What we set out to test
Can brands boost performance by unifying multiple channels to drive mid- to lower-funnel synergy?
The background
ChicV is a cross-border e-commerce company with fast fashion brands like Noracora under its umbrella. The retail group had previously focused on performance-based advertising; however, the highly competitive fast fashion industry meant that retail marketers had to vie for immediate conversions, resulting in high costs.
To counter this challenge, ChicV was keen to optimize its marketing strategy to increase sales more effectively. In particular, the group hoped to acquire more high-quality and profitable traffic, and set the goal to grow its gross merchandise value (GMV) by 50% year on year.
Setting its sights on its sub-brand, ChicV worked with Google to analyze Noracora’s existing advertising strategy. It found that Noracora was missing out on a key opportunity: meeting the needs of consumers in the shopping exploration stage. This bottleneck prevented the brand from acquiring more customers and orders.
To expand its pool of potential customers and generate a continuous stream of high-quality traffic, ChicV decided to experiment with adding richer ad formats like Video action campaigns (VAC) to enhance its existing lower-funnel Performance Max campaigns.
How we set the experiment up
ChicV ran an pre-post experiment adding VAC to its existing Performance Max campaign:
- Control group: Performance Max
- Test group: Performance Max + VAC
The experiment lasted six weeks in the U.S. For the Performance Max campaigns, ChicV used Maximize conversion value bidding, with conversions defined as online purchases. Its VAC used Maximize conversions bidding and Target CPA bidding, with conversions defined as a click on the “add to cart” button on Noracora’s website.
Setting the “add to cart” conversion goal allowed ChicV to note potential shoppers who were interested but not yet committed to purchasing. This data was then fed into Performance Max, enabling the Google AI-powered campaign to capture relevant audiences and remarket to the group of potential shoppers to drive eventual purchases.
To unleash the full power of VAC, ChicV knew it was important to optimize its video creative. Rather than start from scratch, the brand maximized efficiency by working with Google to combine and process its existing dynamic model and product image assets. It applied the tried-and-tested ABCD principles to create compelling ads that encouraged shoppers to take action.
Solutions we used
What we learned
Combining VAC with Performance Max unleashed cross-channel growth for ChicV, delivering:
ChicV’s successful experiment proved that video ads can be used for more than just brand marketing, and showed how brands can unify multiple channels to create synergy across the marketing funnel. In this case, using VAC to grow its pool of potential users enabled ChicV to enhance its performance-based ads at the lower funnel. The retail group is now looking to add VAC across its other sub-brands.
This case study is part of the Experiment with Google Ads program.
