Are Top-Performing Ads Still Videos?

Welcome to this issue of The DTC Insider newsletter. 👋

If you're new to our community, welcome! We'll send you weekly emails, every Wednesday, trying our best to deliver great value to your inbox.

In this newsletter, you'll find:

💠 Are Top-Performing Ads Still Videos?

💠 What Would Happen If You Turned Off Your Ads?

💠 LinkedIn's "Top E-Commerce Voice" Reveals The #1 Struggle for DTC Brands

Are Top-Performing Ads Still Videos?

Last week I attended a webinar hosted by Ashvin Melwani and Ankit Patel at Obvi.

And it was packed with a ton of value.

Here are my main takeaways:

😲 Top-performing ads are no longer videos, but statics.

💬 Ad copy outside the creative is not important anymore.

☠️ UGC is dead. Get videos from real customers, instead.

🤔 Most brands have a "creative diversity problem", as they're not testing enough ad creative formats and angles.

🎨 Performance ads don't necessarily need to be completely on brand. They just need to perform.

In the end, I think every brand should test what works for them.

But hey, they are a successful 8-figure brand spending 6 figures/mo on ads, testing hundreds of them every single month.

So I think they know a thing or two about this, and you should at least consider what they say.

What are your thoughts?

What Would Happen If You Turned Off Your Ads?

The other day I recorded a podcast episode with a skincare brand.

And something got my attention...

The founder told me that they stopped their Meta Ads during BFCM 2023 🤯

That's a bold move right there.

Do you want to know how it worked out for them?

First, let me tell you WHY they did it.

They said they didn't want to offer discounts to new customers, mainly because they felt it was an exclusive benefit for existing ones, who had been loyal to them before BFCM started.

So, what did they do to drive revenue?

Their strategy was to only target email, SMS, and organic social (the "zero CAC" channels).

How did it work?

According to the founder, they had 15-20% conversion rates on their website, and drove a high volume of generally high-AOV purchases by incentivizing larger orders.

Interestingly, he says, they drove a really high number of first purchasers who had joined their list from an ad sometime over the Spring and Summer.

Would they do that again?

Yes and no.

Let me explain.

Clearly, they were successful in driving orders from existing customers. So, do they need to spend money on ads for this year's BFCM to get them to buy?

In theory, no. But that doesn't mean they wouldn't acquire even more orders from them if they run ads.

Even if they decide not to run ads for existing customers, they could still do it to acquire new customers, offering them something else.

It could be a lower discount, or also offering existing customers more benefits too (ie. giveaways, or a gift with their purchase, among other options).

What would you do differently?

LinkedIn's "Top E-Commerce Voice" Reveals The #1 Struggle for DTC Brands

Neal Goyal is a DTC Coach for $50m+ Brands at Tapcart, the leading platform that turns your Shopify site into a beautiful mobile app.

He was recently named “Top e-commerce voice” by LinkedIn, so you’d better listen to what he has to say about the present and future of e-commerce.

On this episode of The DTC Insider podcast, we discussed:

👉 Overview of the DTC space today

👉 Key challenges for DTC brands

👉 Solutions for overcoming those challenges

👉 What you need to know about the latest Gmail and Yahoo updates

👉 Advantages of mobile apps for businesses

👉 Maximizing mobile app potential beyond retention

👉 Why (and how) you should be treating your mobile app users differently

🎧 Tune in to our latest episode: https://thedtcinsider.com/c/podcast

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