DeepReach Product Show 2023: The Highlights

Starting with some figures

DeepReach unveiled its strategic moves in multi-local marketing, marking its expansion into Germany, the UK, Italy, and Spain. 2023 indicates a significant uptick in their partnerships, with over 600 new advertisers, including industry stalwarts like IKEA and Mobalpa. Their platform's metrics reveal 2,200 advertisers, 1,600 agency users, and a notable 42,000 local campaigns. DeepReach has also diversified its technology into three distinct offers: DeepReach Catalog, DeepReach Marketplace, and DeepReach Multi-local. A key takeaway from the event was how the company shifts digital ads performance from using heavy user data to campaign and geographic data, a move seen as a response to the challenges of a post-cookie era.

We showed that DeepReach has the technology that can create unrivalled campaign performances:

1. 15-20% annual growth fueled by changing social dynamics, emphasizing proximity, short supply chains, and AI innovations.
2. 4x higher ROAS for local compared to national campaigns, with a fast doubling thanks to geolocation, and a second one, achievable within 6-12 months through continuous analysis and optimisation.

Local data is the cornerstone of performance, guiding investments and local budget adjustments. But local ads can’t really stand out without their principal ally : presence management.

Partoo's Take on Local Communities

Thibault Renouf, the CEO of Partoo, discussed the future of organic visibility. He shared valuable insights on how brands can improve their local presence and establish genuine connections with their local communities.

Partoo's first observation is that our online habits have shifted towards platforms. Instead of visiting a restaurant's website, we now rely on platforms such as Google reviews, Google My Business for reservations, and Instagram for visual previews. This transition is driven by the growing wave of User-Generated Content (UGC), which platforms encourage through reviews and updates.

Improving local SEO is also crucial for enhancing online visibility, especially on these platforms. Prioritising data accuracy, providing comprehensive business information, and actively engaging with reviews are key factors in boosting SEO and store locator performance.

Moreover, conversational interfaces are reshaping brand interactions, as users increasingly prefer online messaging over traditional phone calls. Google's SGE (Search Generated Experience) enables online chat systems that connect users with local staff or AI, paving the way for future possibilities like personalized e-commerce product suggestions.

Essentially, the digital landscape is evolving to include all aspects, such as reservations and payments, that can now be seamlessly conducted online.

Google's Local Ad Evolution

Cyril Grira from Google provided insights into the future of local advertising on their platform. He emphasized new strategies to ensure the effectiveness of local ad campaigns.

Google's observation is crystal clear : at the beginning of their buying journey, 63% of consumers are uncertain about making online or offline purchases. Being present across all channels becomes crucial to engage customers at every stage of their decision-making process. To achieve true omnichannel excellence, Google focuses on three key areas for optimising digital strategies:

1. Measurement: Adapting measurement methods as third-party cookies disappear. The trend of users logging into various platforms is growing, allowing data aggregation based on user intent communities, effectively demonstrating ROI.
2. Bidding: Leveraging first-party data for improved marketing performance. Algorithms that optimize bids work best with large data sets.
3. Format: rely on Performance Max, Google's latest and comprehensive advertising platform. It integrates all Google platforms, including Gmail, Display Network, YouTube, Maps, Discovery, and Business Profile, while incorporates AI at every level of campaign management.

Cyril finally said that Waze Ads won't disappear entirely but will gradually merge with Performance Max. The significant change is that Performance Max empowers businesses to define objectives beyond standard media KPIs.

Showcasing DeepReach's New Features

Our Product Team revealed the latest features we have been working on recently.

A powerful environment for each advertiser’s network

Pierre, our Product Marketing Manager, introduced a new user experience for store directors to order local campaigns. The improved user interface enables quick campaign scheduling in just 2 minutes.

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We also showcased other cool features to quickly onboard local zones, local shops and platform users. Additionally, we showed the notifications that store managers get for upcoming campaign launches and reporting availability. Advertisers’s user can also have access to their own support webpage, including tutorials, media guides, and support tools.

Customising campaigns for each location

At DeepReach, we firmly believe that advertising should get closer to consumers. Therefore, it's essential to adapt the parameters for each campaign for each location.

Frederic Douchement, Head of Operations

The first step is to set a customised budget per location. It can be attributed individually with DeepReach Multi-local or selected from various price levels in DeepReach Marketplace. And we'll soon introduce a new feature: budget recommendations based on the target population.

The second is to customise the media mix per location. DeepReach can currently configure distinct media mixes for each store and balance budgets to the most effective channels.

The 3rd  step is to run dynamic ads, delivering specific image/text to the local zone.

Also, new ad formats having be integrated for all DeepReach users:

• Video format, boosting immersion and conversion opportunities for your social media ads
• Google DV360, extending display coverage beyond DeepReach's existing inventories
• Google Performance Max, providing access to a wide range of formats to achieve your conversion goals (GDN, discovery, YouTube, Gmail, Maps).

Precise geotargeting

Now that campaigns are in place, there's a crucial step at the core of DeepReach technology: geotargeting: showing the ads only where it matters.

Whether you're a major Swedish furniture brand or a local bakery, your reach won't be the same. Today, our technology can handle all types of geotargeting.

Guillaume Penigaud, VP Product

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DeepReach's geotargeting options were highlighted to demonstrate how they meet these needs: radius, zip codes, INSEE codes, or IRIS codes.  A new innovation takes us further in geographical precision: the multi-zone feature. DeepReach can now create different types of zones for the same location: standard, delivery, extended, drive-in zone etc… aligning with your operation's objectives.

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Multi-local beats national performance

To underscore performance, Vincent, Head of Product Strategy, introduced DeepReach's campaign report. This tool has been enhanced and is now accessible under 2 layouts:

• Detailed reporting, for agencies or headquarters seeking specific performance insights for each media channel
• Essential reporting, designed for store managers, offering simple information like impressions, demographics, and geography

We also integrated 3rd party store-visits measurement platforms such as Okube or AdSquare, providing detailed insights into the impact of DeepReach campaigns on in-store visits.

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All these features are available and ready for use today, with more features in development, as the team discussed in the second part: beta features.

Beta features

The first feature focuses on providing ad budget recommendations based on the potential reach in a targeted area. This assessment can be easily performed with a single click when specifying the location on the platform.

Next is the mass calculation of reach features for all networks of shops is performed. This process simply involves uploading an Excel file that contains addresses of local stores. The tool then automatically suggests budgets and optimal allocations per store, taking into consideration media goals and desired budget optimization.

The brand new campaign planner allows users to fill in fields for known strategy elements, such as industry, season, and potential reach. Based on this information, the planner will automatically generate the missing elements, including media mix, budget level, and duration. This feature is powered by an algorithm that is informed by over 42,000 local campaigns. It recommends the best criteria to simplify decision-making and ensure consistency in digital strategies.

The last upcoming innovation aims to strengthen self-service capabilities on the platform for agency managers. To ensure autonomy and monitor campaign broadcasting, the trading dashboard will serve as the control center for all campaigns launched by agency users, offering three views:

• Campaigns tracking: Users can monitor the lifecycle of their campaigns, including upcoming launches, inactive campaigns, or those overspending
• Expense tracking: Based on an ideal expense curve, this feature helps identify budget depletion either too quickly (below the curve) or too slowly (above the curve). It also allows analyzing spending pace store by store for necessary adjustments,
• Performance tracking: This view easily identifies stores that are overperforming or underperforming using a color-coded map legend.

The presented innovations share a common goal: enabling swift and autonomous platform operation for managing a large volume of campaigns across multiple media, from creation and ordering to tracking and analysis.

Digital Catalogs: The DeepReach & Aristid Way

Aristid Retail Technology streamlines promotional processes for retailers by leveraging a data lake of products to provide scalable promotional content. While it was historically used to create printed catalogs for retailers, it can now also be used to facilitate local ad campaigns using DeepReach.

Store managers using the Aristid platform now have the ability to select the appropriate prospectus by week, choose products for advertising, access DeepReach's campaign ordering tool, and finalize their campaigns by validating targeting, budget, and visual content. This integration greatly simplifies the process of transforming print catalogs into digital advertising!

Facebook and tracking success with local campaigns.

To wrap up the morning session, Isabelle Cochi from Meta discussed their approach to evaluating the contribution of their channels to offline and online campaigns. Meta uses three methods to assess the impact of their channels on performance, offering valuable insights for retailers to understand the advantages of digital marketing.

• Incremental KPIs: Focusing on omnichannel sales (online and offline), although accurately tracking offline performance would require loyalty systems. Among these incremental techniques, Geolift stands out, dividing the country into two parts—one without ads and one with ads—to compare results.
• MMM: Marketing Mix Modeling, which analyses each media's contribution to performance and provides an overview of the best media mix to determine. It considers campaign-specific metrics such as product categories, seasonality, and GSA reputation or economic context.

Local Ads, tomorrow !

Empowered by AI, platforms, conversational interfaces, and local SEO, the shopping journeys of consumers are on the verge of a revolution. In light of the decline of third-party cookies, digital giants are reimagining their methods of measuring performance.

The shift from print to digital is motivating advertisers to create local ad campaigns. The technological partnership between DeepReach and Aristid will offer retailers a comprehensive solution to reach more local customers with impactful messages.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to access the event replay, the video on demand (VOD) is now available here!

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