Slashing Customer Acquisition Costs
How we paved the way for major contracts for a market research company.
The client
A tech-focused market research firm specialising in gaming and VR was keen to elevate its client base, targeting major industry names like Sony, Epic Games, and Xbox.
Yet, their recruitment process was holding them back.
They spent significant time and resources finding new test gamers for each project, leading to delays and higher costs that prevented them from competing for larger contracts.
Cutting participant intake time from 13 days to just 3 days paved the way for contracts with major gaming companies.
The challenge
While they delivered valuable insights to clients, the firm faced a crucial barrier: for every new contract they built a fresh, new audience from scratch. It delayed research turnaround times and pushing up ad spend. Ads could take 1-2 days to get reliable responses and their manual email and recruiting processes could elongate this (especially over weekends).
As a result, they couldn’t meet the tight timelines demanded by top-tier companies touting major contracts.
They relied on time-intensive manual processes to send individual email responses, slowing down participant onboarding and ultimately reducing overall research time and stifling client satisfaction.
The solution
We re-engineered their recruitment and engagement approach, implementing several targeted strategies to streamline and automate their processes:
Mailing List Creation and Segmentation: We established a comprehensive mailing list of past participants and sent an initial survey to capture each player’s preferred gaming platform (such as PlayStation, Xbox, or VR) and favored genres. This allowed us to categorize participants by interest and create a bank of ready-to-contact gamers, dramatically speeding up recruitment when new research projects launched.
Audience Optimisation on Meta: By embedding tracking parameters in URL structures, we built specific Meta audiences based on visit behaviors. For instance, pages aimed at RPG gamers were tagged accordingly, allowing us to build and target highly specific audiences on Meta for future campaigns. This setup gave Meta’s algorithm valuable data on the most relevant players, enabling faster, more affordable audience targeting in future ads.
Automated Engagement through a Facebook Community: We set up a Facebook group for their gaming participants, inviting all previous participants to join. With this community in place, the client could instantly announce new research opportunities, achieving sign-ups directly from group members before their paid ads even went live. This organic engagement strategy led to faster participant intake and added credibility to their brand.
Streamlined Communication with Automated Responses: We automated email responses to instantly confirm participant interest and provide clear next steps. Previously, responses required manual follow-ups, leading to delays. Now, interested participants could receive immediate instructions, complete preliminary steps, and be ready for the next phase by the time our client reviewed their applications.
Evergreen Ad Campaigns: To further build their participant database, we launched an “evergreen” campaign that continuously gathered new participants. Gamers were directed to join the mailing list and provide details about their gaming preferences, making it easy to tap into a pre-qualified audience for future projects.
Faster results meant unlocking time and freeing up capital, we reduced ad spend and fulfillment costs by 61%.
The results
This approach cut their participant intake time from 13 days down to an average of 3 days. Not only did the firm drastically reduce their turnaround times, but they also began filling smaller research projects with just email and community group outreach, reducing ad spend even further.
Key outcomes included:
Reduced ad costs: The refined, data-driven audiences enabled Meta to serve ads to high-intent participants, leading to lower cost-per-click and higher engagement rates.
Automated processes: By automating communications, the firm saved time and minimised manual errors, creating a seamless participant experience.
Significant cost savings: We reduced their cost of client fulfillment by 61%, which allowed them to reinvest in growth and marketing.
Breaking into the big leagues: With improved efficiency and faster turnaround times, the firm secured contracts with industry heavyweights like PlayStation and Xbox.
Our comprehensive improvements not only streamlined operations but positioned them as a go-to partner for major gaming companies looking for quick, reliable research insights.
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