January is a time for new beginnings and fresh starts. For some of us, that might mean joining a gym to get in shape. Due to shutdowns, capacity restrictions, or simply an abundance of caution, a lot of people have not stepped foot inside a fitness center since before the pandemic.
The YMCA of Greater Louisville wants to change that — and get local residents back on a path toward living their healthiest, happiest lives. And for a nonprofit like the Y, engaging new members is more crucial to its mission than ever. With so many people already thinking about making positive changes in the new year, it was the perfect time to launch a new member drive.
Here’s the deal, though: The Y understood that to engage new members, you first have to get in front of them. And that’s one thing Current360 does best. As rock stars in targeted media buying and placement, we know exactly how to reach people with the right message at the right moment. We’ve partnered with the Y for many years on other projects, so they’ve seen firsthand that we don’t just meet expectations, we exceed them.
The Tactics and the Results
So, what exactly did we do? We pulled out our entire arsenal of media tactics to maximize the campaign’s reach and impact. We took advantage of traditional forms of advertising, including outdoor, radio, and television. You might have seen one of the billboards or heard a commercial.
Our digital approach included a broad range of hyper-targeting tactics to reach potential members based on their purchasing habits and online history. This strategic approach ensured less waste and allowed us to get trackable results. To do this we targeted an audience using demographics, contextual marketing, geo-targeting competitors, and a series of other advanced targeting tactics. These were applied to social media, search engine marketing (SEM), and programmatic media, to name a few.
We’re especially proud that our digital efforts resulted in growth across the board, even as competition increased year over year (YOY) and marketing budgets shrank.
Don’t just take our word for it.
- Paid search ads. Grew click-through rate (CTR) by nearly 10% YOY. CTR is the ratio of clicks an ad gets to the number of times it’s shown (impressions). It’s a common metric used to gauge the relevancy and quality of an ad.
- Google Grants (a Google Ads program for nonprofits). Grew clicks YOY by nearly 50% (48.7) AND grew CTR by more than 10%.
- Paid Facebook ads. Grew CTR by 33.5% and lowered Cost Per Click by $0.15 while decreasing the budget YOY by more than 50%.
- Digital ads (including display, video, and audio). Delivered better than a 97% video completion rate and 95% audio completion rate.
