Friday, March 10, 2023
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 Evaluating the performance of Google Ad placements
📦 The playbook you need to master mobile commerce
📦 What to have in your ad listings to stand out to casual browsers
📦 How to reach incremental audiences across streaming and linear TV
📦 The 9-year-old candle maker, healthier brownies, and coffee for your cognitive function
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe, so you never miss out.
Welcome back to the brand breakdown series with our pals at Pilothouse. This week, they’re back at it with Kim K’s shapewear brand SKIMS and its Google Ads library.
The Pilothouse Google team recognizes that Google can be a complex beast, but when it’s tamed, it can do wonders for your brand. So how does one of the biggest names in the game stack up in the eyes of our marketing musketeers? Let’s dive in!
👀 Brand presence
When you search for SKIMS, the results are undeniable. They simply dominate the search engine result pages (SERPs) for shapewear. 👏
This is the kind of reputation that gets established over many years, so smaller brands can’t realistically expect SEO results like this overnight.
But it’s valuable to see in action because it represents an ideal case for any DTC brand when they’re at the top of their game. 🔝
Check out the “3 for $36” promo in this ad. Having that deal readily available in the headline is super consumer-friendly and only provides more information about the type of products SKIMS has available. That’s an effective use of screen space if we’ve ever seen it! 🎉
We know what you’re thinking, “It would be beneficial for SKIMS to know how consumers react to specific deals on their results page.”
We have good news for you. There’s a way to figure that out in Google Ads! You can test the performance of individual assets by clicking:
“This Extension vs. Other” will show you the performance of a specific asset vs. the other clickable components in the same ad. In SKIMS’ case, their ad is titled:
SKIMS Official Site - Solutions for Every Body
While the assets are listed below the headline:
SKIMS could compare how many clicks the “3 for $36” deal gets compared to the “Essential Bodysuits” in the same ad. That’s pretty useful if you are looking to hyper-target your demographics and launch that conversion rate to the moon. 🚀
The Playbook You Need to Master Mobile Commerce
If you are anything like us you spend an embarrassing amount of time on your phone. 📱
So you can bet your last dollar that your consumers do too.
It’s not surprising that mobile advertising spend is increasing worldwide, fueling the $700+ billion in mobile commerce sales that is expected by 2025.
In this incredible new guide, The Marketer’s Guide to Mobile Commerce, AdRoll, Yotpo, Gorgias, Square and other leaders in eCommerce share their best advice for engaging consumers and driving revenue in a mobile-first world.
Dive into topics on:
In AdRoll's lesson, Capturing Attention With Mobile Advertising, they explore the key advantages and mobile ad strategies that work so you can effectively appeal to your audience.
👉 Learn how to captivate modern shoppers in this all-in-one mCommerce playbook.
🪴 Organic listings
SKIMS’ traffic to their website is almost entirely organic. As of February 2023, only about 4% of traffic on their US site came from paid listings.
This means a vast majority of their traffic are already familiar with, and organically searching for, SKIMS indicating an incredibly strong brand rep that is usually limited to brands of this caliber.
Their search engine optimization is on point. They rank in the top three positions for highly competitive keywords such as:
So, which high-volume searches are they not in the top spot for? Surprisingly, SKIMS ranks sixth for “thong” which has 110K monthly searches.
What is a brand like SKIMS to do when they’re not in the top spot? They bid on it.
And unsurprisingly, SKIMS is already on top of it. 🤝 Their sponsored posts consistently show results on the Shopping tab, and, as always, we’re glad to see they’ve got reviews attached for social proof.
🏆 Top bidding
Let’s say SKIMS was really pushing for the top page on “thong” search results (recall the 110K monthly searches for “thong”, nothing to sneeze at!). They’re already ranking fairly high at sixth, but they’re still getting buried by five other organic results, plus Shopping listings and paid ads!
What they could do is utilize the Target-Impression-Share automated bid strategy that Google Ads offers! 🤯
At a high level, this bid strategy increases your brand visibility by achieving a high percentage of ad impressions. It’s particularly useful for businesses that want to maintain a consistent ad presence on the search results page, regardless of the competition.
However, it's important to keep in mind that using the Target-Impression-Share bid strategy can be expensive. You often need to bid higher than your usual cost-per-click (CPC) to achieve your desired impression share.
Additionally, achieving a high impression share doesn’t guarantee more clicks or conversions, so monitor your campaign's performance closely and adjust your bids accordingly.
If conversions are your main focus, rather than brand awareness, the Pilothouse Google team would suggest going for a smart bidding strategy such as tROAS (target return on ad spend) to focus on likely purchasers.
Marketing to the Same Audience Over and Over Will Only Get You So Far
Do you ever notice you are repeatedly hitting the same audiences with social and search marketing?
You’re not alone, and it's not helping your brand.
DTC brand, Boxed, was having the same problem. So they turned to Tatari to reach incremental audiences across streaming and linear TV.
Learn how their outcomes-focused TV strategy resulted in:
All with leveraging premium streaming placements (at a 40-50% discount might we add). See how you can get started with streaming TV and drive real business outcomes.
👉 Watch (you don't even have to read!) the full case study here.
🛍 Shopping listings
SKIMS is flaunting store reviews, product reviews, social proof, and is posting beside related products to provide a very strong impression for any casual browser.
Remember that “Free Shipping over $75” offer we loved in SKIMS’ emails? That evergreen offer is also set within the Merchant Center! Notice how the $78 product has “Free delivery” but the $62 one doesn’t?
Google’s Merchant Center gives you the ability to separate your shipping costs by product cost. This means your listings always have the most accurate info about the final cost to the consumer.
One thing we want to see for SKIMS is a “Trusted store” badge.
This badge boosts your listings on Shopping results compared to competitors who don’t have it. If your competitors have the badge, it’ll put you on an even playing field.
You can check the status of your badges in the Merchant Center and access the handy “Shopping experience scorecard” in the Growth tab. This lets you see how you compare to similar brands by:
Be sure to check out this section of the Merchant Center because that ‘excellent’ seller rating promises endless value for your brand reputation. You can only make one first impression, and getting that badge is one of the best ways to start your consumer relationships off on the right foot.
✨ Conclusion
That will conclude the Pilothouse Google teams deep dive into SKIMS Google Ads library but don’t think we’re stopping there! Stay tuned to the DTC Newsletter for a highly sought-after overview of SKIMS TikTok strategy next week. Be there or be square!
Brands
💖 Lily Lou’s Aromas: There’s nothing better than lighting a candle to relax after a long hard day. Lily, the 9 year old founder of Lily Lou’s Aromas, couldn’t agree more! Lily’s candles are the perfect addition to your home: handpoured, supporting both charities and sustainability, and pleasing to the eyes and nose!
🍫 Ruani: Chocolatey, fudgey, brownies oh my! Ruani is on a mission to bring one of our favorite bakery snacks to the masses in a healthier format. They, “create ooey-gooey brownies that actively work to heal your gut and bring your body into balance with nature’s help.”
☕️ Upraising: Listen, kicking the coffee habit isn’t for everyone. Upraising is adding ingredients to their coffee blends to nurture your body and improve cognitive function. Grab your bag containing functional mushrooms, nootropics, and adaptogens.
🧖♀️ Bushbalm's David Gaylord goes B2B, Enters US retail bigly, and rides the Vajacial wave on DTC.
👀 Ronak Shah - Obvi Collagen - Obvi's biggest blunders (and how you can avoid them) - C-Suite Mentor Preview.
🚀 BattlBox John Roman - The Subscription with the ~$1000 LTV and the Netflix Rocket Ship.
👟 Kuru Footwear’s Turnaround Playbook: Sean McGinnis On The CRO Tactics That Doubled Revenue (C-Suite Mentor Preview).
🧑🦲 iRestore Hair Growth System: Kevin Chen - The True Impact of Costco.
💡 Listen to the Biggest Marketing News Stories Today.
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Michael Venditti. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.
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