Brief:

• Nonprofit group Goodwill boosted store visits nearly sixfold with a mobile campaign that also cut cost-per-visit by 79%, according to a case study that ad-tech company AdTheorent shared with Mobile Marketer. The firm's data-driven platform used predictive targeting to reach consumers near Goodwill locations as part of its "Bring Good Home" promotion. Goodwill debuted the multichannel campaign in September 2018.
• The initiative yielded several insights about the behavior of mobile consumers who responded to the ads. Those who engaged with ad creative on Mondays and Tuesdays drove the highest number of incremental visits, while people who were connected by Wi-Fi at home were most likely to visit one of Goodwill's 3,000 stores.
• Goodwill for the first time used a cost per incremental visit (CPIV) ad-pricing model that lets brands pay only for incremental foot traffic verified by a third party. Incremental visits are ones that can be directly attributed to an ad impression, not those that may have happened without a person seeing the ad, per AdTheorent.

Insight:

Goodwill's results for its "Bring Good Home" campaign demonstrate the importance of a data-driven approach to reaching mobile consumers with targeted ads. Driving store traffic is critical to Goodwill, which reportedly plows almost 90% of the money it receives from store sales back into community programs like job and skills training for more than 34 million people a year.

The company teamed with the nonprofit AdCouncil and ad agency Digitas to create the campaign that emphasized how shopping at Goodwill stores provides people with career opportunities. Digital media platforms including Facebook, Pinterest and Teemo ran the campaign, which also was supported by social influencers such as Mary Elizabeth Darling, Eggie Jenn Im, Kristin Johns, Anna Lee, Jessica Neistadt and Emily Wass, per the announcement.

AdTheorent has worked with other organizations to drive visits in similar mobile campaigns, such as Visit Austin, the marketing agency for the Texas capital. The campaign, which ran from May 11 to Sept. 30, 2017, delivered an 11% engagement rate and a 1.5% visitation rate as approximately 192,000 people visited Austin. AdTheorent also helped the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning develop a similar targeted campaign focused on discouraging drunk driving instead of encouraging travel. The campaign featured a 360-degree video that saw 88% completion rates, 40% higher than the industry average, the company said.