Moo-ving The Sales Needle: How A Social Media Campaign Increased Yogurt Sales For A Sustainable Dairy Farm
Established in 1955, Donia Farms is a sustainable dairy farm located in BC’s Lower Mainland. Family owned and operated, this third generation farm offers a variety of dairy products including milk, yogurt, butter and cheese. Their passion and dedication to modern and sustainable farming is at the heart of the family’s philosophy. It’s evident in the great care they take with both the land and their herd – developing an environment around them that promotes comfort and eliminates stress.
From grass to glass
Donia Farms approached Blue Meta to devise a strategy that would help increase their brand awareness and increase in store purchase of Donia’s yogurt products in grocery stores throughout BC and Alberta. After meeting with the client and reviewing internally, the team felt that a series of social ad campaigns would be the most effective option. The target audience was millennial moms.
EXPECTATIONS vs REALITY
Running social ad campaigns are not without their challenges. The digital team noted that it’s difficult to measure awareness and the total sales that can be attributed to this type of marketing effort. However, there are still ways to assess and evaluate the success of a project of this nature.
- Was there an increase in website sessions?
- Did the remarketing audience grow? (This is an important indicator as it shows that the brand is getting noticed by more people.)
- Did time spent on the website increase? (Another important indicator showing users are engaging with the brand and want to learn more or need to find a store to make a purchase.)
- Have the number of followers on Facebook and Instagram increased? (This indicates increasing brand awareness while also building social media presence.)
CAMPAIGN MEASUREMENT
The metrics associated with the Facebook ad campaigns were equally as specific. Blue Meta’s digital team wanted to see increases in two areas:
- Clicks – getting users to go to the site to find more information and to grow the remarketing audience.
- Ad Frequency – getting in front of our audiences more often to increase both awareness and brand familiarity.
Through the Facebook ads, the team also wanted to increase a) estimated ad recall and b) the click-through-rate (CTR).
UISNG EXISTING CREATIVE
Using supplied assets from other sources can often be challenging for a creative team. Images may not meet platform specifications, are of low or unacceptable quality or may not even be relevant or applicable to the campaign objectives.
Fortunately, this was not the case with Donia Farms as the product photography and ad imagery provided through them was of high quality and all assets hit the mark on every tactic that the creative team produced for the campaign.
Since the Facebook campaign objectives were focused on awareness, a combination of still images, videos and existing recipe posts for ads were used. The recipes were refreshed seasonally and every organic recipe post was boosted.
ACHIEVING RESULTS
Through the awareness campaigns, increases to sales in store were achieved with unit sales increasing by 58% in BC and 74% for Alberta.
In addition to the sales results, the team was equally if not more impressed by the results achieved in website traffic (150% increase YoY) and CPC (89% decrease YoY).
Results were measured and tracked as follows:
- Likes / shares / views – conversion tracking via Google Analytics
- Leads / conversions – Conversion tracking via Google analytics (where to buy, newsletter signups, contact form submit, time on site > 2 mins)
- Community engagement – Facebook and Instagram follows
“We’ve seen a significant increase in website traffic and growth with our sales. Unlike the other firms we used in the past, Blue Meta is results-based.
Everything that’s frustrating to a brand owner, Blue Meta is not. When it comes to monitoring and sharing results, their team does it.
Blue Meta is good at working within a budget. They’re also scrappy when determining the best spend.”
– David van Keulen, President, Donia Farms