Mastering Large-Scale Media Buying in the Suit and Luxury menswear Industry

This will be for the folks who are running a large shop. Big franchises or established well-known brands, that constantly spend over five figures a month on advertising.

But don't shy away if you are not there yet; this article will cover some underlying principles that might be useful to you on your journey.

What happens when search ads just don’t fit your strategy? Maybe you're dealing with luxury suits, where search ads fall flat, or you can't rely on a single brand ambassador due to the long-term risks on social media.

This leaves you with lifestyle videos and photo shoots, leading to display media buying.

Now, in my experience working with some of the truly luxury brands in the industry, I’ve seen two main approaches to media buying:

1. Reach Campaigns: The goal is to get seen by as many people as possible within the budget.

2. Conversion/Sales Campaigns: The focus is on generating direct sales and profitability.

After running conversion display campaigns you notice that measurable profitability is just not there.

It might seem like the logical step is to chase reach.

After all, if mega-brands like Coca-Cola or Apple do it, why shouldn’t you?

But here’s the catch: when your campaigns focus solely on reach, you end up wasting money, especially in our industry.

The Issue with Chasing Reach

The problem with reach campaigns is that they often look good on paper but fail where it really matters—influencing growth in sales.

When the primary goal is to lower top-of-the-funnel (TOF) metrics like CPM, impressions, or reach, the result is usually an illusion of success.

Agencies and platforms are incentivized to drive down these metrics, but this often comes at the cost of targeting the right audience.

Here’s what happens:

• Irrelevant Placements: Your ads will show up in places where they have no business being—like mobile apps, low-relevancy websites, or buried at the bottom of pages where viewers aren’t paying attention.

• Low-Value Viewers: Your ads will reach users who are completely uninterested in luxury menswear, leading to wasted impressions.

On the surface, your campaign might look like it’s doing great—low CPMs, high impressions—but in reality, it’s doing little to drive actual sales.

What to Do Instead?

A successful media buying doesn’t just cast the widest net; it targets the right fish. Here’s how:

• Run your creatives as Conversion Campaigns: Even when your goal is brand awareness, structure your campaigns as if you’re aiming for conversions. This approach forces algorithms to focus on finding the right audience rather than just the largest one.

• Evaluate Performance the same way you would evaluate generic reach campaigns: Compare your current campaign’s performance to previous campaigns that were also optimized for conversions. Don't look at real conversions as you wouldn't do that in the case of generic media buying, and the profit almost never will be there, but you will get in front of the audience that is way more likely to become a buyer and you will make some sales along the way.

  
  

  This way, you can measure success by how effectively you're reaching the right

  audience and how it responds, not just how cheaply you can get impressions.

Consider this: Would you rather your luxury menswear ad be seen by a million people in a Candy Crush game, or by 100,000 affluent individuals who are genuinely interested in high-end menswear? The answer is clear.

Explaining This to Upper Management

Often, the drive to chase reach comes from the pressure to show impressive numbers to higher-ups. The key is to shift the conversation from sheer numbers to quality.

Explain that while conversion-focused campaigns may have higher CPMs, they’re more likely to drive real sales in retail and long term, which is what truly matters, and all it takes to prove is a leap of faith from the higher-ups.

Almost always when media buying was executed in this way compared to generic media buying, there was a higher growth in store visits, average purchase value, and attributed future sales.

Think of it as a branding campaign, but fueled by AI-optimized distribution tools made for performance marketing.

Final Thoughts

When running media buying campaigns, don’t fall into the trap of chasing cheap reach. Run these campaigns with a conversion-focused strategy and evaluate their success by comparing them to past campaigns executed in the same way.

This will help you optimize top-of-the-funnel metrics based on the feedback from the right audience.

It’s not just about being seen by as many people as possible—it’s about being seen by the right people. And if you’re navigating this tricky landscape, I’m here to help. Reach out anytime to discuss how we can be of assistance here: https://calendly.com/sartorialdigital/45min

To your success,

Andris