• by Wayne Friedman , August 25, 2016

Everyone sleeps daily -- but everyone doesn’t buy a mattress regularly.  Or online.

Speaking at MediaPost’s Programmatic Insider Summit, Terri Rockovich, vp of acquisition of Casper, an online mattress company, says: “People have questions; conversations take a little bit longer.”

Even with its '100 night trial', she says many people say “there is no way I’m buying a bed online.” As such, she says, content pieces are critical with video and education key components.

Casper focuses on creative with compelling headlines such as “ “One Perfect Mattress”, as well as touting its awards. Casper says it has expanded beyond contextual advertising, search and banners to programmatic -- where it now represents 17% to 18% of its media business.

Rockovich says: “For a product like a mattress, what’s really interesting is understanding the conversation window by platform; to get a really good sense of audience types and how long it takes them to drive them through the funnel. Each consumer journey is different depending the tactic.”

With an average $850 for a queen mattress, the process of driving consumers down the funnel is for the long term. “We don’t stop with the transaction,” she says. “There are these post-purchase efforts. If you buy a pillow -- a gateway to the brand -- we’ll try to get you on the mattress.”