2023-02-09 | Case study | Insights

It is important for BSTN to be able to operate in a competitive environment, and Digitl understood the importance of this. As a result of their expertise, we were able to identify and promote through our search campaigns the top products that not only added value to our users, but also aligned with BSTN marketing strategies. In addition to meeting this challenge, Digitl was able to set the foundations for better data control and collection for optimization capabilities through server-side tagging and a floodlight implementation. We were really impressed by the tempo and professionalism of the projects, the project management, and the communication with Digitl.

Anikó Fischer | Head of Performance Marketing

Increasing its own competitiveness in a fast-paced industry

BSTN is one of the leading companies in the European premium sportswear industry. The company combines the most relevant and sought-after sneaker releases with a selection of handpicked apparel brands. BSTN's unique premium sportswear concept and authenticity in the worlds of basketball and hip-hop culture set it apart in the market and have allowed it to proliferate. Recently, BSTN has encountered a challenge finding ways to quickly respond to rising top-performing products by promoting them through search campaigns and then focusing on the next set of top performers when availability is low. As the team has managed hundreds of products while dealing with a highly competitive e-commerce landscape, it considered speed as a crucial factor. Therefore, the team sought ways to identify top-performing products with fast implementation methods to use in Search Ads 360 campaigns managed by their partner The Boutique Agency, so it conversed with Digitl.

Products identified that equal 80% revenue

Ad groups created through SA360 IVM

Deploying a data-driven optimization strategy with Google Analytics, Google Merchandise Center, and Google Cloud BigQuery

Digitl joined Google Analytics raw data with Google Merchandise Center report data in BigQuery. For the purpose of product performance evaluation, sold quantity, revenue, and further calculated metrics such as share of the revenue were used and individual threshold values and rules were defined. These preparatory measures formed the basis for the subsequent automation of the processes. As a result, top-selling products were labeled and uploaded to a secured cloud project and connected to 3rd party product feed. This process was automated with the combined use of Vertex Pipelines, Cloud Functions, and Cloud Scheduler.

Harnessing campaign automation for Search Ads 360 campaigns

For activation purposes, the “top-seller” products column was made available in the SA360 product feed. It was ensured that only products in stock were populated in the feed so only these were promoted with inventory management search ads campaigns. A set of rules and templates were deployed for adgroup creation in order to generate a variety of ads with product information. The logic for filtering was based on automated rules, and then keyword templates were used to take the "top product" and its associated information. To take advantage of both strategies, top product ad groups were split into keyword and responsive search ads. The target ROAS bidding strategy was used for optimization.

Identified top performers in a data-driven and automated way in order to unlock more revenue potential

The overall process identifiy over +500 top selling products that accounted for 80% of revenue. BSTN was able to create over respective ad groups +500 in SA360 optimizing towards a ROAS of +900%. In general, the ad groups were composed of eligible and paused campaigns as certain products were then paused due to low inventory. With the new approach, the company was able to identify and start promoting top-performing products in a fast and highly reliable way. The ability to identify so many top-performing products and promote them on short notice proved to be a great use case for BSTN to consider increasing its budget in SA360 in the coming months and extend the insights for potential usage in other campaign types.

Devinson Peña

Team Lead Ad Technology

The Goals

Identify top-performing products.
Implement automation for product selection in the product feed.
Deploy a data-driven strategy for campaign optimization.

The Approach

Evaluated the performance of products.
Began using the product feed upload combined with a set of rules and templates to generate a variety of ads with product information.
Utilized SA360 automation for campaign management.

The Results

Identified 500+ top performing products accounting for 80% of revenue.
Over 500+ ad groups generated in SA360.
Facilitated a much faster promotion process while focusing on top-performing products.

BSTN Uses a Data-Driven Approach to Increase its Competitiveness via Search Ads 360 Inventory Management and Search Campaigns

Anikó Fischer | Head of Performance Marketing

Increasing its own competitiveness in a fast-paced industry