Every marketer’s goal is to increase the return on ad spend (ROAS) of their digital advertising. There are countless strategies you can utilize and one of the most effective is called “dark posting.” This strategy has allowed us to increase our client’s return on ad spend 357% by generating increased wine sales in addition to club sign ups, reservations, and email subscribers. 

What are Dark Posting Ads?

When we run digital ads for our clients at our DTC wine marketing agency Highway 29 Creative, they typically are from the winery’s own Facebook and Instagram accounts. The goal of these ads is either to increase brand awareness or retarget users to ask for the sale. These ads are very effective and generally produce a 2.5x return on ad spend. 

We have found, however, that a brand can only beat its own chest so much and declare itself great. For customers to buy in and build trust with a brand, they crave third party validation. We use the term “social proof” to describe this type of validation. Examples include press articles, blog posts, user generated content, and reviews and we incorporate this proof in our middle of the funnel ads. They are run under the winery’s Facebook account so it can feel a bit self-congratulatory though.

Instead of the brand telling consumers how great it is, a third party account that does not appear to be affiliated with the brand does it on their behalf. Think about it—you browse the internet and find a new product, but aren’t sure you’re ready to buy. The next day you scroll Facebook or Instagram and see a blog post from a person that explains why that product is great and encourages you to buy it. This instantly builds credibility, trust, and reassurance for the brand. 

According to a Nielsen study, “83% of consumers trust recommendations from their peers over advertising.” The whole point of dark posting is to create an ad that feels like a recommendation from a peer or influencer, not an advertisement. 

I want to point out that dark posting is very different from influencer marketing. With influencer marketing you let an influencer create and post content and tag your brand. You relinquish editorial control as a brand. With dark posting, you create the content yourself and also create the third party. You have full editorial control. 

How our client’s have seen a massive sales increase

Thanks to dark posting we have increased our clients’ return on ad spend by as much as 357%. At our marketing agency, we specialize solely in the DTC wine industry. This has allowed us to utilize dark posting at an impressive scale. 

We have created our own third party wine blog with its own name, website, and social media accounts. Our social media team and copywriters keep it updated with fresh content. 

To execute a dark posting ad our copywriters will create an article all about our winery client. We take an editorial angle touching on the brand’s history, interview the winemaker or owner, and highlight a wine or two our client wants to market. Each blog post contains multiple links to the winery’s website and either a coupon code or limited time offer. 

We then post an ad from this blog’s social media account and retarget the winery’s audience. The results speak for themselves!

(Note we are not revealing the name of our blog or our clients name’s in this case study to protect the integrity of the blog and our clients’ confidentiality.) 

In the case of one client, we ran a typical retargeting ad campaign under their own Facebook page and dark post ad via our blog’s page. We targeted the same audience with these ads and tested them across a 30-day period. 

The brand’s own retargeting ad garnered a 1.43% click rate on the ad resulting in a 2.78x return on ad spend. This means for every one dollar we spent on the ad we generated $2.78 in wine sales.

The dark post ad had a 4.22% click rate and generated a 9.93x return on ad spend. The dark post ads increased the click rate on the ad 295% and increased the return on ad spend 357%. This isn't surprising. Consumers trusted our third party blog post touting the wine way more than the winery itself touting the wine. This newfound trust resulted in a massive increase in wine sales. 

For another client, we ran a similar test and the results were equally as impressive. The brand’s own ad generated 27 orders for $5,136 in wine sales at a 7.75x return on ad spend. The dark post ad generated 61 orders for $10,868 in wine sales at an insanely high 18.12x return on ad spend over the exact same time period. (Insert exploding head emoji).

Run Facebook ads for your winery

I’ll be the first to admit that Facebook ads aren’t for every winery. If you are a very small winery with a limited marketing budget and reach, odds are you won’t see as much success. We’ve found that the larger your winery, email list, and budget, the more success you will have running Facebook ads. If you are a medium or large scale winery and are not running Facebook ads then you are leaving tons of revenue on the table!

If you have your own marketing team, we highly suggest you take the time to implement dark posting yourself. The results pay off! But, we get that most wineries don’t have an employee fully dedicated to running digital ads like we do at our wine marketing agency. Likewise, it can be hard to maintain a dark post blog if you only have one brand to feature. 

At Highway 29 Creative we offer marketing services on a retainer basis and pride ourselves on being on the cutting edge of digital advertising. We chase data—not fads—and are always pushing ourselves to implement creative strategies that generate a meaningful return for our clients. Click the button below to request a consultation if you are interested in learning more about our services.

Simon Solis-Cohen is the founder of Highway 29 Creative, a leading digital and creative agency serving the wine industry. He challenges clients to think about the future and constantly innovate. The agency chases data, not fads, and provides one-stop shopping for wineries looking to enter or jolt their direct to consumer sales. Their approach starts by designing and building a website focused on conversion (wine sales, club sign ups & tasting room reservations) and then dives into each digital channel with consistent and effective content and messaging. What to learn more or looking for advice? Shoot Simon a message at simon@hwy29creative.com.