Target Digital Playbook: 3,000 Leads and 141 In-Store Sales from Paid Social + Rebates

Apr 22, 2025

Metrics

141

in-store sales

$2.83

cost per lead

2,958

leads generated

$2>$3.50

Prime Day
ROAs Improvement YoY

17%

Increase
in Shipped Revenue YoY

#3

Organic Ranking on
‘Protein Powder’

6

Products Moved
to Page 1

Context

This year, we saw performance impacted by a few variables never before experienced.

Firstly, we saw the COVID e-commerce spike trend down a bit, which was indicated by consumers falling back to in-store shopping on Black Friday at a higher rate. As a result, Sunday and Cyber Monday performed the best of the 5-day main event, which runs from Thanksgiving Thursday to Cyber Monday. Black Friday still saw a lift but not as profound as the last couple of years.

Secondly, Amazon ran 2 Prime Day events in the same year for the 1st time ever, with the 2nd event, “Prime Early Access Sale” (dubbed Fall Prime Day), occurring in October only about 5-6 weeks before Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotions began. Because of this, consumers got a head start on their holiday shopping earlier than ever.

Third, there was a mass Amazon Advertising Console technical glitch, resulting in underspending on Black Friday.

Nevertheless, VENDO was able to deliver on wins for its brand partners as detailed below.

Context

A home and self-care brand needed to boost sales of underperforming SKUs at Target. Despite strong DTC performance, the brand was at risk of losing shelf space unless it could drive in-store velocity. VENDO’S objective: generate incremental in-store purchases to retain placement at Target.

Tactics

VENDO activated its Digital-to-In-Store flow—leveraging paid social ads linked to a landing page offering a post-purchase rebate in exchange for a receipt upload. This tactic allows brands to:

Acquire first-party customer data
Gain insights into in-store purchase behavior
A/B test offer types for highest lift
Retarget and nurture high-intent shoppers
Optimize paid social ads using leads generated

As an added benefit, VENDO's agency partnership unlocked a discounted rebate platform fee and 20% lower redemption rates for the client.

Strategy: The campaign followed VENDO's proven standard rebate redemption flow through the post-purchase rebate platform:

Ads geotargeted near key Target stores
Shopper clicks through to a custom landing page
Shopper enters their phone number to claim an offer
Purchases product in-store and checks out as usual
Texts photo of receipt to rebate platform
Platform issues rebate via Venmo or PayPal
Texts photo of receipt to rebate platform

For this campaign, VENDO recommended testing several different offers, including 20% off, $6 off, $8 off, and buy two, get one free, across 6 different SKUs. Each offer was featured in various static graphics for paid social ads, each calling out the offer, retailer, and product.

Conclusion

Over the one-month program, VENDO drove 141 in-store sales at Target and generated 2,958 leads. The $8 off promo performed the best, garnering an excellent 8.12% redemption rate, $2.96 cost per lead, and $28 cost per redemption (on a $40 item). Most importantly, the brand was able to maintain their in-store placement for these items!

The other promotions ranged from 3.81% - 6.51% redemption rate, on par with a standard post-purchase rebate campaign. Typically, across more common categories like grocery and drinks, there is a 15-30% conversion rate from clicks to signup, and 20-25% CVR from signup to redemption. Overall, this means 3-8% of people who click on an ad end up converting.

By combining paid social advertising with a seamless rebate redemption flow, VENDO not only helped the brand drive in-store sales but also unlocked critical data and actionable shopper insights. VENDO’s approach proved that a strategic digital-to-in-store campaign can be a powerful tool to protect shelf space and drive incremental sales.