Foodtech Performance Marketing

Introduction

Gruntek is a Croatian food tech startup that produces local, seasonal, and eco vegetables that its users can subscribe to and receive a basket of freshly picked vegetables every week between April and December to their home address or a delivery point. This case study explores performance marketing tactics made to Gruntek’s campaigns to address specific challenges and boost monthly subscriptions.

Problem Statement

Gruntek faced several challenges related to their digital advertising campaigns:

1. Digital analytics and conversion tracking weren’t set up: Their advertising team and management didn’t track any conversions through Google Analytics 4 or the Meta Analytics platform.
2. Lack of testing different targeting groups: Only interests-based targeting was used without testing other targeting techniques like lookalike audiences, contact lists, etc.
3. Ads weren’t addressing different customer-journey phases: Only bottom-of-the-funnel ad messaging was used.
4. Lack of natural images, designs, and ad copy: No on-site content production (for ex. photos of the farm, vegetables, baskets…) and conversational ad copy were conducted or used.

Solution

To address these challenges, Gruntek’s and XAIPE-Morandini’s team embarked on an ad account restructuring process.

Ad Accounts Restructuring Approach

1. Advanced e-commerce tracking setup
   • Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), and Meta Pixel were correctly implemented.
   • Looker Studio report was created to gather and visualize data from all traffic sources (organic and direct, Google Ads, Meta ads, MailChimp…).
   • Based on available data, an audit of the current state was conducted – it was the foundation for all future decisions.
2. Testing different targeting audiences
   • Meta interests-based audiences were used to gather initial traffic, data, and conversions.
   • After enough initial conversions (add to carts, purchases/subscriptions), lookalike audiences were created and assigned to the low-performing campaigns.
   • Targeting groups were built around the phase of a customer’s journey – interests (TOFU), lookalikes (MOFU), retargeting (BOFU).
3. Content production
   • A photo-shooting of the product (vegetable baskets) was conducted in different locations and from different perspectives.
   • A photo-shooting of the farm where vegetables are produced was conducted.
4. Conversational copywriting
   • Different ad copy was written in a more conversational tone of voice that resonated better with the target audience.
   • Constant (bi-weekly or monthly) testing of new ad copy was conducted.

Impact

After implementing these performance marketing enhancements, ACE Gruntek experienced significant improvements:

+50% more active subscribers

+20% more social media followers

2.0 average ROAS

+20% in budget scale

Conclusion

Gruntek successfully identified its challenges and boosted its number of subscribers by improving its conversion tracking and performance marketing techniques. Not only did Gruntek need to expand to another market due to the subscription growth, but they also gained more presence on social media channels.

With accurate analytics and data tracking, Gruntek can now identify new market opportunities as well.