How did we preserve the success of Milena Style after the pandemic peak?
Client:Milena Style Ltd.
Services:Facebook Ads, Google Ads, SEO
Date:30 August, 2024
Websitemilenastyle.comWhen “Milena Style” – the largest producer of gobelins and embroidery kits in Bulgaria – approached us in 2020, the business was at the peak of its success due to a sudden surge in online sales. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown led people to seek new hobbies, and handcrafting became extremely popular. The question we faced was: how do we continue to maintain this growth when the world starts returning to normal?
The Challenges
How to adapt to changing consumer habits?
After the significant growth in 2020, one of the main questions was how to adjust to the evolving needs and desires of customers. While clients demonstrated strong loyalty, they also began seeking new ways to engage with the brand, more diverse products, and more personalized offers. Our goal was not just to retain customers but also to meet these new expectations by offering fresh content and solutions to keep their interest long-term.
How to optimize advertising costs without losing campaign effectiveness?
With the changing market, increasing the advertising budget did not always bring the same success as it did initially. Therefore, we needed to find the best balance between advertising expenses and the actual results they generated.
Our Story
The Surge in 2020
As the pandemic hit the world fundamentally changed, and for “Milena Style,” this was a turning point. People confined to their homes began seeking new activities, and handcrafting quickly became a hit. During this period, traffic to the “Milena Style” website surged so drastically that the site crashed multiple times, signaling the potential of online commerce.
Our advertising efforts in 2020 focused on Google Ads. With a relatively modest investment, we achieved impressive results, with a return on ad spend (ROAS) of 5.5. This demonstrated that even in crisis times, well-targeted campaigns can bring significant success, provided the product is marketable and customers are satisfied with what they receive.
Reality in 2021
Following the initial success, 2021 began with some momentum carried over from the previous year. However, by March, we started noticing a decline in sales. The situation became more complicated when, buoyed by their success and expecting the same outcomes as in 2020, Milena Style began creating and importing many products that did not have the same marketability. They soon realized that this approach wasn’t profitable, leading to more complex marketing efforts aimed at minimizing losses.
We gradually increased the advertising budget, eventually reaching four times the marketing spend compared to 2020, aiming to maintain a high ROAS. However, despite this, ROAS began to drop. This year taught us all that increasing expenses does not guarantee the same high results. Even though our ad investments were larger, the return fell to 3.79, indicating a need to rethink the strategy.
2021 highlighted how quickly market conditions can change and how important it is for a business to remain flexible. The success of the previous year was no longer a guarantee for future results, which required a reevaluation of strategies and approaches. This led us to realize that simply increasing advertising spend is not a solution in itself, and this shift in thinking prepared ‘Milena Style’ for the new opportunities that 2022 would bring.
New Opportunities in 2022
In 2022, we continued to experiment with different advertising strategies, including the then-popular Smart campaigns in Google Ads. Although not all campaigns achieved the expected returns and ROAS dropped to 3.26, we still managed to maintain stable results from the previous year.
The impression share of our ads increased significantly, indicating strong visibility in the market, though it didn’t translate as well into sales as in previous years. The market was becoming more competitive, and customers were becoming more discerning. 2022 was a good year for us, providing valuable lessons and opportunities to improve our marketing efforts going forward.
The Change in 2023
In 2023, we made a significant shift in our approach. We decided to drastically reduce the budget for paid ads and focus on SEO optimization. Thanks to our intense SEO efforts, we managed to rank at the top in search engines, which in turn made Google ads redundant. The reduction in ad spend allowed us to maintain a stable turnover despite the significantly lower advertising costs.
Below is a graph showing how in 2021 there was a significant peak in paid traffic expenses compared to the amount of organic traffic. Over time, these advertising costs drastically decreased, and thanks to our strong SEO efforts, organic traffic began to rise.
Despite the fact that sales slightly declined compared to the previous year, we managed to optimize our marketing expenses in a way that allowed us to maintain a stable business. It is important to note that the average order value increased, indicating that we were attracting increasingly higher-quality customers.
Stability in 2024
In 2024, the business demonstrated stability, as shown by the analysis of the last six months below. Although orders decreased by 17% compared to the previous year, their average value increased by 15%. This allowed us to maintain revenue with only a minimal difference of 5%. From this chart, we can conclude that our approach was successful, and that Milena Style’s ability to offer value to its customers, even in a changing market, remained strong.
What about Facebook ads?
Parallel to our efforts in Google, in 2021, we began experimenting with ads on Facebook and Instagram. Here we used visually engaging materials, including videos, which significantly facilitated sales. Through this approach, we were able to offer customers more diverse products and personalized offers. Subsequently, we systematically optimized the ads, analyzed the results, and tested different approaches, which led to a steady increase in return on investment and retention of long-term customer interest, positively impacting Milena Style’s revenue.
In 2024, we observed growth in revenue generated from Facebook and Instagram ads, which was mainly due to better-targeted advertising campaigns, resulting in a higher average order value.
Below, you can see a comparison of two campaigns that we analyzed in relation to the previous year, as they were active during that period as well. The other campaigns were seasonal, promotional, or short-term, which does not allow for a direct comparison with past results.
Conclusion
Milena Style is an example of how a business can maintain its success over the years. With the right strategy and careful management of the advertising budget, we managed to achieve sustainable growth and adapt to changing market conditions. Despite inevitable downturns, we always found a way to get back on track and continue growing. The success of Milena Style is proof that with perseverance and strategic planning, even the biggest challenges can be overcome.
RESULTS
What we achieved?
2022: +51%
Kristina Doynova
