How ELEA Doubled its engagement and reached 1.2m+ users through digital Marketing

How did we turn ELEA from a well-known brand into a real hit on social media? With a combination of targeted advertising, engaging content, and strategic positioning, we managed to reach 1.2M+ users, generate hundreds of thousands of interactions, and create 1M+ video views. But how exactly did we achieve this? In this case study, you will discover the key steps, the advertising formats that worked best, and specific insights you can apply to your brand. And finally, you’ll see the most valuable lesson from the campaign – why personalized content makes the difference between advertising and success! 🚀

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE CLIENT

ELEA is a Bulgarian cosmetic brand distinguished by its rich history. For over 20 years, it has operated both locally and internationally. The production facility in the town of Krichim focuses on two main product categories – hair dye and depilatory and epilatory creams.

THE CHALLENGE

The main challenge for the brand was to increase the recognition of its newest line of hair dyes. As the name suggests, ELEA Professional Colour&Care is a professional range of 40 colors, created by hairdressers and colorists to achieve high-quality results at home.

THE TASK

Our main task was to develop a comprehensive approach for the digital positioning of the series. A primary priority for the brand was to use an effective and complex mix of channels to reach the right people.

Our second task was to breathe new life into ELEA’s profiles on the two most used social networks – Facebook and Instagram.

TARGET AUDIENCE BY BRIEF AND OUR INTERPRETATION

Here’s how the client defined their target audience:
‘’According to us, the main users of ELEA are 30-35 years old + with average income. We believe that users choose our brand because they have a pragmatic attitude and the belief that a product does not have to be in the high price segment to have excellent qualities and performance.’’

And here’s how we dressed the client’s desired audience into targeting segments on the platforms we used:

Google Ads

We chose audiences that combine segments of in-market and affinity users, as well as remarketing and lookalike lists. We also added custom segments that target based on keyword or competitor websites. Some of our interest-based targeting included audiences like Hair Care Products, Hair Color Products, Hair Coloring, and alternatives including hair care, coloring, and maintenance. Our main remarketing lists were users who visited the website and those who interacted with our videos at least once.

Meta

The audiences we used during the campaigns were based on 3 main categories: interest-based audiences linked to competitive brands, remarketing audiences of already reached and engaged users, and Lookalike audiences (users with similar digital behavior). Our main targeting for the two large Reach & Frequency campaigns focused primarily on interests related to Beauty and the cosmetic industry, specifically interests related to hair coloring.

THE APPROACH

1. KEY VISION AND MESSAGE

The first stage of our work involved creating a key vision and message for the campaign. Since ELEA Professional Colour&Care stands out mainly with its blonde shades, we decided to focus on a dose of inspiration for blondes.

We settled on a vision that carries a classic chic feel and a slogan that breaks the stereotypical image of the blonde woman – ‘’NOT A CLICHÉ, BUT A STRENGTH.’’

Through it, we managed to show that the brand not only provides practical value but also creates a sense of confidence.

This was an important element of the campaign, as experience has repeatedly shown us that the emotional side of things becomes decisive when it comes time to purchase.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT

We did not forget the need to refresh the presence on Facebook and Instagram.

Following the design line of the key vision, we worked on visually consistent content that provides value to the audience.

We generated a balanced content mix with product, educational, and engaging posts.

3. LANDING PAGE

The next stage involved creating a separate landing page, through which we aimed to achieve a maximally intuitive, easy-to-understand, and navigate user experience. The page was conditionally divided into 6 main sections:

• Banner with the key message and a “See all products” button leading to the section with all products from the series
• Product section – Hair dyes and color correctors, containing textual and visual information
• Section with usage information – briefly outlined in 4 steps.
• 6 advantages that are distinctive for the series of dyes and color correctors
• Box with brief client feedback/Testimonial
• Links and logos of partner networks where the products can be purchased

The main advantage of such landing pages is that with a combination of text and visual elements, they clearly summarize all the key aspects the user needs to know about our product. This way, we provide comprehensiveness in an easily digestible format, or the so-called One-pager.

4. CAMPAIGN PHASES AND TYPES BY FUNNEL

We divided the campaign into several phases according to the user journey.

Awareness

The main goal of this phase was to reach as close as possible to our target audience, to inform them about our new series, introduce them to the products, their advantages, how to use them, and where they can purchase the dyes and correctors.

Active formats in this phase were:

Google Ads

• Search – to reach people who are in the research process
• Display – helps achieve a large scale of the campaign towards a wide audience
• YouTube – a supporting and complementary channel that expands the campaign’s reach through video content
• Demand Gen – an automated format complementing Search and GDN campaigns, distributing advertising messages in 3 additional channels – YouTube, Discover, Gmail

Meta

• Reach & Frequency
• Brand Awareness
• Content Sponsoring

Native Publication on the URBN Site of Dir.Bg

With the help of the chief editor of URBN Dir.bg, a native publication was created in the media, which subtly presented Elea’s series. In advance, a photoshoot with product placement of the dyes was conducted. For the main character in the article, we chose the makeup artist of the National Theatre – Victoria Boyanova, who is also studying to be an actress.

Besides sharing about her profession, she told us how she gently maintains her blonde strands and how often actresses actually dye their hair.

Engagement

In the next phase, the focus is on closer interaction with our target audience, including users who are already familiar with the brand. It is essential to ensure coverage and visibility in different micro-moments, offering relevant content, highlighting benefits, or answering arising questions.

Active channels and formats:

Google Ads

• Search
• Demand Gen
• Performance Max – the most optimal automated format for optimization based on a specific action. In our case, it was a click on a partner network logo, and this type of campaign was the leading one in the second phase of communication.

Meta

• Content Sponsoring, Brand Awareness (Video), Website Traffic
• Video
• Traffic:

Sampling topic in the largest women’s forum in Bulgaria – BG-Mamma

“Win your dream shade of hair dye from ELEA Professional Colour & Care“ was a special project we implemented in the thematic group “Cosmetics and Fashion” on the BG-Mamma forum.

10 users participated in the sampling, testing Elea dyes, and later shared feedback on its quality:

We gathered great feedback for the products, such as:
“…I didn’t expect such a good result, nor this beautiful ash tone that I adore, but I hadn’t achieved with other hair dyes until now. I am very glad I had the opportunity to try ELEA hair dye, as well as the toning shampoo, and I will definitely continue to use them in the future, with a huge plus being that they are easily found in the store network.”

The positive comments received from the forum will be actively used to continue communication on the brand’s social networks.

Influencer Activation

We carefully selected the faces with whom to implement the campaign on social networks:

1. Jasminne Majid – We chose Jasmin for her exquisite blonde hair and beautiful content on her profile.
2. Anna-Maria Ivanova – Anna-Maria is a hairdresser and colorist who develops highly relevant content on her profile. She shot a video with dye from the series, showing how to use it correctly at home.
3. Anna Kruchmarova – She is a master of chocolate delights and a well-known participant from Master Chef. For the campaign, she was a model for Anna-Maria Ivanova and left herself in her hands for coloring with products from ELEA Professional Colour&Care.

RESULTS

Google Ads

• Impressions: 7,345,328
• Clicks: 114,731
• Video views: 353,339

META

• Unique users reached: 1,457,450;
• Ad impressions achieved: 14,229,678;
• User link clicks: 36,186;
• Total engagement on Facebook & Instagram: 864,595;
• New followers (from paid advertising): 501.

Native Projects

• Dir.bg:
  – Page Views: 48,897
  – Views (Google Analytics): 45,909
  – Users: 24,688
  – Avg. Time On Page: 00:01:59
  – Impressions on home page: 159,340
• BG-mamma:
  – over 7,000 topic views
  – a total of 179 comments from 169 unique users.
  – 10 samplings and positive reviews for the product, visible to all readers in the forum topic

Google Analytics 4

Sessions: 118,241
Active users: 94,313
Engaged sessions: 36,555
Clicks on partner network logos: 4,227

Influencer Activation

Total Interactions – 2,463
Reach – 115,477
Impressions – 16,291
Views / Plays – 133,704

We dare to say that our teamwork with Elea was more than successful! The project was a pleasure for both parties, and the best for this brand is yet to come…