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Military Campaign for Costco Wholesale

Role
Ad Manager, Copywriter, Project Manager, Strategist

Client
Costco Wholesale (HQ)

Platforms
Website, Social, On-site Event

Focus
Customer Acquisition

Impact
9.7K+ new members online and 7K+ in the warehouse

Background

Membership acquisition and retention are the bread and butter of Costco’s business model. 

For years, Costco partnered with Sheer.ID (an identity verification platform) for a special military promotion. Military personnel validating their ID on Sheer.ID could sign up for a Costco membership and receive a $20 or $40 Costco Shop Card. Auto renewal was required. 

Although this Sheer.ID promotion was active for years, it wasn’t well known. Costco also lacked targeted educational content on their website; there was nothing explaining “Why join Costco? What’s in it for me and my military family?” 

Our goal was to create a campaign in 2020 – a period of low sign-ups due to the COVID-19 pandemic – targeted at military personnel. Because this was a digital promotion through Sheer.ID’s website, we also needed to create an in-warehouse experience for employees to meet their location’s monthly sign-up goals. 

Approach and Deliverables

We designed a content-heavy campaign focused on sharing the benefits of a Costco membership. 

A military campaign landing page was created to track our digital success. 

A chart showing visits to a unique landing page made for a campaign (315,696 total).
A snapshot of our Adobe Analytics dashboard which showed daily visits from social media directed to our customized landing page for the Military Campaign.

Two blogs were published on Costco.com about how to use Costco as a military family. At the end of each blog, a “Join Now” button encouraged members to sign up through Sheer.ID. 

Each blog was promoted for 25+ days on the company’s Facebook and Instagram pages (via Meta Ads Manager) to people with military-based interests and job titles. We targeted cities in the United States with local warehouses near military bases. Each ad set contained at least 3 different copy variants, and suppressed Costco’s current member list. 

A blog titled "12 Ways to Save as a Military Family at Costco" which highlights how you can use the warehouse to build military care packages and more.
One the blogs created for the Military Campaign, titled “12 Ways to Save as a Military Family at Costco”, which is heavily hyperlinked out to Costco.com product category pages.

In addition to sharing the blogs, we launched targeted ads directing to a campaign landing page. We ran 100+ different traffic ads throughout September with an $80,000+ budget. Each ad shared the Costco Shop Card promotion within the copy; within each ad set, we A/B tested creative to determine the best-performing variant. Instagram Stories and Facebook square image traffic posts were our most successful formats.

A spreadsheet showing a list of ads promoted for link clicks on Facebook and Instagram.
A sample of the ad sets for the Military Campaign, which were segmented by location and creative. Each ad in this particular campaign focused on Link Clicks to the Sheer.ID offer.

On the Costco.com homepage throughout September 2020, we also promoted the Sheer.ID offer with a large banner. 

Warehouse employees at 117 locations (near military bases) hosted an in-person “Military Hour” at 08:00. Veterans and current active-duty members of the military were welcome, in addition to family members. A valid military ID was required to enter; a valid Costco membership was required to purchase products. The event included free food, product demonstrations, and swag. 

Impact

  • 9.7K+ new military personnel signed up for a Costco membership online and 7K+ in-warehouse
  • 315,000+ blog and campaign landing page visits from social media
  • 7.2 million users reached on social with a CPC of less than $0.29
  • 58,000+ clicks on our best-performing Instagram Story ad
  • 50+ news articles sharing the in-warehouse events 

Lindsey Boisvin is an ad manager with 10+ years of marketing experience (and being a night owl). She’s worked across different industries, from travel and tourism to manufacturing. Her agency, in-house, and startup experiences at companies like Costco Wholesale and Alaska Airlines shaped her interest in advertising with creative storytelling.

As the owner of Paper Raccoon, she creates LinkedIn, Reddit, and Meta campaigns to drive customers and sales to local and national businesses. She’s based in the Greater Seattle area.

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About Paper Raccoon

Paper Raccoon is an advertising and marketing LLC focused on content creation and social media advertising on LinkedIn, Reddit, and Meta. Lindsey, the owner, is based in Seattle and serves businesses across the United States.

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