Grow Your Delivery Service with These Fast & Easy Targeted Campaigns

{}Introduction

Eduardo Silva: Good morning, or good afternoon if you're joining us from the East Coast, thank you for your time during today's Podcast. Today we're going to be covering how to grow your delivery service with fast and easy targeting campaigns, how to reach specific zip codes in your delivery zone, and maximize sales — very exciting content. Let's dive into our agenda — how targeting increases the effectiveness of your ads and leads to better returns, the strategies you can use to make each of your advertising campaigns more effective, and the easiest way to get ads in front of potential customers, fast.

My name is Eduardo Silva, I'll be your host for today's Podcast, I have 18 years of sales and marketing experience, I'm an alumni of Oaksterdam University here in the Bay Area, the first university program for the cannabis industry, and I'm really excited to be part of this industry. We've been in business for over five years now, solely dedicated to advertising for the cannabis industry, and we're really excited to be partnering with all of our clients out there to drive performance on their behalf.

Before jumping into today's content, let's take a quick pause to prepare ourselves, a couple housekeeping items — cell phones, they're such a great tool for marketing, but we're going to be covering a lot of content, so we ask you to put those phones face down, or silence them, for the time being. If you're joining us from the Zoom interface, please familiarize yourself with it, there's a Q&A button at the bottom, we have panelists live here who can address your questions. And, finally, make sure to stick around all the way to the end, it's only a 28-minute commitment, and we have some special offers for attendees that we'll share at the end.

Delivery Advertising in a Growing Market

Eduardo Silva: Wonderful, so, with those preparation steps out of the way, let's jump right in — right now, cannabis delivery is allowed in at least 14 states in the US, and across all of Canada, and, with online shopping and in-store or curbside pickup having become more popular over the last year due to the pandemic, it's no surprise there's also been a lot of increase in both delivery orders and delivery services. There are, of course, plenty of challenges to offering cannabis delivery, whether as part of a retail outfit or a standalone business — for example, in California, the number of cannabis delivery services has exploded since the option became legal, and to compete with the big players, like Eaze, dispensaries and delivery services need to be savvy, to carve out some of that market share.

Standing Out With a Unique Value Proposition

Eduardo Silva: In order to do this, you need to actually be able to offer something your competition isn't — this is your unique value proposition. For example, maybe rather than focusing on distinct products, you create curated boxes around particular needs or wants of your customers, so you can have a "sweet dreams" box featuring edibles, vapes, and topicals all centered around getting better sleep, or maybe you offer only organic products, sustainably sourced. This helps set you apart as a business, but you also need to grab the attention of your target market — this is where your marketing strategy comes into play, it should not be an afterthought, it needs to be part of your go-to-market plan. You need to understand how you can advertise and get the most visibility, and, if you've already launched, you need to continually monitor and adapt your advertising strategy to make sure you're getting the best return and continually seeing improvement. If you want to get orders, you need to reach potential customers and share what you're all about — just like everything else in cannabis, advertising is restricted, and regulations and laws vary from state to state and province to province, so how can you get your message out there and convince people to shop with you?

Traditional Advertising Methods and Their Limits

Eduardo Silva: For starters, there are traditional advertising methods — these have been pretty limited in most places, however, some areas do allow them, so I want to mention it. When I talk about traditional advertising methods, I'm referring to television and radio ads, magazine ads, billboards, and direct mail — let's do a quick overview of each. I don't want to be seen as providing legal advice, so be sure to check the status regarding marijuana advertising in your area, or check with your favorite cannabis lawyer, before proceeding with any kind of ads.

Broadly speaking, television ads are pretty much a no-go zone anywhere in the US or Canada — in the US, tobacco and alcohol TV ads are pretty regulated, and marijuana is treated similarly. Hold on, though, I'll fill you in on how you can actually get your ads on TV through digital marketing, so don't go anywhere. Radio marketing is a bit of a hit or miss, some states allow it, though you have to find publishers willing to work with a cannabis company — if you go down this route, check the audience stats for any station you're considering, verify that the majority of their audience is of age and matches your target audience. There are some great cannabis-friendly and cannabis-culture magazines out there, however, in most cases, they aren't targeted, most have national or even international distribution, meaning you could end up paying to advertise to people in other states who can't even order from you — rather than wasting your budget that way, it may be better to focus on targeted ads that let you hone in on the people most likely to order from you, magazines are great for advertising brands, but not so great for delivery services.

Billboards are a pretty popular way to advertise a dispensary or delivery service in a specific area where they're allowed — placed in a delivery zone, they attract the attention of drivers and passengers, however, not everyone driving by is going to be interested in cannabis, and while you can focus on areas you deliver to, there's no way to really hone in on your ideal customer with billboards, you have to cast a large net and hope the people interested in delivery see your billboard. I want to note that, recently, in California, cannabis companies are no longer allowed to advertise on billboards along interstate highways — I mention it because California tends to lead the country in these sorts of things, we'll likely see something similar happen in other states fairly soon.

The last traditional marketing method I want to cover is direct mail — if you've tuned into some of our past Podcast, you know we actually offer this as a service to our clients, one of our previous Podcast is entirely on direct mail, which is very useful for delivery services to target specific zip codes. If you have a good list, you can also segment it further to better reach your target audience, and direct mail is a great way to introduce yourself to a new delivery zone, just be sure to offer a deal they'll really want to take advantage of.

Digital Marketing: Display Ads, Google Ads, and CTV

Eduardo Silva: Okay, let's talk digital marketing. When most people think of using digital marketing to promote their delivery service, they tend to think of ads like those you see on websites or apps, or Google Ads. That first category is called display ads — these are great for brand building or brand recognition, and, when you work with an agency like us, you can get real-time reporting to see how well your ads are performing. These types of ads are only as good as your advertising network — to make sure our ads perform well for our customers, we've built a large network of cannabis-friendly sites, and have access to millions of device IDs of cannabis audiences across the country. We can also do native ads that mimic the style of the site or app they're placed on.

Next, let's talk about Google Ads — a lot of dispensaries think they can't run Google Ads, but that isn't true, we've run thousands upon thousands of campaigns for dispensaries and delivery services in the US and Canada, these are great for getting top of mind on search results relating to cannabis, especially if you're a new service. That's not all you can do with digital ads, though — remember when I mentioned TV earlier? Well, using programmatic advertising, a fancy phrase for describing the use of software to purchase digital ads, you can get your ads to play during streaming TV videos and on smart TVs. Video ads that run on sites like YouTube are called "in-stream video," they can also be OTT, over-the-top video ads, which run on smart TVs, as opposed to FCC-regulated broadcast channels — this is great.

Why SEO Still Matters for Delivery Services

Eduardo Silva: Right now, when talking about advertising, you don't often hear much mention of search engine optimization, but I do want to bring it up, because it can be a crucial way to differentiate yourself online, and make it easier for people interested in ordering delivery to find you. Regardless of the market you're present in, showing up in local searches is crucial for driving people to your website and menu — I've seen a lot of delivery services send people directly to their menu, without providing any information about how their services work, where exactly they deliver, and what people can expect when ordering from them. Not only are those services falling short of creating a connection with a potential customer, they probably won't show up when people are searching for nearby cannabis delivery. Most of these digital advertising strategies are legal everywhere — there are some regulations in different states and provinces concerning content and imagery, but they're compliant almost across the board, and they tend to be more economical than traditional advertising methods. We find that many clients like to try one or two advertising strategies, and, when they see the type of return they get, invest further down the line.

Targeting: The Key Delivery Strategy

Eduardo Silva: This is really just scratching the surface of what's possible with digital marketing — so, you know a lot about the advertising tools available, let's talk about strategy. One of the most crucial strategies delivery services need to implement is targeting — you don't deliver everywhere, and not everyone is going to buy from you, so, by focusing your advertising budget on specific areas and people, you can increase your return on ad spend and make the most of your advertising dollars. Targeted ads are five times more effective than regular ads, meaning you're going to get more sales with them, if done correctly, who doesn't want that? Targeting is the act of selecting particular audience attributes, and only displaying ads when those attributes are met — depending on the ad platform you choose, you'll have different options for the attributes that trigger those ads, for example, you may want to target millennials living in a city center who make a certain amount per year, or everyone within each of your delivery zones. To make the most of your targeted ads, you'll want to cater to your different audience segments — if you're targeting people in a particular area, use images from that area, or names of places they recognize, this helps build a connection with your audience, crucial when you're fighting for market share. If you don't know who your ideal audience is, research your market and take a look at your CRM, so you have an idea of who to target and what kind of ads to serve. You can also do retargeting, which is essentially reminding people they were interested in shopping with you — to do this, you use a pixel, a bit of tracking code that helps show who's visiting your website and what other sites they're going to — I want to be clear that this data is anonymized, so you don't get actual personal information, and you'll be compliant with privacy laws.

Geo-Targeting Your Delivery Zone

Eduardo Silva: That's a pretty broad overview of targeting, so let's cover some of the most useful ways to actually target different ads. First up, location targeting, or geo-targeting — this is when you outline a particular area on a map, and only run your ads within that region. You can use geo-targeting in different ways — first and foremost, your delivery zone, often focusing on your highest-value delivery zones, targeting the entire zone, or breaking it down to target residential areas during certain times and offices during others. If you're in a tourist town, and popular hotels and Airbnbs are within your delivery zone, you can use landmark targeting to hone in on those hot spots and convince visitors to place an order. If you're a store that also offers delivery, you can use geo-targeting to create a radius around your storefront, or around your competitors, to steal their customers.

Demographic, Behavioral, and Lookalike Targeting

Eduardo Silva: Depending on your ad platform, you can target a variety of demographics to help reach your ideal audience — if you have a more millennial-focused delivery service, you can target people in that specific age group, this lets you get more specific with your ads. How granular you can get depends on the ad platform, but in some cases you can segment by age, gender, location, education, income, interest, and many more. Behavior targeting is when you show ads to people after they complete a certain action — for example, if someone went to your site and left without placing an order, you can target them with display ads to try to get them back on your website, staying top of mind. You'll need to install a pixel on your website to track visitor behavior for this type of targeting — check with your web developer, or we can handle this for you as well. Also known as affinity targeting, this type is done by creating a new, or lookalike, audience based on the audience information you already have — so, if you have demographic and behavioral information on your customer, you can use that to target people with similar characteristics, expanding your customer base, reaching new people with similar habits to those who already enjoy shopping with you.

Navigating Google Ads Keyword Restrictions

Eduardo Silva: This type of targeting is most relevant to Google Ads — when creating Google Ads, you'll need to be a bit more particular about keywords. This is actually the reason many dispensaries think you can't do Google Ads — they put in a keyword like "marijuana," and boom, their account gets shut down, because of the nature of our industry. If you want to advertise on Google Ads, you'll need to do some keyword research and analysis to identify which keywords and phrases you should build your ads around and target, ideally the types people are using to find you online. This can be pretty hit or miss, so it's extremely beneficial to work with an agency that's been doing this for many years — we understand the ins and outs of Google Ads, and we have ways to work around banned cannabis keywords, so our clients can extract the maximum value from their particular ad types. Not all ad types allow for all these types of targeting, different ad types have different targeting capabilities, but our team can help you better understand how each works and how they can be customized to help you grow your delivery service.

Branding and Messaging That Converts

Eduardo Silva: So, now that we know the different types of targeting, let's talk about how you can stand out in a crowded marketplace. I've already covered the advantages digital marketing has over traditional marketing for cannabis advertising, so let's talk about the actual content of the ads themselves — this is where your branding, your voice, and your mission help you connect with potential customers. First up, your brand — every visual ad should include your logo, you want potential customers to remember your delivery service and identify with it whenever they want to place an order. In addition, your messaging should align with your brand voice — while you want to use different words or phrases advertising to different segments of your target audience, the overarching voice should be in line with your brand strategy, so, if you're a medical marijuana delivery service, it doesn't make sense to start talking about "getting stoned." The same goes for your mission — if your goal is to help people with wellness-centered products, make sure your messaging aligns with that specific goal. Getting your brand messaging out there helps you build relationships with the people most interested in your services.

Eduardo Silva: While targeting is a great way to get your message seen by people most likely to buy from you, how do you know who they are? If you've already been operating, take a look at your CRM to identify patterns — are your orders primarily from particular areas within your delivery zone? If so, you may want to focus campaigns on that specific area to convert more people into customers, then begin advertising in other parts of your delivery zone. You can also run A/B tests to determine what type of messaging works best, and to keep improving your ads.

Measuring What Matters

Eduardo Silva: If you want to be sure your ads are actually working, you need to measure, and measure again, and then measure a third time — we're really big believers in tracking everything, so you can get the full picture of what's going on with each campaign. We offer real-time reporting on our display ads, and monthly reporting on Google Ads and SEO, so you always know how well your campaigns are performing — after all, this is your investment. We pay attention to the following metrics: we track impressions for display ads and Google Ads, so you can see how many times people have seen your ads; we track clicks, to determine whether the call to action is enticing, and whether the graphics and copy are getting attention — dividing your clicks by your impressions, and multiplying by 100, gives you your click-through rate, the percentage of ads getting clicked on. With Google Analytics, we can see how many people visit your site, how they got there, how long they spent, where they went, and whether they finished their purchase. We track how many orders your digital advertising generates, and the actual revenue on those orders — dividing your revenue by the amount invested in a particular strategy gives you your return on ad spend, a big one, because we want to make sure you're getting as high a return as possible. These metrics help paint a picture of how well your campaigns are performing, and highlight opportunities — by consistently tracking these metrics, you can determine the effectiveness of your campaign and pinpoint areas for improvement.

Eduardo Silva: When you work with us, we're always looking at these metrics, to improve upon them, using them as a baseline as we test different campaigns, and monitoring them regularly, so our clients can easily see the value in an advertising campaign, through regular reporting. Here's an example of a page from one of those reports — in addition to overall numbers, we go into the different ad types to provide a more comprehensive breakdown of what's happening, here you can see a page all about mobile banner ads, another type of display ad. We're able to link our display ads with our clients' menu, to let them know not just how many people saw and clicked on the ads, but how many actually ordered, or stopped by, after seeing one, and how much revenue those ads resulted in. This type of revenue attribution has made it easier for our customers to share the impact of their delivery service's digital ad campaigns with other decision-makers, and it's a useful tool for really understanding the data, crucial for continuing to make wise advertising investments.

Case Study: A 9.63x Return for a NYC Delivery Service

Eduardo Silva: These numbers here are for a physician-led medical marijuana delivery and dispensary chain in New York — they wanted to further advertise their marijuana delivery service, as more competitors were moving into their area. They chose to invest about $15,000 in display ads to target their delivery zone throughout New York City and surrounding areas, and we were able to transform that $15,000 investment into over $139,000 in revenue — that's a return on ad spend of $9.63 for every dollar spent, plus they now have the contact information of those 900 orders, and can remarket to those customers time and time again via other methods, without having to pay to capture their information again.

Eduardo Silva: This is outstanding, right? I really can't say enough about the value of digital advertising for delivery services in such a heavily regulated industry — it has really helped countless cannabis delivery services grow their reach and connect with more customers than other advertising methods. As a digital advertising agency solely focused on the cannabis industry, we've tried to make getting started with these types of campaigns fast and easy — we handle everything for our clients, so they can focus on their businesses and provide exceptional customer service. We create the graphics, write the copy, and get your ads placed on popular websites and apps, and we'll run everything by you, so you always have the final say.

Special Offers

Eduardo Silva: Very easy, right? And, to make this worth your while, we have a couple special deals to get your first digital advertising campaign off the ground, fast — first up, get $200 off your first month of display ads for your delivery service, or, if you prefer to start with Google Ads, we'll cover your management fee for the first month. Ultimately, both are great, easy ways to get started, we'll take care of all the heavy lifting and run everything by you before publishing and going live.

Closing Remarks

Eduardo Silva: Let's talk about what these types of campaigns would look like for your delivery service — I encourage you to schedule a call with me, and we can go into more detail and discuss how to make the most of these campaigns. I want to take a moment to thank you for joining us today, and please don't forget to schedule that call — we'll put the link in the chat window, so you have it. Have a wonderful rest of your day, and if there are any questions, feel free to ask them here, or schedule a call, I'm happy to address those one-on-one as well.

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