Chobani and Nielsen Catalina Solutions teamed up for a Yahoo Search ad campaign that resulted in a 9% lift in yogurt sales and a 1.3% increase in market share.
Case study summary
• Yoghurt brand wanted to justify search ad efforts by syncing it with impact on in-store sales
• It found advertisers using paid search may be benefiting even when consumers don't click on their ads
• Consumers who saw search ads spent 9% more on Chobani than people that didn’t see the ads
The challenge
Greek yoghurt brand Chiobani wanted to conduct a measurement study to provide the brand with insights into how paid search impacted in-store sales.
As the US’s leading Greek yogurt brand, Chobani knew how important it was to understand what drives their customers’ buying decisions.
But the team needed help finding out how their search advertising efforts were impacting in-store sales, and if the return truly justified their spending. To hone their strategy and gain detailed insights, the brand partnered with Yahoo on a new campaign and a unique closed-loop sales measurement study.
The solution
When bidding on search advertising terms, Chobani focused on three main categories: branded keywords, yogurt category keywords and competitors.
Chobani wanted to measure these efforts side by side to learn which had the biggest impact on driving consumers to the store to make a yogurt purchase.
“Going in, we wanted to know which search terms were the most and least effective, and incorporate these insights into our marketing plan,” explained Lauria. “We know that not all impressions are created equal — we wanted to understand what each one was really worth.”
The campaign matched households from their use of the Yahoo search engine through to actual grocery store checkouts, going well beyond just tracking if someone clicked on an ad.
Testing conducted by Yahoo and Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS) looked at household data on demographics, purchase histories, regional purchase behaviour, and buying cycles.
The results
It found advertisers using paid search may be benefiting even when consumers don't click on their ads.
Consumers who saw ads for Greek yogurt brand Chobani when searching for yogurt-related terms spent 9% more on Chobani than consumers who didn't see the company's ads.
According to Yahoo and NCS, the test methodology allowed for the search ad sales lift to be accurately tracked without interference from other factors, such as external marketing campaigns Chobani was running at the time.
Chobani found that purchases increased the more consumers were exposed to its search ads, and "once the campaign ended there was a drop-off."
This suggests that a sustained search marketing campaign might be necessary to realize continued sales lift.
Chobani Chief Marketing and Brand Officer Peter McGuinness, said: "It's yet another proof point that advertising in any form, on any channel, has merit and effectiveness. It just helps further justify budgets overall, and specifically in search."
