Target, communicate, keep score. Facebook Advertising helps raise brand awareness within the golfing community for the Wilderness At Fortune Bay, leading to 4% increase in total revenue.

Challenge

The challenge of the campaign was to increase brand awareness of the golf course with the target audience of affluent golfers, which in-turn would drive foot traffic and increase total revenue.

Research

1. Demographics analysis of current golfers
2. Social ad platform targeting
3. Competitors share of social media conversation

Audiences

Affluent golfers located in the Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota regions.

Insights

1. Top two geographical areas current customers travel from are Brainerd, MN and Minneapolis, MN.
2. Ad metrics such as income (75,000+), location (25-mile radius of Minneapolis and Duluth), age (25-64), and interests (golf) were perfectly suited to reach the ideal audience.
3. Social activity from competition is high, both on a local and statewide level. Surprisingly, the brand image being portrayed by many upper-end courses did not match their 5-star experience. Branding was typically poor, inconsistent, and an afterthought.

Solution

Utilize social media channels and social advertising to portray a high-end brand image, engage current customers, and raise brand awareness in new target audiences. This will increase foot traffic which will help drive food/beverage, merchandise, and golf sales with new and existing customers.

Execution

• A branding guide was developed which included typefaces, color schemes, logo guidelines, and secondary imagery. A photo shoot was completed to compile captivating images of the golf course.
• A brand persona for the target audience was developed to help optimize the Facebook Advertising campaigns. A $500 advertising budget was recommended in order to run 15-20 total advertisements that ran on average for 1-4 days over the span of 4 months.
• A weekly contest, “Win it Wednesday” was launched where users could enter to win a round of golf for two people, the audience was encouraged to tag a friend and like the post itself for a chance to win.
• By ensuring all posts, contest images, and Facebook Ads had the correct brand image, it provided a new level of brand consistency that didn’t exist before.
• KPI’s: Reach, Engagement, Clicks, Actions, and Total Revenue

Results

Reach and Engagement: We used the Facebook analytics from the previous season as our baseline (June 6th, 2015 to September 30th, 2015). Our baseline statistics were used to measure the effectiveness of the 2016 campaign that ran from June 6th, 2016 to September 30, 2016. Every metric experienced a significant increase from the year before.

• Reach: 167,700 (2015) VS 477,000 (2016)
• Views: 1,502 (2015) VS 2,479 (2016)
• Engagement: 13,366 (2015) VS 26,500 (2016)
• Clicks: 22,960 (2015) VS 39,038 (2016)
• Page “Likes”: 189 (2016) VS 704 (2016)

Clicks and Actions: We ended up spending a total of $439.85 on Facebook Ads during the campaign period. This minimal ad spend produced impressive results in capturing the target audience’s’ attention.

• Impressions (individuals who saw the ad): 56,320
• Clicks (individuals who clicked on the ad): 2,255
• Actions (individuals who, in this case, went to the website): 1,632

Total Revenue: The ultimate goal was to increase overall revenue. There was a 4% increase in total revenue, the majority of which came from improved and merchandise sales.