OLX is one of the leading online classifieds marketplaces, present in over 40 countries. MarTech agency newage. We have been working with Ukrainian OLX since 2013 and during this time we have developed a display advertising placement system specifically for such a large platform. In 2020, we launched 14 campaigns for OLX in Ukraine. In this article, project manager of newage. digital agency Bogdan Bezugly will describe the brightest OLX display case studies in 2020.
The Challenge
OLX marketers work great with all channels and collect targeted queries from a hot audience. We were engaged in warming up a cold audience and filling the top level of the sales funnel. At the same time, it was important to build an analytics system that would objectively evaluate display impact, because brand campaigns cannot be counted by simple post-click data. And here the experience of a digital agency and our approach to post-view and cross-device analytics came in handy.
All campaigns can be conditionally divided into three large groups according to tasks.
- Promotion of the OLX brand, the benefits and capabilities of the platform itself.
- Promotion of certain product categories among buyers.
- Promotion of OLX as a platform for advertisements among private sellers and business representatives.
These tasks were solved, including through display advertising. We focused on display indicators, and their quality was assessed through performance metrics. The main ones in all campaigns were:
- MAU, monthly active users;
- MUR, monthly unique repliers.
We also used metrics specific to a particular campaign: the number of new ads, responses to ads, visits to certain sections of the site, etc.
In building strategies, we focused on the client’s brief and past experience with him. For each campaign, new settings were developed, for each, the effectiveness was measured and promotions were optimized – which we will discuss below using specific examples.
Tools We Used
We used our developments and analysis system for advertising campaigns for OLX campaigns. Her work is based on the method of Comprehensive Analysis of Display Advertising. It consists of:
- data quality control;
- evaluation of media indicators;
- evaluation of post-click, post-view and cross-device reactions to advertising;
- agile approach to campaign optimization.
Comprehensive analysis of the client’s journey
When working with OLX, simple tools were not enough, and we were always looking for solutions in new advanced products. As one of the few Google Marketing Platform certified agencies, we have leveraged products from this ecosystem:
- Google Analytics 360;
- Campaign Manager 360.
These products are easily integrated with each other, so we could compare the behavior of those who saw and did not see ads. That is, we could track exactly how display advertising affected those who saw it. For example, the impact of ads on visits, or conversions at each stage of the funnel.
For advertising, we used standard platforms:
And in order to consolidate the data of advertising offices, the auditor and web analytics, we have developed a dashboard for Comprehensive Analysis of display advertising. The information was transferred to it automatically, thanks to which our specialists and the client could observe the campaigns in real-time.
Read more about Facebook post-view attribution in our article “How to Evaluate Ad Campaigns“
Each campaign acquired a new round, and this was a direct optimization for the client’s business goal. Each campaign acquired a new round, and this was a direct optimization for the client’s business goal. By collecting all the numbers in one place and having detailed analytics, we were able to optimize campaigns in terms of frequency, effective creative, targeting, and many other parameters.
Who Worked On The Campaigns
OLX team:
- Egozha Nikita — Performance Marketing Manager
- Sergey Bezverkhy — Performance Marketing Manager
- Marina Bril — Performance and Product Marketing Team Lead
newage. team:
- Lyudmila Belyavskaya — Senior Traffic Manager
- Bogdan Bezugly — Project Manager
- Maxim Tereshchenko — Head of Strategy and Mediaplanning
- Oleksandr Rolsky — Client Service Director
Brand Campaigns
One of the important directions in the promotion of OLX is building the company’s brand, promoting the platform itself and its services. For example, let’s analyze the “OLX Delivery” campaign, which described the benefits of the service to users.
OLX Shipping allows you to buy and sell on a bulletin board as securely as in an online store. When the buyer places an order, the service creates an invoice, and the seller only has to send the goods and receive cash on delivery. This is a safer, more convenient and more reliable way to buy and sell, compared to personal communication with the seller: no need to send an advance payment to a stranger or go to incomprehensible instant messengers.
The “OLX Delivery” campaign consisted of four 10-second videos that described the safety of the service.
The main campaign metric was orders through built-in functionality. The objective of the campaign was to increase the number of users who use the service. During the campaign, conversions here increased by tens of percent. After the campaign, although a decrease was felt, more people began to use OLX Delivery.
We used Google Analytics 360 to look at the behavior of those who saw and didn’t see ads separately. Those who saw the videos chose Delivery on the OLX website almost 6 times more often than other users. And 4 times more likely to complete the execution of such an order.
Last year, in a similar campaign, the increase in deliveries was more dynamic, but this year we managed to stimulate much more deliveries in absolute terms.
Promotion Of Product Groups
OLX periodically run campaigns that promote individual products or services. So the authors of the ads get an additional boost – more interested customers come to the site. And it’s easier for buyers to find what they want.
The creative was aimed at buyers, respectively, indicators of effectiveness and engagement for us were: written messages to sellers, viewing phone numbers or, best of all, purchases through OLX Delivery. All these interactions the client calls the “Reply” metric, and it has been a key one in our display campaigns.
In 2020, OLX began treating the site’s product categories as separate products. The main challenge here was to link campaigns to visits to specific sections. That is, if a person saw an ad and went to the site, it was necessary to understand whether he went into the target category; and in general, whether the visits of users of the advertised category have increased. Did the ad work and to what extent?
To solve this, we set up separate Campaign Manager auditor counters on the category pages so that we could track clicks to each subsection separately and compare the actions of users who saw ads and those who didn’t.
Fashion
The “Fashion” campaign ran in November and promoted winter wear ads on OLX. The category, like any product, has seasonality, our task was to contain the seasonal subsidence. The campaign consisted of bumpers, banners and discovery ads.
The campaign audience consisted of the following segments:
- category visitors in the last week;
- those who used search queries related to winter clothing;
- audiences of interest related to winter clothing;
- competitors url visitors.
Each segment was collected from separate groups based on requests or interests, so we were able to optimize the campaign at the targeting level and show ads only to the most active users.
Those who saw the ad were 2.5 times more likely to visit the target section. They were almost five times more likely to replay, and the same ratio remained at the end of the funnel.
As a result, we managed to smooth out seasonal fluctuations, but a couple of weeks after the campaign, the category returned to its performance. That is, thanks to the campaign, we again motivated hundreds of thousands of people to sell and buy winter clothes, which was cost-effective for the client.
Increase In The Number Of Ads On The Platform
Another big goal for 2020 is to attract new authors and new ads. Our task was to remind Ukrainians that they can sell things on OLX.
C2C
March 2020 was unstable. People’s plans were falling apart, it was not clear how the next week or month would go. During this period, OLX decided to remind people of the traditional, proven source of income – the sale of unnecessary things.
The main metric of this campaign was new ads. And here display ads also came in handy, although it was a complex of activities, but we will talk about how display activities influenced. We compared the behavior of those who saw and did not see the ad. The efficiency indicators varied almost twice, naturally, those who did not contact with advertising had a lower indicator. Given that OLX is in the top ten most visited sites in Ukraine, this is a significant increase.
Looking at other campaign metrics, those who saw ads were twice as likely to publish ads as those who didn’t see ads. In addition, they were three times more likely to respond to other people’s ads, although we did not pursue this goal, and a separate campaign.
In parallel with this campaign, a similar “B2B” campaign was held. She focused on entrepreneurs who work offline. Accordingly, the message of the advertisement was: “We are transferring the business to online mode.”
Conclusions
- Display campaigns work.
- An audience that has seen display ads interacts better with the company. At all stages of the funnel, her performance is higher than that of people who have not seen ads.
- The effectiveness of display advertising can be measured both globally for the brand and for individual products or targeted actions on the site.
- To promote OLX, we used Google Marketing Platform tools: Google Analytics 360 and Campaign Manager 360. Thanks to them, we were able to compare the behavior of users who saw and did not see ads, as well as track activity in individual product categories. Thus, we were able to see the impact of advertising campaigns on the client’s business performance.
We had a similar case when we created advanced measurement of ad campaign’s impact for our client Bodo. This method helped us understand how effective Bodo’s ad campaigns really are.
Nice article!
Great experience, thanks for sharing!