Case Study
September 16, 2022

Why Sunday Citizen Deployed Disco Audiences to Improve User Targeting

Andrés Szkolnik is the Head of Performance and Acquisition at Sunday Citizen, the company turning everyday fabric items into luxury goods built for maximum comfort and practicality.

He spearheads acquisition and LTV efforts, including direct response, paid media, and outbound email and SMS. We sat down with Andrés to cover: 

  1. Using custom audiences to improve targeting and net acquisition
  2. Maximizing flexibility for simpler software testing and scaling
  3. How Audiences outperforms other third-party data tools
“As DTC acquisition methods are perpetually shifting, we want to stay ahead of the curve with better data tooling. Disco Audiences is crucial to that tool kit.”

Tactical Deployment Strategies on Disco

Andrés kicked off his Disco Audiences trial by leveraging a 5% lookalike based on a seed audience of 300,000. Following strong initial results, he applied a primary test strategy of: 

  • Testing Sunday Citizen’s evergreen ads, AKA those performing best with main audiences
  • Then adding a few seasonal or campaign ads to the rotation to gauge what works or not

In both the initial test and main group phases, Disco Audiences outperformed nearly all of the brand’s other third-party audiences — producing solid results alongside actionable data points. 

For instance, by using ads with historically strong CTRs, Andrés found Disco Audiences produces the best ticket. With a higher ticket, acquisitions result in higher AOVs and, therefore, better ROAS. 

In terms of additional key benefits and growth points driven by the Disco platform (especially Audiences), Andrés outlines three: 

  1. Driving improvements across funnel metrics
  2. Enhancing the quantity and quality of data available
  3. Providing access to a more engaged consumer audience
“The downfall of Facebook and other iOS-affected platforms means that Audiences is quickly becoming the best way to reach new consumers.”

Benefit #1: Metric Improvements

Within the first 14–30 days post-implementation of Disco Audiences, Andrés saw three key metric improvements: 

  1. A significant lift in AOV
  2. A 25% boost in ROAS within two weeks
  3. A decrease in bounce after shoppers place items in their carts

In all, even if CPAs may be somewhat higher, explains Andrés, Sunday Citizen is selling more products per cart — meaning the equation yields stronger results on the ROAS side. 

“We were pretty impressed — the numbers driven by Disco Audiences are outstanding. We saw a 25% lift across our first 14 days.”

Benefit #2: Enriching Data Sources

The Sunday Citizen team has historically leveraged third-party audience numbers but, for the most part, enriches their own first-party data through external partners. 

With this, Andrés was excited to tap into Disco Audiences’ thorough data sets, populated with insights from similar brand audiences throughout the Disco Network. 

Specifically, he’s paired Sunday Citizen’s first-party web results on shoppers with Disco’s deeper consumer and purchase behavior data. 

As he points out, there’s tremendous value in understanding the behavior of browsers who ultimately purchase or waver at the brink of purchasing. 

Disco therefore offers a uniquely pivotal lens into those consumer purchase flows. 

The more brands like Sunday Citizen use Disco Audiences, says Andrés, the more valuable the data engine becomes and the stronger the product grows for everyone involved. 

“I’ve always been interested in the unique data sets that Disco generates. So I was pumped about their Audiences rollout and the data opportunities there.”

Benefit #3: High-Intent Shoppers

Andrés can attest to the fact that simply buying a list or an audience will not secure healthy performance scores. What matters more is the actual intent of the shoppers on those lists. 

What makes Disco Audiences special, he explains, is the ability to access a curated, intra-network group of buyers who will actually buy — driven by robust post-purchase recommendations. 

After testing a number of partners, including Shopify Audiences, Andrés received lackluster results. These tools frequently selected low-conversion, low-frequency buyers. 

While Shopify’s product-based approach to audiences may make sense on the setup side, he found the results simply were not there. 

In contrast, Disco’s brand-centric approach has provided more than enough engaged buyers. 

“People from Disco are more likely to purchase plus more likely to purchase more. I attribute this to the fact that they’re driving more engaged shoppers.”

Disco Audiences: A Partnership Built to Last

Like most performance marketers, Andrés lives to test, learn, iterate and reiterate. As such, the initial impressive results from Disco Audiences generates ample excitement for what’s to come. 

Andrés explains that the Sunday Citizen team works best with relentless testing in stages. Throughout their next quarter, he plans to test 3–4 diverse audiences with the following steps: 

  1. Create a test schedule based on what has or hasn’t worked
  2. Scale test samples, i.e., by moving to a larger seed audience
  3. Craft, test, and redesign a formula for replicable results across audiences
  4. Implement findings to inform the next round of testing and strategy

Again, like most marketers, Andrés is perhaps most thrilled to be moving away from platforms that were effectively stunted by the iOS rollouts. 

Unlike those traditional channels, Disco Audiences actively unlocks new, untapped possibilities. 

Andrés refers to Disco Audiences as his secret weapon, something most marketers have yet to discover due to the industry's long-standing reliance on the old-school paid media playbook. 

Despite this, he ultimately affirms every DTC eCom growth team should give Disco Audiences a try for simple yet meaningful and actionable data and metric results. 

While other platforms have required Sunday Citizen to purchase data, run detailed cleanups, and bring in enrichment vendors, Disco presents the “full package”: 

It drives true insights and value, while ultimately being a low-lift, plug-and-play implementation. 

“Disco Audiences is my secret weapon — the next acquisitions frontier. The more I use it, the more excited I get about all the opportunities available to us.”
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