The Challenge
Selling tickets during a transition year
Maintaining consistent revenue during a period of change isn’t easy for any business, and the Coyotes are no exception. Under the guidance of Coyotes COO Liz Montaño, Sam Marks, Director of Strategy and Analytics, worked with the Coyotes’ marketing department to promote ticket sales through a variety of channels. However, as the season progressed, the team identified a gap in bandwidth and experience in the paid social space.
The Coyotes looked for an agency that could help. Specifically, the organization wanted one that specialized in Google and paid social ads—and could validate its reputation with quantifiable results. Any agency the Coyotes selected would have to ramp up quickly.
Over 20% of the Coyotes’ home games were already complete when they started their search. As a result, the selected partner would have just a few months to make an impact.
When the Coyotes learned that Matchnode provides paid social marketing to other professional sports teams, such as the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Blackhawks, the Coyotes decided to bring them onboard.
“Lots of agencies say they can do everything. But we needed an agency that really understands paid social marketing in this space. I love that Matchnode has experience with other NHL and professional sports teams. They understand our business and industry in a way that enables us to create tangible results.”
The solution
Apply findings from other professional sports organizations
Sam and the Coyotes’ marketing team were immediately struck by Matchnode’s relentless optimization of the creative and technical aspects of its paid social marketing.
For example, when the Matchnode team A/B tested the performance of videos versus still images, they found that images worked better in specific, yet crucial, circumstances. Rather than requesting creative, Matchnode extracted and enriched still images from existing Coyotes’ marketing videos, minimizing the lift for the Coyotes and maximizing value from the opportunity.
Matchnode also created, tested, and iterated on creative for a Coyotes-Marvel Studio promotion. The promotion was a marked success: not only did 5,000 excited fans receive a Jakob Chychrun-as-Thor bobblehead, Matchnode’s targeted advertising also allowed the Coyotes to drive ticket sales among fans who otherwise might not have engaged with the promotion.
Matchnode took the same iterative approach to the technical aspects of social marketing, finding ways to improve results by adjusting backend configurations. Most significantly, Matchnode was able to connect the Coyotes’ third-party domain and advertising account with the Ticketmaster platform, which immediately moved the needle on ROI.
Critically, the Coyotes also benefited from Matchnode’s experience with other professional sports organizations. Matchnode proactively shared strategies and creatives that worked for those brands, allowing the Coyotes to benefit from those insights rather than starting from square one.
“Matchnode constantly brought changes and new ideas to the table. If something wasn’t working, they would change it. If something was working, they kept testing to see if they could do even better.”
The result
6X to 11X ROAS
With Matchnode, the Arizona Coyotes achieved 6X ROAS on average. In fact, ROAS was often higher—reaching a project peak of 11X.Sam notes that paid social marketing became one of the Coyotes most successful marketing channels with a higher return on ad spend than many others.
Just as importantly, the Coyotes describe working with Matchnode as a true partnership, in contrast to their experience with many other agencies.
Given these results, it’s no surprise that Sam, Liz, and all of the Coyotes recommend Matchnode to other NHL teams.
“While we may have been satisfied with a 3X or 4X ROAS, Matchnode just kept optimizing and never let up. They truly care about our business and want us to succeed.”
