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Blu Dot surpasses 2,000% ROAS with self-serve CTV ads
Home furniture brand Blu Dot blew up on CTV with help from Roku Ads Manager. Here’s how:
After a test campaign reached 211,000 households and achieved 1,010% ROAS, the brand went all in to promote its annual sales event. It removed age and income constraints to expand reach and shifted budget to custom audiences and retargeting, where intent was strongest.
The results speak for themselves. As Blu Dot increased their investment by 10x, ROAS jumped to 2,308% and more page-view conversions surpassed 50,000.
“For CTV campaigns, Roku has been a top performer,” said Claire Folkestad, Paid Media Strategist, Blu Dot. “Comping to our other platforms, we have seen really strong ROAS… and highly efficient CPMs, lower than any other CTV partner we've worked with.”
Using Roku Ads Manager, the campaign moved from a pilot to a permanent performance engine for the brand.
Good morning. Wednesday's inflation report came in exactly as expected, and today brings its sequel: the wholesale version.
The Market Gauge
The S&P 500 closed at 7,748.50, up 0.26%. The Nasdaq composite closed at 26,588.49, up 0.54%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.04% to 53,770.27, essentially flat. The Russell 2000, which tracks smaller companies, rose 0.61% to a fresh high.
The move followed July's consumer price index, which landed exactly in line with what economists expected (headline prices up 0.1% for the month and 3.4% over the past year; core prices, which strip out food and energy, up 0.2% and 2.5%), easing worries the Fed would need to raise rates. A handful of AI-hardware earnings winners did most of the lifting. Nebius jumped 34%, CoreWeave 19%, Super Micro 19%, and Lumentum nearly 14%, while several of the biggest tech names, including Microsoft and Salesforce, slipped more than 2%. Investor's Business Daily still calls the rally healthy: the Russell 2000, the equal-weight S&P 500 fund (RSP), and the equal-weight Nasdaq-100 fund (QQQE) all touched fresh highs, a sign the gains are spreading past a handful of megacaps.
Beginner note: notice how much bigger the individual stock moves were than the index move. The index budged about half a percent. Individual stocks jumped or fell 10 to 30% on their own earnings. That's exactly why we spend so much time on individual earnings numbers instead of just watching the headline index.
On today's calendar
July Producer Price Index, 8:30 AM ET. This measures wholesale inflation, what businesses pay each other before those costs reach the store shelf. Wednesday's consumer number came in tame; today's report shows whether that holds one step earlier in the pipeline.
Weekly jobless claims, 8:30 AM ET. How many Americans filed for unemployment for the first time last week, a quick weekly read on the health of the job market.
Cisco and Coherent react to last night's earnings. Both companies beat estimates and raised guidance after Wednesday's close, but Cisco fell and Coherent slipped in extended trading anyway. A good report doesn't guarantee a good reaction. Watch how both open today.
On the radar: Lumentum
$LITE ( ▼ 0.73% ) makes the optical and laser components that move data inside AI data centers and telecom networks. Wednesday it jumped 13.63% to $932.47 after reporting fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $3.23 a share, up 267% from a year ago, on revenue of $1.01 billion, up 109%. Both numbers beat what Wall Street expected. The stock now sits about 14% below its 52-week (and all-time) high of $1,085.68, the level Investor's Business Daily flags as the next one to watch.
Why it's worth watching: 267% earnings growth in a single quarter is the kind of acceleration this week's lessons on the A are built to help you spot. Tomorrow's lesson pulls this week's earnings-growth rules into one checklist. Keep Lumentum's number in mind when you get there.
ONE FOR THE ROAD: Lumentum's earnings jumped 267% and the stock still isn't at a new high. Is that a buy signal, a warning, or something in between? Reply and tell me your first instinct.
Educational content only. Not financial advice. Past performance does not predict future results. Read the full financial disclosure.
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