- Lookalike audiences (based on our remarketing lists, and custom audiences for purchase behaviour and age range)
- Audience profiles (interests and age range, e.g. cruises and over 55-65)
- Seasonal event targeting (e.g. interested in Royal Wedding)
Display
Our Display Support strategy was all about growing reach and volume. We used Google AdWords audience data to target users based on the following:
- In-market segments (e.g. in-market for trips to Spain)
- Lookalike audiences (based on remarketing lists)
- Affinity audiences (categories such as ‘bargain hunters’ and ‘shopaholics’)
- Contextual audiences (page keyword targeting, e.g. ‘ladies clothing’.)
- Custom intent audiences (based on products ourusers are searching for, e.g. ‘plus size women’s clothing’.
Re-engagement & Remarketing.
Our research showed us that despite having a loyal, frequently purchasing, customer base, there is a significant portion of Bonmarché online customers that buy once never to return. Rather than see that as a negative, we saw it as a huge opportunity to improve the performance of the account.
The proposed strategy was all about putting the audience first when it came to search, and involved:
- Data-led audiences for search
- Bidding on returning users through RLSAs
- Expansion with broader generics for returning audiences
Social Support.
When it came to social, our priority was to re-engage users with a multi-format approach across channels. To achieve this, we used dynamic product and intent-level remarketing across Facebook.
Facebook Remarketing.
- Purchase behaviours (Last 7- 30 days)
- Session duration (10 seconds – 2 minutes)
- Product views and non-converters
Display Support.
In the case of Display, we ran a data-led retargeting strategy:
- Intent-level remarketing, matched to product category pages (session duration and page depth)
- Dynamic product remarketing
Finding Lisa:
Found's Results.
At Found, our favourite thing to do is smash targets - and that’s exactly what we did with Bonmarché. When we were set an ROI target of 205%, we were confident we could go well above our client’s expectations. And we did: the ROI produced was a whopping 421%
Taking paid search in isolation, and despite the paid search budget being reduced by 42% YoY:
ROI up 194%
from paid search YoY.
Through audience bidding, we also saw a 31% drop in non-brand CPCs YoY
29% YoY
Rise in
non-brand conversion rate.
Whilst we improved CTRs by 21% against the account average in 2017/18
4012% Growth
in last click paid social revenue.
Whilst the use of intent-led display remarketing and targeted prospecting triggered a growth in assisted conversions of 429% YoY
The bottom line? Found found Lisa and in the process re-energised Bonmarché’s digital marketing, fundamentally strengthening its position in the saturated fashion retail sector. For Bonmarché, the digital future is looking bright.