Digital Advertising Activities of US-Based Outdoor Retailers

Purpose of This Research

Uncover the advertising strategies driving the Outdoor Retailer market from the upper funnel into the middle funnel by:

• ‍Isolating ads from January 2023 to December 2023 
• ‍Reviewing the top 4K ads by 5 competitors in the US
• ‍Identifying Top of the Funnel (ToFu), Middle of the Funnel (MoFu) and Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu) ads

To drive well-rounded insights for upper funnel opportunities.  

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How do we determine marketing funnel placement?

Top of Funnel (ToFu): 

• Creative: High-level, brand focused content aimed to generate awareness
• CTA: No CTA or “View More on Instagram”...
• Landing Page: Homepage, no landing page, social media account…

Middle of Funnel (MoFu): 

• Creative: Aims to educate consumers on product benefits
• CTA: “Learn More”, “Shop Now”...
• Landing Page: Homepage, content-rich educational pages, product collections…

Bottom of Funnel (BoFu): 

• Creative: Incentivizes the consumer to click-through and purchase specific products
• CTA: “Shop Now”
• Landing Page: Product landing page, product comparison page, offer landing page…

Note that across brand strategies, not all criteria are mutually exclusive. At least two out of three of the criteria must be a match to fit in a funnel.

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Competitors Analyzed

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*YOY growth for (Jan. ‘23 - Dec. ‘23 over Jan. ‘22 - Dec. ‘22| **Display Advertising

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Competitors increased their ad spend by an average of +21% YoY. 

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Backcountry’s high ad spend in 2021 and 2022 can be attributed to increased spend towards paid search. 

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There are seasonal spikes each winter in January, February and December correlating to the winter ski and snowboard season. 

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Facebook and Instagram were the top platforms for Outdoor Retailers advertising in 2023 at $1.9M and $2M.

Search had the highest overall spend across Jan 2021 to Dec 2022, attributed mainly to high 2021 spend by Backcountry. 

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Link posts dominated Outdoor Retailer ads with $5.1M spent across all competitors from January 2021 to December 2023.

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Brands spent a total of $4.1M across all funnels in 2023 with seasonal spikes in the winter months of December, January and February. 

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Brands spend 36% of their advertising budgets on Top Funnel advertising ($1.4M).

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Mid Funnel advertising ($583K) had the lowest ad spend, making up only 14% of the advertising budget.

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Brands invested the most in Bottom Funnel advertising ($2M), which accounted for spent 50% of the advertising budget.

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Instagram represents 70% of the ToFu advertising spend.

Facebook represents 45% of the MoFu advertising spend.

Facebook represents 45% of the BoFu advertising spend.

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TikTok and Instagram saw the highest ToFu ad share allocations.

TikTok was only present in ToFu ads.

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Facebook and Search saw the highest MoFu ad share allocations.

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OTT and Display had the highest BoFu ad spend.

OTT was only present in BoFu ads.

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YouTube, and TikTok saw the largest increases in ToFu spend. 

Facebook (-45%) saw the largest decrease in this funnel YoY. 

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Facebook and Display saw the largest increases in MoFu spend. 

YouTube was a new medium to be added by competitors in 2023 totalling $29K in 2023 ad spend. 

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Display, Facebook & Instagram saw the largest increases in BoFu spend. 

YouTube and OTT were new mediums to be added by competitors in 2023 totalling $39K and $10K in 2023 ad spend. 

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Top ToFu Ad Messaging Themes by Spend

January 2023 - December 2023

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Gear in Action

Captivate your audience by showing footage of your products in action. 

Dope Snow uses a combination of follow-cam, POV, and slow-motion footage to create a dramatic effect.

Advertising Tactics

• ‍Incorporate video effects. Dope Snow uses slow-motion to create a dramatic effect of the athlete mid-air.
• ‍Experiment with different filming styles. Dope Snow features a combination of follow-cam and POV footage in their ads, which typically perform well for action sports.
• ‍Enhance the auditory experience by adding foley sound effects such as the crunching of snow under a snowboarder.

Performance

Total Spend $497K

Paid Social Imp. 76M

Examples

Spend $77K | Imp. 12.5M
CPM $6.17 *

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Spend $30K | Imp. 4.9M
CPM $6.17*

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Spend $34.6K | Imp. 5.6M
CPM $6.17 | Landing Page

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UGC Reviews

Partner with professional athletes and influencers to expand your brand's visibility and introduce it to new audiences.

Add a sense of trust and reliability to your top-funnel advertising by persuading cautious audiences with reviews. 

Advertising Tactics

• ‍Use attention-grabbing headlines such as “3 reasons I only buy snow gear from Dope Snow”
• Create videos using an organic style to add authenticity to the ad narrative.
• ‍Provide social proof: Dope Snow featured a screenshot of Vlad’s Instagram account to show that he has a large following.
• ‍Video creatives represent 100% of these ads.

Performance

Total Spend $95K

Paid Social Imp. 9.7M

Examples

*Landing page not available.

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Brand Benefits

Highlight your top 3 brand benefits.

Backcountry gives 3 key reasons why consumers should shop with them: the world’s biggest gear closet, performance-driven materials, and industry-leading features.

Advertising Tactics

• ‍Target a specific audience. Although Backcountry sells a wide range of products, in this ad they specifically target the bike audience by starting the video off with “ready to explore on two wheels?”
• Highlight your brand differentiation in 15 seconds. Top performing ads were short-form videos under 15 seconds long.
• Appeal to the outdoor audience by featuring captivating landscapes, like how in this video the brand shows striking red sandstone formations found in the US.
  

Performance

Total Spend $90K

Paid Social Imp. 6.1M

Examples

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Top MoFu Ad Messaging Themes by Spend

January 2023 - December 2023

*Does not include paid search

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Bike Guides

Share cycling route guides to excite your audience. 

Show your audience that you are an excellent source of information about all things cycling to get top-funnel cyclists further down the funnel.

Advertising Tactics

• ‍Educate your audience beyond just selling bikes. Show cyclists you care that they get the best bike for them with long-form blog content that they can use to help inform their bike purchases. 
• ‍Inspire adventure through a cycling lifestyle. Use images in your ad creatives that show off cyclists and the beautiful landscapes they can discover cycling.
• ‍Image creatives represent 97% of these ads while video creatives only represent 3%.

Performance

Total Spend $215K

Paid Social Imp. 32M

Examples

*Competitive Cyclist is a subsidiary of Backcountry.

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Product Features

Highlight unique product features. 

Educate your audience by informing them about various product features such as wind protection and packable designs. 

Advertising Tactics

• ‍Show your personality through copy. Backcountry uses a combination of emojis and witty copy to resonate with the younger generation. 
• ‍Video is king. The top ads in this content theme were all short-form videos. In this video, Backcountry demonstrates the specialized smartphone pockets in their outerwear to engage viewers.
  

Performance

Total Spend $102K

Paid Social Imp. 16M

Examples

Spend $26K | Imp. 4.2M
CPM $6.18 

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Step Up Your Gear

Attract a wider audience by advertising custom bike gear for all types of rides. 

Ads in this content bucket highlight custom bike builds and upgrades for your bike.   

Advertising Tactics

• ‍Humanize your brand by showing the people behind the products and services. In this ad, Jenson USA features their employees and even Mike Cachat who is the founder of Jenson USA. 
• Appeal to the outdoor audience by showing them how you understand the mindset of a thrill seeker. Jenson USA effectively achieves this in their video ad with the opening line, "the thrill of a rugged descent, the crunch of dirt under your tires... we understand."

Performance

Total Spend $18K

Paid Social Imp. 1.9M

Examples

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*Digital Advertising Data Source Caveat

*Yearly ad spend measures total yearly ad spend per competitor and is inclusive of all ads including ads whose creative and funnel were not possible to capture such as story ads.

*Includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Display, TikTok and Paid Search

*Total ad spend measures total ad spend per competitor and is inclusive of all ads including ads whose creative and funnel were not possible to capture such as story ads.

*Total ad spend measures total ad spend per competitor for only ads in which both the creative and funnel were available for analysis.