Alternatives to PPC for Marketing in a Post Lockdown World

Posted by TwentyCi on 8th July 2020 -

Lockdown has delivered an uplift for online retailers that no channel promotion could ever provide. Every sector and category has seen all of their Black Friday and Christmas Day peaks arrive every day for a sustained period.

Lockdown has shown us all that as a consumer there has not been the need to indulge in the immersive nature of in-store buying.  This change in buying habits will persist for many consumers and will have a continued impact on many retailers.  Digital first retailers are managing to meet demand successfully, but unfortunately traditional retail is reeling. 

In 2020 the new normal world has a significant digital slant with consumer behaviour becoming more transaction focused than ever before.

As the importance of driving customers through to websites grows, more inventive use of media is critical.  By using sequential creatives, it is possible for advertisers to either create or mirror the user journey to purchase. 

In our opinion there is still a disproportionate over reliance on PPC as this is seen as the easiest digital media platform to qualify attribution at the surface level.  This is often not representative of the consumers call to action for visiting the website and more likely it is the consumer not remembering the product URL and using search to reach the right location. 

As an alternative, social and programmatic advertising can potentially have a greater understanding of the users mindset and need based on data insight as opposed to PPC which will use search history and keywords to drive consumers to their destination site.  This does mean that PPC could suffer from fad or impulse buyers compared to environment or programmatic communication.

Retail needs to change focus.  Digital used to be one channel employed to communicate to customers.  This is not the case anymore.  Retail infrastructure needs to move towards digital to capitalise on the efficiencies.  By creating a digital hub, costs and audience reach can be achieved far easier plus this will also enable retailers to react to customer demand faster and sell more product.  

Data has always been of great importance to the retail industry.  Reviewing stock and demand through sales increases the efficiency of the operation by preparing the retailer.  There needs to be the same attention levied against audience targeting.  By having an understanding of an individual’s personal circumstances an efficient retailer can curate communication to show how the consumers’ needs can be best satisfied.

It is well documented how homemovers are key consumers of many categories, something that we at TwentyCi discuss at length.  Accuracy, recency and coverage will enable retailers to reach the right people at the right time, and most importantly, with the right message that will ensure a happy customer.  These are customers with a higher propensity to spend and with a larger average order value, why would you not want to communicate with them through the most effective channel?

Get in touch with us today to discuss further.

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TwentyCi | [email protected] | 01908 829300