For several years, we have worked with iconic Canadian fast-fashion retailer La Maison Simons. In February 2020, Simons’ brand revenue goals were very clear: 23% growth YoY in revenue, with paid media efforts from DAC accounting for approximately a third of that.
Then the pandemic set in. When lockdowns came into effect, fashion ecommerce followed most major industries with spend, revenue, and conversion rates all dropping to monthly lows. Yet our goal remained the same: strive towards the same level of performance, return on ad spend (ROAS), and revenue targets despite the pandemic’s impact—and do it with 40% lower media budget from March to July 2020.
In times of crisis, expenses must be cut and it is no secret that all marketing activities are often in the hot seat. In the retail industry, the majority of companies drastically reduced their marketing expenses (and even stopped them completely) when lockdowns were announced in March 2020.
For a brand to keep on investing in ecommerce in this incredibly tough period, there needs to be clear performance value. Keeping in mind the market’s unpredictability and the fact that every dollar we invested could have been the last, it was imperative for our team to demonstrate a major return on investment with a more limited budget. Our motto became: Optimize every dollar, focus on the essentials.
On top of that, we decided to strengthen our performance-measurement structures to provide the client with more in-depth means of monitoring data. We created new dashboards that allowed the comparison of income, ROAS, expenses, and budget pacing against our objectives. These improvements in data accessibility and visibility enabled much faster decision making.
Against all odds, we drove amazing results in ROAS and revenue growth during the months that COVID-19 was at its initial peak (March to June 2020).
increase in ROAS in comparison to 2019
the Black Friday-Cyber Monday ROAS achieved in the first three months of the pandemic
increase in revenues generated in Q1 and Q2