CASE STUDIES

How we delivered a 31% increased Return on Ad Spend for My 1st Years

Platypus Media x My 1st Years - Facebook Ads Case Study - Facebook Ads Agency Gateshead

Personalisation, it’s kind of our thing!

My 1st Years is the home of high-quality personalised gifts for babies and children. From dressing gowns and sleepsuits to toy chests and garden playsets, many of the items on offer can be lovingly personalised to create unique gifts for little ones of all ages.

Visit the site: www.my1styears.com

The challenge

In 2023, My 1st Years started working with Platypus Media. The company had ambitious growth plans and their current agency had reached their limit of what they could deliver. After auditing the account, we discovered a number of opportunities to increase both efficiency and volume. We couldn’t have been more pleased to have such a fantastic team to work with, totally open to testing and innovation, which was so needed to smash their revenue target.

How we worked

My 1st Years already had a clear and defined tone of voice, which meant our copywriters could hit the ground running. By adding layers of specific brand and voice of customer research, they crafted audience-specific messaging relevant to each stage of the buying process.

When you write an ad, you’re always thinking about what the target customer is feeling and what they want and need. My 1st Years is great fun to write for because we can tap into feelings of nostalgia, the desire for high quality, and add an extra thoughtful touch alongside some very specific brand loyalties.

Olly Lightfoot, in-house copywriter

Year-on-year Facebook Ads results in brief:

Click-through rate: +28%

Cost per click: –35%

Cost per acquisition: –31%

Return on ad spend: +31%

Revenue: +49%

Expenditure: +15%

Data correct as of 19/01/2024

We spoke to Gareth Chadwick, Head of Marketing and eCommerce at My 1st Years, to ask what it’s like to dip your toe into the Platypus paddle as a fast-growing business.

Gareth: It’s worth saying that I’ve known Sarah for a long time and respect her integrity. In the years I’ve known her, she’s turned down more work than she’s ever taken on because she knows when something’s a good fit and when it isn’t. I trust her with the business implicitly.

Why did you choose to work with Platypus Media?

We chose to work with Sarah and the team back in 2023 because the ideas they proposed for our growth and their understanding of performance marketing shone compared to the other pitches we heard.

Knowledge and experience

A year on, and Sarah and her team are now a cohesive extension of the My 1st Years team. I really value their knowledge and insights into how we can take the business to the next level. And it’s not just me.

I get lots of feedback from people across the business about how nice the Platypus team are to work with and how people thoroughly enjoy our collaboration.

Sarah and her team are responsive, which makes it easy for me to run my team, knowing that they can pick things up and run with them as we go. They move fast and adapt at speed—and I know they’re always on hand if we need them.

Integrated and active

Platypus Media integrate so well with us as an agency partner that they join pretty much every call we have as a business. And there’s no ambiguity. That’s invaluable. When our buying team says something, I know Platypus get on with the job immediately—there’s no need to wait— it just gets done.

Platypus Media x My 1st Years Facebook Ads - Facebook Ads Agency Gateshead

What three words would you use to describe working with Platypus Media?

I appreciate the Platypus team’s knowledge about Google and its constant changes and evolutions. At times, it feels as though they can almost predict what will happen next.

The three key benefits of our working with Platypus Media sit around these three words:

1) RELATIONSHIPS
The integration across the businesses and the working relationship that exists between My 1st Years and Platypus Media is a major benefit to us as a business.

2) KNOWLEDGE
The team’s knowledge about what they’re doing—and the resulting performance they get for us— is obviously one of the reasons we’re continuing to work together.

3) INSIGHTS
Sarah and the team are helping us move from a blended cost-per-acquisition model to bidding based on customer lifetime value to maximise long-term profit. Now that our CPA is under more control, we can scale with new campaigns to take the company to the next level.

Would you recommend Platypus Media to a business needing paid media support?

Without a doubt, I would recommend Platypus Media to another company. But I wouldn’t want them to work together—they’re a joy to work with, but they’re all ours!

With thanks to Gareth Chadwick, Head of Marketing and E-commerce at My 1st Years

I couldn’t be more proud of the results the Platypus paddle has achieved for My 1st Years. When you’re spending at these high levels, a large increase to revenue year on year is incredibly rare.

We started with improving the ad account structures to better suit how the business operates, followed by getting all aspects of the ads in order, from product feed optimisations to testing the heck out of ad copy + media. Working closely with the team beyond ads on product offerings and landing pages has been the icing on the cake (both in terms of results….and fun!).

It’s going to be a while before we stop shouting about these results, and with a 31% drop to the cost per acquisition, who can blame us?!

Sarah Robinson, Founder at Platypus Media

Can we help you?

With a bigger and even better team in 2024, we can help you say goodbye to gut feel and wave a big hello to data with powerful, data-driven Google Ads + Facebook Ads that work—swimmingly well.