Adam Lasky is the director of marketing at TeePublic, an online marketplace where independent artists sell custom T-shirts and apparel. Challenged with hitting revenue targets for the holiday season in 2017, Adam partnered with AdRoll to find and attract the right shoppers.
The rest is history: TeePublic doubled their revenue against initial projections and Adam has used what he learn to build this year’s holiday campaign. We sat down with Adam to hear his #DareToGrow story and his tips for how marketers can capitalize on holiday spending.
Last August, I presented our strategy, philosophy, and budget at a company-wide meeting. I went through the strategy laying out revenue goals, return on advertising spend (ROAS), and cost per revenue (CPR).
To be honest, presenting this plan in front of the entire company was nerve-wracking — so much so that my hands were literally shaking! It really dawned on me that I only had two months to get the ball rolling. This was the moment where everyone might think: “Okay, we hired this guy to do this. Now it's up to him to deliver.”
At the top of the funnel, our revenue goal was 20% growth year-over-year at a better CPR and a stronger ROAS. There was a lot of pressure to generate results because it was the most we ever invested in a two-month period.
With time not on my side, I turned to AdRoll. We used AdRoll in a number of ways to win back previous customers, including dynamic retargeting on the web and for email retargeting in our loyalty campaign.
Sure enough, AdRoll delivered: we doubled our revenue based on what we projected for November and December.
What I learned from our 2017 campaign is that it all boils down to relentless focus, planning, and cohesiveness. We didn't let the holidays just happen because we were prepared.
I was hired to generate results, so I fell on my past marketing experience and took it from there. I know how to formulate a strategy, an ad philosophy, and an ad spend strategy. Part of me still thinks: “Yeah, this worked, but it was a lot about luck.”
But the other half of me says: “Well, no, you said you were going to do something and you did it. You pored over the minute detail and it paid off.” I learned if I combine my energy, mind, and experience with the right tools, such as the AdRoll Growth Platform, I can and will see results.
One of the things we learned after Cyber Monday — when we crushed our revenue goal for the entire holiday season—was how to replicate the success of this marketing initiative. We want to apply that mindset of relentless focus on planning and strategy to this year’s holiday campaign.
We now have the checkpoints and milestones in place. We can leverage what worked and double down on it. We don’t want to just hit our KPIs and revenue goals; we want to continue to exceed them.
Learn how other top marketers, like Adam from TeePublic, turned make-or-break moments into breakthroughs at adroll.com/stories.
Last updated on September 20th, 2023.