Nonprofit Organization
Cancer Research UK
Driving more purchases over the holiday season with Reels ads
Cancer Research UK (CRUK), is the world's leading independent cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research, influence and information. Cancer Research UK implemented an ecommerce campaign during the festive season to raise funds for life-saving cancer research. The campaign was focused on driving purchases from their Christmas collection, specifically stocking fillers/gifts on their e-commerce shop.
Challenge
As part of their festive season efforts to raise funds for their life-saving cancer research, CRUK wanted to understand how they could drive gift purchases from their Christmas collection.
Solution
CRUK implemented an advertising campaign to drive purchases of stocking fillers on their e-commerce shop. They understand that they could improve their chances in Meta's ad auction and reduce creative fatigue by differentiating their ad creative. They sought to understand the impact of differentiated creative by adding creative built for Reels to their campaign and partnered with the Meta Studio team to adopt Reels creative best practices (building 9:16 video with audio in the safe zone). They added additional creative elements like pinned text to showcase their Christmas Collection.
Results
CRUK ran an A/B test to compare their business-as-usual Facebook and Instagram strategy (Feed and Stories) versus their Reels-first strategy. The Reels-first approach saw stronger results: reaching 10,000 more people, driving 2% more conversions and seeing a lower cost per acquisition.
Learnings
- Build Reels using the creative essentials: CRUK developed Reels-first video content by ensuring it was vertical (9:16) with audio in the safe zone and then added additional creative elements to share their story in an entertaining, digestible and relatable way.
- Maximize conversions with differentiated ad creative: CRUK improved their chances in Meta's ad auction and reduced creative fatigue by differentiating their ad creative. They recognized that different customers may respond better to different formats.
- Leverage A/B testing: CRUK used the Experiments tool to conduct an A/B test, which allowed them to quickly compare the two placement strategies and reliably determine which one was the most efficient at driving their acquisition goals. It was critical that CRUK tested only one variable for more conclusive results. The campaigns were identical, except for the placement variable they were testing
