Staples Canada optimizes omnichannel campaigns

Staples has enlisted Kenshoo, a global leader in predictive media optimization technology, and RevTrax, a promotions platform that drives and measures in-store sales through digital coupons, to help the company optimize omnichannel campaigns in Canada.



In an effort to better understand its online-to-offline marketing efforts, Staples Canada utilized RevTrax couponing technology to create and track a digital coupon offering consumers $10 off a Copy & Print order of $30 or more. The coupon could be printed, accessed as an online e-commerce code or displayed as a mobile landing page.



Once the coupon was redeemed, Staples Canada supplied the redemption data to RevTrax, enabling the matching of search campaigns and keywords to in-store transactions. Kenshoo integrated the keyword-level conversion data into its platform, enabling campaigns to be optimized in real-time for performance by tailoring ad copy and informing bid policies to drive more coupon redemptions.



"We had several goals for this campaign, including driving online and in-store sales and uncovering deeper insights into customer behaviors and coupon redemption patterns," said Arthur Marcoviciu, digital marketing supervisor for Staples Canada. "By leveraging industry-leading technology from RevTrax and Kenshoo, we were able to efficiently and effectively unite and optimize our online and offline marketing efforts for maximum ROI. For example, we learned that business customers drive the highest average order value when converting through non-brand keywords. Since most coupon redemptions occur in-store, we wouldn't have been able to drive this level of cross-channel insight without this partnership."



In the three-month period of the campaign, Staples Canada said it saw improvement in critical KPIs, including a 200% increase in incremental ROI, a more than 9% increase in average weekly redemptions, a redemption increase of 148% from first to final week and more than 1.4 million impressions. Simultaneously, average cost-per-click dropped 11%.



"The majority of purchases still occur in-store, so evaluating the success of a digital marketing campaign through an ecommerce-only lens provides a limited and inadequate definition of success," said Jonathan Treiber, CEO and co-founder of RevTrax. "Working with RevTrax and Kenshoo, Staples Canada went beyond the status quo and identified the search campaign elements driving the most in-store revenue, ultimately creating a cycle of learning and optimization to reduce costs and improve omnichannel effectiveness."



By linking the transactional data from the online campaign to offline conversions, Staples Canada received a holistic view of its omnichannel campaign performance and was able to optimize campaigns based on in-store transactions just as it does with e-commerce transactions.



"Using data from one channel to inform another has become a best practice for marketers, and Kenshoo has been leading the charge on this front with offerings such as Kenshoo Intent-Driven Audiences which uses consumer search intent to automatically deliver targeted social ads," said Gary Nafus, managing director, Americas for Kenshoo. "The biggest hurdle for many marketers in this regard is uniting online and offline efforts; partnerships between industry leaders like Kenshoo and RevTrax deliver solutions to bridge the gaps and achieve great results."