DOE Media Revamps
Tote & Carry’s
Digital Presence to Find Profitability and Growth
Founded in 2016 by Tony Dennis & Tony Rey, Tote & Carry was a self-funded dream that began operations out of a home garage with no financial backing or investors. The affordable, luxury bag brand specializes in statement fashion pieces and travel sets designed to elevate your look for any occasion. In a few short years, they went from selling bags out of the trunk of their cars to being featured in major publications such as VOGUE, Oprah’s Favorites, Travel and Leisure, Yahoo, Forbes Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and many more.
DOE Media Revamps
Tote & Carry’s
Digital Presence to Find Profitability and Growth
Founded in 2016 by Tony Dennis & Tony Rey, Tote & Carry was a self-funded dream that began operations out of a home garage with no financial backing or investors. The affordable, luxury bag brand specializes in statement fashion pieces and travel sets designed to elevate your look for any occasion. In a few short years, they went from selling bags out of the trunk of their cars to being featured in major publications such as VOGUE, Oprah’s Favorites, Travel and Leisure, Yahoo, Forbes Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and many more.
THE CHALLENGE
Rising advertising costs that hit all businesses post-pandemic
Like many businesses, Tote & Carry saw a spike in sales during the 2020 pandemic lockdown as customers used their extra cash to make purchases, but in 2021 the uptick in sales began to slow down.
In 2022, at the MAGIC Trade Show in Las Vegas, DOE Media met Tote & Carry and learned about their struggles to keep up revenue amidst the rising advertising costs that hit all businesses post-pandemic. DOE stepped in to help steer them back to success, overcoming several challenges along the way:
Over Reliance on Promotional Sales Revenue
The brand initially relied on a strong promotional strategy, offering significant discounts to attract customers. While this approach generated sales, it conditioned customers to expect deep discounts and hindered brand perception.
Decreasing Revenue & Increasing Ad Costs
Year-over-year (YoY) revenue was decreasing since the pandemic, leading to an elevated Media Efficiency Ratio (MER), and resulting in a significant decrease in profits.
Inflated Google Costs
Disapproved and weak ads coupled with no set bids were holding back campaigns, creating volatility that resulted in DSA’s (Dynamic Search Ads) and Performance Max campaigns overpaying for brand traffic.
Ineffectiveness of Poorly Designed Meta Campaigns
By overspending on retargeting due to lack of proper audience segmentation, Tote & Carry was losing money on campaigns that didn’t bring in new revenue, despite the campaigns’ indication of “high ROAS” (Return On Ad Spend). This included not testing different time frames of audiences, not properly separating ad set levels by demographics, and not excluding necessary audiences. Other areas of opportunity included:
- No exclusions in retargeting or prospecting, leading to high frequencies and audience overlap
- Catalog errors with Dynamic Ads prevented campaign scaling
- No evergreen campaigns or ad sets
- Re-using same ad set structure even when they proved to be unsuccessful in accomplishing objectives
- Ineffective ad placements and no testing of creative sizing, leading to a poor brand visual appearance
- Combining engagement and retargeting in a single ad set
Unorganized Metadata Affecting Website Discoverability
A targeted website audit indicated 90% of the thousands of pages tested had hundreds of on-page and technical issues, such as:
- Lack of optimized titles and descriptions
- Duplicate meta descriptions
- Duplicate title tags
- Internal links with broken URLs and 404 errors
- Failed Page Speed Testing and Core Web Vitals for both mobile and desktop
- Only 13% of the hundreds of backlinks were legitimate, with the rest leading to duplicate or broken links
DOE Media restructured Tote & Carry’s entire digital marketing strategy to establish a profitable path forward. By delineating KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) based on COGS (Cost of Goods Sold), we were able to understand what metrics they were monitoring, ROAS (Return On Ad Spend), and shift focus towards Media Efficiency Ratio (MER), to get a better perspective of the profitability of the business.
THE SOLUTIONS
DOE Media restructured Tote & Carry’s entire digital marketing strategy to establish a profitable path forward. By delineating KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) based on COGS (Cost of Goods Sold), we were able to understand what metrics they were monitoring, ROAS (Return On Ad Spend), and shift focus towards Media Efficiency Ratio (MER), to get a better perspective of the profitability of the business.
getting social
New Meta Audiences and Targeted Social Campaigns
With a focus on retargeting customers instead of prospecting to find new revenue streams, Tote & Carry was leaving money on the table while spending too much on existing customers. Additionally, there were valuable tools from Meta Business Suite that were not being leveraged to benefit the brand:
- Reallocated budget & retargeting
Reallocated budget from majority retargeting to 70-80% on prospecting and 20-30% on retargeting after creating new audiences with parameters such as users interested in travel, which had not been previously targeted.
- Set up web and shop campaigns, as well as Advantage+ campaigns.
- Began interest audience and creative testing
Began interest audience and creative testing, leveraging single ads across all stages of the sales funnel to determine the most effective ad placement.
- Implemented dynamic copy testing and new ad formats
Implemented dynamic copy testing and new ad formats that included story and reel campaigns, carousels, slideshows, collections, and new templates.
- Observed different ad variables
Tested 3-5 ads in weekly intervals to observe different variables and determine what ads work best on core audience.
the world wide web
Google, Bing, and YouTube Makeover Drive Clicks and App Downloads
After focusing on Media Efficiency Ratio (MER) and factoring in marketing costs, we were able to derive a Google/Bing/YouTube strategy that not only highlighted the brand on these platforms, but also helped push app installs on mobile devices:
- Re-launched Performance Max Campaigns, optimizing investment for better search results.
- Separated keyword categories into core ‘brand keywords with exact match’ and 'general brand keywords with no exact match’ to better control budgets and bids.
- Implemented targeted campaigns to attract new customers and drive mobile app installs
- By driving users to download and install the mobile app, we were able to drive messaging through app notifications instead of text messages, saving on SMS marketing costs.
ALL EYES ON US
Website Improvements Lead to Search Engine Discoverability
Despite the thousands of pages that make up Tote & Carry’s website, they were not appearing at the top of search results for potential customers. By identifying and detailing the problems across their entire website, we were able to address these issues one at a time to make every page land atop search results. Coupled with new SEO-friendly content on the website, Tote & Carry became one of the top search results for travel accessories and more:
- By running a competitor analysis and in-depth keyword research, we created a clear content strategy for the brand to follow
- Addressed technical issues (Page speed, ALT tags, URL structure)
- Fixed internal linking structure
- Updated and optimized Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, Header tags, and Alt-tags
- Fixed pages with 404 errors on site
- Created topical and relevant content (e.g., articles on popular products) that included keywords such as “duffel bag” which were previously unused. This drove traffic and increased sales from new customers:
Pink bag blog posts during Barbie movie craze saw an increase in search results that led to spike in sales
YOU’LL BE HEARING FROM US
Optimizing Website & Emails for Conversions
Redesigned email capture forms, turning off double opt-in for newsletter sign-ups and switching to a two-step form that only needed email for initial sign up but provided an additional discount for SMS opt-in.
Optimized product pages and user carts for better conversion rates.
Tested multiple landing pages for highest conversion.
Set up DMARC, DKIM, and SPF for better email deliverability, ensuring newly signed-up users would receive marketing communications
THE RESULTS
SECURING THE BAGS
New Marketing Strategy Sets Path For Sustainable Growth
The brand transitioned from a sales framework of continuous promotions to a comprehensive strategy that focused on showcasing product quality and consumer benefits across web, search, and email:
YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND US
Discoverability Leads to Profitability
LIKE ZUCK DREW IT UP
Optimized Meta Strategy Drives Clicks
SUCCESS IS IN THE BAG
BY THE NUMBERS
Driven by a combination of addressing technical issues on the site, optimizing search discoverability, and focusing on promoting brand quality over lower pricing.
Within the first 45 days of working with DOE.
Within the first 30 days of reallocating Meta budgets from re-targeting audiences to majority prospecting
With a higher CTR, the brand was rewarded on Meta with lower advertising costs, allowing us to get the word to even more potential customers.
What's next?
When Tote & Carry first met DOE, they were struggling to maintain the success of their 2020 sales frenzy. DOE immediately realized they needed to adapt their marketing strategy to an evolving market driven by changing consumer behavior. A new strategy, updated website, and proper targeting across Meta ads with higher quality content that emphasized product quality lay the groundwork for sustainable growth and a brighter financial future
If your business finds itself in a similar situation to Tote & Carry, or you’re planning ahead to avoid the same mistakes, sign up for a free marketing audit with DOE. We’ll take a deep dive into the state of your company and show you the way to growing and scaling.