Case study: using Facebook Advertising to expand the reach of your loyalty program

“I’ve launched my store but I’m not getting any sales – what am I doing wrong?” This is a common question we see appearing on ecommerce forums and social groups. Fast forward a few months – those same stores have started to generate sales and have even launched a loyalty program. The question often then becomes, “why haven’t I got any members?”

There are a number of things to consider at this point:

1. Are customers noticing your loyalty program on your site?
2. Have you communicated the program to your existing customers?
3. Have you made it clear why customers would benefit from joining?

Are customers noticing your loyalty program on your site?

This may seem an obvious one, but too many retailers fail to make their loyalty programs a prominent part of their storefront. Ensure that your program is as obvious as possible by including it in your site navigation, and where possible using a widget to ensure it appears on every page. We also recommend adding a banner to your site when you first launch your program.

Have you communicated the program to your existing customers?

It’s easy to get distracted trying to ensure that each new customer you acquire joins your program. Don’t forget that every one of your existing customers could also become a member. Encourage sign ups from your customer base with email campaigns and offer rewards and incentives for joining the program.

Have you made it clear why customers would benefit from joining?

Research shows that 57% of loyalty program members do not know their points balance, and 38% are unaware of their points value. This can only have a negative impact on your program engagement. Communicating the ins and outs of your program clearly is key, not just to encouraging customers to sign up, but to ensuring that they engage on a longer term basis.

All of the above will help you grow your loyalty program organically, however, if you’re looking for a little more bang for your buck, experimenting with Facebook advertising is a great place to start.

Case study: Bright Red Marketing

One of the best examples we’ve seen of using Facebook ads to drive program membership comes from Bright Red Marketing, and one of their clients, a shoe retailer. Having installed LoyaltyLion, they needed to generate more sign ups – a goal they more than hit, securing 9,537 signups in three months, and generating nine times ROI on every dollar they spent promoting the campaign.

So how did they do it? The campaign centered on creating a series of competitions to encourage customers to join the program. Each person signing up was given an entry into a draw to win a pair of limited edition sneakers.  Within the first three months of the campaign launching, the retailer had generated over £56k in sales associated with loyalty codes. Members who had signed up also delivered a 13% conversion rate in their first 14 days of membership.

And the key takeaways from the campaign?

• Avoid wasted ad spend by excluding existing members
  This is relevant at every stage of your advertising campaign – from excluding existing program members from your initial ads, to ensuring that you’re continually removing those that sign up as a result of your campaign from your target audience

• Increase campaign reach by encouraging organic engagement
  Remember that your program members are often your biggest advocates, even when they’ve only just joined. Ask people to share their sign ups or tag friends to do the same and you’ll start to reach more people for less ad spend

• Double down on your investment with lookalike audiences
  Once you’ve established that Facebook ads deliver a return, keep testing different approaches with new target shoppers by building lookalike audiences from those that have already responded positively to your campaign by sending up. This technique proved highly successful for Bright Red Marketing and their client.

You can read the full case study from Bright Red Marketing here, or book a time to speak to one of the LoyaltyLion team about expanding the reach of your customer loyalty program.