Women'secret is one of Europe's largest chains of lingerie, pajamas, loungewear, swimwear, and accessories stores. The brand, "created by women for women," was founded in 1993 and currently has approximately 650 stores in more than 60 countries. Eleven stores are located in Ukraine, with over 100,000 loyal customers. The online store was developed over several months, and the website was completed in January 2022.
- Restore traffic to the online store during martial law;
- Increase the overall income of the site (compared to before the military situation);
- Reach the planned conversion price level that was at the beginning of winter and, if possible, reduce it;
- Organize advertising campaigns to ensure monthly increases in ad conversions.
Before the introduction of martial law in Ukraine, we only had one month of full-time operation underway with the project. Therefore, to accurately assess the results, the case study will compare the first month BEFORE the war (January-February 2022) with the first month AFTER the war (April-May 2022). To see the dynamics of results and understand whether we chose the right strategy, we will compare the following periods: January-February 2022 and June-July 2022. It's also worth noting that January-February was the period when discounts were at their highest, while the other comparison periods were mid-season, so this also affected the results.
During the preparatory stage, already during a full-scale war, we began to change our advancement strategy and analyze factors:
Based on these questions, we began studying Google Analytics statistics and analyzing the current situation in the country. For further ad placement, we identified key regions that are not experiencing active hostilities and are experiencing an increase in displaced populations.
Due to active military action, people began moving from their cities to others, and so the top 10 regions included Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Khmelnytskyi. It was also decided not to exclude regions that remained uninvolved in combat, as they were significant even before the war began.
At the time the ad was launched, the situation in Kharkiv was beginning to recover, and more and more people were returning, so that city was also abandoned.
As a result, contextual advertising was launched in Lviv, Kharkiv, Odessa, Dnipro, and Kyiv.
Even before the war, the project was advertised in Ukrainian, but the number of Ukrainian-speaking users was significantly lower than post-war figures.
We noticed changes in the time to conversion: before the military conflict, 57% users converted on the first day, generating 60% in revenue. After the military conflict began, this number dropped to 53%, generating 51% in revenue. This means that users became more frugal and less decisive (at least in the first months of the situation) about any purchases, as they were unsure what would happen next, what to expect, and whether they should buy something now or could manage without it for now.
All advertising activities can be divided into 4 large blocks: Contextual Display Advertising (CMA), Video Advertising (YouTube), Product Advertising (Shopping and Performance Max) and Search Advertising
We used video advertising to inform users about new promotions and store openings in Ukrainian cities.
To maximize user reach, we used the following video advertising formats:
1.1 Bumper Ads - 6 seconds long, non-skippable
1.2 In-Stream Ads - 15 seconds long, non-skippable
1.3 In-Stream Ads - 30-second skippable ads with product feed.
We used display advertising to inform users about promotions and sales on the website. We used graphic banners for this purpose. We changed the creatives every one to two weeks, which allowed us to avoid boring users with the same offer.
Like most eCommerce projects, the project's primary source of revenue is product advertising. Depending on the season, product groups were prioritized for display. Ads were displayed in Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, and the Google Display Network.
Using search advertising campaigns, we collected traffic based on user queries across product categories and the company's brand.
Thanks to contextual advertising, we were able to attract 29% more users to the site. At the same time, we received 38% more transactions. Revenue increased by 51%.
The creatives continued to be used in the brand's corporate style and did not significantly change the message, only the offers.
Warm audiences generated the highest number of conversions and e-commerce value, while cold audiences typically delivered higher results. New users became retargeted audiences after the first stages of the sales funnel, so our goal was to properly attract targeted traffic and engage with them during re-displays of ads.
To describe in more detail:
We regularly worked with "warm" audiences of repeat customers who interacted with the website and social media, as well as existing customer databases. To increase online store sales, we engaged with all audiences in several stages and encouraged sales. Statistically, "warm" audiences generated an average purchase of 37% lower than first-time visitors.
Compared to the pre-war situation, the statistics have changed somewhat. Below are the results for one month AFTER the war began.
June-July 2022:
We also noticed an increase in indirect conversions when analyzing e-commerce. Assisted conversions from targeted advertising increased by 126,98%. Last-click conversions with direct interaction increased by 34,09%, while the cost per conversion decreased by 35,25%.
Conversions across other channels increased from 9,02% to 116,29%, so targeted advertising drove the highest number of conversions from the paid advertising channel.
In Facebook's advertising account, the cost per initial checkout became $101.00 higher than it was before the war. The cost per final conversion became $161.00 higher than the cost we received before the war. At the same time, the number of assisted conversions increased by $27,571.00 compared to the beginning of winter. To confirm the statistics above, we compared the results of paid Facebook advertising with organic traffic, which decreased by $27,321.00. This means that, despite the decline in product demand, targeted advertising was still able to increase transactions on the site and almost match revenue pre-war.
The main tasks that we faced were:
Analysis period: July 2022–October 2022
The initial start of SEO work was planned for February, but the outbreak of military action forced adjustments and the start of work was postponed until the summer months.
What were the nuances of working on SEO?
While in previous years, the Russian-language version of the site clearly had an advantage, in 2022 we saw a significant increase in the frequency of queries in Ukrainian.
As we can see, some of them show a steady upward trend. Undoubtedly, this trend has influenced the adjustment of media budget allocation.
GEO: Ukraine
At the beginning of the work, a technical audit of the site was conducted, which allowed us to identify errors that negatively impacted the site's visibility.
Based on the audit results, technical specifications were developed to address technical errors and implement additional elements that could positively impact the visibility or CTR of the site's pages in search results.
Many parameters were checked, such as broken links, duplicate meta tags, duplicate content output, redirect chains, pages with mixed content, duplicate H headers, missing meta tags, and pages with the noindex tag.
The work of collecting semantics was broken down into stages, which helped avoid lengthy downtime when making changes to the site.
KeywordPlanner, Ahrefs and Serpstat tools were used to collect semantics.
An analysis of the link mass was also carried out and a strategy for its growth was developed.
SEO texts were written and posted for the listing pages, which improved the site's visibility in search engines and attracted more customers.
Graph of organic traffic changes since the start of website promotion work
A graph of organic traffic changes since the beginning of the year, showing how the outbreak of war in Ukraine has affected traffic
Chart of changes in the average site position since the beginning of February 2022
Graph of changes in the average site position since the start of the work
Chart of the number of words included in the TOP-30 since the beginning of work
Below are screenshots of changes in search query cluster positions since February 2022 and changes in search query cluster positions since the start of work.
SEO results for 5 months:
Despite the fact that many businesses collapsed and were unable to continue operating, we made every effort to ensure our clients could continue operating and receive a certain number of orders. Yes, it was quite difficult in the first months of the war, as it was like starting a project from scratch, with consumers still unsure whether they should buy "this" right now, given the current situation in the country. In other words, we had to re-energize the business and create a "need" for the product. After some time, by slightly adjusting our strategy, we were able to return to pre-war levels and even increase some. The success of a project depends largely on the teamwork of the project's marketer and the agency. Therefore, we were able to build a good relationship, which enabled the entire process to proceed efficiently and smoothly.
As we can see, the women's lingerie niche hasn't lost its relevance even during these difficult times in Ukraine. Women continue to purchase various products in this category. It's also important to understand that this niche is quite challenging to promote due to its high competition. To achieve regular conversions, it's essential to properly develop potential customer profiles and engage with them at all stages of the sales funnel. Most of the budget should be allocated to attracting new audiences to increase website conversions, while also continuously working with "warm" retargeting audiences. During challenging times, it's important to consider additional factors that can impact results, including:
- define realistic goals and set planned indicators (number of conversions and their cost at each stage of the sales funnel);
- analyze the location of the ad display and select the required one;
- create creatives and advertising texts according to a specific proposal;
- analyze the impact of all traffic sources on overall conversions, analyze direct and indirect conversions, and the path to purchase.
We also recommend testing different advertising formats. For e-commerce projects, it's important to launch dynamic ads with product catalog promotions to increase the likelihood of purchase.
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Main works:
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*The price is for agency work, excluding the advertising budget.
Main works:
As a bonus you will receive:
*The price is for agency work, excluding the advertising budget.
Main works:
As a bonus you will receive:
*The price is for agency work, excluding the advertising budget.
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