How Realtime Agency Drove Top Performance For Sonos’ First Influencer Campaign

In 2022, Realtime had the privilege of supporting client Sonos in their inaugural influencer activation. This campaign involved eight creators who authentically promoted the Sonos Roam product line, with additional paid support.

As a performance agency, we approach all our campaigns with a scientific mindset. Before scaling any campaign, we believe in conducting thorough and targeted tests. These tests are designed to provide concrete answers to a set of questions, ensuring continuous improvement in campaign performance.

Challenge

Our primary objective was to gain valuable insights into maximizing the return on investment (ROI) for Sonos’ influencer campaign, particularly because it was their first venture into this domain. We were driven by several key questions that we knew would guide us towards achieving this goal. Firstly, we aimed to understand the relationship between upper and lower funnel performance, seeking to uncover how each stage of the customer journey impacted overall results. Additionally, we analyzed the common factors that distinguished the top-performing influencers from the lowest performers. Another area of investigation was the influencer size that yielded the best outcomes at different stages of the funnel. Lastly, we explored the potential of different placements in generating the highest return on investment.

Strategy

Alongside the participation of eight talented creators, we tested ten brand new audiences. To ensure a diverse range of engagement, we employed a combination of Reels, Stories, and In-feed promoted posts across various platforms.

To conduct a thorough analysis, we strategically staggered the posting dates of each creator. This approach allowed us to collect valuable data from the early posts and corresponding budget investments, which would serve as the foundation for answering our questions.

Once we had a firm grasp on the insights gleaned from the initial posts, we focused our attention on targeting and placements that we believed would outperform targets. We carefully selected the most promising options, ensuring that every decision was backed by substantial evidence.

We meticulously gathered information across all variables and made daily optimizations to enhance our campaign’s performance. We only implemented changes when we achieved statistical significance, ensuring that our actions were rooted in solid data-driven conclusions.

Results

Within a mere four weeks of launching the influencer campaign, we boosted the return on ad spend (ROAS) from our initial starting point by an impressive 61%.