Industry:
Retail
Location:
Pittsburgh, PA
http://ae.com
  • 69% reduction in Cost per Conversion using Carousel Ads versus Link Ads
  • 14% reduction in Cost per Conversion using Mobile & Facebook Audience Network placement versus Desktop
  • 67% reduction in Cost per Link Click using Carousel Ads versus Link Ads
  • Aerie® brand achieved a 2x higher mobile conversion rate using Instagram placement versus News Feed Mobile
  • Aerie® realized 38% higher CTR (Link Click) using FAN versus News Feed Mobile-only

About American Eagle

American Eagle Outfitters is a leading global specialty retailer offering high-quality, on-trend clothing, accessories, and personal care products at affordable prices under its American Eagle Outfitters® and Aerie® brands. The company operates more than 1,000 stores in the United States and abroad, and ships to 81 countries worldwide. American Eagle has been a strong adopter of Facebook advertising, primarily for direct response objectives.

Marin Software allowed us to do exactly what we set out to do — lower costs and increase conversions. With Carousel Ads and Facebook Audience Network, we’re telling a captivating brand story, and more people who are likely to browse our products are clicking our ads. Tools like Marin’s mass creator and bulk editor, plus the Media Plan organizer, are indispensable components of an enhanced digital advertising strategy.

Cheryl Degrasse
Sr. Director of Digital Media at American Eagle Outfitters

Challenges

American Eagle (AE) wanted to express the narrative of their brand values in a visually engaging way to more emotionally appeal to their core audience primarily using mobile devices for shopping. Since they manage two different brands with distinct audiences and creative, they needed an enterprise-class tool to achieve their advertising goals – and handle complexity – at scale.

AE was interested in creating and implementing new strategies with unique creatives and media placements on Instagram, Mobile News Feed, and Facebook Audience Network (FAN) to expand audience reach. And, they needed a solution that would not only provide 24/7 support, but also streamline a high volume of spend across two brands, four Facebook accounts, and two U.S. social teams operating on opposite coasts.

Carousel Ads and the Facebook Audience Network, a Winning Combination

Compared with Link Ads, the best results came from running Carousel Ads, achieving a 69% reduction in Cost per Conversion (Facebook Conversion Pixel). Including FAN, Facebook’s mobile-only network composed of publishers outside of Facebook, American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) benefited from a 73% reduction in Cost per Link Click compared with News Feed Desktop.

The ability of Carousel Ads to tell a visually appealing sequential story proved to be much more engaging than Link Ads, yielding a 2x higher CTR for AEO. Running campaigns including the FAN gave AEO the ability to engage audiences most likely to browse for products on their mobile devices, since 63% of shoppers browse for products to buy using their phones or tablets rather than their desktop computers.

FAN not only gave AE wider reach and new mobile audiences – cost per sale was lower, and the CTR (Link Click) was nearly 2x higher compared with desktop.

Bulk Ad Creator and Media Plan Organizer Scales Campaigns

Facebook ads are traditionally the core of American Eagle’s social advertising, where they run Facebook ads at scale. However, AE wanted to test formats across social channels at a high volume of spend in order to more quickly scale learnings and efficiencies.

Thanks to Marin’s mass creator and bulk editor, AE can now create tons of ads and ad combinations very quickly. With the Media Plan organizer, AE can view metrics of all campaigns at a high level, avoiding the need to manually aggregate the data. Using one tool across Facebook, Instagram, and FAN significantly reduces the amount of time spent implementing and managing campaigns.

As Aerie’s target audience is different from American Eagle’s, it was important to develop a unique targeting and creative strategy. In particular, this meant focusing on Instagram advertising for Aerie, a great fit for their target demographic. Aerie brand achieved a 2x higher mobile conversion rate using Instagram placement versus News Feed Mobile.

Cross-Publisher Insights and Global Support Improved Campaign Effectiveness

Marin offers global support from social advertising experts, and is available to help American Eagle anytime strategic recommendations and tactical help are needed. American Eagle relies on Marin to gain insights, uniquely possible with a cross-publisher view, for example, of which placements work best, which ad types are high performers on which platforms, and how to allocate budget. AE uses these insights to run more informed and strategic campaigns.

With the help of Marin, running ads on Facebook, Instagram, and FAN has given American Eagle a comprehensive strategy, maximum reach, and the ability to take advantage of best practices on each channel to reach their advertising goals. Specific results include:

  • 69% reduction in Cost per Conversion using Carousel Ads versus Link Ads
  • 14% reduction in Cost per Conversion using mobile & Facebook Audience Network placement versus Desktop
  • 67% reduction in Cost per Link Click using Carousel Ads versus Link Ads
  • Aerie brand achieved a 2x higher mobile conversion rate using Instagram placement versus News Feed Mobile
  • Aerie realized 38% higher CTR (Link Click) using FAN versus News Feed mobile-only