Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership

How We Got a 6X Return on Pizza Ads

Tyrell Reed | Pizzeria Leadership & Team Building Coach Episode 135

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0:00 | 11:52

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In this episode, I break down what we’re doing right now to market the store better and drive real results. 

We finally moved past the early setup stage and started building a real marketing system for April. I walk through how we’re using rewards, direct mail, box toppers, Facebook ads, and follow-up offers to bring in new customers and turn them into repeat customers. 

I also share the real numbers from our first test. We spent $105 on Facebook ads, added 32 rewards signups, and those customers already spent $737. That’s a little over a 6X return so far, and we’re just getting started. 

This episode is for pizza owners, operators, and managers who want a better plan for local store marketing, loyalty, and growth. If you’re tired of guessing and want to start tracking what actually works, this one is for you. 

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We talk about sales, marketing, leadership, team development, operations, and the real work of running a better pizzeria. 

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SPEAKER_00

Spend$105 on ads, on Facebook ads at$5 a day. That has generated 32 signups for our loyalty programs. They've spent$736.97. So$32 signups spent$737 for an average of$23.03. So we're already winning that. Remember, they get a free pizza when they sign up. 32 people have signed up, only five have redeemed the free pizza. For the five that have been redeemed, it costs us$17.50. So that's a total spend of$122.50 to drive 32 new people into our into our program and$737 in sales for a 6X return. That to me is showing that it works. I'm your host, Tyro Reed. As always, it's Thursday, so we're getting right into takeout tips. We got something quick for you. Really want to get back to the to the store updates. We kind of took a little detour as we went through expo season and, you know, highlighting some of those things, but really want to get back to how things are going in the store, where we are, kind of give an update on progress. I am uh finishing up my first quarter PLs. So we'll uh we'll actually come back next week and talk about those. We kicked off marketing for April. That was really one of the big pushes as we got past that 12-week mark. We wanted to really start to focus in on what what that marketing was going to look like and how we were going to draw and attract new customers and and you know take the business to the to the sales platform, the sales level that we want to get to. And we really started with testing out, you know, a few different offers. We got a couple of things in the works. The main thing that we're doing is driving folks towards that rewards platform and towards loyal loyalty. I showed you before we have like the little cards that we put on the boxes to get folks to sign up. You get a free 14-inch one-topping pizza, like an$18 value, free on sign-up to rewards. But once you sign up, we have your email address, we have your phone number so that we can continue to market to you for relatively cheap. We wanted to find a few different avenues for driving folks into that, into that platform. So I would say that 75% of our marketing is about driving folks towards joining our loyalty program, our rewards program. It's called West Road Rewards. So 75% of our marketing is gonna is driving folks towards that. 25% of our efforts are going to be just driven by whatever corporate's running and making sure that we, we um, you know, we honor those deals, we we promote those deals. There's some different things going on with Coke. We have a new partnership with Coke. So that comes with you know different marketing. They did a photo shoot here a couple of actually yesterday did a photo shoot here in the store. So there'll be some different promotions that come out around our new line of co-products, whether it be the 20 ounce, the can, the two-liter products that we're that we're now featuring from Coca Cola. So shout out to them for that because they didn't have to do it, but they are gonna help us with, you know, in-store collateral, you know, marketing materials for the windows, box toppers, things like that. But our focus, like I said before, is gonna be on driving folks tours, signing up for rewards. So we're really attacking it a couple of different ways. And I wanted to kind of highlight what we've done so far and what we have in the works. First thing is we're we're now into reviewing our proofs and getting our postcard ready. We signed up with Mailwise Solutions, talked to Kevin, designed a really cool postcard, got a couple of edits going on there. So the first part of that will be, you know, direct mail and what we and what we can do to drive traffic there. Not just for signups, but also to get some some uh some strong offers out into the market. I know everyone isn't on board with discounts or coupons or offers, but our our business, our business is built around offering some value and doing things like that. So we will put those out. So we have postcards coming for that and we'll mail using the everydoor direct mail program, EDDM, which we've done for years. We're familiar with it. We'll mail within a two to three mile radius and just kind of keep a continuous cycle. I'll do another video one day and show you how I build out my routes and set up my mail schedule. But we'll get on like a like a I like to get on like an eight-week rotation so that I'm in your mailbox once every every other month through the EDDM program. So that'll be that'll be part of it. Also, I we have our box toppers that are being printed. We ordered like 5,000 box toppers just to, you know, go through the summer, see how that, how that works for us. Got some pretty strong offers on there. We kind of revamped the menu. We redid our menu board, we cut out some items. I cut out salads. That was a big one. We cut out salads from the day-to-day menu, still on the catering menu, but as far as the in-store menu, we were not, we were not selling, really, we weren't selling through even half of our produce every week, throwing a lot of it away. And if you're in the business and you know produce has taken on an extreme spike in price over the last couple of months. So we're we're we've made a decision and it may be temporary, but for now, we're not gonna offer salads because we were just we were just throwing them away. And for the few folks that do order salads here, just had it had a you know conversation with them like, hey, look, we're we can do it for you if you really wanted. I can, you know, we have a lot of the stuff, but it would be it would be better if you just kind of went in a different direction as far as what you what you get from here. Everybody's cool with it. Nobody has a problem, so not even a big deal. And it was funny because as soon as we cut it, I got a catering order for salads like the next day. So it was like, you know, it made up, it helped us got get through the product that we had left, but it also uh in my mind validated the decision to to cut the salads off of the menu and focus on only offering them through catering. So so that that that's that part of it. So we got box toppers, got the new the new menu layout, and uh so that'll be the you know the next layer of it. We got the mailers, we got the box toppers, all of that has heavy focus on order online, sign up for rewards, get a you know, get a free large pizza. And then we also started to run some Facebook ads for it. So I turned on uh like a$5 a day ad to sign up for our rewards and join and get the free pizza. And that's really been the only thing that's been going so far this month is that campaign. So and it has shown return. I wanted to kind of break down the numbers since I pulled them this morning and uh month to date and let you know where we are on that. And remember, this is a very small spin. We're only spending$5 a day on the ad, so we're reaching a very limited number of people, but we wanted to make sure that we built the we built the system outright and uh and that all of the emails are activated properly. I wanted this to feel like like a sales funnel, like a lead generation funnel, because that's really what we're doing. I wanted to have a strong offer at the top of the funnel, capture the traffic, and then have a sequence of offers and emails to get them to uh you know kind of push them through the through the sales process and get more purchases. My goal is to build loyalty within the first 30 to 60 days, meaning the more folks who get on our platform, the easier it is to market to them. But how do we systemize loyalty? How do we get those first you know, three or four orders to get people to really uh fall in love with what we're doing? And the technology is gonna allow us to do it. So the first step of that is making sure that when folks sign up, they actually get their pizza. So we fix that part of it, re-remake, you know, re-reformatted our emails, made sure it's working. So we've launched that. The next stage will be following up with offers after their first and second purchase, which we're we're working through that. But first part is working and it's already starting to show return. Testing it out at$5 a day is working very well so far. Today, on today, we spent$105 on ads, on Facebook ads at$5 a day,$105 on ads. That has generated 32 signups for our loyalty programs. Uh a little more than one a day, almost two a day. 32 signups for the West Shore Rewards. Of those 32 signups, they've spent$736.97,$737. So 32 signups,$7 spent$700,$737 for an average of$23.03. So we're already, we're already winning that, you know, for the free pizza. Remember, they get a free pizza when they sign up. So that's the next level of it. 32 people have signed up, only five have redeemed the free pizza. Now, that free pizza is valid for 30 days, so we may see them as they get their reminders closer to expiration, you may see a jump in those redemptions. But for now, only five are redeemed. 14-inch one-topping pizza cost me um approximately$3.50, depending on the topping. So we'll go at$3.50, which is uh, which is a uh it's about it's$17.50. Sorry. So for the five that have been redeemed, we still got 27 outstanding, but for the five that have been redeemed, it costs us$17.50. So that's total spend of$122.50 to drive 32 new people into our into our program and$737 in sales for a 6X return, a little over 6X return. That to me is showing that it works. And if we see even if we see an increase in redemptions, it's still very much favorable on our side. So for example, if everyone had redeemed that that free pizza, we're talking about another$100 in cost. Still, still great, still great. So I'm uh I'm very happy with that. So that being said, we got three, we got three different ways that we're gonna drive folks in. Plus, what we do in store. We'll have the mail piece, we'll have our box toppers for our existing customers that aren't signed up and want to take advantage of earning points and earning and earning free pizzas and free product. And then we have our code outreach, which is through the Facebook ads, and that's all, you know, geo, geo-targeted here to a three mile radius around the store. So only folks that are living in the in this community are actually seeing that ad. And then the next phase of that will be moving on to running that ad on Google, a little bit more stuff for search. So today's tip is you know, what is what is your marketing strategy? What is your plan? Make sure that you have a plan and make sure that you're actually tracking it so that you understand what's working, what's not working, and what you may need to double down on or move away from quickly. I'm at a stage right now looking at 6x return. How do we get that to a 10, 15, 20x return? And that's gonna be through through how do we track that next visit, how do we track that third visit, and how do we then calculate return based on that? But it's only going to rise. It's already showing promise. And that's my takeout tip. Make sure you do something, make sure that you're actually tracking, tracking the results from your campaigns, and then make sure that it's actually profitable for you. I would say so far, so good. As we've gone through two weeks of two and a half weeks of testing, now it's time to move on to full launch. Maybe we'll double our ad spend to$10 a day. Maybe we'll go more. But we want to make sure that it's still a profitable campaign for us. And that's where we are right now. And that's all I got for you this week. Have fun, be safe, happy, uh, happy Thursday. Let's go have a good weekend and sell a bunch of pizzas. Peace out.

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