Transforming a beloved pizza brand into a digital-marketing powerhouse.
Client Since — 2016 to 2018
Scope of Work — Digital Marketing
The Challenge
Great pizza, not-so-great tech.
When Marco’s Pizza came to Mediaura, the company already had a lot going for it: a delicious product, a reputation as America’s Favorite Pizza Company, and a fast-growing empire of 800 stores in more than 30 states and four countries.
The problem? Marco’s data technology and digital marketing efforts were, well, a little stale. Their website was clunky and dated, and they didn’t have a mobile app. Meanwhile, tracking customers was next to impossible. Their backend POS (point-of-sale) system wasn’t connected to the internet in a meaningful way, and half their stores were using one platform while the other half used another. They had worked with other agencies on digital marketing in the past, but they had never seen a strong return-on-investment.
Thanks to their outdated technology infrastructure and lackluster digital-marketing performance, Marco’s was struggling to compete with larger brands. They needed a partner who could deliver digital-marketing performance on par with their incredible product.
Our Impact
Building a new digital marketing approach, slice by slice.
Using a mix of digital-marketing expertise, proprietary technology and custom programming, Mediaura helped Marco’s Pizza:
- Find new customers.
- Raise the sales frequency of existing customers.
- Increase the average ticket price (the average amount of money a customer spends on a single transaction).
- Increase the ROI of Marco’s Google pay-per-click campaign.
Average ROI of Digital Ads
By the end of the first month, we showed an average return-on-investment of 9 to 1, with some markets showing as high as 20 to 1!
Digital Ad Conversion Rate
During a national test of our digital marketing efforts, it was determined that our digital ads scored a 33% conversion rate, dramatically higher than the national average.
Statistics
Superbowl ROI
During the Superbowl in 2017 – amid an ultra-competitive environment for pizza brands – we helped Marco’s achieve a 6 to 1 return-on -investment, with a $30,062 ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) following a $4,637 spend.
Marco’s Outperforms Larger Competitors
Thanks to our digital marketing campaign, Marco’s outperformed its largest competitors: Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Papa John’s, with a lower cost-per-acquisition.
How We Made It Happen
Making a better digital marketing ‘crust’
Remember how we mentioned that Marco’s had a technology problem? Part of the issue was that their stores were using different point-of-sale systems and advertising platforms. This made it difficult to pinpoint, track and target the right audience.
Our first challenge was to bridge the gap between these multiple systems. Part of our solution involved Target Match Technology, our proprietary program that bridges the gap between multiple advertising platforms.
With this technology, Marco’s can serve tailored messaging to customers based on precise demographic, psychographic and geographic data. This ensures that Marco’s ads are targeting the right people – and only the right people – reducing waste and improving conversion rates.
The Power of Target Match Technology
By ensuring that you are ONLY targeting the right customers, our proprietary Target Match Technology reduces costs and increases conversions. Without this technology, we estimate that about 30% of your marketing budget is spent advertising to the wrong audience!
The second part of our solution was equally important: Since Marco’s stores were using two different web platforms, we provided custom programming that integrated into both systems. This allowed us to track each sale directly to each customer, for accurate conversion tracking and reporting. In other words, it was our way of making sure that our digital marketing efforts were making a maximum impact.
And the system worked—it was even independently verified, showing that our transactional data matched the company’s back-office software. The Marco’s CMO was pretty pumped about this, and so were we!
Of course, building Marco’s digital-marketing infrastructure was just the beginning. (It was kind of like the crispy, golden-brown crust of a great pizza.) With the infrastructure in place, Mediaura helped Marco’s achieve outstanding returns on their Google pay-per-click campaign, with an average ROI of 9 to 1 and better performance metrics than competitors like Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Papa John’s.
We can’t take all the credit—Marco’s Pizza really is that good. But we’re glad we could help them perfect their marketing recipe.