Birkenstock: A social media advertising masterclass
Fancy TV campaigns or giant billboards sometimes overshadow social media advertising. If executed well, social media is one of the few channels that can boost every single part of your funnel.
Due to how unbelievably quick and agile it is to adjust budgets and creatives, advertising on social media is often seen as an ‘easy win’ by brands unwilling to invest the time or resources to create a proper strategy.
Follow the journey of a Birkenstock customer through the lens of a highly effective social media advertising strategy.
Step 1: Awareness
The first stage of the journey is discovery. You don’t know about the Birkenstock brand. You’re unaware they sell incredibly comfortable and durable sandals.
The first time you find out about Birkenstock is through an ad you’ve seen on Instagram.
For maximum cost-effectiveness, this ad is designed in a way that appeals to a mass audience. The objective is simple. Get as many people to connect ‘Birkenstock’ with ‘Comfy sandals’ as possible.
Birkenstock has multiple awareness ads running at the same time. They do this for a few reasons.
Firstly, it allows them to test and optimise continuously. Making sure they only change one variable at a time, they can gather data on what creative resonates with shoppers or what CTA works best.
Secondly, it allows them to gather data that they can use to optimise their future ads. They can create audiences based on interactions with particular shoes. For instance, they can make an audience of shoppers who have interacted with photos of sandals with only one strap.
Step 2: Consideration
The next stage of the sales funnel is educating shoppers on Birkenstock's different products and why they should buy them.
After you have seen a Birkenstock awareness ad, you should understand who Birkenstock are and what they sell. This makes you the perfect target for their product ads.
Seeing the previous ad has given you the mental availability to consume more information about Birkenstock. These ads aim to educate you on their different products so they are top of mind the next time you buy a new pair of sandals.
The targeting for these ads is more focused. They can use the data from the previous awareness ads to narrow down interested shoppers into buckets of who is likely to buy what. For example, they can show shoppers who interacted with their ‘one-strap awareness creative’ a ‘one-strap product ad’.
They can also use targeting more focused on the specific product in question. For example, they have a more style-focused range that they can target towards fashion-conscious shoppers.
Step 3: Conversion
The consideration phase of an ad campaign will capture many low-hanging fruit shoppers who don’t need much persuading to buy a new pair of Birkenstock sandals. What turns a good ad campaign into a great one is the ability to use conversion ads to hoover up the shoppers who need extra motivation to commit to the purchase.
The objective is purely sales.
Birkenstock now has all the ingredients they need to increase sales through their ads.
- An engaged audience that knows the Birkenstock brand and its USPs.
- Sales to all the shoppers who don’t need a discount to buy.
- Shopper behaviour data. Who has interacted with which ads.
With this in mind, they can now push the right content to the right shopper. They use conversion tactics like reducing the initial payment with Tabby Pay in 4 or discounting.
The audience is now much more focused, so you should see more return on your ad spend. The previous two steps have done the hard work of educating and getting rid of users who are either already Birkenstock customers or uninterested, leaving a perfectly primed audience of shoppers ready to purchase.
Read our in-depth guide on Muqasama for more tips on creating social media ad campaigns.