Measuring return on ad spend (ROAS), which is the amount of revenue earned per dollar spent on a marketing campaign, is a common challenge for marketing professionals. Even harder than getting a foothold on how to calculate ROAS is proving that the effort of time and resources was worth the outcome.
For CPG brand managers and brand marketers, ROAS can be especially tricky for marketing activities that rely on in-person interactions, such as sampling. From reliable experience, you know that sampling really seals the deal on intents to purchase, but how do you follow the customer journey from trial to purchase? Closing the attribution loop is daunting, but not impossible.
The key to closed-loop sampling measurement: Integrated marketing
The solution is an integrated marketing approach to sampling that allows you to track and continue marketing to the consumer. Leading CPG brands execute this in multiple ways, depending on the size of the campaign budget. Ultimately, the most successful campaigns leverage multiple channels and enlist the support of cross-functional teams for maximum impact.
We recommend a mix of various tactics as you explore what works for your overall strategy, but there are definitely some that outshine the rest. Check out these four surefire ways that incorporate measuring sampling ROAS into integrated marketing campaigns.
Secure a good start: Gather consumer insight surveys with a 60-day lookback
You’ve already put the work in to attract engagement at sampling activations. Don’t lose that opportunity to learn more about your interested, potential customers!
Leading CPG brands often ask participants to complete consumer insight surveys. They will analyze those insights to inform product, marketing, and sales strategies and use the responses to best estimate ROAS, based on four key performance indicators (KPIs):
- % of participants new to the brand - this can include being new to the brand overall and/or product line/variation
- Lift in purchase intent - it helps to have a baseline measurement
- Lift in recommendation intent - it helps to have a baseline measurement
- Impact of sampling on the consumer - both qualitative and quantitative information should be collected here
Deploying the surveys can be as simple as including QR codes on promotional cards that are distributed with samples or guaranteeing free trials after survey completion. And it works for multiple types of products! We’ve seen consumer insight surveys perform strongly for CPG brands in vastly different categories.
In a recent Recess campaign, a leading laundry brand partnered with fitness studios in four key markets to distribute detergent samples to its members and gather sampler feedback. The campaign not only distributed physical samples but also included a digital marketing component spanning email marketing and boosted social posts.
Through the survey, we learned key insights like how 24.2% of consumers were new to the brand, 69.9% of consumers have purchased the product since receiving the sample, and a whopping 86% were extremely likely or likely to purchase the product in the next 90 days!
(Read more stories like how this office supply brand used survey responses from our campaign to shape future sampling activations or how this nationwide brewer learned from their survey that sampling led to a 34% lift in purchase intent between samplers and non-samplers!)
Guarantee better tracking from trial to purchase: Distribute a digital coupon or offer
While surveys are good at collecting participants’ responses, what people say and do can differ. A better way to track consumers from trial to purchase is to distribute coupons. By being thoughtful about the creation of these coupons, you can directly attribute sales (through which the coupons were redeemed) to the success of your sampling campaign and therefore calculate more accurate ROAS.
CPG brands often couple sampling activations with coupons while local, smaller businesses like &pizza, a quick-service restaurant, may prefer coupons-only campaigns. Whichever direction is taken, the use of coupons is key in ensuring you know what your consumers are doing.
When Recess partnered with college campuses to distribute &pizza coupons as part of their “Back to College” gift bags inside the students’ new apartments, driving purchases was the goal. These unique coupons had to be redeemed in-stores and/or on the &pizza app, guaranteeing that their new customers were trackable from brand activation to purchase.
We also saw massive success when working with confectionery and candy brands on including coupons with their sampling campaigns. Through exclusive outreach tactics like members-only emails and showing up where target consumers were most likely to gather, we were able to distribute trackable coupons along with samples which quickly drove purchases. With so many candy options available, it helped to push consumers along with a sweet deal on top of their treat indulgences.
Embrace doing better, together: Partner with a retailer to measure market lift
Measuring ROAS for sampling through consumer insight surveys and trackable coupons helps CPG brand managers and marketers greatly, yet more can be done. CPG brands that partner with retailers on integrated marketing activities and sampling activations can start looking more broadly at market lift.
In an omnichannel Recess campaign that leveraged multiple tactics, PepsiCo, in partnership with Gopuff, activated a “de-stress” lounge and distributed samples on college campuses during finals week to drive awareness of its products on Gopuff, a consumer goods and food delivery company. Coupled with a digital marketing campaign that included email marketing and boosted socials, PepsiCo saw 22% sales lift on Gopuff. The impressive increase on such a well-trafficked marketplace proved promising for Pepsi.
Similarly, we worked with a plant-based protein brand in partnership with a grocery delivery marketplace, enclosing promotional materials and coupons with every delivered order. Parallel digital marketing strategies were also integrated in this campaign. Thousands of grocery delivery orders in multiple states were included in the activation and resulted in nearly 1,100 redemptions!
Best the rest: Partner with a retailer to measure deterministic lift
As CPG brand managers and marketers know, there will always be even better ways to get what you want accomplished. When partnering directly with a retailer, brands can track and attribute in-store sales directly back to the sampling activation. By providing retailers a clear understanding of how brand campaigns are positively impacting overall revenue, both partners can strengthen their relationships and collaborate even more closely together on future successes.
To start, they may want to evaluate and strategize together on these deterministic lift KPIs:
- Sales lift
- iROAS
- Transactions/Buyer lift
- $/Transaction lift
- Conversion rate
- % New-to-Brand shoppers
In a recent Recess campaign, a multinational pharmaceutical brand wanted to increase awareness of their latest OTC medication with younger consumers and drive conversion to their key retailer partner. This global brand targeted young shoppers that frequented their retailer partner with a multi-channel program spanning experiential sampling, social, and digital – all pointing to the retailer app for purchase.
About Recess
Trusted by PepsiCo, General Mills, and Nestle, Recess is the leading experiential marketing software that understands where 6,000+ retailer shoppers are in the real world. Recess leverages this data to help brands drive traffic and sales back to their retailer partners – with omnichannel programs that span physical sampling, digital marketing, and custom insights. With Recess, brands extend their reach beyond in-store, and into local communities at gyms, colleges, K-8 schools, and co-working offices to build brand trust and awareness.
Talk to a Recess expert to learn more.
