About Milestone
For the past 19 years, Milestone has been at the forefront of powering websites for the hospitality and retail industries. Milestone’s suite of digital marketing products powers the digital presence of over 2,000 customers, while Milestone’s website design services and organic and paid marketing services are driving traffic to thousands of properties all around the world.
Our goal at Milestone is to create a scalable approach to personalized marketing in order to drive the best value for our clients and their customers. Facebook’s Dynamic Ads, combined with Marin Social, covered all elements of our goals. The tools provided flexibility and customization needed to scale our Facebook strategies, and the results have exceeded our expectations.
How to Deliver More Relevant Social Ads to Previous Site Visitors and Prospects?
A popular brand of jewelry was looking to boost ROI from prospecting efforts on social publishing networks. Even though the jewelry brand had well-designed audiences, great ads, and strong landing pages, conversions were limited without understanding what products were relevant to their behavior.
The jeweler was finding it difficult and time-consuming to create custom audiences based on product interest or behavior on its website, and generate relevant, product-specific creative across all users, product categories, and products. It relied on broad lists and considerable manual creative, and showcased only the top performing products rather than those users were genuinely interested in. With thousands of products, it was a challenge to have so many items featured in unique creative for each audience combination.
Milestone’s goal was to solve the brand’s challenges, and achieve a 5x ROI from media spend on Facebook.
Milestone deployed Facebook Dynamic Ads (DA) through Marin Social to help create dynamic campaigns based on highly specific product sets and highly relevant targeting. Given the large number of high-quality products, the jewelry retailer was a natural candidate for DA.
Once Milestone set up the product feed, launching DA campaigns was a breeze in Marin Social. With the guidance of a Marin Client Services rep, Milestone went through the DA wizard in five simple, intuitive steps. Using Marin’s dynamic macros, Milestone was able to create customized ad variations with product, category, and price data populated from the jewelry brand’s product feed.
By the end of the process, the team set up ads for highly relevant products to website or mobile shoppers through remarketing across all devices, making use of ad templates that enable an “always on” ad experience. The team launched a wide range of DA product audiences—viewed but not bought, added to cart but not bought, and prospecting, a Marin beta feature. With Marin’s Automated Prospecting, Milestone found new customers and revenue using lookalike models of customers who had converted.
The outcome—personalized ads for everyone who visited specific product pages on the brand’s website.
A Higher ROAS and Growing Audience Engagement
The retargeting campaign, which ran from September 21 to December 6, 2016, exceeded all expectations
- 357% increase in overall ROAS
- 4.5x lift in ROAS after shifting from normal prospecting to Dynamic Ads Prospecting beta
- 7.7x lift in ROAS after shifting from standard Website Custom Audience remarketing to Dynamic Ads remarketing, a 668% overall increase in ROAS
We know that AI is everywhere, but it’s still worth taking a moment to think about what the year ahead has in store for us. We present our thoughts on the most meaningful forces driving changes for performance marketers in 2024.
1. AI Transforms Supply
Artificial intelligence is redefining how we find and access information information, which means the surfaces for advertising will continue to evolve. AI-driven Search, like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Perplexity, and even Google Gemini, is better than a page full of links.
These AI systems are shifting user behavior, with more consumers preferring AI-powered search to deliver contextual answers. For advertisers, this means evolving ad formats integrated into conversational AI interfaces. OpenAI is “weighing” whether to offer ads. Imagine AI-guided shopping assistants recommending products based on real-time queries, with ads seamlessly embedded into these interactions. The challenge will be adapting inventory and placements to fit this new AI ecosystem.
2. AI Transforms Creative
Generative AI is revolutionizing ad creative, enabling brands to produce personalized, immersive content at scale. Instead of static messaging, brands can deploy dynamic campaigns that adapt to audience sentiment and trends in real time.
Even Coke has released an AI-generated commercial. The Ad Platforms are rushing to expand generative AI capabilities. As these tools mature, the "right message to the right audience" paradigm will feel outdated, replaced by hyper-responsive creative that shifts with cultural "vibes." This ability to quickly iterate creative will empower marketers to stay relevant and resonant.
3. AI Transforms Workflows
AI is moving beyond answering questions—it’s starting to do the work for us. We have long automated routine tasks like budget allocation and campaign creation, but this year, AI agents can get s#@t done for you with a simple prompt. This evolution is helping marketers focus on strategy and insights rather than execution.
Reactive Agents are great and will have a significant impact on daily tasks. Still, proactive AI continuously scouring your account for opportunities and inefficiency will lead to even better performance, driving efficiency and scalability like never before.
4. Shoppable Everything
The boundary between content and commerce is blurring. Social platforms, streaming services, and even podcasts are integrating shoppable ads to meet consumer demand for instant gratification. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have already launched robust shopping integrations, but the trend is expanding.
In 2025, expect "shoppable everything" to gain traction, from QR codes on live streams to in-app shopping experiences on emerging platforms like BeReal. Have you bought something from your TV yet? Next year, you probably will. According to eMarketer, social commerce sales are projected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2025, with brands investing heavily in seamless, purchase-ready experiences.
5. Ads Everywhere
Subscription fatigue is real, and platforms are responding by increasing ad-supported models. From Netflix to Disney+, previously ad-free platforms are introducing tiered subscriptions with ads, creating new inventory for marketers.
Retail media networks are also booming, expected to command 25% of media spend by 2028, according to eMarketer. Anyone who has a captive audience is building a media network (see Western Union). This diversification offers brands more options to reach their targets, but it also requires careful strategy and tooling to manage campaigns across these expanding networks.
6. Evolving Privacy Laws
Consumer privacy continues to be a focal point, with eight new U.S. state privacy laws going into effect in 2025. These are similar to California's CCPA but add complexity for marketers, who must navigate an increasingly fragmented regulatory landscape.
Compliance will require robust systems to manage consent and protect consumer data. Additionally, marketers must focus on privacy-compliant targeting strategies, such as first-party data and contextual advertising, to stay competitive in a cookieless future.
7. The New Measurement Imperative
Accurate measurement is increasingly challenging as data collection becomes more challenging, especially if you rely on last-click attribution. Marketing mix modeling (MMM) and incrementality testing are emerging as key tools to evaluate campaign performance. Meta offers Robyn, Google has Meridian, and independent solutions address this measurement challenge.
But a better understanding of how your investment is performing and shifting dollars to the highest-performing opportunity can significantly improve your performance…what would you do with a 5x increase in conversions?
8. Google DOJ Ruling: Uncertainty, but No Immediate Action
The U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust case against Google creates uncertainty in the ad tech space. The DoJ has thoughts, however, with a new administration likely to take office in 2025, material changes to Google’s business model are unlikely in the short term.
However, given this continued uncertainty and the broad range of other platforms, marketers are wise to lessen their dependence on the Google marketing stack. Staying nimble and monitoring regulatory developments will be crucial to navigating potential disruptions.
9. The Shift to Contextual Targeting
As third-party data diminishes, contextual targeting is making a comeback. This strategy focuses on placing ads within relevant content rather than relying on individual user data, creating opportunities for brands to align with consumer interests in a privacy-friendly way.
The Burger King ‘Whopper Detour’ campaign is a prime example of successful geo-targeted contextual advertising. Innovatively leveraging location-based marketing, the campaign strategically targeted those within 600 feet of a McDonald’s location. By setting up a geo-fence around competing restaurants, Burger King could identify and connect with potential customers who were nearby. The ad was triggered by the customer’s proximity to McDonald’s and offered contextually relevant content, appealing to individuals who were likely already considering fast food purchases.
10. Cross-Channel Alignment
With more platforms and channels than ever, cross-channel alignment is essential. Consumers expect seamless experiences across devices and touchpoints, and marketers must deliver cohesive campaigns to stay competitive.
Managing and optimizing your programs in a unified platform is the cheat code for 2025. This type of integration streamlines workflows and ensures consistent messaging and performance measurement across all channels. In 2025 breaking down internal silos is a must-do.
Conclusion
Performance marketing in 2025 will be defined by the continuation of many of the themes we have been living through, but that doesn’t make them any less impactful. Staying ahead means embracing AI, preparing for regulatory changes, and adopting strategies prioritizing privacy and cross-channel integration. By aligning with these trends, marketers can position themselves for success in an increasingly complex and competitive landscape. Need help keeping up?
