Maximizing Museum Stores Sales with Digital Advertising

WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY?

Per KYOB, people visit the gift shop at exhibit-based, visitor-serving organizations (which includes entities like zoos, aquariums, historic sites, botanic gardens, and science centers in addition to museums) to purchase or search for a souvenir or keepsake, with “purchase a gift” also showing up in two of the top five reasons for visiting. The top two reasons cited as contributing to “retail satisfaction” are “atmosphere” (design elements and aesthetic of the physical space) and “quality/uniqueness of merchandise.” 

All of these data points point to a significant perceived value in experiencing and remembering the museum visit. But there’s also an underlying motivation around unique gifts, which is a motivation just as applicable to online sales as in-person sales after a person visits your institution. The larger online retail environment we live in has made it abundantly easy to buy mass-produced, cheap items with lightning-fast shipping. To invest in a thoughtful, unique gift that also supports a nonprofit is an increasingly attractive alternative, and especially worth keeping in mind as the holiday season approaches.

WHAT IS THE CAMPAIGN IMPACT?

According to our teams managing campaigns for a specialty museum in Ohio and an art museum in Minnesota:

1. Creative that addresses special holidays tend to perform better (e.g. a Father’s Day campaign performed particularly well). Showcase specific, unique gift ideas!
2. Creative and campaigns that feature exclusive items perform much better than evergreen ads or other collections that you can find outside the museum, such as apparel. Connect individual items with specific current exhibitions or events!
3. Ad formats that provide an in-app shopping experience feeling (such as an image carousel) see better results.
4. Targeting can be broad and take advantage of potentially interested buyers across the US! Top-of-funnel targeting on Meta yields pretty strong website click-through rates, and users convert as part of retargeting segments (we also see conversions from past museum visitors).
5.  Shop campaigns also drive ticket purchases. This past spring, the museum has seen mostly positive ROIs for Shop-specific purchases that are below 100% across Meta, Paid Search, and Performance Max. However, overall campaign ROIs are in the 150-300%, range taking into account other types of purchases/revenue.

WHAT CAN THIS CONTENT LOOK LIKE?