Optimizing a New Product Launch Across Amazon, Social, and Search
HoMedics, a wellness brand known for its massage and relaxation products, helps people practice self-care at home. They enlisted help from Metric Theory to support the launch of UV-CLEAN, a new product line for phone sanitization, just prior to the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with new urgency to be part of the solution, the teams worked together to both introduce this technology to people and turn that education into sales at scale.
The Goal: Grow UV-CLEAN Reach & Revenue
Maximizing awareness for the new product line required a multi-channel and full-funnel approach. HoMedics and Metric Theory needed to find out what product messaging most resonated, position UV-CLEAN against other existing sanitation products, experiment to find the right audiences at each stage of readiness to purchase, and maximize intent capture as demand grew.
Our Strategy
- Amazon Brand & Competition Management
- Amazon Video Ads & Brand Pages
- Social Audience & Messaging Updates
- Piloting Google Shopping Automation
Amazon Brand & Competition Management
Growing Amazon presence was extremely important during this surge in demand for UV-CLEAN and similar products. The teams’ Sponsored Brand ad type strategy allowed for maximized exposure at cost-effective CPCs even as popularity, and competition, increased.
Driven by both natural demand and strong awareness initiatives on social channels and elsewhere, brand impressions rose over the Spring, but so did the intelligence of competing products. Using competitor monitoring tools, Metric Theory saw organic rankings declines for the HoMedics brand, and international knock-off products advertising on HoMedics brand keywords. Metric Theory responded with focused competitor campaigns that positioned UV-CLEAN against more expensive products with lower reviews – right next to the “add-to-cart” button.
During this period, Amazon also suddenly de-listed the UV-CLEAN products, something that was unfortunately common during the chaotic early phase of the pandemic. With quick action by their Metric Theory team and their relationship with Amazon, HoMedics was able to get products back on the platform quickly and into the hands of new customers. The teams’ diligent work helped HoMedics grow UV-CLEAN sales by over 40% from March to July.
Amazon Video Ads & Brand Pages
Before UV-CLEAN’s release and more media attention on personal sanitation, it was understandably difficult for people to conceptualize ozone-based cleaning products. So, HoMedics and Metric Theory launched Sponsored Brand Video ads that showed people using the product to safely sanitize everything from devices to food to demonstrate the power of the technology. And it worked – the Sponsored Brand Video campaign became the most efficient sales driver for the brand, 75% more efficient than standard non-brand campaigns.
Metric Theory also went beyond ads to advise on changes to the HoMedics Brand Page that would further drive education and new buyers. Reprioritizing the UV-CLEAN landing page and adding more callouts and interactive content on the new line to the brand homepage gave shoppers more opportunity to learn about it and consider purchasing. Together, these optimizations led to over 300% gains in exposure – impressions and clicks – and beat revenue goals by 90%.
"When Covid-19 hit, we all needed to demonstrate urgency and agility to deliver the help and products our communities needed. Metric Theory helped HoMedics adjust targeting, spend, and media execution to get our new UV-Clean sanitizers into homes when they were needed most. We’re very proud of the work we did together to address the real health concerns our customers face."
Social Audience & Messaging Updates
Anticipating that even prospecting audiences would be more open to the UV-CLEAN message because of rising concerns around sanitation, Metric Theory created a Facebook audience testing plan to introduce the product. This process led to the quick discovery of interest audiences around working from home and “Spring Cleaning” that were performance standouts. Lookalike audiences for past UV-CLEAN purchasers were added, though because algorithmic audiences took time to settle in on the behavioral profile, finding interest audiences that performed well for direct sales was key to market development.
The teams worked together to find mindful messaging tests for Facebook Ads that struck a balance between educating on the benefits of UV sanitization and showing empathy for those concerned for their health. Imagery was also tested between lifestyle images of the product in use and product-centric, feature-oriented messaging. The outcomes from this testing helped scale the sales of more devices once demand surged. The teams also developed a separate ad and messaging strategy for retargeting those who already had shown interest in the products, using both Facebook image ads and dynamic product ads to drive sales.
Piloting Google Shopping Automation
Google Shopping had always been an important part of the online marketing mix for HoMedics products. With access to new ad inventory in passive content settings, Smart Shopping emerged as a testing opportunity in early 2020 that ended up as a perfect match for the UV-CLEAN line. As HoMedics and Metric Theory educated people about both the sanitization hazard of mobile phones and the product’s use case to solve it, Shopping became an important part of closing prospects during the intent phase and grabbing market share from a wide range of competing products.
Testing Google Smart Shopping campaigns early on and proving their success paved the way for even more sales as demand for UV-CLEAN and HoMedics established lines like air quality products spiked in March and April. Comparing Smart Shopping to the standard shopping campaigns, the new Smart Shopping campaigns drove 265% more revenue at an 80% higher ROAS, with over 70% of that revenue stemming from UV-CLEAN products.
57%
increase in Facebook revenue
300%+
increase in Amazon traffic
265%
increase in Shopping ads revenue
