Sponsored by GroundTruth
With fewer new customers visiting restaurants and the industry seeing same-store traffic down 4.1 percent in the third quarter, brands are being challenged to do more with fewer resources. As a result, restaurant marketers have been forced to find new ways to drive foot traffic from their existing customer base, as well as from their competitors. One of the best ways for them to do this is to localize their media strategy, but this can be daunting for national brands where scale is essential.
Furthermore, while most marketers are aware that location data provides richer, more accurate insights into consumer shopping behavior, they may not realize that location targeting can also deliver similar results on a national level when it's used to identify foot traffic patterns and incite in-store sales. GroundTruth’s first-to-market Cost Per Visit performance model, which launched in March of 2017, allows brands to pay for a store visit and easily expand a local approach to a national scale --- with the flip of a switch.
Why location targeting is more than just local
How do you increase local foot traffic for a national restaurant brand? Take a recent campaign GroundTruth ran for a large national restaurant chain. The company approached GroundTruth about running a Cost Per Visit beta campaign in hopes of boosting visits in a struggling Northwest DMA market. The initial test exceeded their expectations and drove over 1000 observed in-store visits to this market, of which 85 percent were from new customers converted from competitive restaurant loyalists in the area.
Following the success of the beta campaign, the restaurant chain extended their strategy for another two months, scaling Cost Per Visit into 80-plus top-tier markets. GroundTruth was then able to optimize the campaign’s targeting and drive over 100,000 restaurant visits nationwide. In fact, 20 percent of those visits were influenced by GroundTruth’s proprietary Neighborhoods product, which allowed the brand to engage with individuals in areas with high affinities to visiting their restaurants. After successfully expanding its initial test, and proving that Cost Per Visit can provide a steady and reliable stream of performance, the restaurant chain has since moved to an “always on” strategy.
A campaign like this has other advantages as well. For instance, an analysis of the consumers who visited the restaurant chain revealed an unexpected crossover with unlikely competitor brands. While the restaurant chain believed it had its finger on the pulse of both its audience and its competition, GroundTruth location data revealed deeper insight into their consumers. This in turn allowed GroundTruth to identify new areas of opportunity to entice new customers to come into the restaurant.
The value of a visit
For any public company with a national footprint, thinking local at scale is an absolute must. Using mobile data to assess foot traffic trends and predict sales can better prepare retailers and brands for what's to come. By also providing a measurable model for driving local visits, GroundTruth makes it easy for restaurants and retailers to scale any local approach nationally. Furthermore, the consistent, guaranteed performance of Cost Per Visit makes this model an easy and efficient evergreen strategy for any brand.
