How Williams Sonoma inspired consumers and drove sales with mobile-ready content

Williams Sonoma’s catalog used to be the cornerstone of its relationship with consumers. People would sit down with the catalog and a coffee on a Sunday morning, dog-ear the pages, and bring it into a Williams Sonoma store to ask sales assistants for help. As a result of the shift to mobile, Williams Sonoma had to rethink how to tell its brand story and inspire customers in specific, intent-rich micro-moments.

The formula for winning "I need some ideas" moments was to focus on customer intent (what is the customer trying to discover?), their context (for example, are they around a Williams Sonoma store?), and audience (is this a high-value customer?). To reach its on-the-go customers during moments of intent, Williams Sonoma focused on video.

How-to and recipe videos became key storytelling vehicles on the brand's YouTube channel. This drove awareness of Williams Sonoma by shifting investment to visual formats like Shopping ads on Google Image Search and Showcase Shopping ads.

By using Customer Match, Williams Sonoma re-engaged the audiences who matter most as they shopped across Google properties and used Customer Match for Shopping, targeting loyal customers across other Williams Sonoma Inc. brands and increasing click-through rate by 70%.

Google tools connected intent, context, and audience to reach consumers wherever they’re looking for inspiration. Cross-device conversions helped understand the value of their mobile investment. Featured products were displayed in visual formats like mobile Shopping ads, Shopping ads on image search, Showcase Shopping ads and in how-to and recipe videos on YouTube. Williams Sonoma used local inventory ads to drive customers in store and Customer Match to re-engage high-value audiences across Google properties. Overall, they saw a 70% increase in mobile sales YoY, a 51% increase in e-commerce sales YoY, and a 20% higher return on ad spend on mobile.