the met – paid search & paid social
Simultaneous paid search and paid social campaigns bring more visitors to the museum—and its online store—and reduce cost per acquisition by 74%.
Challenge
Increase visibility, traffic and sales for one of the world’s most respected art institutions.
When we started our partnership with the world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2018, it was clear that the Met’s digital advertising efforts could be boosted through a more structured paid search strategy. By making sure accounts drove to a specific return on ad spend, the Met could bid more effectively and reach more potential visitors to their museum and online store.
74%
Increase in ticket sales
74%
Decrease in cost of acquisition
18%
Increase in revenue from online store
Approach
We optimized bids, targeting, and messaging with granular data analysis to maximize conversions at lower costs.
Our team started by creating a granular bid strategy for search. Rather than bid on an ad group or at a campaign level, we analyzed the performance of every single keyword and continued to optimize throughout the campaign. Taking a similar approach with paid social, we conducted data analysis to micro-segment audiences into categories like economic performance, business value, and engagement. This also pointed us to a more effective bid strategy for social.
Outcomes
We increased museum ticket sales by 74% and drove an 18% revenue increase for the online store.
Paid social helped the Met reach a wider audience, and drove customers down funnel so that paid search could close the ultimate conversion. In tandem, these digital strategies significantly increased ticket sales while decreasing the cost of acquisition—and boosted sales at the Met’s online store as well.