Turning brand buzz into brand lift in the beer industry
Maybe your famous stout just won a national award. Or maybe an influencer just gave your latest IPA a rave review. That’s great. But how do you capitalize on it? How do you turn that into sales? Here are some insights into getting the most out of a little buzz.
A cookieless future
No matter the industry, it’s always important to get the right message in front of the right eyes. But in the beer industry, it’s a legal requirement that your customers are 21+. And as the online world becomes more and more cookieless, you can’t always trust the platform to deliver the right demographic for your brand. In fact, one of the largest categories of age segmentation in Google Ads is listed as “unknown.”
So how can you turn a little buzz into a bump for your brand when your audience demographics are getting harder to determine? One way to keep platforms accountable — and be sure you’re getting the right clicks — would be to place a tag manager on your age-gated content. A tag manager shows exactly how a user interacts with that age gate and where they came from. Then you can segment that data to find out exactly what percentage of traffic by channel is clicking yes or no on that “Are you 21 years or older?” question, and through that number we can see what channels are most effective at delivering qualified leads.
Not all clicks are created equal
At the end of the day, you should always verify your conclusions. Especially in an industry with such specific audience demographics. You shouldn’t just plop an ad into an ad platform and assume everything is great. Because all clicks are not created equal. If any of the clicks you’re driving to a website aren’t 21+, you’re wasting your budget. Implementing this system of checks and balances helps validate the traffic we’re sending to assure that it’s qualified and not just leave it up to Zuckerberg.
Creative delivers results
With beer, your customers aren’t necessarily “adding to cart.” More often than not there isn’t a hard call to action. And that’s why beer marketing usually focuses on awareness, which can make attribution more difficult. People don’t walk into the bar and say, “Give me that IPA that I saw on Instagram.” Customers are making that decision in a fraction of a second.
With strong creative, you can make sure your brand is top of mind when that decision is being made. You want customers to say, “I remember that beer and it speaks to who I am or who I want to be today.” A brand lift survey can help determine how your customers view your product and if your creative resonates in a meaningful and genuine way.
If you’re looking for marketing support for your beer brand (or just looking for taste testers) we’d be happy to share our expertise. Let’s chat.