Thermogreen AG: a 7.5 return on ad spend in the off season
How a Swiss conservatory specialist used the quiet months to fill the following spring
Thermogreen AG, a Swiss manufacturer of conservatories and terrace roofs · Building technology · 15 February 2024
Return on ad spend
Revenue attributed to the campaign, divided by the media spend
Impressions
Ad views within the target audience in Switzerland
Qualified enquiries
New enquiries produced by the campaign
The challenge
Thermogreen AG builds conservatories and terrace roofs. Demand follows the weather: enquiries drop through autumn and winter. That is inconvenient, because those are exactly the months in which a spring installation has to be planned. A conservatory is not something you order in April and use in May.
The task was therefore not «more awareness». It was to move a decision forward by four months.
What we did
We ran a display campaign through the Teads Ad Manager demand-side platform, combining four targeting approaches: interest targeting for people researching home renovation, contextual targeting on building and living content, algorithmic targeting run as an A/B test against the other two, and remarketing for previous website visitors.
Three interactive ad formats did the work instead of static banners: a carousel that flips through the product range, a scroller that reveals the construction detail as the reader scrolls, and a swipe card. As the incentive, Thermogreen offered a free feasibility check during November and December 2023.
What came out of it
43'269 impressions, 273 clicks at a click-through rate of 0.63%, and 10 qualified enquiries. Measured against the media spend, that is a return on ad spend of 7.5, reached in January 2024.
The interactive formats raised involvement and dwell time on the creative itself. That comes out of the campaign reporting, and we have no separate figure to put on it.
How we went about it
What the campaign had to achieve
The main goal was attention inside the audience that matters to Thermogreen. Two goals sat underneath it: make people aware of how much lead time a conservatory project actually needs, and raise the number of enquiries during the quiet months.
The incentive was a free feasibility check, offered in November and December 2023. It gave people a reason to raise their hand before they were ready to buy.
Four ways of finding the same person
No single targeting method reaches everyone. We combined four.
- Interest targeting: people reading about home ownership, renovation, conservatories and terraces.
- Contextual targeting: placements in the surrounding subject matter, so building, living and garden content.
- Algorithmic targeting: run as an A/B test against the other methods, letting the platform pick who looked promising.
- Remarketing: people who had already been on the Thermogreen website.
The combination was the point, not the individual methods. Interest targeting depends on cookies. Contextual targeting does not. Together they reached people that the first method alone would have missed.
Three ad formats instead of a banner
A static banner was never going to make a conservatory feel like anything. We built three interactive formats instead.
- Carousel Flip Flow: flip through the range of conservatories and terrace roofs.
- Scroller: the properties of the product reveal themselves as the reader scrolls.
- Swipe Card: swipe between style options and finishes.
One detail belongs in the open, because it flattered the economics: the creative was produced by Teads at no cost, as part of the platform partnership. Not every campaign gets that.
Tracking, so a lead could be traced back
Conversion tracking went in before the campaign went live. Every enquiry could then be traced back to a targeting method and an ad format.
That step is why the return on ad spend is a number we can stand behind rather than an estimate.
What we would do differently
The campaign worked. Three things would still change if we ran it again.
- Add channels. Social media ads would have widened the reach and opened audiences that display alone does not reach.
- Personalise along the journey. One message went to people at very different stages, from first idea to ready to enquire.
- Run it continuously instead of once. A single campaign cannot act on its own learnings.
The third point is the one that actually happened. The ongoing work with Thermogreen started after this campaign and has its own case study.
What you can take from this
- 1
The off season is an opening, not a pause
Your competitors go quiet at the same time your customers start planning. Advertising in winter is what fills the spring.
- 2
Interactive formats hold attention that banners do not
Carousel, scroller and swipe formats give someone something to do. A static banner asks only to be noticed.
- 3
A strong free offer lowers the bar
The free feasibility check was the trigger. Ask what you can give away that costs you little and is genuinely useful.
- 4
Combine targeting methods
Interest, contextual, algorithmic and remarketing each cover a different gap. One method alone leaves people out.
- 5
Say what did not work
A campaign with a good number still has weak spots. Naming them is how the next one gets better.
"Janick Rolli and digital M. used their expertise in targeting and ad design to turn the off season into a productive one."
Daniel Tiso, CEO and co-owner, Thermogreen AG
Translated from German.
Services used
The full case study is also published in German: /kunden/thermogreen-ag/
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