Social Media Case Study
Committing to a Search Engine Optimization campaign, which includes a plan for the utilization of social media can be a bit intimidating. There are a lot of doubts out there about how social media can positively impact businesses. We understand this concern and are willing to work with you to develop the best plan that meets all of your needs and rises above your expectations. Accordingly, we wanted to share a case study with you that demonstrates the power of social media.
While we won’t always believe that social media is the best route of action for each of our clients, for some, it has delivered profound results. At the beginning of March, we commenced a social media campaign for Spinning.com, which is one the world’s largest retailers for fitness bicycles as well as other workout products and services. The project lasted until May 1st, and the results we earned made a large difference for our client.
Some Basic Statistics
- $ 3,296.82Total Campaign Cost
(March-May 1st) - 7,868Total Likes
- 6,663Page Likes
- $0.49Cost Per Page Like (CPL)
- 1,205Page Post Likes
- 7,800,000Total Impressions
- 3,000,000Social Impressionss
- 10,667Total Actions
- 2,346Page Photo Views
- 195Page Posts Shared
- 332Link Clicks
- 64Comments on Page Posts
- 53Question/Answers
- *each time an online advertisement is displayed, it counts as one impression
**each time there is a like, share, or comment, it counts as one impression
***aggregate of clicks, views, photo likes and comments, click-through rate, page likes, shares, etc
CAMPAIGN OVERVIEWS
We created 3 different campaigns for this effort, focusing on specific user groups that we felt would be attracted to both the contest and the brand:
- CT-M-Competitors: Focusing on a range of likely competitors (some internally generated, others proposed by Spinning personnel.
- CT-M-Exercise-interests: Focusing on people with expressed interests in personal fitness and exercise.
- Spinning-150000-Likes: A generalized campaign focusing on ‘friends’ of people who like Spinning.
COMPETITOR CAMPAIGN
In the Competitor campaign, we created 5 ads targeting competitor fans. They include: #Solé Bicycle Co., #NordicTrack, #Life Fitness, #Power-Plate, #Schwinn Bicycle Company, #Zumba, #Trek Bicycle Corporation, #Livestrong wristband, #Pro-form or #Diamondback Bicycles.
The Competitor campaign was one of our most expensive (given the other individuals bidding on similar customer groups). It generated 191 likes on $168 in spend, at a cost of $.88 per like.
While the overall cost per like was expensive, the participants of this campaign became more involved with posts / pages.
EXERCISE INTERNET CAMPAIGN
The exercise interest campaign targeted people whose identified interests included running, cardio, fitness, cycling, working out, biking, bicycling, exercise, track and field, cross country, and similar terms.
This campaign generated 114 page likes on a total cost of $56.65, which averages to $.49 per like.
Results: While the overall cost of this campaign was better, interest seemed to mainly focus on the promotion, and there was little interaction inside of the Spinning Facebook page.
SPINNING 150K LIKES CAMPAIGN
Our top performing campaign exclusively focused on the friends of fans of the brand, and all ads strictly revolved around the contest promotion. Due to the performance of these ads, we created a total of 12 different variations of text to support the effort here.
This campaign generated 6,358 page likes during the same period of the other campaigns with a cost of $2,852 for a total of $.44 per like. Certain ads were able to generate likes at a rate of one per $.40 of spend towards the end of the campaign with optimization work being performed.
What was interesting is that ads featuring people (usually in a class setting or individually on a bike) converted much better than the standard giveaway ad. Although the same text was used, people drew better attention.
This trend is related to:
- The original graphic ad was too small to accurately represent the materials and products included in the contest.
- Images with people in them tended to be brighter colored and stand out more from the standard Facebook color scheme.
CONCLUSION
Given what we learned from this effort, we suggest the following strategies for future contests and events:
- Simplify giveaway/contests to ensure they’re easily communicated in small ad space.
- Test people vs. text and products more directly.
- Test color schemes of ads to see which draw the most attention to the effort.
- Focus on broader audiences, which are related competitor or fitness campaigns.
Running a social media campaign requires more time and finesse than adding a few posts to your Facebook page. Let Coalition assist you with market research to maximize the results of your social media effort.
I found Coalition Technologies on Yelp and decided to try them out because of their five star rating. I usually don't get that excited about restaurants or services that I've had, but I can honestly say that CT did a SIX star job on my website. The designers were extremely helpful and nice and helped guide me through the whole process of designing my new website. Once the site was finished, their SEO worker did a quick job of pushing my site to the top of search results. I am recommending CT to everyone I know.
Kenny K.
Night T.