About the business
Makino is the premier machine tool company in the Americas, serving the automotive parts manufacturing, aerospace and die/mould industries. Because the manufacturing space is very competitive and Makino offers premium products, the company was looking to position itself as an industry thought leader, by sharing informative content with prospects throughout the year-long-plus purchase cycle.
The 2016 programme was a full-funnel approach, bringing awareness and information to the marketplace as well as generating marketing-qualified leads. With these objectives in mind, Makino turned to its agency partner, gyro, to develop a highly targeted and humanly relevant campaign entitled ‘Make What Matters’.
Why programmatic?
Traditionally, Makino had used direct trade publication buys to reach its target audience of manufacturing engineers and decision-makers. However, not everyone browsing those sites is in the market for a machine tool. That meant gyro looked to programmatic targeting to reach specific audience sets and nurture these people as they browsed relevant content across the web throughout the entire sales cycle. This continual presence was designed to ensure Makino was top of mind for audience members making purchasing decisions. ‘Make What Matters’ content also positioned Makino as a company dedicated to educating audience members and helping the manufacturing industry grow as a whole.
Furthermore, programmatic’s efficiency enabled Makino’s campaign to not only be highly targeted but also reach its key audience at the right time and at the right price.
The campaign
Because of Makino’s uniquely targeted audience, gyro worked with several programmatic partners to find the optimal targeting mix. The 2016 campaign (January to December 2016) consisted of programmatic IP targeting, site retargeting, competitive conquesting and cross-device geofencing. Each of these tactics was chosen for various reasons, but ultimately, they had the same goal – to ignite engagement with key audience members by delivering a powerful message at the right place and time. Specifically, two vendors were used for IP targeting as a test to see which approach would be more successful in targeting a particular set of accounts with industry-specific messaging. Site retargeting was picked to nurture audience members who had previously interacted with the Makino site and offer these people content relevant to the Makino web pages they had previously visited.
Similarly, competitive conquesting (the practice of displaying adverts next to the editorial content of a competitor) was chosen to reach audiences who had shown previous behavioural interest in one of Makino’s competitors and serve them messaging that showcased how Makino’s quality, reliability and production could outshine the competition. Finally, cross-device geofencing was selected to capture audience members who attended the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago and drive them to Makino’s exhibition stand or back to the Makino website for additional information.
All of these tactics worked together to surround Makino’s key audience set throughout the year. Because programmatic targeting data enabled Makino to precisely reach its audience, it was able to deliver relevant and useful messaging to them based on its known industries and behaviours. This approach gave the audience a reason to feel and act, which made the 2016 campaign relevant and compelling.
Impressive results
The programme was measured through conversions, which comprised content engagements and content downloads from Makino’s website, as well as cost-per-conversion. These KPIs were picked to showcase audience interaction with the Makino brand (awareness) and educational content (thought leadership) while producing marketing-qualified leads from gated content forms.
Compared to the 2014 campaign, which did not use programmatic targeting tactics, the 2016 campaign contributed to 800% more conversions at a cost-per-conversion that was 80% lower than in 2014. Programmatic tactics led to 86% of the total conversions in 2016, whereas direct publication buys contributed to just 14% of the total. Additionally, programmatic tactics saw a cost-per-conversion decrease of 92% compared to direct trade publication buys. Overall, the top-performing tactic was the IP targeting approach, which drove 55% of the total 2016 conversions at the second lowest cost-per-conversion.
