Rich media ads can be considered as one of the most effective ad formats to drive awareness during launch periods but its shortcomings in terms of driving performance and scalability to increase engagement were obstacles to meeting the KPI’s.

With the main goal of increasing the awareness of the new car model while generating leads to drive performance, programmatic buying became the focal point of the media strategy for a more targeted and scalable approach in order to overcome the previously mentioned shortcomings of rich media ads. Multiple points of interaction were determined within the creative for maximizing engagement and understanding user behavior, followed by various scenarios based on user interactions to provide personalized messaging by segmenting the users by the actions they take with the use of a data management platform.

The creative was designed parallel to the content of the associated microsite of the car model, with interaction points to determine user behavior on the creative. The operational and technical limitations involved in scaling the use of rich media ads on a large amount of placements for obtaining efficient reach were overcome by the strengths of programmatic buying.

The user interactions on the creative were monitored and segmented with the data signals obtained through the DMP. Segmented user groups were re-engaged with new, personalized ad creative based on the actions they took on the rich media. In addition, look-alike audiences were created based on the properties of converting users through the DMP’s look-alike technology for gaining incremental form submissions.

Used percentage of overall budget: 25% of the C-HR online launch budget was used for this campaign.

Results:

- 1.5 million unique reach from the total target audience volume of 7.5 million. 50% above estimated.

- 53.44% interaction rate

- 46% improvement on cost per form submissions compared to the start of the campaign

- 30% incremental form submissions with the use of look-alike audiences

- 4 C-HR’s were sold from forms submitted through this campaign

Comparisons:

- 72% higher conversion rates compared to other channels used in the launch campaign

- 18% lower cost per form submission compared to other display channels used

- 33% better CTR compared to previously done programmatic masthead campaigns.

- 4x increase in search volumes of C-HR in Google Search compared to the pre-launch period.