Fifty-Plus Salons.
One Place to Book.
Ultracuts is a family-run chain of hair salons with more than 50 locations across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. For over 35 years it has been the place for a good cut at a fair price. In 2019, its marketing still ran on billboards, coupons and in-store promos.
From 2019 to 2023, AdEasy ran its digital marketing: Google and Facebook ads, a new promo every month, the website and the Facebook page.
Visits to the online booking page from Google and Facebook ads in 2021
Ad spend per booking-page visit in 2021, across both platforms
Salons in three provinces, all listed on one Facebook page
Running the digital marketing, February 2019 to fall 2023
2021 figures are from AdEasy’s Google Ads and Meta campaign reports. A booking-page visit is someone who clicked an ad and landed on the Ultracuts online booking page. It is not a booking. Cost per visit is media spend only.
A Familiar Name
with New Competition.
Ultracuts had decades of loyal customers. But our 2019 plan put it plainly: the brand was reaching the stage where market share tends to peak and then slide. New salons and barber shops kept opening, and there was no shortage of places in Western Canada to get a quick haircut.
Online, the basics needed work. The website had been coded so only a developer could change a promo, and old Facebook pages set up by past employees were scattered across the locations.
Make the Brand Feel Modern
Change how people saw Ultracuts, especially younger customers.
Reach New Customers Online
Use Facebook, Google and the website to find people who had never visited.
Bring People Through the Door
Turn ads into appointments and walk-ins at real salon locations.
Know Who’s
in the Chair.
The 2019 media plan picked a core customer, wrote messages for them and built a short path from ad to appointment. A year in, the results told us to change who we were talking to, so we did.
Men First, Then Colour Clients
The first campaigns went after men 18 to 34 and 35 to 54, Ultracuts’ core clientele. In January 2020 we moved spend toward women 35 to 55, who book the more profitable colour services.
Fast, Friendly, Fairly Priced
The ads promised what Ultracuts already delivered: a men’s cut in under 30 minutes, stylists you can trust and great service at a fair price. Each month’s promo added a reason to book now.
Ad, Nearest Salon, Booking Page
Search ads showed up for people searching near a salon. Facebook and Instagram ads sent people straight to the online booking page, and the TV screens in each salon carried the same promo.
The Same Promo
on Every Screen.
Fix the Basics
We moved the website onto an easy-to-edit WordPress theme and trained Ultracuts managers to update it themselves. Then we merged the stray Facebook pages into one main page with every salon listed.
Google Search Near Every Salon
Search campaigns built around how people look for a haircut: the Ultracuts name, affordable cuts, styles and nearby salons. Each salon got its own targeting area, so the closest Ultracuts showed up first.
A New Promo Every Month
Colour specials, free product with a cut, back-to-school savings. Every month we turned the promo into versions for the website, Facebook, Instagram, Google Display and the TV screens in the salons.
Seasonal and Video Campaigns
Short video ads for men about a great cut in under 30 minutes, winter colour campaigns for women, a COVID safety campaign in 2020 and store traffic ads in 2022 for the salons that needed more walk-ins.
Get the Ultralook
Precision cut, deep cleansing shampoo and style dry, plus a free BC Moisture Kick or Colour shampoo, a $14 value.
Get the Ultralook
The same offer, rebuilt for the Saskatchewan and Alberta salons, with a free BC Moisture Kick shampoo, a $14 value.
Colour and Save
Book a hair colouring appointment and save 50% on any shampoo or conditioner. Limit one per customer.
Buy One, Get One 50% Off
Buy one, get one 50% off select Joico volumizing and moisturizing shampoo and conditioner.
New Look,
Same Results.
In the fall of 2020, a lot of people were nervous about sitting in a salon chair. We pitched Ultracuts five campaign ideas, and they picked “New Look, Same Results”: booking a cut was still safe, easy and affordable.
We shot it at the Ultracuts on Taylor Avenue in Winnipeg with real stylists and models, then ran ten versions of the ad on Facebook and Instagram. It launched November 5 in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Five days later, COVID rules closed salons in Manitoba and we paused that province.
The best of the ten was the simplest: a still photo of a stylist giving a haircut. It earned 133 clicks at $0.64 each.
Clicks to the Ultracuts website in just over three weeks
Ad spend per click, across all ten ad versions
Times the ads were seen on Facebook and Instagram
People in Saskatchewan who saw the campaign
Saskatchewan only, on a $25 a day budget. Clicks are link clicks to the Ultracuts website. Source: AdEasy campaign report, November 27, 2020.
A Record Year
at the Booking Page.
2021 was a hard year to run a salon. Lockdowns came and went, and every reopening meant getting people back in the chair. That year our ads sent 57,921 people to the Ultracuts online booking page, a record for the account.
Facebook and Instagram did the reaching, with almost 4 million impressions. Google Search caught people already looking for a haircut close by and turned 44,900 clicks into 26,300 booking-page visits. Across both, each visit cost about a dollar in ad spend.
We ran Ultracuts’ digital marketing until the fall of 2023, when the company took its marketing in a new direction and we handed the website and Facebook page back to its team.
| Channel | Impressions | Clicks | Booking-page visits | Cost per visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook and Instagram | 3.99M | 31,621 | 31,621 | $0.77 |
| Google Search | 716K | 44,900 | 26,300 | $1.31 |
| Total | 4.7M | 76,521 | 57,921 | ~$1.02 |
Media plan signed off. Google Search and Display ads launch.
A COVID safety campaign, shot at the Taylor Avenue salon in Winnipeg.
A record 57,921 visits to the online booking page from ads.
Store traffic ads for the salons that needed more walk-ins.
Spring and summer creative, then a handoff to the Ultracuts team.
Source: AdEasy’s 2021 Google Ads and Meta campaign reports for Ultracuts. Google booking-page visits are Google Ads conversions for a visit to the booking page; Facebook and Instagram visits are link clicks to the booking page. Visits are not bookings, and Ultracuts did not share booking or sales figures with us. Costs are media spend only. Work from 2019 to 2021 was done under our former name, Exchange Agency.
