1.ADVERTISING BEFORE THE WAR
1.1. MARKET ANALYSIS
We started with analyzing active competitors on the market and evaluating their effectiveness, advertising, offers, and promotions. This is important to make sure we are one step ahead — knowing what competitors offer and what they do to attract the attention of potential customers, we have the opportunity to come up with our unique offer, which is no less valuable but even more attractive.
1.2. PLANNING ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS
We decided to set up the following campaigns:
- search campaign targeted at the city of Ivano-Frankivsk
- brand advertising (to stimulate the interest in the previously launched radio ads about the new pizza delivery service)
- display ads aimed at branding, brand awareness, and generating trust and interest of the audience.
1.3. LAUNCHING CAMPAIGNS
On the client’s approving the advertising budget, we chose the initial bid strategies (Maximize Clicks for the main campaigns, Manual CPC Bidding for branding campaigns). We launched campaigns and watched as they progressed.
Results after the first month of advertising:
Search and display campaigns were the most effective, driving 1011 conversions in total, including 513 conversions from search advertising, with the average cost per conversion of UAH 22.21.
1.4. OPTIMIZATION
Starting from the second month of the project, we focused on search advertising, grouping campaigns according to the frequency of queries. Once in two weeks, we changed creatives with new offers and promotions in display ads. Additionally, we set up video ads to reach out to new audiences on YouTube.
2. WARTIME ADVERTISING
When the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine started, all advertising activities were immediately stopped. At that time, it was unknown when and how business activities would resume and whether they would be relevant.
After a month of the war, when many people from the central and southeastern regions of the country fled to the west of Ukraine, it became clear that the business had to work to support the country’s economy. Ivano-Frankivsk was one of those cities that actively welcomed guests.
Our client decided to try to resume the work and launch a test campaign to check the loyalty and readiness of the audiences.
2.1 MARKET CHANGES ANALYSIS
We conducted market research, looking into how restaurants and food delivery services were resuming their advertising activities. We noticed an interesting trend: if earlier 75% of queries in Ivano-Frankivsk were exclusively in Ukrainian, since the beginning of the war, the ratio between queries in Ukrainian and Russian had changed to 60/40.
This was because many people from the central regions of Ukraine, who were used to searching on the internet in Russian, were staying in Ivano-Frankivsk. We decided to take this fact into account.
2.2. RE-LAUNCH OF ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS
We planned the following types of advertising:
- search advertising in Ukrainian
- search advertising in Russian
- brand advertising
- display advertising
- video ads
- discovery ads
- local advertising suggesting customer pick-up
We gathered Ukrainian and Russian queries, categorized them into separate groups, and created ad copies featuring those queries.
In display and video advertising campaigns, we segmented audiences according to their interests and keywords, Ukrainian and Russian separately, placing the accent on the support of Ukraine and trust in the Ukrainian military,
2.3. LAUNCH AND THE FIRST RESULTS
We launched the campaigns, focusing on the Maximize Clicks and Maximize Conversions bid strategies. Additionally, we included people who have just relocated or are planning the move into our audiences.
Metrics after the first month of advertising during the war:
Regarding lead generation, Ukrainian and Russian search campaigns and brand campaign were the most successful. We reached the average cost per conversion across all campaigns of UAH 17.25.
We analyzed each campaign’s metrics separately, removed ineffective audiences as well as those associated with costly conversions, and replaced them with new, experimental audiences.
We refreshed creatives, changed ad copies, and continue working on this pizza delivery service advertising.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Businesses shouldn’t stop working even during wartime. Before planning any advertising activities, it is worth analyzing the market, market trends, and public sentiment. Also, it is worth considering all additional factors and the competitors’ unique selling propositions. In the case of advertising a pizza delivery service, we benefited a lot from taking into account the language factor and the patriotic sentiment of the population.
We analyzed the demographic charts, which allowed us to create a new, more precise buyer persona and use it at the next stage of optimization.
