Focused Strategy + Value-Added Creative + Analytics-Based Testing = Results That Make An Impact
Throughout my career, I’ve designed, managed, and tracked paid social, print, pay-per-click, online, radio, podcast, and email automation campaigns for a variety of industries.
It doesn’t matter what the goal is. Significant results are achieved through careful planning and audience building, messaging and creative focused on tangible value points, clear calls-to-action, and scaled strategy based on analytics.
Paid Social Strategy
Reach and Traffic campaigns, targeted to build awareness and support for businesses, organizations, and issues while generating quality website visits
Lead campaigns created to gather qualified leads, supporter contact information, and newsletter sign-ups
Conversion campaigns developed to encourage members of the public to take specific actions, including scheduling reservations, making purchases, or sending messages of support to lawmakers
I specialize in creating comprehensive paid social marketing and advocacy campaigns that generate measurable results, including:
My strategies are designed to:
Incorporate social media platforms’ AI and pixel/API technology to drive specific results and target ads cost-effectively
Use insights and data to build interest, persona, and action-based audiences, retarget engaged users, and create AI-driven “lookalike” audiences
Develop high-quality creative elements that highlight tangible value points while delivering eye-catching graphics, key messages, and calls-to-action
Be scalable over time, using A/B and AI-driven testing to understand what elements and combinations achieve the highest rate of results
My Process:
Goal Setting: Matching specific goals (audience reach and awareness, website traffic, website actions, event sign-ups, newsletter sign-ups, leads, etc.) with optimal campaign types and strategy
Audience Building: Developing targeting and retargeting audiences using current customer/supporter lists, website visitor information (tracked through pixel/API code), customer/supporter personas (who are they, what are they interested in, where do they work, shop, eat, etc.), and AI-built “Lookalikes” that match the 1% of people most like current customers/supporters
Creative Strategy: Creating messaging, graphics and/or videos, and calls-to-action, focused on businesses and organizations’ unique, tangible value and “thumb-stopping” elements that encourage people to take action after clicking to the website.
Campaign Management: Using data insights to improve campaigns over time, allowing us to scale paid outreach and spend ad budget efficiently
Reporting: Providing analytic reports based on a campaign’s key performance indicators (KPIs) as determined by our goal setting, and then adjusting budget and strategy based on those metrics
Case Studies
The Union Station Nashville Yards, Autograph Collection
CHALLENGE: The Union Station Nashville Yards, Autograph Collection is an award-winning, luxury boutique hotel that is part of the Nashville Yards mixed-use development. Established in 1900, the former train terminal features grand architectural elements and modern accommodations. To promote its packages to outside drive markets, I designed a conversion campaign targeting a 200-mile radius around the hotel, excluding a 45-mile radius around Nashville.
APPROACH: To increase guests’ intent to book packages, I connected this conversion campaign to the “Book Now” and “Check Availability” buttons on the website using a Meta pixel. AI then delivered ads to users it identified as the most similar to people who had clicked one of these buttons.
Using a combination of audiences based on “Engagement,” AI-driven “Lookalike” and “Lifestyle/Travel + Nashville Interests,” a funnel was built to target and then retarget prospects based on their interactions with the site and the hotel’s social media profiles. A/B split-tested ads featured beautiful images of the hotel’s lobby, exterior, rooms, and live music, as well as strategic copy focused on the hotel’s recent award, publication mentions, and package features.
RESULTS: In twelve months, ads generated 4,599 conversion button clicks at an average cost of $1.20, 15,514 link clicks, 13,997 landing page views, and 43,974 total clicks, reaching 237,509 users an average of 3.49 times. Ads also achieved an average click-through rate (CTR) of 5.30% and an average CPM of $6.63.
WM
CHALLENGE: WM has had an active presence in the Nashville community for many years, developing an excellent reputation as one of Tennessee’s largest trash and recycling service partners and as the managing entity for both the Southern Services Landfill and Nashville’s only single-stream MRF, WM River Hills Material Recovery Facility. To help create greater awareness of its sustainable practices, local environmental protection, recycling initiatives, and community involvement, WM tasked me with creating a comprehensive paid social strategy to expand its reach and increase traffic on its web pages.
APPROACH: Utilizing WM’s corporate branding guide and creative elements, I created original ads targeted to six different data and interest-based audiences in Davidson County. These included sustainable thinkers, people interested in community involvement, government officials and people related to public policy, users who were already interested in WM as a company, people who had recently visited the website, and an AI-generated ”Lookalike” that matched the 1% of people most like website visitors. The campaigns used A/B split-tested graphics and videos paired with messaging that used emojis to capture attention.
RESULTS: In just six months, the campaigns generated 3,794 link clicks at an average cost per click of $0.54. Ads were delivered to 106,419 different people across the county an average of 3.94 times with an average CPM of $4.89.
Springs Public Schools Empower Academy
CHALLENGE: To bring a tuition-free, public charter school focused on Montessori-aligned principles to Rutherford County, Tennessee for the first time, Springs Public Schools Empower Academy tasked my team with leading a county-wide paid social campaign intended to bolster support from community members in advance of a pivotal application approval vote by the Rutherford County Board of Education. The campaign also served to gather leads of prospective families interested in enrolling.
APPROACH: With the school board vote less than three months away, we developed a messaging strategy that showcased Empower Academy as an exciting new option for families and highlighted its vision to partner closely with the school district. We identified audiences that would be most likely to engage with content, such as parents of school-aged children, people interested in charter and Montessori-related topics, and primary and Montessori teachers within the county. I also worked with Springs Empower Academy to have all materials translated into Spanish to reach non-English speaking families in the community. Using Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms, “Engaged/Retargeting” and “Lookalike” audiences were created based on existing contacts, followers, and users who engaged with ads and pages. Through AI-driven dynamic ads, the right content was put in front of the most relevant audiences – harnessing multiple copy, graphic, and call-to-action combinations to uniquely deliver the best ad creative for each impression.
RESULTS: Ahead of the Rutherford County School Board’s July 2022 Meeting, the paid social campaigns reached 46,728 accounts in the community, generating 1,854 link clicks, 5,822 total clicks, 190 messages of support of Springs Empower Academy, and 43 event responses using 177,012 impressions. After Rutherford County Schools requested that Springs make a few amendments to its initial application, the board voted 5-2 to approve the creation of Empower Academy.
We then pivoted our advertising and communications strategy to generate significantly more leads from parents interested in enrolling their child by using analytics to inform the creation of new content. Campaigns reached more than 73,896 user accounts, generating 6,534 link clicks, 22,369 total clicks, and 1,361 total leads – extrapolated into 2,217 potential students based on responses to questions.
This project received the Nashville chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)’s “Best of Show” award at the 2023 Parthenon Awards, as well as multiple additional Parthenon awards.
CHALLENGE: To strengthen the US workforce talent pipeline and increase access to postsecondary learning opportunities, Rebuilding America’s Middle Class (RAMC), a coalition of community colleges, identified the need to expand federal funding for short-term training and credential programs. RAMC tasked my team with launching campaigns to increase awareness of the benefits of Workforce Pell Grants and encourage US Senate and House members to support related legislation.
APPROACH: After key members were identified, paid social campaigns were targeted to their states and districts and within a 3-mile radius of the U.S. Capitol Building. These were based on “Reach” goals to increase overall awareness and “Conversion” goals to generate congressional emails sent from a tool on the website. Using both profile insights and AI, audiences were built to reach “Seekers,” people most likely to engage with education and job opportunities, “Champions,” individuals most likely to engage in workforce, education, and social advocacy, and “Congress-Related,” legislators and other social users with direct ties to decision-makers. A/B-split tested and AI-driven dynamic creative elements were designed to showcase the high-paying jobs Workforce Pell Grants could help people get after finishing their program, messages related to making job training more equitable and affordable, and testimonials from individuals who have significantly increased their job prospects and financial security thanks to these programs.
RESULTS: Highlights include 2,875 emails of support sent from constituents in key districts, 10.3 million impressions on Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn, a reach of 2.5 million accounts, an average frequency of 4.10x, 30,000 direct link clicks, 27,000 unique visitors to the website, and Amendment 169 to H.R.4521 passed in the US House of Representatives.
