Acquisition Program
How a data-driven campaign won over small business owners who had no time for one.
My Role
Content Strategy | Creative Direction
Copywriting | User Research
The Problem
The audience wanted the data.
They just didn’t have time for it.
Bing needed to rethink how it brought small businesses into its ads platform. Rapid audience profiling revealed the target was more diverse than assumed, but united by the same behaviors across U.S. and global audiences: limited time, limited budgets, and limited search marketing experience. They loved facts and figures, but engaged on their own terms, on the go. The thing that would persuade them was also the thing they had no patience to wade through. Bing needed an always-on program that could speak to a worldwide audience while still feeling personal.
The Approach
Make the data feel like a story, not a spreadsheet.
The insight was clear: these owners didn’t distrust the data, they just couldn’t afford to spend time decoding it. The fix wasn’t less information. It was more accessible information. I built a content strategy that humanized the stats, pairing hard numbers with real customer stories and clean graphics across videos, infographics, and webcasts. With every touch, we positioned Bing not as a search engine, but as an invaluable partner in a small business owner’s success.
The Work
Built to test. Built to learn.
The program ran as an always-on email campaign supported by videos, infographics, customer stories, and a direct mailer. Each email took a single idea and made it skimmable and useful. The smartest part was structural: we built the emails in an interchangeable format so we could test what landed, then serve more of the same to audiences with similar profiles. The campaign became a feedback loop that got sharper the longer it ran.
Each email could be optimized based on the market, the business category, and what content was resonating (earning clicks).
These short videos told the stories we wanted to share, highlighting impressive data points in short snippets. We shared them in email, on social channels, and on featured webcasts.
In addition to the always-on email campaign, we created this unique mailer. From the angle of the cut to the content to the graphic approach, this piece carried the campaign to the mailbox.
The Result
A 122% lift in conversions, and a new way to see Bing.
Using data to understand the audience and shape the creative, the new program drove a 122% lift in conversions, helped by continually adjusting the emails based on opens, clicks, and views. We didn't just change the numbers. We changed how business owners saw Bing, from an "also-ran" in search marketing to a partner in finding success.
Our Bing clients wanted to share the campaign internally, so we made this overview video to celebrate the success.