ShareWe are delighted to share that we are finalists for “Paid Social Campaign of the Year” at the 2022 UK Paid Media Awards. The team of judges for this award are looking to reward true excellence, exceptional knowledge and tactical use of budget in digital paid campaigns.
Our nominated work
Our entry is a result of the hugely successful Womenswear Winter Campaign that we managed for Debenhams.com in Q4 of 2021, with activity across Facebook and Instagram. We were tasked with optimising Debenham’s paid social activity during their peak season, challenged to increase Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) to more than twice of anything that had been previously achieved in-house from their very large media spend.
As an agency, we pride ourselves on being able to solve our clients’ biggest challenges, and this is one of the most important measures of our success. Drawing from our extensive pool of strategic experience and thinking outside the box, the team set about solving their key issues such as:
- Facebook’s AI never running at an optimised state – Debenhams regularly introduced offers on product lines, such as 20% off handbags but each new offer meant updating the adverts kick-starting the learning phase again which was detrimental to performance.
- Low spending audience – The previous average order value allowed room for improvement but with Facebook no longer allowing us to simply target high-income households, it would require a different approach.
- Little visibility on data – Debenhams had implemented Facebook’s recommended DABA (Dynamic Ads Broad Audience) approach which left all optimisation to Facebook’s AI which meant there were little insights to learn from.
Needless to say, not only were the team able to innovatively overcome each challenge, they also exceeded the challenging ROAS target that had been set. This was a significant achievement for the team, worthy of a finalist place.
Debenhams.com Display Team (L-R Jamie Potter, Lucy Henning, Amy Mullin & Tom Patel)
What did Debenhams have to say?
For us, having the opportunity to work with Debenhams (one of Britain’s most historic brands established in 1773) while they transitioned to digital under the new ownership of Boohoo, was an exciting prospect and one we took with both hands. Natalie Crane, Senior Marketing Manager at Boohoo (of Debenhams), gave the following feedback:
“Since managing our campaigns ROAS has improved significantly. Paid social is now our 3rd most important channel next to organic and paid search. They have worked collaboratively with us to quickly test and learn which combination of campaign objectives, audiences and creatives work best to meet our marketing goals.
They are commercially minded and will use insights with clear reporting to see what is driving the best returns and optimise towards better performance. It is a bit of a cliche, but they really are an extension of our in-house team – nothing is too much trouble for them and their passion, dedication and knowledge shines through.”
When will we know how we did?
The award winners will be announced on the 19th of April at the Montcalm Hotel, London. Win or lose, the skill and intelligent reactive solutions displayed by our paid social specialists, coupled with the outstanding results of the campaign, is enough cause for celebration.
You can read our full case study for Debenhams.com here. If you would like to talk to our team about how we can help you achieve more from your digital campaigns, please get in touch.
