Outbrain’s Best of 2020: Case Study Edition

2020 was an interesting year for brands everywhere as the COVID-19 pandemic forced entire industries to rethink their digital and consumer interaction strategies. Protest movements and political tensions created further uncertainty, which impacted us that much more.

Never has it been so difficult for brands to operate globally and find the right approaches in an ever-changing environment. 

In the wake of the #StopHateforProfit movement, brands realized that they had become unhealthily dependent on social platforms that did not sufficiently address hate speech and political extremism — which ultimately had a negative impact on brand perception. And with that impact came a further drive toward a more trustworthy form of advertising — Native Ads. 

We’re extremely proud of the trustworthy network we’ve helped cultivate, and unbelievably lucky to work with some of the most inspiring brands in the world.

Here are just a few who achieved outstanding results with Outbrain throughout this hectic year.

1. Samsung

Our new in-article product suite, Native Awareness+, is not yet available in all markets, but the first campaigns already prove that it is meeting the high expectations of the industry: combining the best of display, social, and native ads in one product.

Samsung used Outbrain’s Native Social solution to generate awareness without disrupting end-users’ experiences, and extended their social campaigns to premium publishers outside of the walled gardens. Native Social not only ensured a viewability of 75%, but also a click-through rate of 0.34%. When was the last time you saw such a high CTR from a traditional banner ad?

2. Red Bull

Red Bull is a pioneer in digital marketing and is regularly among the first brands to test new Outbrain products (and with great success, at that!). After our successful Click-to-Watch Video case study, Red Bull recently tested our new Carousel Ad format. 

To promote a cool, new web series, each Carousel card promoted an episode, giving customers a glimpse into what the series was about. This strategy resulted in outstanding post-click engagement. And 4:42 minutes, the average dwell time was 96% higher than the target. Additionally, Red Bull achieved a bounce rate of only 26%.

3. Volvo

New consumer trends also impacted the Automotive sector, especially concerning the current uncertainties and the need for flexibility. With Care by Volvo, customers can decide to rent a Volvo without long term contracts — taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs are all included.

Care by Volvo used a large portfolio of Outbrain formats and tools to raise awareness for the innovative product and to generate sign-ups for the service. Within six months, 1.8 million unique users were generated for the company’s website, in Germany alone. And with the uses of retargeting and Lookalike Audiences, the conversion rate increased by a factor of 4x.

In addition, Outbrain had a “halo” effect on other campaigns: an increase in Outbrain traffic had an immediate impact on the number of conversions generated through other channels.

4. Domino’s

The pizza chain Domino’s was tracking difficult KPIs and wanted to reduce the cost of online orders. Accordingly, a whole range of optimization tools were used for the Native Advertising campaign with Outbrain. Using Conversion Bid Strategy, which automatically adjusts bids for the best result, a CPA 16% below target was achieved.

Compared to parallel social campaigns, the Outbrain CPC was as much as 347% more efficient. Overall, order volume increased by 17% — amazing.

5. Bosch

Are these standard native campaigns also suitable for generating mere brand awareness? Our regular studies with top brands in cooperation with Nielsen prove the effectiveness also for awareness goals.

For example, Bosch promoted a cordless vacuum cleaner via Outbrain and tested the effect on brand perception and purchase intent. Compared to the control group, Outbrain users were more likely to associate the Bosch brand with the product category “cordless vacuum cleaner” (+30%). They were also more likely to buy a Bosch product (+25%).

These case studies are just a few examples of the wide range of goals that can be realized with Outbrain.

Interested in seeing the impact for yourself? Be sure to register for Outbrain Unveil on January 27 and get a sneak peek at what’s to come in 2021.