Sales of 500,000 KWD at a cost of 45,000 KWD over 6 months

How did the sales of a store specializing in organic beauty products in Kuwait exceed half a million Kuwaiti dinars with a cost not exceeding 45,000 KWD, achieving a return on ad spend of more than 11 times in just 6 months?

How We Started:

Initially, the client’s strategy relied on the concept of personal branding and building a strong relationship with customers based on trust in the quality of the products and extended to sharing personal diaries and news. Generally, there was not a significant focus on investing in the online store during the pre-start period, until the store owner decided to invest in the brand by focusing on the online store, alongside continuing to create an intimate and spontaneous experience with the customers.

The condition before starting

Initially, the website was not ready to launch directly, so we started some improvements before the beginning:

• Regarding the products, we began a study of the products to identify the most-selling products and packages from the start of the project to focus on them at the beginning of the ad campaigns.

• The client is subscribed to a platform for building the store, which had difficulties linking the ad accounts pixels.

• There is no cash on delivery; payments are online only.

The plan and sales goals Before launching the ads

– Reached a preliminary understanding of the winning products for the start of the ads.

– Built an integrated tracking system by linking the pixels directly using Google Tag Manager, where we linked the tracking of purchase processes completely across all platforms.

After studying the store, its condition, and its sales since the beginning on the MNASATI platform and auditing everything related to the most-selling products, we set our plan and sales goal from the start.

The sales goal = to achieve sales exceeding 50,000 KWD per month with a budget not exceeding 8,000 KWD, with a return on advertising spend exceeding 6X.

Although the store had never achieved these numbers before since its establishment, after studying the store’s condition, we recognized the size of the opportunity. Based on this, we set ambitious sales goals, fully confident in the possibility of achieving higher than the declared sales goal.

Launching Ads from Testing to Budget Expansion

Testing and Launch Phase:

Firstly: Ad Content:

• We leveraged the client’s strengths in personal branding and customer trust by using real customer reviews of the best-selling products and focusing on them.
• We devised a content production plan that emphasized a large volume of designs.
• The primary focus was on designs that clearly described each product or package in terms of its components, features, and competitive pricing, highlighting the special offers for each product or package in various ways.
• We capitalized on a strength of the store: that the products are entirely organic.
• We converted some customer reviews into videos and reels to use them on various advertising platforms.

Secondly: Ad Campaigns:

• We launched testing across all platforms (Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, Google).
• It can be said that we tested everything possible on all the mentioned advertising platforms to achieve the best possible form of campaigns in preparation for the expansion phase.
• Audience Testing: We tested campaigns without interests, others with various and diverse interests, and also retargeting campaigns for those who interacted on Instagram.
• Audience Testing: We also tested all possible age groups and types of audiences, men and women, to identify the best possible target audience.
• Product Testing: We tested direct links on products or packages and also tested placing the entire store’s link to determine the best-selling products through ad campaigns.

Testing Phase:

Firstly: Meta:

– Campaigns with specific interests alongside non-targeted campaigns were launched with the aim of acquiring new customers and determining the cost per customer for each type of campaign.

– We relied on direct conversion campaigns on the store aimed at purchases and conversion campaigns on WhatsApp.

Secondly: TikTok:

– Campaigns with interests alongside non-targeted campaigns were launched with the aim of acquiring new customers and determining the cost per customer for each type of campaign.

– We relied solely on direct conversion campaigns on the store without any other type of campaign.

Thirdly: Snapchat:

– Non-targeted campaigns without any specific interests were launched, where only the age was specified; over 18 years, with the goal of acquiring new customers and determining the cost per customer.

Fourthly: Google:

– Search campaigns focused on keywords related to the store’s name to completely dominate searches for it, competitors’ names, and keywords related to the products the store focuses on and their features.

Scaling Phase 

The testing period lasted only a few days, and once the path was clear, we began the scaling phase, which involved three stages:

First Scaling Phase:

It was evident that the best platforms in terms of the number of orders and the cost per order were, in order:

1- Meta

2- Snapchat

Firstly: Meta:

We began focusing on the best-performing platforms, especially Meta (Instagram), as it is the primary platform for the client’s personal brand, by leveraging it through:

– Utilizing the client’s own existing posts on the Instagram account to benefit from interactions on the posts.

– Focusing on broad campaigns to reach the largest possible number of customers and prepare for retargeting campaigns.

– Starting to focus on Advantage + shopping campaigns to take advantage of their features and reach customers across all possible placements on both Instagram and Facebook.

– Placing greater emphasis on WhatsApp campaigns due to their good results, in addition to handling WhatsApp customers by our team with utmost professionalism, enabling them to maintain potential customers and convert them from merely showing interest or asking about products and prices to serious customers who have made purchases, sometimes more than once.

– Specific campaigns were tailored for the most important products and best-selling packages with successful ads.

– Capitalizing on the trend of boycotting foreign products with special designs that highlight that the products are 100% Kuwaiti and of better quality than foreign products.

Secondly: Snapchat:

– The focus was placed on the types of ads that generated the most sales, and any ads that did not achieve the required return on ad spend in the sales plan were discontinued.

In general, any ad that did not achieve a return on ad spend of at least 6 times the ad cost was discontinued across all platforms. Budgets were then increased for the campaigns that were successful.

Second Scaling Phase:

This phase involved geographical expansion to several Gulf countries, namely the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain. This significantly helped to increase sales, with these countries contributing to 25% of the total sales on the store during that period.

Third Scaling Phase:

This phase was carried out by our store sales team at MAKASEB. We provided the store with a specialized sales team responsible for the upselling process to customers. Here, they retargeted previous customers with new products or offered them special discount codes applicable store-wide for a limited time upon placing an order of a minimum amount to ensure an increase in basket size and maintain loyalty of existing customers.

Additionally, special offers for holidays and events were made available with a discount code applicable store-wide for orders of at least a certain amount.

Final Result after 6 months of working with  MAKASEB:

– Sales achieved: 507,085 KWD.

– Total cost: 44,122  KWD.

– Return on ad spend: 11.49X.

Summary:

• From the above, we can conclude the importance of understanding the nature of the client and the way they build their brand to leverage all its strengths, moving away from rigid traditional marketing templates.
• The results were not primarily based on the conventional system used by most competitors, such as advertising with celebrities or relying on content creators to make videos. Instead, with minimal content, sometimes as simple as a screenshot, what proved highly effective was the impact of customer reviews.
• Undoubtedly, the quality of the product is a key factor in success and is the primary reason for customers’ trust in the brand and the efficiency of its products.
• An advertising strategy based on constant and ongoing testing is the foundation of success.
• The importance of sales teams and customer service in achieving growth cannot be overstressed.
• Furthermore, the significance of a comprehensive marketing approach is crucial for the growth of the store; growth does not rely solely on paid ads. This holistic approach ensures that all aspects of the business contribute effectively to its overall success.