Blain’s Farm and Fleet: Implementing Customized Ads to Drive Up Impressions and Clicks During the Holiday Season

Customized Ads Lead to Triple-Digit Growth in Impressions + Double-Digit Increase in Clicks

Founded in 1955, Blain’s Farm and Fleet is a specialty discount retailer that offers everything from farming and hunting equipment to baking supplies and toys. With an expanding physical presence across the Midwest and a loyal customer following, Blain’s found that their shoppers were not only using the web to shop, but also to research products before purchasing in-store. To get in front of customers during that initial research phase—and throughout the entire purchasing lifecycle—Blain’s hired Adlucent to ensure their ads showed up at the right moments with the most relevant content possible.

Adlucent brings something to the table besides an algorithm. There’s an art and a science to all this stuff—it’s not just what a report tells you. That’s why you have to have that relationship, where the art is also there. We’re really happy with them. – Stephen Kassnel
Managing Director of Ecommerce and Digital Marketing
Blain’s Farm and Fleet

Adlucent overhauled Blain’s feed structure by reorganizing product groups to optimize their Product Listing Ads (PLAs). They also updated existing PLAs and search campaigns to complement Blain’s mobile site. 

Adlucent then gave Blain’s shoppers a more personalized experience. The team used ad customizers to change ad text dynamically based on factors like customer location or promotion status. They also applied bid adjustments using dayparting and geographic data to target customers when and where they were most likely to purchase. In addition, they updated mobile bid adjustments to get ads in front of more smartphone and tablet users. Finally, they used expanded text ads and review extensions to increase Blain’s visibility in the search results and build consumer trust.

With their new website and ad campaigns in place, Blain’s saw 122% growth in ad impressions over the previous holiday season and bested their old clickthrough rate (CTR) by 86%. And while Blain’s multi-device customers continued to convert on desktop, a record 44% of the season’s online traffic originated from mobile. Specifically, their mobile ad impressions rose by 153%, with 200% more clicks. 

Tom Crumley, Account Manager at Adlucent, says, “Our relationship with the Blain’s team makes it that much easier to improve our campaigns every day. We’re excited to see performance go up and find solutions to problems together.” Blain’s Kassnel agrees, “We had a really good holiday with super strong sales. Adlucent’s a big part of that.”

“Our relationship with the Blain’s team makes it that much easier to improve our campaigns every day. We’re excited to see performance go up and find solutions to problems together.“

TOM CRUMLEY, ACCOUNT MANAGER AT ADLUCENT

Adlucent

Adlucent is the performance marketing agency that proves outperformance has no limit. Powered by our purpose-built platform, Deep Search™, Adlucent unifies the best of human and machine for a scientific approach to marketing. We work transparently in partnership with B2C and B2B retailers and brands to create custom, predictive programs that drive ever-better outcomes. Our services include paid search, shopping, social, retail media networks, display media, video, performance creative, consulting, and measurement. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Adlucent is part of Advantage Solutions and ranked one of the top marketing companies in the U.S. by AdAge.