Gen-X, Millennial Female Opps: LL Flooring lowers ad spend as it concentrates on efficient ad placement (Score 55)

We told you that LL Flooring (LL) was focusing on building its online business, and it saw online sales increase 90% in Q4 compared to the same time period of 2020, per its recent earnings report. The company claimed this was a result of increased digital ad spending. LL's total sales jumped from $112m in Q4 2019 to $116 in Q4 2020. The company plans to continue improving its marketing capabilities, but this does not mean higher spending necessarily. It will focus on digital channels and especially search and social media. LL will still allocate ad dollars to national TV ads, but it will only air ads on channels that can provide high ROI like HGTV. 

According to iSpot, LL spent around $4.2m on national TV ads YTD, down 42% from $7.2m spent during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend dropped 55% from $35.1m in 2019 to $22.6m in 2020.This year, it placed ads during programming such as "Home Town," "Love It or List It," "Maine Cabin Masters," "Building Off the Grid" and "Diamond in the Rough." 

Magellan reports LL placed about 70 podcast ads over the last year. 

Per Pathmatics, LL earned 73.6m impressions through Facebook ads (49%), desktop video ads (25%), Instagram ads (18%), desktop display ads (7%) and mobile display ads (1%). It placed the majority (92%) of these ads site direct onto sites such as facebook.com, youtube.com, instagram.com, livestrong.com and wellandgood.com. It placed the remainder (8%) through a variety of indirect channels onto sites such as yahoo.com, cnn.com, foxnews.com, signupgenius.com and businessinsider.com. It spent around $565.2k on digital display ads YTD, a 19% decrease from $671.5k spent during the same time period of 2020. Spend totaled $1.9m in 2020, a slight 5% decrease from $2m in 2019. 

Sellers-- LL mainly targets Gen-X and millennial women that love do-it-yourself projects. The company decreased YTD spend for both digital and national TV ads, but especially national TV. LL believes it can still attract new customers with lower ad spend by targeting the right areas. Two areas execs noted were search and social media. It also invests in OOH, print, radio and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. Sellers should reach out to convince this company you can provide a good ROI. 

Agency & martech readers-- I believe the company has media and creative taken care of at the moment; although, we are unable to confirm the names of these agencies. There do not appear to be any glaring triggers signaling an imminent review. If you do reach out, I recommend offering digital or PR assistance.