Cherries on Top: daring to dream big together.
About Cherries on Top
In 2022, the Cherries on Top Foundation approached Tomahawk and asked if we would use our online marketing expertise for their web shop. We were immediately interested, but until then we had never had a non-profit organization in our portfolio. We saw an opportunity to further develop a webshop as well as to contribute something positive to the world that exists outside our niche of e-commerce. So we got curious: what is Cherries on Top?
Crossing the Waal River, we meet five friends in Arnhem and Elst who have shared joys and sorrows together for years. Suddenly the "suffering" part takes over: one of the friends is diagnosed with cancer. The close group sees that their friend's illness evokes more emotions than just grief and fear. Hope, courage and fighting spirit prevail in their conversations about cancer. The result is the creation of Cherries on Top, a foundation that raises money for groundbreaking cancer research. The friends slash founders are launching the foundation internationally, because cancer and cancer research do not respect borders. Cherries on Top provides a platform to connect people who want to take action. Through sponsor runs, BBQ parties and even growing beards, donations come in, which go 100% to cancer research. In addition, Cherries on Top transforms the conversation about cancer by selling hats, shirts and greeting cards bearing encouraging texts in their web shop. By both collecting donations and selling online merchandise, Cherries on Top contributes to the well-being and survival of someone with cancer.
Despite the inexhaustible energy and drive of the friends behind Cherries on Top, external reinforcement is still needed. No one on the team has a marketing background, making online marketing a big mystery. In their quest through the e-commerce landscape, they come across Tomahawk: a partner who was always around both online and physically. Cherries on Top prefers to meet in person, and for Nijmegen-based Tomahawk, all they had to do was jump on their bikes.
Challenge
Most web shops use Google Ads. For nonprofit organizations, Google offers a special platform: Google Ad Grants. This digital environment gives nonprofit organizations a hefty $10,000 budget to generate brand awareness. The ground rules for bid strategies are stricter than with a standard Google Ads account, as nonprofit organizations apply Google's allocated budget. As a result, non-profits do not have to use their own donations and can save them for their intended purpose. Cherries on Top commissions Tomahawk to ensure that this Ad Grants budget is put to optimal use. There are also other webshop challenges ahead, such as how Cherries on Top can minimize bounce rates.
Action
To qualify for Ad Grants, organizations may initially bid only two dollars per keyword. For regular businesses, this amount is unlimited. To get as much out of Google's budget as possible, Tomahawk takes a different approach.
First, Tomahawk increases the values of conversion goals. Examples of these conversion goals include item views, checkout process initiation and completed purchases. As Cherries on Top adds greeting cards to their online assortment, sales increase. With all these different conversion successes, Tomahawk and Cherries on Top can adjust the bidding strategy. They can bid more on keywords, and Tomahawk is driving targeting ROAS. That means Google's algorithm does the bidding and drives for the most valuable conversions in a campaign. The task that then remains for Tomahawk and Cherries on Top is then to determine what they want to get back in ad spend: the ROAS.
Tomahawk develops a sustainable strategy for Ad Grants, but also sits around the drawing board with Cherries on Top to build a rock-solid web shop. Together they look for solutions to keep bounce-rates low. Tomahawk recommends displaying logos and 'free shipping' more prominently on the website, so that the website inspires more trust and becomes more attractive to the target customers. In addition, Tomahawk is exploring the potential of customer reviews and highlighting special product features with Cherries on Top.
Result
By brainstorming together, Cherries on Top gained more insight into how best to set up the webshop. In addition, the foundation is making great progress in the area of conversion: by adding greeting cards, the sales figures in the webshop have increased by 50%. We see that the international brand awareness of Cherries on Top is increasing significantly. This is reflected in the number of sessions on the website: these have increased by a staggering 94%. Currently, Cherries on Top is primarily focused on the United States and the United Kingdom. With the new conversion successes, further expansion is now a possibility. Therefore, translating the website is the next step so that Cherries on Top can collect donations in more countries to fund cancer research.
Cherries on Top keeps the budget to keep the foundation running as small as possible. Because of this, all donations, proceeds from actions and profits from the web shop go to fund cancer research. By offering our services at no cost to Cherries on Top, we are helping to solve a problem that affects a large group of people. Like Cherries on Top, we are also a fan of ambitious crossborder goals and daring to dream big. We are extremely proud to be an important link for a foundation like Cherries on Top.
Response Cherries on Top
"We are very satisfied with the cooperation. The communication is extremely pleasant and every month we receive a report on how the ads are performing. This also immediately tells us what improvements are planned for next month. Running a Google Ad Grants account is not easy. We have to be smart about it, and we would never have figured this out on our own. It's really thanks to Tomahawk that there is such a solid foundation here now, and we see that the conversions are getting better and better. We are therefore convinced that in addition to the good foundation there are many highlights of our cooperation ahead of us, and we really look to the future with confidence. With all the contacts we have made with our foundation internationally, it is wonderful to have such a fine party like Tomahawk around the corner to help us make a global contribution to groundbreaking cancer research. Because that cancer-free world, it will come, that's what we're going for. And we'd rather have it a day sooner than later. Tomahawk makes a world of difference in this, and that may be just the difference that allows us and many with us to enjoy each other a little longer."
- Erik van der Ven, Cherries on Top
Response Tomahawk
"As a non-profit organization, Cherries on Top is committed to an important cause that unfortunately almost everyone has had an experience with. We therefore find it very special that they choose to approach such a fraught subject with strength and positivity, we notice that this energy is contagious. The motivation and enthusiasm that Cherries on Top brings to every meeting makes us want to work for them even more. It helps that we get a lot of freedom in this assignment, our ideas are appreciated and we receive immediate feedback. From a marketing point of view, this is of course also a great challenge: the rules of the game are different in the non-profit sector than when working for a for-profit organization. Each small success gives you more and more leeway which often allows you to adjust immediately to increase that success."
- Marij, SEA Marketer
