TALABAT
To boost brand awareness during Ramadan, delivery company talabat lowered its cost per app first order by 13% by running augmented reality ads plus its usual video ads on Instagram, compared to running the usual ads alone.
Founded in Kuwait in 2004, talabat is an online delivery company. Now the largest food delivery and grocery platform in the Middle East, talabat operates in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. It has been a subsidiary of Delivery Hero since 2016.
lower cost per first order via the app using augmented reality ads and usual ads together, compared to usual ads alones
lower cost per app install using augmented reality ads and usual ads together, compared to usual ads alone
lower cost per purchase using augmented reality ads and usual ads together, compared to usual ads alone
lower cost per add to cart event using augmented reality ads and usual ads together, compared to usual ads alone
Over the busy Ramadan period in Qatar, talabat wanted to boost brand awareness, increase app installs and improve key ad campaign performance metrics such as cost per first order, cost per install and cost per order.
THE SOLUTION
Creating an augmented reality game
To attract new customers in Qatar during the month of Ramadan and increase app installs, talabat teamed up with Meta Business Partner and creative production agency Wellcrea to create augmented reality ads. The augmented ad creative showed someone using talabat’s app to order groceries, then inviting people to play a game where they “catch” groceries for their Ramadan shopping.
The ads included a Try in Camera button which, when tapped, opened the camera on the ad viewer’s mobile phone and loaded the augmented reality effects. This immersive experience allowed people to engage with a game where they could collect virtual groceries and place them in a bag. The objective was to gather as many groceries as possible, mirroring the real-life experience of gathering ingredients for cooking during iftar. The interactive nature of the game created an engaging and memorable experience for the viewers.
talabat showed the ads to adults in Qatar aged 18 and over in feed, Stories and Reels on Instagram, and it used the Advantage+ campaign budget feature to allow Meta to automatically distribute the budget across the best-performing ad sets in real time.
The team ran an A/B test that used reporting data from Meta Ads Manager to compare the performance of talabat’s usual ads and augmented reality ads together in one cell, compared to the usual ads alone in the other cell. The April 7–21, 2023 campaign revealed:
- 13% lower cost per first order via the app using augmented reality ads and usual ads together, compared to usual ads alone
- 11% lower cost per app install using augmented reality ads and usual ads together, compared to usual ads alone
- 5% lower cost per purchase using augmented reality ads and usual ads together, compared to usual ads alone
- 5% lower cost per add to cart event using augmented reality ads and usual ads together, compared to usual ads alone