Luciane Luza reveals the back story of relevanC's successful TikTok retail media campaigns

5 min read

Please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about the genesis of the TikTok campaigns you’ve been running in Brazil.

I'm Luciane Luza, an Ad Operations Specialist passionate about advertising and the digital industry. I have 14 years of international multi-market brand campaign experience.

Our clients at relevanC Brazil are very open to innovation and always on the lookout for ways of elevating brand visibility and sales. And here at relevanC we love a challenge. We are constantly seeking new channels and new ways to maximise the monetisation potential of our first-party data in support of our customers.

It’s in this context that TikTok has emerged as an ideal media partner, offering performance-driven advertising that builds excellent engagement thanks to a consumer experience that feels more like entertainment than advertising.

Campaign Objectives: When partnering with brands like Unilever and AB InBev, what are the primary goals you typically aim to achieve on TikTok? How do you align these activities with the brand's overall marketing strategy?

Clients focus heavily on ROAS, and RelevanC delivers this result with a key differentiator: omnichannel measurement. The greater the reach of our campaigns, the more opportunities we have to recover, retain, or attract new shoppers to the brand. By utilizing TikTok, we enhance our coverage and, consequently, reach a larger number of shoppers. That’s why TikTok is so strategic in our operation: it offers a significant advantage with its ability to engage new shoppers at a unique moment in their journey.

Users turn to TikTok to relax, have fun, take a break from everyday duties, or learn something new. It’s a time of openness to unplug. This potential, combined with relevanC’s exclusive first-party dataset, allows us to target the best shoppers—whether they are existing brand consumers, category buyers, or potential customers. 

All relevanC Brazil campaigns offer 360º omnichannel measurement, allowing us to track not just media metrics but also key commercial outcomes like revenue, average ticket size, ROAS, and product revenue share. These insights cover online and in-store performance and other essential marketing metrics. 

Audience Targeting: Given the diverse nature of FMCG products, how do you approach audience segmentation and targeting on TikTok to ensure maximum campaign effectiveness?

Our 1st party audience segmentation is highly precise because we engage with the best shoppers—those who are already actively consuming FMCG products, whether they are brand or category customers. We have created over 1,700 segments based on criteria such as product categories and purchase behaviour.

A big differentiator for relevanC is our ability to segment audiences based on types of products bought, SKUs, frequency, and recency of purchases. For example, in a campaign for a new chocolate product, we can target not only individuals who regularly purchase chocolates but also potential customers who buy similar categories, such as boxes of assorted chocolates and other desserts. Additionally, we leverage real-time data to adapt our strategies and improve the relevance of our audience segments dynamically throughout the campaign. All of this is done transparently and in compliance with privacy laws, ensuring that our practices are not only effective but also ethical.

At the end of each campaign, we provide our clients with not only media and business results but also detailed insights, including the percentage of new shoppers, those who made purchases during the campaign, and those who were re-engaged. Furthermore, we offer actionable recommendations based on these insights to optimise future campaigns, enhance customer retention strategies, and drive long-term growth. Our comprehensive reporting also includes trend analysis and benchmarking against industry standards, giving our clients a deeper understanding of their market position and performance.

Platform Dynamics: TikTok's algorithm is constantly evolving. How does relevanC stay ahead of these changes and adapt campaign strategies accordingly?

The TikTok Ads algorithm has several key strengths that make it a powerful tool for marketers, and we strive to stay updated with these advancements. A test-and-learn approach is one of the best ways to leverage this technology, allowing us to implement experiments and proceed with what performs well. At RelevanC, this practice is integral, and we allocate a percentage of our budget for this purpose. 

The combination of precise targeting—including demographics, past behaviour, and device type—with the impressive engagement focus, where the algorithm prioritises ads that generate high engagement, such as likes, shares, comments, and watch time, TikTok Ads can be highly effective. 

Additionally, TikTok offers innovative ad formats like Spark Ads, which allow brands to boost existing organic content that has already demonstrated strong engagement. TikTok Ads can show highly relevant ads to the right audience and seamlessly integrate with organic content, making the ads feel less intrusive and more engaging.

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Performance Metrics: Beyond traditional metrics like impressions and clicks, what key performance indicators do you use to measure the success of a TikTok campaign in driving sales for FMCG clients?

Our campaigns begin with the client's goal in mind, whether that’s a sales lift or a market share increase. Thanks to the measurement power we gain from first-party loyalty program data, we can provide information on number of transactions, revenue, ROAS, average ticket, revenue per shopper, and percentage of new, loyal, and recovered customers, among other KPIs. Our measurement is omnichannel, covering digital sales channels as well as our retail partner's more than 800 physical stores in Brazil.

Content Strategy: What role does content creation play in the success of your TikTok campaigns? How do you balance brand messaging with platform trends and user preferences?

Ensuring the content has the "TikTok look and feel" is crucial. We encourage our clients to prioritise genuine and relatable content, avoiding overly polished or scripted material so the ads feel less intrusive. The first few seconds of a TikTok video are crucial for grabbing attention, and keeping videos short, dynamic, and to the point is essential.  TikTok platform recognises content that resonates well with users and optimises it to increase its relevance, allowing us to broaden the reach of our campaigns.

The amount of content created on TikTok daily and the speed at which new trends emerge are impressive. Maintaining and updating high-engagement content frequently is key to success in a TikTok campaign.

What’s next: What new opportunities or challenges do you anticipate in the near future? Will we see TikTok used more widely at Casino Group in the future?

TikTok continually enhances user experience and engagement through improved content recommendations, longer videos, live streams, and interactive features. According to the Global Digital report by We Are Social, TikTok is the second most used video-centric entertainment app (just behind YouTube) and users spend an average of 67 minutes per day on the app, creating a significant opportunity for brands to connect with their audience.

We’ve already delivered significant results for clients like AB InBev, where we’ve seen ROAS of 14.4. By combining RelevanC's best-in-class audience targeting with TikTok's innovative technology, we can continue to optimise retail media offsite advertising performance for all the brands we work for.