Online to Offline: How To Build An Omnichannel Strategy on Facebook

That the current customer journey is a multi-touch, convoluted path is no longer a secret.

Consumers now have mobile devices, experiential retail is growing, and Amazon is now the first place many consumers check when making a purchase. With such strong competition for limited attention, retailers need to step up to provide seamless cross-channel experiences, encouraging a shopping journey that allows the consumer to make informed choices. Advertisements should no longer be a sole function of brand, but an opportunity to provide the consumer exactly what they want.

Facebook has long been providing solutions for retailers to retarget based on user intent. Previously, this data was sourced solely online to drive online sales. Now, Facebook is allowing advertisers to leverage offline data as well, providing the ability to serve online ads to drive foot traffic and to measure the success of these ads in-store.

Online to offline to online. And back again. This is what the consumer journey looks like now. And you can create ads to convert along this path.

How does it work?

Facebook’s Offline API allows retailers to pass offline purchase data into Facebook to measure the impact of paid social media engagement on in-store sales. With this purchase data, Facebook can match in-store buyers to online Facebook users that may have seen an ad campaign.

Similarly to how you might upload an email list to build a custom audience, offline purchase data can be used to build audiences in Facebook for retargeting, cross-selling, and upselling. This audience can also be used to build Lookalike Audiences for prospecting both for online and in-store.

We provide this data integration for our clients, and then utilize this new data to build campaigns that serve both online and offline objectives. And so far, we’ve seen up to 27% of all in-store sales attribute to paid social media engagement.

How can I use it?

1.  Build audiences using your offline purchase data

• For retargeting, cross-selling, & upselling: Build a custom audiences from recent in-store purchasers to retarget with online ads showcasing relevant items for purchase
• For prospecting: Build a lookalike audience from recent in-store purchases to target new audiences, providing options to convert both online & in-store.

2.  Choose an ad format that makes the most sense for your audience

• For new audiences: Try Canvas or Collection ads. These ad types provide a similar browsing experience to a mobile website or app, so they’re perfect for prospecting with new customers.
• For audiences nearby store locations: Try carousel product ads with map cards. These ad types are best for driving foot traffic, providing directions, in-stock items, and points of contact for the store.
• For evergreen campaigns: Try dynamic ads. Dynamic ads can convert full-funnel across your entire product catalog, making them ideal for ongoing campaigns to retarget, cross-sell, upsell, and prospect.

3.  Create ads that encourage preferential shopping

• With map cards: Incorporate map cards to show users their closest store location, along with the products that are available at that specific store.
• With dynamic image templates: Use dynamic image templates to automatically overlay images with in-store specials, stock levels, branding, or other product data.
• With in-store CTAs: Consider CTA options like “Get Directions” that drive users in-store for a more tangible experience. Also try calls-to-action in your headline like “See what’s still in stock at [nearest store location]”.

“StitcherAds is changing the digital advertising game for retailers in a huge way. Having the ability to take in-store customer data and plug it into Facebook’s infrastructure to measure, retarget and prospect new audiences means increased revenue opportunities retailers haven’t even begun to dream of. StitcherAds is leading the way into the future of marrying the offline and online worlds, and the future is looking very bright.”

- TOM ARRIX, MANAGING PARTNER OF AGENCY PARTNERS AND FORMER FACEBOOK VP OF GLOBAL MARKETING SOLUTIONS

Looking for additional insight into how you can create a full-funnel strategy for online to offline? Download your free copy of our retail marketing guide "Connecting The Online-to-Offline Dots."