Digital channels have become the go-to place to reach consumers, but as industries from CPG to Beauty become more saturated and the media landscape continues to evolve, finding your target audience at a predictable cost has become increasingly challenging. In this blog post, we will explore how to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing dollars with considerations for product sampling via media and owned-audiences, such as Sampler’s Community.
The variable cost of advertising
As the media landscape has evolved, advertising has become a variable cost for many marketers, influenced by several factors.
- Competition
- Consumer ad fatigue
- Emerging platforms / Shifting consumer attention
- Algorithm changes
- Unpredictable CPMs and CPCs generated by ad auctions on platforms like Google and Meta
- Ad creation costs
The competition for advertising is constantly increasing as industries become more saturated. Consumers, on the other hand, are growing weary of excessive ads, leading to ad fatigue. The frequent emergence of new platforms and algorithm changes further complicates the advertising landscape. While the cost of ad creation and unpredictability of CPMs and CPCs generated by ad auctions lend to the variable nature of media costs and poses a challenge for Marketers seeking to reach their audience within a predictable budget.
How to reach your audience at a predictable cost
To ensure they’re reaching their audience effectively and managing media spend efficiently, Marketers need to be adaptable to changes in the media landscape. One solution? Tapping into owned-audiences, like Sampler’s Community.
At Sampler, we pride ourselves on our ability to optimize our clients' media spend - whether it’s by adding a sampling CTA to your digital media buy, which can result in 5.5x higher ad recall, or by tapping into Sampler’s Community directly within the Sampler platform. Tapping into our platform directly offers a unique and effective approach to reaching the right audience within Sampler’s Community at a predictable cost.
Sampler’s Community is home to highly engaged consumers who have shared over 600 billion first-party data points, which inform and allow us to build 700+ unique targeting segments. By leveraging Sampler’s Community, clients are able to remove the variable costs of media and reach targeted audiences through Sampler at a fraction of the cost of other channels.
Unilever reached new consumers for 30-50% less than a typical media campaign
For instance, Degree was able to target and drive trial of their deodorant among several hundred thousand of their highest potential consumers within Sampler’s Community. If they had attempted to run the same campaign through Meta ads alone, it could have cost the brand an additional 30-50% on top of their sampling budget.
Best Practices: When to leverage media vs. an owned-audience
Though an owned-audience is a reliable method for reaching your audience at a predictable cost, there are certainly considerations for when to leverage both media and owned-audiences for sampling initiatives.
Media
Media campaigns driving to a sampling call to action are a favorable choice for Marketers looking to:
Drive greater brand awareness outside of their sampling campaign
Partner with a specific media brand or a talent association to gain exposure to specific audiences - for example, influencer campaigns or sponsorships
Owned-Audiences
Sampling via an owned-audience presents marketers with a powerful tool to achieve objectives at a predictable cost, such as:
New consumer acquisition / CRM building
Precision Targeting:
- Target a self-declared audience that may not be accessible on platforms like Meta, such as individuals who shop for men in their households
- Target via declared interests vs. inferred interests (i.e. an interest in veganism vs. someone stating that they are vegan)
Review generation from relevant consumers
Takeaways
Sampling via media channels and owned-audiences each play a role in a comprehensive marketing strategy. While media campaigns generate broad brand awareness, tapping into an owned audience offers advantages in predictability and cost efficiency. Owned-audiences allow brands to target specific individuals with precision, leveraging data and insights to optimize campaigns and achieve higher ROI. In contrast, media campaigns have less predictable costs and limited targeting options. By combining media campaigns for broader reach and owned-audiences for precise targeting, marketers can strike a balance and maximize the efficiency of their ad spend.
Interested in learning more? Speak to a Sampling Expert!
