Audience Insights case study: Behavioral segmentation improves acquisition efforts

A Marketbridge client in the identity protection space was struggling to drive meaningful growth. The category was experiencing increased competition with lower-cost products entering the market, stealing share from incumbents. Despite increased marketing investment, our client’s revenue was relatively flat. The new customer segment was showing some growth, but other business metrics weren’t improving. Here’s how Marketbridge helped the client understand whether recent brand efforts were driving the new customer segment, and how to optimize investment to drive additional growth and scale.

Seeking insights to optimize opportunities

The objectives of the engagement were two-fold:

Understand new customers

Analyze the new customer segment to understand drivers of growth and examine how the segment has changed over time to provide insights into how the client can enhance targeting in the future.

Behaviors and demographics
Product mix
Sales over time

Model brand responsiveness

Use media mix modeling (MMM) to understand how the new customer segment responds to brand efforts and identify optimization opportunities for the campaign.

Channels that perform best with new customer segment
Optimization opportunities for brand campaigns
Cost per acquisition ranges

Keywords:

Audience Insights, Marketing Effectiveness, Media Mix Modeling (MMM), Segmentation

Segment muddiness illuminate the root issue

During analysis, we uncovered that the new customer segment was actually two distinct segments: customers who were brand new and returning customers who upgraded their product. Combining these two segments camouflaged that the brand-new customer segment was shrinking. We dug into the other customer segments and found similar issues and inconsistent logic that was hampering audience targeting.

Creating new
behavioral segments

We built new behavioral segments that leveraged internal client data for actionable audience targeting that goes beyond finance-led segmentation.

Created data-driven behavioral segments that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (MECE)

Deployed new segmentation in the marketing database for real-time audience targeting and conversion labeling

Enabled reporting on these segments over time to ensure shifts in audience mix support client’s strategic goals

How brand-new customers
respond to brand efforts

We used MMM to understand which channels drove the brand-new customer segment to purchase and how to optimize for increased acquisition.

Provided clear insights on which channels and platforms drove the largest sales impact

Found that past brand campaigns did drive increases in brand-new customers, which was masked by previously combined segmentation

Created true cost per acquisition benchmarks for this brand-new customer segment

Improved targeting and optimized investment

Lookalike audiences using the former “new customer” segment had limited success due to inexact targeting and muddied segmentation. Leveraging the “brand-new” customer segmentation resulted in better signal and improved conversion rates, decreasing acquisition costs.

Perhaps not surprisingly, brand-new customers were attracted by awareness efforts, while more mid-funnel activities and affiliates drove product switching among current customers. This data led to executive approval to move budget up-funnel. Our client also moved current customers into upsell campaigns and suppressed them from certain acquisition efforts to improve ROI across both initiatives.

Marketing Effectiveness case study: Building a simple, actionable, measurable brand model

A premium personal care brand wanted to quantify brand strength to review which marketing efforts and strategic initiatives moved the needle, and to reveal the relationship between brand strength and sales. The client was faced with myriad data that provided competing signals: awareness was trending up while share of voice was dropping, product reviews had never been better while new customer acquisition was trending downwards. These mixed messages made it difficult to evaluate the relationship between a recent brand campaign and the brand itself, let alone the linkage to revenue.

Stitching together a complete brand picture

To better understand the relationship between company efforts and brand strength, and to stitch together a picture of the indirect impact that “brand” has on eventual sales, we set out to coalesce the company’s variety of brand data sources into a set of simple, actionable and clear brand metrics. With a time-series view of these metrics, we then reviewed the impact and temporal lag of marketing and PR efforts.

Keywords:

Brand Measurement, Marketing Effectiveness

Marketbridge Brand Measurement Framework

Building a unified brand metric(s)

We gathered all data that might be either an indicator or a driver of brand strength by meeting with data owners and analysts across the company. After normalizing the data and aligning time granularity (daily vs. monthly, etc.), we used Structural Equation Modeling, paired with our deep understanding of the business to test hypotheses and generate a model of the unobserved factors that comprise the client’s holistic brand. After a few iterations and brainstorming sessions, we landed on a model with three factors, turning over a dozen sources into a simple three-part view:

Awareness

Are potential customers in the company’s target demographic aware of (a) the premium personal care category and (b) the brand itself?

Affinity

Do those customers who have experienced the brand, whether as a buyer or a simple observer, view the brand and its products favorably?

Salience

When potential customers are talking about the premium personal care industry, are they talking about our client’s brand or their competitors?

Reviewing brand factor history and tying it to sales trend

Armed with the three-factor brand model, we plotted each over multiple years and pointed to specific moments in company history, noting the effect on each factor. PR struggles, competitor investments and marketing campaigns all had predictable impacts on Awareness, Affinity and Salience, though the impacts were far from uniform:

The company was in a growing category with lots of social “buzz.” As an incumbent, increases in category awareness translated into brand awareness, so we saw an ever-increasing Awareness factor.

Our Affinity factor moved up and down in line with PR moments (good and bad) and paid media spend. It was clear that a recent campaign had helped Affinity to rebound.

The client’s Achilles heel was the Salience factor. Metrics like share of voice and search volume all pointed towards competitors continuing to build audience momentum at the company’s expense.

Gearing up for a sales turnaround

Critically, the company’s Salience factor appeared closely intertwined with the company’s sales trend, after controlling for seasonality and promotions. In a fast-changing industry like premium personal care, our brand factor model helped to reveal that staying top of mind translates directly into financial success for our client, but a recovery was necessary. Armed with the learning that a recovery in Salience would most likely result in a sales turnaround, the company shifted much of its planned Awareness media budget into deeper partnerships with targeted influencers and tastemakers to stay top of mind and best in buzz.

Marketing Effectiveness case study: Optimizing member outreach campaigns improves health outcomes

Despite investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing outreach campaigns, measuring effectiveness was a challenge for this Fortune 50 payer. See how Marketbridge leveraged marketing analytics to empower the payer to enhance outreach, increase preventive screenings and optimize marketing spend.

Creating healthier campaigns
to drive healthier outcomes

Quality member care is a crucial part of the long-term success of healthcare payers. Better member health outcomes not only mean healthier members but also lower medical costs, less member disenrollment and improved Medicare Advantage star ratings and bonus payments from the federal government. A Fortune 50 healthcare payer sought to improve member health outcomes by engaging members with specific gaps in care.

The payer invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in outreach campaigns that asked targeted members to complete certain preventive screenings. The hypothesis was that these marketing-funded campaigns would make a meaningful difference in closing member gaps in care. However, the ability to measure the effectiveness of these marketing campaigns was a challenge for the healthcare payer.

Keywords:

Marketing Effectiveness, Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA), Propensity Model

Unraveling
the challenge

The campaigns consisted of multiple touchpoints across offline (direct mail, phone calls) and online (digital media) channels, which made determining which tactics were contributing to preventive screenings difficult. In addition, the long-tail response curves of these campaigns, coupled with the time it takes to receive claims data, meant having to wait months to capture and analyze results. This hindered the payer’s ability to make optimizations in a timely manner.

Measurement challenge accepted

Our team began by identifying the three key objectives that would enable the marketing team to measure and optimize the marketing-funded campaigns.

Determine campaign effectiveness

Are certain marketing campaigns effective in persuading members to take a breast cancer screening, colorectal cancer screening or address diabetes maintenance (A1-C and retinopathy)?

Drive continuous improvement

How can we infuse timely data-driven learnings into our ongoing marketing cycles so we can continuously test and learn?

Understand audience-level response

Which segments are responding to which marketing tactics, and how do we capitalize on each using data?

Implementing a two-part
measurement approach

MTA

A multi-touch attribution (MTA) model assigns fractional credit to each touchpoint in gap closure campaigns, revealing each channel’s influence on preventive screenings. However, the long maturation period for response data (member claims) delays insights until after the next campaign cycle, limiting timely optimizations. To address this, Marketbridge proposed a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) alongside the MTA model.

RCT

The RCT proved effective, showing that three out of four campaigns successfully drove incremental gap closures. This allowed the Marketing team to reallocate funds from the ineffective campaign to successful ones, enabling timely adjustments. The MTA model’s long-term results validated the RCT findings, confirming most campaigns were effective.

Two is better than one

The RCT analysis helped this Fortune 50 payer prove that all but one of the four campaigns in-market were successful in driving an incremental lift in gap closures. These results allowed the Marketing team to quickly reallocate funds away from one campaign that was not working and toward the other three campaigns that were working. This bought the Marketing team time to “retool” the unsuccessful campaign for testing in a future campaign cycle—an opportunity that would have otherwise been lost without using the RCT approach. As for the MTA model, the overall long-term results validated the findings of the RCT analysis and proved that most of the marketing campaigns were working.

We looked at member segments, too

We applied a propensity model to understand marketing impact by member segments. It showed that members with a higher likelihood of closing care gaps had lower cost-per-closure rates. As a result, the marketing team tested sending more notices to high-likelihood members and fewer to low-likelihood members, aiming for cost-effective strategies.

Optimized campaigns.
Healthier members.

Improved member outcomes:

Marketing care gap campaigns were successful in driving members to get preventive screenings, improving their health outcomes.

Optimized marketing spend:

Members with a higher likelihood of closing a care gap had lower cost-per-incremental-closure. This gave Marketing more room to invest in touchpoints to this segment.

Timely test-and-learn cycles:

The Marketing team was able to work around long-tail response curves to enable year-round testing and learning, which is critical in the pursuit of health outcomes.

Audience Insights case study: Behavioral segmentation improves acquisition efforts

Seeking insights to optimize opportunities

Understand new customers

Model brand responsiveness

Segment muddiness illuminate the root issue

Creating new behavioral segments

Created data-driven behavioral segments that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (MECE)

Deployed new segmentation in the marketing database for real-time audience targeting and conversion labeling

Enabled reporting on these segments over time to ensure shifts in audience mix support client’s strategic goals

How brand-new customers respond to brand efforts

Improved targeting and optimized investment

Marketing Effectiveness case study: Building a simple, actionable, measurable brand model

Stitching together a complete brand picture

Marketbridge Brand Measurement Framework

Building a unified brand metric(s)

Reviewing brand factor history and tying it to sales trend

The company was in a growing category with lots of social “buzz.” As an incumbent, increases in category awareness translated into brand awareness, so we saw an ever-increasing Awareness factor.

Our Affinity factor moved up and down in line with PR moments (good and bad) and paid media spend. It was clear that a recent campaign had helped Affinity to rebound.

The client’s Achilles heel was the Salience factor. Metrics like share of voice and search volume all pointed towards competitors continuing to build audience momentum at the company’s expense.

Gearing up for a sales turnaround

Marketing Effectiveness case study: Optimizing member outreach campaigns improves health outcomes

Creating healthier campaigns to drive healthier outcomes

Unraveling the challenge

Measurement challenge accepted

Determine campaign effectiveness

Drive continuous improvement

Understand audience-level response

Implementing a two-part measurement approach

MTA

RCT

Two is better than one

We looked at member segments, too

Optimized campaigns. Healthier members.

Improved member outcomes:

Optimized marketing spend:

Timely test-and-learn cycles:

Locations

Creating new
behavioral segments

How brand-new customers
respond to brand efforts

Creating healthier campaigns
to drive healthier outcomes

Unraveling
the challenge

Implementing a two-part
measurement approach

Optimized campaigns.
Healthier members.