- Paid Media
- Social Ads
About the client
Zero Co is an Australian business tackling pollution and the over-use of single-use plastics by producing cleaning and personal care products and sending them direct to customers via subscription, using dispensers and refills made from recycled plastic from ocean waste and landfill.
Their short-term mission is to sign up 20,000 Australian households to a Zero Co subscription and purge their homes of single-use plastic, thereby stopping 1 million single-use plastic bottles from ending up in the world’s oceans and landfill in the first 12 months.
Zero Co needed help accelerating acquisition and increasing market penetration beyond crowdfunding via a new owned initiative ‘The Great Aussie Plastic Purge’.
Challenge
Accelerate acquisition and increase market penetration beyond crowdfunding via a new owned initiative ‘The Great Aussie Plastic Purge’.
Zero Co approached In Marketing We Trust with an exciting new campaign – The Great Australian Plastic Purge (GAPP). The purpose of the campaign was to bring more attention to the single-use plastic problem facing Australians and generating new acquisitions at scale while maintaining efficiency. The brand was faced with four key challenges and needed our help if they were to achieve their goals:
Difficulty maintaining cost per acquisition (CPA) efficiency at scale
Previous attempts to scale spend and results concurrently were unsuccessful due to the limitations of selected audiences and a leaky funnel.
Challenging environment – rising paid media costs going into Q4 across key channels
Q4, 2020 across Facebook was the most competitive to date, with increasing competition in the auction pushing cost per mille (CPM) and cost per click (CPC) higher.
Challenger brands launching in the Australian market increasing competition
With new and existing brands starting to enter the market with similar product offerings, time was of the essence when it came to maximising market share before competition increased any further.
Change purchasing behaviour from retail to online
Traditionally, cleaning purchase behaviour has skewed heavily towards retail, meaning an education piece was required within the campaign to inform prospective buyers of the benefits of buying cleaning products online and via a subscription model.
Solution
Drawing on digital expertise and experience to leverage tactics across channels to craft a clear and detailed acquisition strategy to overcome challenges.
We defined four key areas where we could add the most value to Zero Co in their pursuit of market domination:
Taking a multi-channel approach with a defined funnel
A structured eCommerce funnel was constructed using primary channels – Facebook and Google. Defining the funnel with appropriate audiences and applying strict exclusions was critically important to the success of the campaign, along with introducing new, previously unused audiences to each stage of the funnel.
Comprehensive creative testing framework
Rapidly testing creative formats and placements was an essential part of the campaign, using a structured testing framework to find winning copy angles and creative types at each stage of the funnel.
Zero Co was very active in organic media, including PR, during the campaign which enabled the In Marketing We Trust team to utilise creative generated from PR and news networks including media reports and interviews, achieving excellent engagement via authority building and social proof.
At In Marketing We Trust, we pride ourselves on our relationships with PR agencies and complimentary businesses. We work hard to ensure that we build and support integrated efforts that result in the best outcomes for clients such as Zero Co. By working with Zero Co’s PR team, we were able to create and share content that had a broader reach and higher cut through.
Rapid audience experimentation
Top of funnel was a major focus for the GAPP campaign, with some initial instability meaning further testing was required. Branching out from lookalike audiences, winning audiences based on interests, and broad demographic segments enabled scale along with improving bottom of funnel performance – reducing the overall blended customer acquisition cost (CAC) and increasing return on advertising spend across the entire funnel.
Utilising manual bidding strategies to control spend and performance
Manual bidding strategies were deployed in an effort to control cost per acquisition along with maximising return on advertising spend – particularly at the top of funnel. Successful strategies included target return on ad spend and cost cap bidding, tested at different ranges to find the most stable results.
Results
Achieving a 39% increase in the number of overall customers, despite decreasing spend
Overcoming a previous ceiling, the In Marketing We Trust paid media team maintained the benchmark cost per acquisition throughout the campaign despite increased competition across Facebook and Google in Q4, 2020 – a result of more online advertisers participating than ever before due to market influences including COVID-19 and the resulting increase in consumer demand online.
increase in customers
return on ad spend
new subscription customers
Zero Co was one of the best known startups of 2020, with high profile investors and a great story. That meant they had lofty goals and high expectations about customer growth. We were able to ensure that their expectations matched the results we knew we could achieve – significant growth, without a massive investment.
Achieving a 39% increase in the number of overall customers, despite decreasing spend considerably and facing challenging market conditions, was possible with the right tools.
Applying funnel best practices to improve return on advertising spend over time A steady return on advertising spend of 3+ was generated over the course of the campaign by leveraging a rigorous audience and creative testing framework, applying a strict funnel structure, and introducing appropriate exclusions at each stage of the funnel to serve the right message at the right time.
The campaign generated over 3,900 new subscription customers, an increase of over 39 per cent of overall customers pre-campaign, while remaining within the target cost per acquisition range.
Marketing team is better equipped to handle digital acquisition campaigns moving forward Before completing our work with Zero Co, we equipped the client with vastly improved digital acquisition knowledge and know-how through introducing best practice strategies and new approaches, which left them in a position where they could hire an in-house resource to continue the good work.
We endeavour to leave our clients in a position where they can manage the day-to-day requirements without us if that’s something they’re looking to achieve. Ultimately, a client leaving us because we’ve given them the tools to continue working and succeeding on their own, is a massive compliment.
Testimonials
Mike Smith
Founder
We’re very much looking forward to working with In Marketing We Trust to scale this audacious idea. Our goal is to prove that the still elusive circular economy is absolutely possible and that it can be profitable and scalable. If Zero Co can do this, there’s no reason the bi...
