January Overview:

With Paid Social & Google, CPM’s have been extremely high in Q4 causing lower conversion rates across the board. We believe these are going to drop dramatically going into January, and F&B brands pushing “”better for you”/”new year new you” messaging will benefit tremendously:

• • Usually right before the week of the 20th major brands (meaning the Targets, Best Buys etc.) will cut back big time on their advertising because shipping ends in time for Christmas.
  • Also, believe it or not, many brands are late to determine their January/Q1 budgets, meaning you have “non holiday” brands AND a % of all brands in general simply not spending ad dollars anymore those first few weeks.
  • To sum it up, everything should be significantly cheaper starting in a few weeks up until a month or so into Q1. It will likely be a night and day difference in comparison to the months before. Q4 was much more intense than we had anticipated.

“Better For You” brands should treat January and early February as an extension sale similar to what they were doing for Holiday:

• • Tailor all messaging & content to display how your products fit into a healthier lifestyle. Emphasis the associated diets and health benefits everywhere possible.
  • Consumers are also more likely to buy in bulk during this time period. Whether it’s from Amazon (where they are always more likely to buy in bulk) or directly from your website.
  • A discount of any sort (even 10%) will go far in easing the barrier to entry for consumer trial. Consumers want to be healthy, they are willing to spend a bit to do so, but that sale will give them the complete green light. It’s worth it to get them in the door.

Broader “healthy” keywords including diets, ingredients, recipes, etc. will see a significant increase in search volume:

• • The next month is a tremendous opportunity to bid on broader keywords capturing consumers looking for diets or recipes, but with no specific brand in mind yet. Be that brand.
  • Try this out on both Adwords and Amazon.
  • Consider temporarily changing some of your product listing SEO to include a diet or ingredients you are closest associated with to better capture in the Google Shopping feed.
  • EXP: include “Keto” – Snacks, or “low sugar” etc.
  • Consumers are looking for recipes, both because they want to be healthier + cook at home vs. eating out and because half the country is stuck at home with nowhere to go because it’s cold.
  • Leverage any recipe inspired content both organically and with paid ads. Any recipe inspired paid ads have room for lengthier messaging.
  • Include your most associated dishes or recipes in lifestyle imagery on your amazon listings. It makes things click easier for consumers when trying to understand your product.
  • Try testing advertising dollars on new platforms such as Pinterest, known for inspiring recipes and guiding diets.

Rest of 2022 Considerations:

Regarding Paid Social, Tik Tok, Pinterest, etc. Ad Content matters now more than ever.

• • With major policy changes most especially to Facebook/Instagram & Google we have all clearly watched ad attribution diminish significantly. 
  • Brands can no longer rely on algorithm targeting (most especially Lookalike Audiences on Paid Social) to find the majority of their sales.
  • With algorithm targeting weaker, this means all native targeting will naturally become more “broad”. Meaning more interests, behaviors etc.
  • Because targeting is broader, and less tailored, this will require higher quality, and eye catching ad creative. Your targeting isn’t as precise, so the effectiveness of the ad creative needs to make up for it. 
  • You will absolutely have to invest in creative in 2022 if you plan on driving profitable sales to your Direct to Consumer site.

Major Online Grocery platforms such as Instacart and Shipt will see a major increase in competition: 

• • In Q4 we saw CPM’s increase and returns decrease. This was from a major wave of increased bidding competition that has built up progressively over the year.
  • Most of these PPC platforms (exp:Instacart & Shipt) were just introduced to the public mid-2020. They have been around long enough that almost all significant players are now allocating ad dollars.
  • You can’t simply get away with being present, you need a sound online grocery ppc strategy.

I hope these raw notes help. The one obvious external factor is increased covid cases, lockdowns, etc. It’s easier to gameplan paid media strategy around these now vs. a year ago as trends have become more obvious, but could still really complicate things.  

If you have any questions or thoughts, please reach out.

Thanks,

Kevin Gawronski

Garwonski Food and Beverage does paid media marketing for Food & Beverage + CPG Brands. We find and engage the right audience with the most effective digital media platforms to grow sales, profitability and market share. Our services including, Paid Media Buying, Optimizing, Reporting, and Strategizing for Paid Social, Amazon, Adwords, Instcart, Shipt + additional Online Grocery platforms.

https://gawronskifb.com/