2020 was a year of disruption in many industries, and retail was no exception. While the demand for beauty products took a hit across the globe, that wasn’t the case for Greek beauty retailer, attica. The retailer saw a dramatic increase in online demand for its beauty products, which compensated for the loss in offline sales. By taking a ‘smart’ approach to respond to this heightened demand, the retailer not only survived, it thrived.
Changing the perspective
When the pandemic hit, things were changing from one minute to the next. New restrictions and government regulations were imposed on businesses, but customers’ expectations didn’t waver. To find the most effective way of meeting these needs during such dynamic times, attica switched to a 'working smarter, not harder' mindset. To help with this, they teamed up with Reprise Media Athen, a digital marketing company, and embraced automation.
“We saw an immediate impact on our online campaigns after the pandemic and restrictions imposed on physical stores,” says Eva Samartzi, client partner at Reprise Media Athens. “So it was necessary to create a structure that would capture all that demand — and convert it.”
Mastering the marketing make-up
The first step was to incorporate automated bidding capabilities into their campaigns. The team’s old approach involved more manual procedures and a granular structure, which took up significant time and resources. By using Smart campaigns, however, they gained more time to focus on strategy.
The teams chose target return on ad spend (ROAS) bidding with unlimited investment. This allowed them to meet the heightened demand during the pandemic, while also meeting their ROAS targets.
Attica’s website is constantly changing with new offers and discounts, which need to be accurately communicated across its Shopping and Dynamic search ads and smart display campaigns. Rather than monitoring this manually, the automated solutions helped to adjust campaigns to be in line with the constant changes.
New restrictions and government regulations were imposed on businesses, but customers’ expectations didn’t waver
Going out on a limb doesn’t mean abandoning everything you know. Sometimes it makes sense to include strategies that have proven to be effective. For attica, that’s paid Search and Shopping ads. They’ve always been valuable tools as the brand’s main revenue drivers.
And smart display campaigns learn from past results. As they run, they get better over time, with algorithms constantly gathering new information in order to perform better.
Looking at the result - and what’s next
Last year was a very uncertain time for a lot of retailers and put a lot of businesses to the test. But attica didn’t just overcome these challenges, they went above and beyond.
The retailer launched in 2017 and has achieved exponential growth ever since. But in the first half of 2020 they exceeded their expectations, with a revenue growth of more than 130%. With smart adjustments to their campaigns, online revenue even outperformed the previous Black Friday.
As a result of this automated approach, the beauty retailer also saw a more than 250% increase in conversion with a just 50% increase of investment — all while maintaining its target return-on-investment.
Attica learnt from the pandemic that they needed to react quickly to shifting consumer needs. By adapting with smart adjustments to their existing campaigns, they are now ready for what’s next.
Key takeaways for marketers
- Don’t underestimate the power of reliability. Even with a new approach there may be opportunity to weave in what you already know works.
- Take the heavy lifting and guesswork out of setting bids with automated bidding — letting you focus efforts on where you need to most.
- Use Target ROAS with unlimited investment when you want to account for big shifts in demand, while still meeting your ROAS targets
