Winning in the Toughest Markets with Performance Marketing

A Competitive Benchmark Across Markets

As a trusted partner to leading multi-location and franchise brands, Imaginuity continually tests new strategies to maximize marketing ROI. In this benchmark study, we compared performance across multiple Texas Designated Market Areas (DMAs) for one of our franchise restaurant clients.

Benchmark campaigns were executed in Austin, San Antonio, and El Paso — smaller, lower-cost markets with lighter competition.

Imaginuity was responsible for Dallas and Houston — larger, more competitive, and higher-cost markets.

Lower-cost DMAs usually deliver cheaper visits and more favorable efficiency metrics. But our goal was to prove that our performance-first approach would match or outperform even under more challenging, cost-intensive conditions.

Approach: Smarter, Not Just Cheaper 

While benchmark campaigns relied on traditional media-buying approaches — broad targeting, static creative, and efficiency tied to market cost — Imaginuity applied our performance-first strategy built to optimize every dollar. 

Advanced Optimization: Continuous bid adjustments to manage Cost Per View (CPV) in high-cost markets. 

Data Intelligence: First-party Data Average Order Value (AOV) validation through AdScience® to ensure accurate revenue measurement. 

Creative Testing:  Multiple ad variations optimized daily for engagement and conversions. 

Audience Precision: AI-driven targeting through AdScience to prioritize high-value households. 

By combining Human Intelligence, Data Intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence, Imaginuity turned media investment into measurable growth — not just impressions. 

What is AdScience?

AdScience is our proprietary Customer Data & Activation Platform. Think of it as your business revenue growth engine. It unifies your marketing and customer data, uses AI/ML to identify high-probability audiences, activates them across channels, and reallocates budget in real time to what’s working, with clear revenue attribution.

Performance Under Pressure

From March through July 2025, campaign results demonstrated that smart optimization and strategic media execution can outperform market conditions—even in some of the country’s most competitive DMAs.

Compared to similar campaigns running in lower-cost regions, Imaginuity’s Dallas and Houston media programs generated exponential growth across every key performance metric, from visibility and engagement to revenue impact. Campaign reach expanded dramatically, website engagement surged, and conversions multiplied several times over. Most notably, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) climbed to more than four times the benchmark level, proving that performance isn’t defined by geography—it’s defined by strategy.

Even with higher media costs in top-tier markets, efficiency held steady, underscoring that data-driven optimization and disciplined execution can achieve exceptional results anywhere. In short, when performance marketing is done right, pressure sharpens the edge.

What It Means for Franchise Multi-Location Brands

This wasn’t just a comparison — it was a validation of what defines performance marketing success.

• Conversions: Benchmark campaigns generated visits, but fewer translated into paying customers. Imaginuity’s smarter targeting produced 364% more conversions.

• Revenue: While benchmark campaigns struggled to generate ROI, Imaginuity drove more than $1.1M in revenue – over 4 times the return.

• Cost Control: CPV held nearly identical ($0.56 vs. $0.54), an important achievement in higher-cost markets like Dallas and Houston.

By delivering exponential ROI in the toughest markets, Imaginuity reinforced its role as a performance marketing partner of choice by helping franchises and multi-location companies scale with confidence.

About Imaginuity

At Imaginuity, we believe that when you know better, you do better. That’s why we connect Human Intelligence, Data Intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence to make marketing perform better for multi-location and franchise brands. 

Powered by AdScience—our proprietary Customer Data Platform—Imaginuity helps companies understand their data, optimize their marketing, and achieve measurable growth. 

Imaginuity is a Dallas-based performance marketing company built on a simple idea: better understanding drives better results.