Creating triple-digit growth for Belk

Belk: Creating triple-digit growth for Belk

To better connect and engage with its consumers, Belk partnered with iCrossing to launch and grow its paid search and social advertising efforts by leveling up their search and social campaigns. The team sought to leverage search click data to create targetable audiences on social media.

547%

increase in targeted conversion rate

67%

decrease in acquisition cost (CPA)

400%

increase in high-intent conversion rate

Social media assets

We craft engaging, platform-optimized content that resonates with your audience to amplify your brand's digital presence.

Paid search

We ensure maximum ROI by placing your brand in the spotlight when and where it matters most.

Media strategy

We lay out actionable roadmaps that are backed with data to guide your business toward long-term success.

Media analytics

We use a data-driven approach, optimizing campaigns and amplifying your reach.

The Challenge

Belk, Inc. is a mainline American department store company with nearly 300 stores in 16 Southern states. To better connect and engage with its consumers, Belk partnered with iCrossing to launch and grow its paid search and social advertising efforts. Belk had been managing its search and social campaigns via the Kenshoo Infinity Suite but wanted to take their program to the next level. The team sought to leverage search click data to create targetable audiences on social media.

Belk needed to target its highest-value audiences to heighten overall performance, increase site traffic and conversions, and lower cost per acquisition (CPA). The goal of their campaigns was to reach users that already showed interest in products via paid search on Facebook and grow conversion rates.

Belk needed to target its highest value audiences to heighten overall performance, increase site traffic and conversions, and lower cost per acquisition (CPA).

Driving growth with intent

iCrossing leveraged Kenshoo’s Intent-Driven Audiences (IDA) to automatically create and update Facebook Custom Audiences based on intent demonstrated through search engine activity.

To understand the impact of IDA, our team developed two tests:

A prioritized sale that positioned Belk’s current Facebook fans versus consumers that had searched for the Belk brand in the last 30 days
A beauty campaign targeted to Belk’s current Facebook fans versus consumers who had searched for Belk, versus consumers who had searched for beauty brands over the same duration

To gauge the success of each test, iCrossing looked at conversions as the primary key performance indicator (KPI) for these campaigns. From there additional adjustments were made across campaigns driven by the conversion data insights. In conjunction with IDA, the team also leveraged offer ads that promoted timely discounts and deals to drive offline coupon redemptions and link post ads to drive online sales.

Partnering with iCrossing, we utilized insight from our search campaigns to inform our social strategies, which produced even greater results. This moves beyond remarketing, and helps identify top brand loyalists based on their previous actions searching for the Belk brand and the products we sell online.

The Result

iCrossing’s custom, intent-driven sale solution for Belk saw a 545% increase in conversion rate for branded IDA audiences versus fans of its brand. The beauty campaign saw a 240% increase in conversion rate for Belk cosmetic searchers versus fans of its brand. With our Facebook-exclusive offer, Belk saw over $2 million in-store sales in one week and over 68,000 offer claims on the most successful digital offer.

Overall, the test resulted in a 67% decrease in cost per acquisition (CPA). In addition, the team saw a 400% lift in conversion rates when users were searching for Belk specifically (as opposed to non-brand terms), attributing positive brand recall in correlation with purchases.

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Our Work

Belk: Creating triple-digit growth for Belk

Our Role

Social media assets

Paid search

Media strategy

Media analytics

The Challenge

Belk needed to target its highest value audiences to heighten overall performance, increase site traffic and conversions, and lower cost per acquisition (CPA).

Driving growth with intent

Creative leveraged to test Belk Facebook fans vs. consumers who had searched for Belk

The Result

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