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fruuqqa
The Mission
Shisha bars are places of socializing, public life, and friendship. With the changes in the non-smoker protection law, the industry needed a nicotine- and tobacco-free alternative. This is where so-called steam stones found their way into the market. Steam stones are made of a mineral complex capable of absorbing aromatic liquids. The liquid then vaporizes when heated.
Steam stones were not universally accepted, and there was a sense that there could be a better alternative.
Then came fruuqqa – a tobacco alternative based on real fruits. A fruity revolution in the Shisha market. The advantages are clear: the dried fruits have better suction power, intensify the flavor, and fruuqqa offers a natural product.
Despite all the harmful additives, tobacco is also a natural product. The vision of fruuqqa is: tobacco- and nicotine-free enjoyment without compromises. The decision to opt for a nicotine-free or at least nicotine-reduced lifestyle can be challenging. Therefore, it's important to provide an alternative that offers the same enjoyment and sociability.
fruuqqa
The Challenge
The vision was clear. The mission was also clear. But how challenging it would be became evident when we started working with fruuqqa. Fruuqqa is a new brand without recognition or reach. Additionally, it involved introducing an entirely new product. And health, in the context of smoking, is not an obvious selling point.
Typically, we use Facebook, Instagram, and Google for such cases. However, the next hurdle came directly because tobacco substitute products without nicotine cannot be advertised casually. Platform advertising policies prevent this, meaning, for example, even e-cigarettes cannot be promoted. There were no exceptions for fruits.
This was not the last challenge because in early 2020, the Covid-19 virus largely paralyzed public life. Shisha bars and shisha shops could not open, and meeting with friends was either not possible or severely restricted. The situation was tricky. So, what to do?
Atalay Albayrak
CEO
The Successes
Given the circumstances, fruuqqa had to fully enter the B2C business and generate revenue. In collaboration with our client, we found a way to achieve tremendous revenue growth of almost 600%, despite the numerous challenges.
Two rarely used pay-per-click channels proved to be the right decision: Amazon Ads and eBay Ads. These channels had two crucial advantages:
- Both eBay and Amazon are traffic-heavy platforms.
- The pandemic favored online commerce.
(also, eBay waived the selling fees for new sellers for several months)
In practice, this meant that solely having SEO-optimized listings on Amazon and eBay generated excellent sales. Thus, we could leverage the traffic on eBay and Amazon (over 50% of product searches start on Amazon).
However, this alone couldn't achieve the desired growth under the challenging circumstances.
"It's all about the Ads"
From the perspective of a PPC marketer, eBay Ads offer a tremendous advantage: Cost per Acquisition billing. In our case, even as low as €1.49* per acquisition!
However, with eBay Ads, one must give the eBay algorithm a lot of freedom, so scalability and targeting can only be minimally influenced. For our client, the algorithm does a good job and contributes solidly to the revenue.
Amazon Ads make every PPC nerd's eyes light up. The targeting options are a small dream because they work through keywords or categories and products. Targeting through keywords primarily displays ads on the first search page, and keywords can be booked similarly to Google Ads.
When targeting products, ads appear mainly on product pages. This allows us to reach customers at different points in the customer journey. Perfect!
Amazon has quickly become the most revenue-generating channel and offers further growth potential.
How could such a project look like at your company?
Tell us about your dream – we'll turn it into digital reality.
Patrick Andermahr
Head of PPC