Boosting Performance for Sportswear E-commerce｜How Demand Gen Ignited Clicks and Conversions
How can sportswear brands use Demand Generation to build stronger brand perception?
A 22% drop in CPC and Native CTR outperforming banners by 5×—here’s how three key Demand Gen strategies helped dramatically improve performance and drive conversions.
1. Riding the Demand Gen Wave: From “Selling Products” to “Selling Perception”
According to Salesforce, Demand Generation is about building awareness, interest, and trust for a brand or product so that potential customers naturally develop purchase intent. It operates at the very top of the marketing funnel—not to push for an immediate sale, but to shape brand perception among consumers who may not yet be considering a purchase or who are unfamiliar with the brand.
This shift aligns with how modern consumers behave: they’re not just comparing product features—they’re comparing brand impressions, cultural relevance, and lifestyle resonance.
With Demand Gen campaigns, brands can leave a lasting impression, increasing the likelihood that when consumers are finally ready to buy, your brand is top of mind. This “impression first, conversion later” approach is a long-term competitive advantage for sportswear e-commerce brands.
This article shares how we shifted our ad strategy from traditional, promotion-driven messaging to impression-driven Demand Gen tactics—deepening brand perception and driving stronger results.
Read More: What is Demand Generation?
2. 3 Key Optimizations That Drove Better Advertising Performance
According to Salesforce, a leading global cloud-based CRM platform, Demand Generation refers to the process of creating awareness, interest, and trust in a brand or product so that potential customers naturally develop the desire to purchase. Operating at the very top of the marketing funnel, its goal is not to drive immediate sales, but to build recognition, curiosity, and credibility among consumers who are not yet considering a purchase or who have not yet heard of the brand.
In this stage, consumers aren’t just comparing product features—they’re comparing brand perception, cultural relevance, and lifestyle alignment. Demand Gen campaigns help increase brand “impression value,” making it far more likely that when consumers are ready to buy, your brand is the first one they recall. This “impression first, conversion later” approach provides a long-term competitive advantage for sportswear e-commerce brands.
We’ll share how we shifted our advertising strategy from traditional promotion-driven messaging to an impression-driven Demand Gen approach—strengthening brand perception and staying top of mind for consumers.
(1) Audience Targeting: From “Shopping Intent” to “Lifestyle Interests”
We analyzed 30 days of site visitors using the DDKT audience analytics platform and identified five strong interest clusters: Fashion and trends, Food lovers
, Outdoor enthusiasts, Apparel and styling, Travel planners. These insights show that consumers don’t just look for sports products—they look for brands that resonate with trends, lifestyle, and culture.
To match these preferences, we targeted users aged 18–34 with interests in Korean pop culture and travel/food, using Native ads that showcased “Korean-inspired styling × outdoor travel” lifestyle visuals. This made the ads feel like content recommendations rather than hard-selling product ads.
CTR increased by
3 × ↑ compared with shopping-intent audiences
CPC decreased significantly
22.9%↓
(2) Ad Formats: Blending Into Content to Build Trust and Drive Higher Interaction
During the campaign, we noticed that banner ads generated strong visibility but struggled with click-through rates early on. To improve performance, we gradually increased the share of Native ads—an ad format that blends more seamlessly into media content.
This balanced approach helped us boost CTR while maintaining solid reach. At the same time, we retargeted users who visited the site within the past 7 days, reminding them of the products they previously viewed.
Native CTR outperformed banner CTR by
5.16 x ↑
Retargeting CTR exceeded all other audience groups
2.15%↑
(3) Timing Strategy: Matching Audience Lifestyle Patterns + Stronger Retargeting
We observed that most users who visited and completed a purchase tended to convert at specific times: 8–10 AM (40%), 2–3 PM (40%), 9 PM (20%).
Since Demand Gen emphasizes connecting with consumers during “relaxed moments,” we optimized ad delivery by reallocating budgets to these high-conversion windows. We also strengthened retargeting for users who added items to their cart within the past month but didn’t check out.
Higher conversion rates during key time slots
37.5%
Overall CPC decreased across the campaign
22.9%↓
Conclusion: Advertising Isn’t About Pushing Messages—It’s About Creating Resonance
Every sportswear brand has its own identity and target audience. Beyond nurturing existing customers, the key to growth is capturing new consumers at the right moment by creating demand before they’re ready to purchase.
When consumers perceive the brand positively—connecting through lifestyle storytelling, cultural affinity, or influential ambassadors—it sparks emotional resonance. That connection increases interest, drives engagement, and ultimately leads to conversion.
Whether the message is rooted in lifestyle inspiration or strengthened with strong endorsements, success comes from understanding consumer needs and combining them with effective ad strategies and behavioral insights. This is how brands achieve high-efficiency marketing results.
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