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Business Questions Answered
Which promotion attributes – such as Core Offer Type, Brand, or Seasonality – can attract valuable buyers to the brand, category, or retailer?
How will key metrics – such as buy rate, basket size, or purchase frequency – be impacted by my promotions?
How do my metrics while on promotion compare to my baseline (off-promotion) metrics?
Which promotional attributes lead to better outcomes for my business, overall or at a particular banner, retailer, or channel?
Quick Tips: Prompting the Promo Optimization Report
Notes on prompting requirements:
If a promotional attribute (e.g., Media Type, Page Position) is selected in the Select Attributes prompt, you must also make selections in the Any Product, Any Category, and Any Store prompts.
If a store attribute (e.g., Retailer, Banner) is selected in the Select Attributes prompt, you must choose specific retailers/banners to include in your analysis in the Any Store prompt. For instance, if you choose Retailer as your breakout in the first prompt, you must select some Retailers to compare in the Any Store prompt.
If a product attribute (e.g., Category, Parent Brand) is selected in the Select Attributes prompt, you must choose specific nodes of that level of the hierarchy to include in your analysis in the Any Product or Any Category prompt. For instance, if you select Category as your breakout in the first prompt, you must select some categories to compare in the Any Category prompt.
In the Promotional Attributes dropdown menu, select to filter the results by Promotional Attributes like Media Type (digital vs print promotions) or including Product Line Ads. Visit this article for more information on Product Line Ads and Promotional Attributes.
Apply a Promo People or Trip Group to your analysis to create a group/cohort of people with specific shopping behaviors specific to the promotional attributes considered. Learn more about Promo Insights Trip Groups and People Groups. Learn how to create Trip Groups and how to create People Groups.
Pre and Post Period Nuances: The pre-period dates are dynamic, meaning they are rolling timeframe options. The post-period dates are the Baseline dates. The trips used to calculate these dates are all the trips during the promotional timeframe within the dates chosen in the madlib.
For Promo Insights Reports with a Post-Period, the purchase in the post-period is not confirmed whether it was on or off promotion. Just the first purchase is used.
Report Analysis Highlights
PRO TIP! Quickly analyze data from this report by utilizing the Read As statements listed in THIS ARTICLE. In the article, navigate to the section of the report you wish to analyze and input your data where indicated.
Tab 1: Optimization Summary
The data shown in the bars in the chart reflects panel metrics for on-promo buyers, while the vertical lines show the same panel metrics for off-promo buyers so that you can assess the impact of each breakout on on- vs. off-promo purchase metrics.
Note: If you have selected a Promotional Attribute(s) (e.g., Media Type, Core Offer Type, etc.) in the first prompt, an "All Promos" bar/line will be included in the chart/table on this tab to reflect the overall impact of a promotional strategy. This will not be shown if a Product or Store attribute is selected.
Tab 2: Promotion Details
This table is an inventory of all the promotions included in your analysis and the key attributes for each. Scroll to the right of this table to see a column of hyperlinks that will display an image of the actual promotion.
How to Interpret
In the Optimization Summary tab, compare panel metrics between the breakouts you selected in the first prompt (i.e. different Core Offer Types, different brands, different retailers, etc.) to see which break(s) have the most significant positive or negative impact on panel metrics. Additionally, compare panel metrics when those groups are purchased on-promo vs. off-promo (the baseline shown in your report output) to assess which attributes lead to better business outcomes.
Key Metrics Included
The following metrics are available in all Promo Optimization reports:
Average Weekly Buyers – the average number of weekly buyers of the item when it is purchased during the time period analyzed; calculation = (demographically weighted # of households that bought on promotion / # of days item was on promotion) * 7. Note that this is NOT a projected metric.
Buy Rate – average spend per household
Purchase Frequency – average number of times a household buys the product (category, segment, brand, etc.) during the selected time period
Spend Per Trip – average spend per trip on the focus product/category
Units Per Trip - average number of units of the focus product/category purchased per trip
Average Basket Spend – average total basket spend (not just the focus product/category) per trip
Average Basket Units – average number of total units (not just the focus product/category) per trip
Sample Size – the raw number of panelists included in the analysis
Additionally, the Promo Optimization report will return metrics that break down the % Spend and % of Households for key groups of buyers if selections are made in the Any Product, Any Category, and Any Store prompts. These % Spend and % Households measures allow you to understand, within a Promotion Attribute (Core Offer Type, Page Position, Media Type), the contribution to total spending and total households on the selected product(s) at the selected retailer(s) made by different groups of shoppers.
% Spend and % Households: Product-Based Segments
New Category Buyer – shoppers who did not purchase the selected category during the Pre Period, but purchased the selected product(s) at the selected retailer(s) during the Promotional Period.
Incremental Brand Switcher – shoppers who purchased the selected category but not the selected product(s) at the selected retailer(s) during the Pre Period, and then purchased the selected product(s) at the selected retailer(s) during the Promotional Period. These buyers are considered incremental.
Repeat Brand Buyer – shoppers who purchased the selected product(s) at the selected retailer(s) in both the Pre Period and the Promotional Period.
Note: Within a Promotional Attribute (e.g., BOGO within Core Offer Type), the % Spend and % Households of these three groups of buyers will sum to 100%.
% Spend and % Households: Retailer-Based Segments
New Retailer Shopper – shoppers who did not purchase anything at the selected retailer(s) during the Pre Period, but purchased the selected product(s) at the selected retailer(s) during the Promotional Period. These shoppers are considered incremental.
Retailer Category Convert – shoppers who shopped at the selected retailer(s) but did not buy the selected category during the Pre Period and purchased the selected category at the selected retailer(s) during the Promotional Period. These shoppers are considered incremental.
Retailer Category Brand Switcher – shoppers who purchased the selected category at the selected retailer(s) during the Pre Period and purchased the selected product(s) at the selected retailer(s) during the Promotional Period. These shoppers are considered incremental.
Repeat Retailer Shopper – shoppers who purchased the selected product(s) at the selected retailer(s) in both the Pre Period and the Promotional Period.
Note: Within a Promotional Attribute (e.g., BOGO within Core Offer Type), the % Spend and % Households of these four groups of buyers will sum to 100%.
Report Watch-Outs
Promo Insights reports do not account for the TCC adjustment factor. When running other Insights reports with similar metrics (Buy Rate, for example), the other Insights reports may show different values. To align more closely with Promo Insights, the Adjustment Factor should be set to "none." Similarly, differences in the Static Group selection could result in differing sample sizes between Promo Insights and our other Insights reports.
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Last updated 2/5/25