After successfully piloting in the Dutch market, Butternut Box, the UK-based bespoke dog food subscription service, set out to experiment with creator marketing in their home market. The company tested partnership ads through The Cirqle's software with influencers and content creators to assess their impact on marketing strategies. The main objective was to enhance the efficiency of their paid social marketing campaigns and improve the Cost per Acquisition (CPA). This initiative aimed to explore how authentic, influencer-led content could boost brand awareness, engage potential customers, and ultimately, decrease the cost of new customer acquisition.
Butternut Box successfully utilised The Cirqle's software to collaborate with local creators, producing Instagram Reels and in-feed posts. These videos introduced the brand and explained the benefits of a fresh, varied diet for dogs. The campaign emphasized that over 74% of owners observed improved dog health since using Butternut Box, attributing this to high-quality ingredients and their unique cooking method. In preparation, Butternut Box ran a split test between regular paid social ads and a mix of those with partnership ads, optimising for the lowest Cost per Acquisition (CPA), thereby streamlining their marketing strategy while maximising reach and efficiency.
The Butternut Box campaign delivered stellar results that exceeded expectations. By astutely blending regular and partnership ads, the brand was able to decrease CPA by an impressive 16% in their well-established UK home market. More so, this strategy led to a phenomenal 53% uplift in conversions. Notably, the partnership ads alone powered a 23% reduction in CPA, signifying their standalone effectiveness. Furthermore, the marked surge in add-to-cart actions clearly underpinned the successful influence of creators and their generated content, illustrating the untapped potential of partnership ads as a transformative growth channel for advertisers. These results not only echo the strategic power of influencer marketing but also highlight its capability to reshape advertising paradigms, bringing remarkable efficiency and unprecedented growth. This victory has set a benchmark for Butternut Box, showcasing a promising trajectory for future marketing endeavours.