The challenge
Express needed proof that its digital advertising moved people into its 19 stores during the holiday season.
Its prior advertising was judged on ecommerce conversions. Express could not attribute store visits to specific digital efforts.
Its previous targeting lacked segmentation by consumer preference, so spend was not focused on high-intent shoppers.
The solution
1. Retail Media: Start from verified shopping center visitors
Express ran the campaign through a shopping center operator's retail media program. The operator's WiFi was integrated with Adentro, so shoppers at those properties were identified by actual visits.
That gave Express an audience anchored to the shopping centers where its 19 stores operate.
2. Affinity Network: Find shoppers most like Express customers
Adentro built prospecting audiences modeled on Express's existing customer profiles and shopping center visitors. The Affinity Network's 100M+ profiles added shopping affinities, customer personas, and purchase history.
Conquest targeting added shoppers who had visited competing fashion retailers.
3. Instagram: Run holiday creative built for store visits
Express ran those audiences in Instagram feed placements. Creative balanced holiday promotions with brand storytelling and was built to send people to stores, not just the website.
4. Walk-Through Rate™: Measure stores and site together
Walk-Through Rate™ matched people exposed to ads against device-verified visits at the 19 Express stores, and a pixel tracked online sales from the same campaign.
Reporting showed both in real time, so the team refined targeting and creative during the flight. Store walk-throughs and online purchases are different outcome types.
The results
- 4:1 overall ROAS, across the holiday campaign
- 5,896 store walk-throughs, matched to verified visits
- 909 online sales, tracked via pixel
- 87% of conversions were in-store walk-throughs
- 2.2M reach and 10M impressions