TikTok recently released Smart Performance Campaigns (SPC) for TikTok ads, and it’s a game-changer for advertisers on the platform. 

Similar to Meta’s Advantage+ campaigns, SPC is TikTok’s end-to-end automation solution that uses machine learning to optimize for the best performance and marketing goals. It simplifies the campaign creation process and enhances ad delivery strategies for audience, bidding, and creative exploration. Essentially, SPC removes the need for marketers to set up individual ad groups, determine bidding strategies, or place creative tests.

At a high level, TikTok (Meta too) is trying to further level the playing field for advertisers so that the practice of running ads is simple. With account optimizations removed, this is also more evidence that ad creative is the biggest lever brands can pull to drive growth. 

 

Who Should Use SPC for TikTok Ads? 

Any performance marketer who wants to reduce time spent in the account and see an increase in performance is a good fit for SPC. According to TikTok, it reduces campaign creation time by 26%. They also say it extends the ad lifespan by 37% when compared with manual campaigns. 87% of the Closed Beta advertisers also reported statistically better CPA and ROAS when compared to status quo setups.

We’re seeing pretty amazing results at Primer too. Here’s what our team had to say:

 

SPC is great for performance-driven advertisers who are comfortable with giving control to the system over audience targeting. It can mean less time spent setting up campaigns and tinkering with ad accounts. 

 

How to Set Up SPC for your TikTok Ads 

To test SPC, ensure a minimum of 20:1 budget-to-bid ratio, with 50:1 being the most ideal. Use daily budget for even pacing and avoid touching the campaign for the first 7-days or prior to reaching 50 conversions. CPA fluctuation is normal during this time, so it’s essential to stay patient. Use a minimum of three diverse creative assets to get the best results. We recommend setting it up as an equal, 1:1 test against a standard campaign with the same budget to really understand if SPC is a winner for your account.

 

Get Access to SPC 

TikTok’s Smart Performance Campaign is currently in public beta. As a TikTok partner, Primer can help connect you with reps and beta opportunities. Schedule a call to get started.

At Primer, we talk a lot about ad testing. There’s a simple reason why: it works. In our full-service agency, we run performance marketing for dozens of brands. Each of them comes to us with an aggressive growth goal. Ad testing is the way we hit their goals.

We run new tests every two weeks, following our Outlier Method. In one month, our testing schedule looks like this:

We aim to alternate new, big idea tests with scaling tests that create variations on our top performers. In each group of tests, we create videos, copy and a landing page (we often test static images too).

In the example above, the “big idea” test is the designer highlight, while the “scaling top performers” test is the scaling or iteration test.

This testing cadence fills the creative pipeline, ensuring there is always fresh creative and new opportunities to find a top-performing ad.

We know that when we don’t follow this cadence, performance suffers. In the past, for various reasons, a few of our agency partners didn’t sustain this testing schedule continuously.

When their tests fell short, so did their number of wins, ultimately affecting their CPA and ROAS.

In one month, for example, when our partners fell short of their testing cadence, they generated 0 new wins.

No Ad Testing

In contrast, in the same month, the partners who tested consistently saw significant wins and consistent or improved performance, generating performance that was 2.55 times better than the partners who did not test.

Consistent Ad Testing

What is a win? A win, or Outliers as we call them, are generally ads that perform better than the rest in their campaign. We define them by this criteria:

• Not identified as a new win in a previous month
• Live for at least 14 days
• At least a 10% improvement over average CPA/ROAS OR 5% below the big win CPA/ROAS goal
• A minimum of 10 conversions

Ad Testing Can Be Hard

There are a lot of good reasons why you may not be testing a lot in your ad accounts.

Isn’t It Easier to Optimize for Growth?

It could feel good to make immediate changes in the ad platform. When account performance is not ideal, it’s a natural tendency to want to make quick account optimizations.

This type of scrambling, however, takes away from bigger priorities, like strong ideation and development for new creative tests. What results is an account that is just treading water.

Once ads are fatigued, it’s rare (if ever) that they come back and perform at peak levels. It’s better to take what you learned from those ads and keep building.

Ad Testing Takes Time

Creative testing can seem time consuming. It takes time and preparation to develop a creative roadmap and the creative assets you need to test. Maybe you’re not sure where assets are or what the best messaging is. Testing can feel like you’re just throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what sticks.

The truth is… you are. But it’s important to start noticing what sticks and building from there. Once you unlock the key creative learnings for accounts, briefs become much easier to write because you have such a strong baseline to build from. You can mix and match what’s working for scaling sprints or build off them for new big ideas.

A repeated testing cadence has an outsized impact in the performance of your ad account.

Ad accounts with consistent creative testing have fewer daily fluctuations and can ride the small ups and downs of daily account performance because of the bigger creative wins that improve overall account performance.

Is Creative Testing Expensive? 

It’s true that testing ad sets are almost above campaign averages. However, if you are building off of your learnings from those tests, you should find outliers that make incremental improvement towards your CPA goal.

Creative testing and learning is just like any other journey — you can only take one step at a time. Taking those individual steps will lead you to eventually reach your goal and consistent cost savings that far outweigh the costs of creative development and production.

Ad accounts with creative testing performed 2.55x better than those without testing.

Test More, Win More.

When performance starts to drop for one of partners, the creative testing cadence is the first thing we look at. We suggest you do too.

Are you running enough ad tests? Here are a few resources to help you find out and plan:

• How many ads you should be testing
• What to test (big ideas vs. small iterations) 
• The step-by-step guide to the Outlier Method of testing 

Looking for Help With Ad Testing?

Maintaining this cadence can be tricky. If you need help filling your creative pipeline with high-quality ads, check out Primer’s On-Demand creative service that delivers conversion-focused ad creative in 2 – 4 days.

For a growth partner that can handle your creative and testing strategy from ideation through to analysis, schedule a call with Primer’s full-service agency team.

 

One of the most effective forms of digital advertising today is performance user-generated content (UGC). We’ll break down what is performance UGC, share the essential elements of successful UGC, and give you four UGC video ad templates you can use for your ads right now.

What Is Performance UGC?

User-generated content (UGC) is content created by individual users to share information or tell a story. Digital social platforms like TikTok and Instagram helped to popularize UGC with video-focused social feeds that spotlight the first-person point of view. Traditional UGC content features the user or customer of a specific product telling their own, genuine account of their experience.

Performance UGC is when you apply the best practices from traditional UGC to digital advertising, and create UGC-style ads that are designed to convert.

The Essential Elements of a UGC Ad

The goal of a performance-focused UGC-style ad is to feel native or organic within the social platform where you’re advertising. If it sticks out and feels different, the user is likely to immediately recognize it as an ad and scroll past it. If it grabs attention and feels organic, then it has a higher chance of stopping their thumb and getting engagement.

Here are the essential elements of a top-performing UGC ad:

UGC Ads Are Not Overly Polished or Produced 

When creating a UGC ad, avoid the tendency to make the ad feel professional or polished. This applies to all businesses, including B2B advertising. If it feels like it’s been professionally produced, you have immediately lost the feeling of “user-generated content.”

Rather than smooth, flashy transitions between frames, use quick cuts. Eliminate text transitions — they should appear as they do in organic images and videos in the platform.

❌ Brand-driven design using brand fonts and polished graphics	✅ User-focused video footage using text in the native style of the platform

UGC Ads Use a First-Person Perspective 

UGC videos have a conversational style and appear as if they are coming from the point of view of one person. Successful UGC video ads feel as if they are relatable — ”this person is like me” or “this person has traits that I admire”.

When putting together your UGC ad, try to stick to one featuring just one person in the video if possible. If you have multiple shots, try a montage approach featuring many users in quick succession. Then, connect your footage with voiceover from a single person to reinforce the first-person point of view.

UGC Ads Have Sound On

Gone are the days when sound was considered disruptive in your social feed. Today, users expect sound on, and when done right, it adds to the experience. We recommend including a voiceover with every video and music when you can. Look for trending sounds on the platform where you’re advertising and incorporate them when they fit your brand and goals.

How to Create a UGC Video That Fits Your Brand

A common objection to UGC ads is that they can feel “off-brand.” We understand. Here are some tips on how you can create UGC video ads that serve your brand well and deliver a good experience for your audience.

Study the Ad Platform 

First, consider the environment where your ad will run. Will a polished, branded ad feel natural in that environment? If so, then go for it. If you’re looking to run ads in social feeds, like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or Snapchat, a high-production ad may feel out of place and stick out as an ad. Look at the trends in the platform and identify the ones that feel like the strongest fit for your brand. Small trends like a sound or text style can help your ad feel more organic while still staying true to your brand.

Pick the Right Influencer 

To create an on-brand UGC ad, first start with the creator or influencer featured in your ad. Who is your ideal customer? Select an influencer who represents that person. If you’re working with a creative partner, share samples of creators who feel like a strong representation of your audience. It can also be helpful to pull examples of creators who do not represent your brand. If your creator is a strong representation of your brand, the content will likely match too.

Don’t Over Direct 

Avoid over directing your UGC ad. It can be a natural tendency to want to control the direction of the ad to help protect your brand, but overly produced UGC ads can easily feel scripted and forced. Social influencers or creators have a unique point of view, and you’re hiring them to share it. Embrace their creativity and give them the space to tell the story in their own way.

If you’ve identified an influencer who is a strong match for your brand, you should feel comfortable knowing that this is in line with your audience. Include brand don’ts so they are aware of what is off limits, but then give them the space to talk about your brand in their own special way.

Four UGC Video Ad Templates You Can Use Now

Now that we have the basics covered, here are four UGC video ad templates you can use for your ads. You may notice that each of these has three common elements:

• Engaging hook that grabs users’ attention within the first three seconds
• Main message
• CTA

These elements are essential for any conversion-focused video ad. When we’re building video ads, we apply several different themes to this framework to test different creative approaches. The four themes below are some of our top performers.

At Primer, we like to say “great marketers steal” and so we encourage you to steal these templates and use them for your UGC ads.

Need help creating your ads? Check out Primer On-Demand.

Press + Testimonial UGC Ad Template 

What it does: Uses press quotes and customer testimonials in creative to tell the story of how and why the product works. It provides social proof and validation that the product works and that customers love it.

Example:

 

How the example uses the template:

How It Works UGC Ad Template 

What it does: Explains to customers how to solve a key problem and presents your product as the solution. This can be humorous or more didactic.

Example:

 

How the example uses this template:

Buyer Decision Questions UGC Ad Template 

What it does: Answers the most important Buyer Decision Questions (BDQs) that potential customers would ask themselves during the purchasing process.

Example:

 

How the example uses the template:

X Reasons Why UGC Ad Template

What it does: Gives the user several reasons why this product can solve their problems.

Example:

 

How the example uses this template:

Once you’ve selected your template, turn the table from the examples above into a creative brief by swapping the example text for your copy and send it over to your design team. (Or grab our creative brief template here.)

Get Help Creating UGC Video Ads

Looking for help sourcing creators and producing UGC video ads? Primer now offers an on-demand service for UGC video ads that can help concept, plan, source and produce video ads in as little as 18 – 20 days. Schedule a call to learn more.

Every month at Primer, our team comes together for the cheekily named “Primees” to honor the top-performing ads. The awards were designed in the spirit of Dunder Mifflin’s Dundie’s but the comparison ends there. These winners are based on real performance (and not everyone wins). We do have fun, though. Themes range from “black tie” to “safari” and everything in between. Our team turns out (via Zoom), often in costume, to celebrate the big winners.

To wrap up the year, we took a look back at the top ads from our 2022 Primees. What emerged is a list of strong ads full of great trends you can apply to your ads today.

We encourage you to leverage these wins for your own ads (great marketers steal!) and apply the learnings to find your own Primee success story in 2023. Wishing you the very best ads.

Best UGC Video Ads

It’s no surprise that we have so many UGC video ads in this list of top-performers for 2022 — it was the top-performing ad format across all brands and channels. This first ad shows the power of performance UGC. While it doesn’t follow a typical influencer-style format where a single person addresses the camera, it tells a story from a single point of view, making you think it’s coming from a person’s own experience.

 

How you can try this: Capture an experience with your product on your phone, edit it down to the key moments, and add captions that describe each step your customer takes to solving their problem with your product.

Similar to the Sunday ad above, this Rocksbox ad shows the perspective of a single person, with unboxing-type shots to share a more personal experience with the jewelry subscription brand. The captions help reinforce the key selling points.

 

How you can try this: Shoot several short videos of your product with your phone. If it comes in a box, show it arriving and open it up to show potential customers what they can expect to get. Add captions that highlight the best features at each step.

This top-performing Ello video ad feels organic in a user’s feed with the audio of the Ello app and video of the child using the product. The captions grab attention and answer a key buying question (how much is it?).

 

How you can try this: Grab audio and video of your product in action. Play that in the background while captions tell the user how your product can help solve their problem. 

For Prime Shrimp, we used an ad format that keeps winning: a vertical split screen. On the left we feature short copy that describes the simple steps for cooking Prime Shrimp. On the right, we have an ASMR video of that process in action, complete with clear audio of each action (rip of bag, boiling water, microwave buttons, etc.). The result is a salivating ad.

 

How you can try this: Create a vertical split screen ad like the one above. Communicate a key value proposition on the left, and show video of how that value proposition comes to life on the right. Try it with sound on! These top performers all have audio.

These next two ads follow a similar format: they both show you (the customer) how easy it is to go from shopping on your phone to using the product in your life. They both walk through the actual user experience and then show the product in action. The TeePublic ad went a step further and tapped into a cultural moment (Halloween) by tailoring the messaging to the holiday.

 

 

How you can try this: Grab a screen recording of ordering your product from your phone and combine it with video footage of the product in action. Add captions to describe each step and how this product will benefit your customer.

This ad taps into a TikTok trend that has expanded into Facebook and Instagram as well by starting with the POV caption. While the footage of the (albeit very exciting) product plays in the background, captions answer questions that the customer will need answered before making a purchase.

 

How you can try this: Hook your audience with a top trend within the first :03 of your video, then support footage of your production in action with key stats or information that answer the most important questions they need answered before making a purchase (e.g. how much is it, where can I get it, does it ship to me, etc.).

This UGC video ad features a single influencer and her use of the product, describing the three reasons (in this case, ingredients) that help solve her problem.

 

How you can try this: Use a single influencer to share three reasons why your product can help solve a problem. 

Need help sourcing UGC video content? Primer now offers UGC on-demand. Our team can source influencers, develop the strategy and help produce the ads. Learn more here.

Best TikTok Ads 

While we believe 2023 will be the year of TikTok, we saw massive growth and success on the platform in 2022. Not only did we create hundreds (thousands?) of ads for our partners on TikTok, we also created ads for TikTok itself.

This ad leaned heavily into the platform’s native styles and showed a playful take on shopping with the addicting cash register sound.

 

How you can try this: Embrace the native styles of the platform where you are advertising, including the text and the way the person is being featured in the video (in this case, a cropped shot of her head). 

We created this ad for Little Passports through the TikTok Creative Exchange, and it quickly rose to become a TikTok Top Ad. Why? It visually walks the user through what they can expect from the product, showing screenshots of the purchase process (from a mobile device!) and examples of what you can expect to get from the box.

 

How you can try this: Similar to the UGC styles above, try walking through the purchase process in your video to show prospective customers what they can expect. 

While this video ad doesn’t follow typical TikTok/UGC style, it still worked so well it was featured on TikTok Top Ads. Why? It is fast-paced, starts with an attention-grabbing hook, and combines brand footage with UGC footage of the app in use.

 

How you can try this: You don’t have to be a TikTok star to get a TikTok ad to perform. Just incorporate these key ingredients: attention-grabbing hook in the first :03 (here are 101 ideas for video hooks), fast-paced cuts between footage, and include sound on! 

Best GIF Animation Ads 

While GIF animation ads aren’t as high-converting as video ads, they can still be a powerful tool to help communicate a lot of information in a simpler format. This Apostrophe ad used the vertical split screen similar to the Prime Shrimp ad above to feature the personalized ingredient lists of its products. The mix of the different frames in the ad helped to drive home the point that Apostrophe is customized for your individual needs.

 

How you can try this: Use the vertical split screen to communicate key points on one side and show an image on the other side. Rotate through a few variations in a GIF animation to tell a story or show multiple scenarios for your product.

This ad leverages a winning headline with a combination of images of its clinics to further communicate the message.

 

 How you can try this: Test a winning headline with a slideshow of images that help to reinforce the benefits. 

Best Image Ads 

In a world where everything is animated, sometimes a static image is what is needed to grab attention. These images did just that, while still communicating enough information to drive high conversions for our partners.

For Rocksbox, an image of jewelry combined with a press quote made for a powerful image. Once we found the win in August, we scaled it with a Halloween theme in October, resulting in huge performance.

 

How you can try this: Combine an image of your product with a press or customer quote. Once you find a winner, scale it with elements that tie into the season or by testing different quotes or images. 

This combination of a product shot, customer testimonial and callout has worked in several iterations for Feetures — simply communicating a lot of information in one attractive ad.

 

How you can try this: Try adding a sticker-type callout with a benefit or offer and mix it with a product image and testimonial. Keep testing different variations until you find a winner.

This static image directly addresses a major problem for the target audience (50+ tabs open… I feel ya!) and demonstrates how it solves the problem. The copy provides social proof, and the headline shares an offer. Everything you need for a conversion.

 

How you can try this: Set up a core problem for your customers in the headline and use your image to show how you solve that problem. 

Best Comparison Ad 

This GIF animation ad uses one of our tried-and-true themes: vs. the competition. In this case, we compare many of the features of Outer outdoor furniture to the alternative brands. The ad quickly highlights Outer’s key selling features and answers many of the potential customer’s questions.

 

How you can try this: break your product down into key features and compare each of them to the similar features of a competitor. 

Best Carousel Ad 

Carousel ads found a home among top performers in 2022, and this one led the pack. It follows our top-performing “buyer decision questions” theme, which asks and answers the most important questions a customer might have before buying your product. This carousel ad answers the questions in the form of testimonials, adding social proof to the messaging.

How you can try this: Start a carousel ad with a question your buyer might have about your product and answer it in the following slides. Design your slides to be continuous so that users get a peek at what is next and are encouraged to scroll through them. 

Ready for 2023 

We’re expecting big things next year, including more UGC and TikTok ads. If you need help finding creative wins, we’d love to talk. Primer is here to help you grow, whether that’s by providing on-demand ad creative when you need it most or by partnering with you as your full-service growth solution. Schedule a call to learn more.

As we wind down 2022 and look ahead to the New Year, many marketers scale back ad spend and slowly transition into January. At Primer, we recommend the exact opposite. Instead, we suggest you start prepping your next video ad creative brief and go big into Q5. We’ll help you get a jumpstart with our high-converting How It Works ad creative template.

Get Ready to Scale Up During the Cheapest CPMs of the Year

Q5 is the “hidden quarter”. It’s the period between December 26 and mid January, when CPMs go down and engagement is high.

During the 2021-2022 Q5 period, TikTok reported a 22% decrease in CPMs and a 24% increase in video views. At Primer, we have seen similar decreases in CPMs across all channels, including TikTok, Facebook/Instagram and Google. CPAs have also dropped as much as 32% during the same period.

So why don’t more brands take advantage? Many marketers still think that January is quiet outside of health and wellness. While health and wellness brands do very well, Q5 can benefit any brand poised for the drop in costs.

Skip the “New Year, New You” Messaging

As you’re gearing up for Q5, you can skip the New Year, New You messaging. That overplayed tactic elicits instant eyerolls from most consumers. Instead, focus on your brand’s unique value proposition and mix 2023 into the messaging to ensure relevancy.

Use the How It Works Theme

At Primer, we have a playbook of several themes we know drive strong performance. One of those proven themes is what we call “how it works”. In this concept, we explain the individual steps a prospective customer would go through to get from their problem to a solution.

This theme is very powerful because it provides a step-by-step definition of how quick and easy it is to get the desired outcome.

Whether you’re using this theme to produce video ads, image ads, or a landing page, this concept is clear and concise. It breaks down the product or service into short, actionable steps that feel easy and relatable.

Try This Ad Creative Template for Image Ads

When you’re working with static image ads, the goal is to convey as much information as possible, while still keeping the image clear and attention-grabbing. Here are a few ways we achieve this:

Simple Steps 

Break your image up into four sections and walk the user through each step to go from problem to desired solution.

How I_____ 

In this image, we break down a product by showing how it helped solve the problem. If possible, it’s great to share specific information here (e.g. ingredients) to provide proof of the solution.

Checklist 

This simple image format breaks down the steps from problem to solution in a checklist format.

Improve Your Video Ads with This Ad Creative Template

When creating a video ad using the How It Works theme, the goal is to quickly and succinctly walk users through the steps from problem to solution. To make that easier, we created a winning script that does just that.

Here it is in action:

And here we break down how we used the template to produce this video. (Pro tip: if your product involves an online purchase, show video footage of the user going through that process. Even better if it’s on a mobile device so it feels familiar when users are scrolling through their phones!)

To make creating video ads even easier, we put together a downloadable How It Works video ad creative brief.

Convert Users With This How It Works Landing Page Creative Template

When How It Works ads are combined with a How It Works landing page, you can be sure that your potential customers have the information they need to fully understand how your product or service can help them.

Similar to images and videos, the How It Works landing page breaks down the steps it takes for a prospective customer to go from problem to solution with your product.

View the page here
.

In this example, we combine the step-by-step process with customer testimonials and press logos to provide proof of its effectiveness. When you’re creating your landing page, follow this same structure to balance explanation with proof.
Here are more tips on how to create landing pages that convert.

Start Testing Now

Now that you have the framework in place, we recommend you start testing right away. The sooner you can get your ads live, the longer you have to find wins that you can scale when CPMs drop around Christmas Day.

In between creating and optimizing ads these past few weeks, our team of growth marketing experts came together to talk about what we expect to see in digital advertising in 2023. The conversation quickly got exciting.

It’s no secret that the past couple of years in the digital ad space have been challenging — privacy changes, COVID, supply chain issues, inflation — but we believe the future is pretty bright.

We predict 2023 is going to be a big, disruptive year for digital ads. Here’s how:

UGC Will Dominate Ad Creative

Video ad creative outperformed static ads in almost all cases in 2022. In 2023, ads will be dominated by UGC.

User-generated or influencer-created video ads are an incredibly powerful form of advertising that leverage the influence of one person’s opinion about a product or service. We’ve seen UGC video ads take off in the past year, evolving from unscripted, complicated videos to more strategic, organized, native-style testimonials.

 

At Primer, we expect that the production quality of UGC will continue to rise as more content creators participate. Video and recording technology will continue to accelerate, bringing with it features that were previously only accessible to studios. The gap between professionally produced content and that made from individuals will continue to shrink. 

With higher quality creator content, we believe the lines between traditional PR and paid advertising will become more blurred. Content creators will see the value in participating in ads, and brands will gain trust in the creator. Brands will start to shift dollars from these traditional forms of PR into more measurable media like paid social.

As a result, whitelisting will be critical next year. Users will crave more genuine content from their favorite creators, with fewer ads. Marketplaces like the TikTok Creative Exchange and the forthcoming Instagram Creator Marketplace will make it easier than ever for brands to find creators to whitelist.

Ultimately, we believe that brands that have historically shied away from UGC ad creative will start to test the waters, further validating this powerful form of advertising.

This Will Be the Year of TikTok

At Primer, we’ve been bullish on TikTok for a while now — having seen the impact of the platform first-hand for our partners — but we believe that 2023 will be the year that TikTok starts to see a massive increase in ad spend. 

The perception of TikTok will continue to improve as major brands and less-obvious verticals (e.g. B2B) will understand the opportunity beyond just teenagers.

Share will shift away from challenged ad platforms (Twitter, Snapchat) and into TikTok.

TikTok will also have a continued impact on other ad channels. TikTok-first ad creative will become more prevalent on Instagram and YouTube Shorts and could even bleed into OTT. We have already seen TikTok-first ad creative work on other platforms in 2022, and we expect that as it becomes more mainstream, the style will become even more effective on other channels.

We don’t see TikTok’s top-notch business team slowing down any time soon either. TikTok is innovating at rapid speed and supporting their advertisers unlike any other platform today with a strong ads manager, incredibly helpful reps, and resources like the TikTok Creative Exchange. As TikTok continues to grow, we expect this level of service to grow as well, introducing new ad formats that will serve a wider variety of advertisers.

All in all, the combination of TikTok’s friendly ad environment, the improving perception of the platform and the power of UGC (native to TikTok) set the stage for a pretty big year for TikTok.

AI Is Going to Become Part of the Creative Process

This year, AI in marketing creative went from a Twitter meme to a killer app. In 2023, it’s going to become part of the creative process. 

Generative AI — when the machine creates something new, rather than analyzing something that exists — has begun to take hold in the marketing creative landscape. AI text tools like Jasper.ai and Copy.ai have matured to become a solid resource for first drafts or thought starters for things like ad copy headlines, blog posts, and landing page copy.

AI imagery, while still awkward, can be leveraged as a way to storyboard or concept a future photo, video or design. Agencies like BBDO are already testing image generation for brainstorming with the AI tool, Stable Diffusion.

In 2023, we will see some savvy, scrappy startups begin to use AI for the majority of their creative needs, shifting what was an hour-plus in Canva to 5 minutes using AI to create a graphic or blog post.

Larger companies and agencies will start leveraging AI to assist with copywriting. While it may not result in the final product, it can quickly and efficiently jumpstart the creative process by getting ideas flowing. They may also use AI to draft concepts and streamline communication between marketers and designers. Mockups will lose relevance as marketers can generate 20 AI drafts and send 2-3 of those to a designer that are close to what they need.

AI and machine learning will be at the forefront of iterative testing and ad creation, especially for static images. We will begin to see this natively integrated into martech tools to help generate fast iterations on an image and speed up the workflow.

This also expands the pool of creative talent. People without copywriting or creative skills will be able to quickly generate draft concepts that would have taken time, coordination and resources. The skill to successfully prompt AI to generate high-quality output will give you and your business a leading edge over the competition.

More Trends to Watch

In addition to the three big, disruptive trends mentioned above, we also believe that these shifts below will have a meaningful impact on the advertising landscape in 2023. 

• CTV and OTT grow fast. Cross-platform attribution tools have gotten more sophisticated and gained wider adoption in the past year, opening up the possibility to measure expanded channels. At the same time, CTV and OTT targeting has advanced to be competitive with the targeting capabilities in paid social. This combination points to big growth in 2023.

• Product photography is powerful. Shoppable DPA ads have proven to be very effective, and with more shoppable capabilities being built into social platforms, we expect this ad format to gain in popularity in 2023. Strong product photography will become more important to leverage these shoppable ads.

• Meta invests in advertisers. We saw this start to happen with Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC) in 2022, and we expect to see more improvements to the platform and support in the coming year.

What Won’t Change in 2023

We predict that 2023 will be a disruptive and exciting year, but there are a few things that we feel confident won’t change.  

• Creative is king. At Primer, we’ve long believed that creative is the biggest lever for growth, and we don’t see that changing any time soon. Ad platforms continue to get more automated, removing the ability to optimize for growth. The real gains are made when you have a continuous pipeline of ad creative, consistently testing new ideas and iterations to find winning ads.

• Continued focus on profitability. LTV was the metric to watch in 2022, and we believe that’s here to stay for 2023. Brands are more focused on profitability and we expect that again next year, as brands continue to navigate through an ever-changing economy.

• Paid social holds strong. Sure, you can say we’re biased on this one, but we also have an inside track. The trends in UGC, TikTok, and AI all help improve efficiency and effectiveness within paid social advertising, and with the continued focus on profitability, budgets will remain allocated to measurable channels like paid social.

At Primer, we use these trends and our insights from working with disruptive brands to plan our roadmap in 2023. It’s exciting, for sure. If you’re looking to dive into any of these trends or simply fuel your growth with better ads, we’d love to help. Schedule a call by clicking below.

 

Ad creative is the most important lever for growth when it comes to performance or growth marketing. Yet, time and again, marketers are held accountable for results without the resources they need to produce the high volume of high-quality ad creative to drive those results.

Can you imagine asking a salesperson to effectively sell without a sales deck or CRM? But that’s exactly what marketers in many organizations are faced with. Without an in-house design resource or a freelance designer available, they turn to Canva or another digital tool to quickly create the ads they need, resulting in ads that are not optimized for growth or not designed with the brand’s aesthetics in mind.

Today, digital marketing requires a high volume of ad creative to keep ad accounts fresh and to consistently find new winning ads. When you’re running this many ads, you need to produce ad creative in bulk. We’ll walk through why it’s important and how you can set yourself up for success when producing ad creative in bulk.

Why you need a lot of ad creative

In a world where nine out of 10 ads fail, it’s important to launch multiple ads at once. This approach allows you to quickly identify winners and scale them up so you can hit your goals. (For more on how we recommend launching and testing ads, read The Ultimate Guide to Outlier Method of Creative Testing.)

At Primer, we recommend a minimum of 50 ad tests per every $25,000 in ad spend to ensure you’re launching enough new ads to find a consistent stream of new winners. To find the exact number of ad tests (and failures) based on your CPA and ad spend, check out our Creative Testing ROI Calculator.

The key to this process, however, is consistency. Launching 50 new ads one time will help your ads that one time. To maintain sustainable growth, you need a creative testing framework that ensures that you are routinely planning, creating, launching and optimizing ads within your digital advertising accounts.

In this post, we’ll talk about the best way to create the high volume of ads you need for this framework, but here are a few other resources to help plan, launch and optimize your ads as well.

 

5 Steps to Produce a Lot of Ad Creative

Step 1: Determine how much ad creative you need

As a rule of thumb, we plan for 50 ad tests per every $25,000 in ad spend. Those 50 tests could include copy and audience tests, but the majority of your tests should be visual tests, including image ads and video ads.

At Primer, we aim to test one new batch of image ads and video ads every two weeks, with a minimum of 5-10 tests within each batch. Per the Outlier Method, we alternate between “big idea” ad tests, which test a brand-new concept, and iteration tests, which change just one or two elements of a winning ad.

Let’s pretend you are spending $25,000 each month in digital advertising. Here’s how we would plan your ad tests for one month.

Step 2: Create your testing roadmap

Now that you know how many tests you need for the month, you can begin to plan out your creative testing roadmap. At this stage, you are assigning concepts to each of these tests.

At Primer, we use Monday.com to plan and manage our testing roadmap, although any project management tool that allows you to track and collaborate on a project could work. Here’s a snapshot of our planning board we use with all of our partners to plan and manage our creative tests.

This central place for the testing roadmap helps us all stay on track and ensure that we’re working on our continuous creative pipeline to keep our partners’ ad accounts fresh and full of winning ads.

When brainstorming big ideas, focus on concepts that do any one (or a combination) of the following:

• Emphasizes a totally different value proposition than your past tests
• Targets a different audience (e.g. change what gender or age range you’re targeting)
• Uses a fresh visual look
• Includes all-new copy and headlines
• Is part of a larger, new “campaign” (e.g. ads that correspond with your brand’s current influencer campaign)

Make sure your ideas are grounded in your buyer personas. Once you determine your ideal buyer, you can then figure out what types of questions they would ask before purchasing.  (Tip: Use our easy buyer decision question worksheet to figure these out for your brand.)

These “buyer decision questions” should guide your copy, headlines, calls-to-action, and more.

An iteration is a variation of your previous top-performing ads (i.e., “wins”) in which you change one or two elements. By creating multiple iterations and testing those, you can thoughtfully scale your account’s wins.

By reusing key elements from past top-performing ads, you can also hone in on what really makes an ad work.

Plan out the next 2-3 months’ worth of tests at a time, assigning the concepts, deadlines, and owners to each test. Check out “What to test in your social media ads” for more ideas to fill out your testing roadmap.

Step 3: Dedicate consistent time to write your creative briefs

Now that you have your plan in place, it’s time to start writing your first creative briefs. Ad creative is the result of a creative process, hence the name. The best ad creative comes when you have time and headspace to dedicate to putting together a thoughtful and informed creative brief.

At Primer, we’ve developed a consistent weekly schedule for writing and submitting our creative briefs. We aim to write our briefs on Wednesdays and submit them on Fridays, giving us a day in between for review and revision. This kind of routine helps to ensure that we block out the time we need to write thoughtful briefs on an ongoing basis. Over time, it becomes a habit.

To help kick off your creative briefs, here are a few resources you might find helpful:

• Use the creative faucet method to get ideas flowing
• Steal from winning video ads with these 9 video ad templates
• Unblock writers’ block with these ad copy templates 
• Get your videos started with 101 video hooks

Step 4: Streamline the design and review process

Now comes the time to hand your ideas off to a designer for execution. If you are working with an in-house designer, it might be best to schedule a meeting with them to review your creative testing roadmap, the importance of it, and discuss the best way to get creative produced on a consistent basis. This can help them schedule it into their workflow and understand the priority from your perspective.

If you’re working with an outside freelance designer, you might want to collaborate in a project management tool like Monday.com, Asana, or JIRA to submit the requests and track the progress. With this many creative requests coming in, it can be challenging for both you and the designer to keep track of where you are in the process and also ensure you’re both referring to the same request when discussing them. A project management tool gives you a central place for that conversation.

An alternate option could be to hire an on-demand design service like Primer, No Limit Creatives or Sketchdeck. Unlike freelancers, these design services take time to understand your brand and provide specialized support based on the kind of creative you need. With this option, all project management takes place within their platform, and the accountability for delivering the creative you request is on them — helping you to fill your creative pipeline more seamlessly.

With whichever option you choose, ensure you have a smooth process for both requesting creative and reviewing it. Reviewing creative by email or Slack can easily result in feedback getting lost and end up in unnecessary rounds of revisions. Look for a review tool like Filestage or Ziflow to consolidate the review process or hire a freelancer or an on-demand design service that has an embedded review tool and process already in place.

Step 5: Repeat

The most important part of this process is also the hardest: repeat this every month. To keep your creative pipeline full, it’s important to repeat this process and stick to a consistent schedule. As you build your process and the resources you need to get it done, the easier it will be to consistently produce the ad creative you need to find sustainable growth in paid advertising.

Expand Your Team

If your company is investing thousands of dollars into growth marketing, consider expanding your team to help build the creative pipeline you need for it to work.

Primer offers growth-focused creative services ranging from on-demand ad creative you can get in as little as two days to full-service creative strategy and management. To find out how we can help you hit your growth goals with better ad creative, schedule a call today.

 

 

To Primer Friends and Partners: 

As marketers, we find ourselves again in uncertain times. The recent tumult of the financial markets, increased inflation, and a long road ahead to economic recovery have many of us reconsidering our marketing strategies. 

Sequoia Capital called this a “Crucible Moment” in their recent “Adapting to Endure” presentation. “We must recognize the changing environment and shift our mindset to respond with intention rather than regret.”

At Primer, we have a close eye on these macroeconomic impacts across our entire portfolio of partners – spending $10s of millions across Facebook, TikTok, Snap, Google, Pinterest, YouTube, and more. 

We have seen some partners adjust their budgets and others double down. If you’re not sure which changes to implement, you’re not alone. As your partner in growth, we would like to share what we’re seeing in the media marketplace today. 

Here’s some good news: it’s encouraging.

Reduced competition is driving low CPAs  

The brands that have pulled back are leaving opportunities for those that choose to invest in ads and marketing right now. 

The first five months of 2022 were more expensive in paid social than 2021, but that trend has recently reversed. 

Blended CPAs across our partners have decreased 45% since January. For the month of July, CPAs are 27% lower than in 2021.

CPAs are the lowest of the year

CPMs are also down — 25% lower since January 2022 and 21% down in July, compared to July 2021.

CPMs lower year over year

This is a great time to test and learn 

These lower costs can make up for any drop in conversion you may be seeing as a result of reduced demand. With lower costs, learnings are more affordable, and you can emerge from this economic downturn with winning ads that are ready to scale when you are. 

Our advice is to consistently run tests to find new winners that can be easily scaled when demand returns. You’ll be there for an incredible intersection of cheap CPAs and a spike in demand (similar to the surge in 2020).

Stay agile. Stay connected. You will succeed. 

Similar to our advice at the very beginning of the pandemic, we still believe these keys to success will guide you through these times. 

1. Have empathy for your customers. Show them you care and understand their needs by speaking directly to their most important questions about your product.
2. CPAs are the lowest they’ve been since early pandemic days. Utilize opportunity.
3. Demand for home delivery and digital experiences has held strong. Acquire a huge generation of lifelong customers who remember you for making their lives easier during tumultuous times.
4. UGC is what users are responding to these days. Test native-style ads featuring “real people” showing how they can benefit from your product.
5. Stay informed. Stay agile.

We’re here to help 

We believe that thoughtful testing, rich ad creative, and intentional investments will lead to growth that will endure these ever-changing times. It worked for our partners through the pandemic, and we’re here to help you through whatever comes our way next.

Whether that’s through full-service, hands-on management of your paid media or by providing high-quality ad creative on-demand, our team is ready to help you find ways to test more and win more.

Iconic beauty brand Revlon filed for bankruptcy and has been having a rollercoaster of a week. Whether their stock is up or down, it’s clear that Revlon is not going anywhere, and we have a hunch that their need to meet goals and grow will only become more important. 

We feel for you, Revlon. This has probably been a tough week for their marketing team, so we thought we’d help them out.

We applied the Primer method to create a hypothetical campaign, including ad creative and a landing page, that we’re sure would help Revlon drive sales for their ColorStay foundation.

Revlon, here are ads that are sure to acquire more customers. To help create more ads like this, we’ve broken down how and why we made these ads.

Disclaimer: Revlon is not a Primer customer, nor does Primer have any real association with Revlon.

How do we develop an ad strategy for paid social?  

When we first partner with a company, we kick off by learning their goals and developing their best customer persona. Then we dig into the most important buying decision questions – these are the answers that their customers HAVE to have before making a purchase. Next, we plug that critical information into key themes we have tested thousands of times over and know will help to generate results. 

Since we aren’t actually working with Revlon, we had to take some educated guesses. Here’s what we came up with.

 

A Best Customer Persona for Revlon

Taylor is a 33-year-old dental hygienist who lives in the suburbs of Chicago. After she graduated from college, she moved to Chicago to live in the city, but as her job has changed, and she has gotten a little older, she has been looking for a little more space that isn’t too far from the action. 

Fashion and beauty have always been important to her, but with student loans and rent, she isn’t able to spend as much on her makeup as before. She doesn’t want to trade quality, though, and is looking for the smartest choice in makeup that will still help her look young and trend-forward. 

Taylor has tried many makeup varieties, including the trendy, celebrity brands, but with higher gas costs and an increased cost of living, she is looking for ways to save that don’t involve much of a sacrifice. 

She wears foundation every day and knows Revlon from the drugstore, but she isn’t sure if it is as high quality as the other brands she has tried. She is about to run out of her current foundation and is looking at alternatives.

 

Buyer Decision Questions from a Revlon Customer 

1. Is Revlon a good quality foundation? 
2. How much does it cost? 
3. How do I know what it will look like on me? 
4. Where can I buy it? 
5. What does it look like on other people? 
6. Are other people happy with it? 
7. Is it trendy?
   

What ideas should we test in paid social? 

Once we get a handle on who we’re talking to with our ads, we determine what we are going to say in the ads. This focuses on the key value propositions of the product and addresses those key buyer decision questions above. 

At Primer, we’ve tested thousands of ads and through our learning, we have developed several themes that we know are successful at driving conversions for our direct-to-consumer partners. For Revlon, we chose to use the “vs. the competition” theme because we saw that they have faced “increased competition from new brands like those backed by celebrities such as Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics and Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty.”

In this theme, we position Revlon’s foundation directly against the competition. In this case, it’s the “trendy, celebrity brand.” Fortunately for us, Revlon has a lot going for it. Here’s what we came up with.

 

Image Ads That Answer Questions 

For our hypothetical ad campaign, we created two images, two videos, and a landing page. Of course, if we were really partnering with Revlon, we would significantly increase the volume of tests we’re running tailored to hit their goals.

This should give them something to get started with. 

Here’s why these image ads work: 

• They directly contrast the Revlon foundation against the “trendy, celebrity brand” 
• The headline speaks directly to the target audience using “dupe” and addressing the concept that Revlon could be considered an “old” brand head-on 
• The testimonial image gives a great customer quote about having tried other brands and always coming back 
• A longer testimonial tends to stop users from scrolling to read a bit more (note: this doesn’t work as well with brand copy, but it does work when it’s a customer talking)
• The five stars visually reinforce the testimonial 

As a bonus, we also made them this gif:

 

Video Ads For Instagram and TikTok 

These two video ads are designed to feel native in Instagram and TikTok, positioning Revlon as the trendy foundation that wins over millennials’ hearts and budgets. 

Here’s why these videos work: 

• They are fast-paced, grabbing attention from the first frame 
• Trendy, upbeat music feels native to the platform and entices you to keep watching 
• Native-style text treatment makes it hard to distinguish if it’s an ad 
• Opening copy “hooks” (e.g. Why millennials are switching to Revlon) grab attention  
• Keeps Revlon branding to a minimum, again tapping into the organic feel of the platform
• Directly positions Revlon against the competition 

 

A Landing Page Designed to Sell 

Landing pages are an often forgotten part of the conversion rate optimization (CRO) process. However, they can hold just as much value as the ads themselves in improving conversions and cost per acquisition (CPA).

It would be so easy for Revlon to run an ad campaign that leads to their website (which is pretty good, we think), but when you pair a landing page with ads that are focused on answering all of those key buyer decision questions, that’s when you find yourself with those smokin’ hot CPAs (the kind that I think the Revlon team would get excited about right now). 

So, to help out, we built out a fully functioning Revlon landing page. You can check it out here. 

 

Why this landing page works: 

• The landing page continues the “vs. the competition” theme from the ads – what the user sees in the ad is being continued in the landing experience 
• User testimonials and press logos validate the quality and trendiness of the product – two core buyer questions 
• The page walks you through how you can try on the foundation and make a purchase 
• Customer images validate the trendiness and popularity of the product 
• CTA buttons are included throughout the page 
• The price is included in the CTA button – reinforcing the key value proposition of price in every section 

 

Test More, Win More 

We don’t have insights into the real marketing strategy of Revlon, nor do we presume to know the real challenges they face, however, we can see the mountain of opportunity that awaits Revlon ahead. With such a vast consumer base, there are so many testimonials, user images, videos and experiences that can be incorporated into powerful paid social advertising campaigns. 

The best way to learn what works is to keep testing. 

We hope this inspired you. If you’re looking for more inspiration, we invite you to check out any of these resources: 

• Our analysis of Dollar Shave Club’s UGC ads on Instagram 
• 10 fashion Facebook & Instagram ads we love right now
• 9 ways to create winning video ads

Looking for more growth marketing help? Primer delivers conversion-focused images, video ads and landing pages within 2 – 4 business days through our On-Demand platform for marketing creative. For brands looking to scale quickly, Primer also offers managed growth marketing services through our full-service agency. To learn more, book a complimentary growth consultation. 

Marketers today face incredible challenges. Technology is changing at break-neck rates. Goals are ever-shifting. The pace to scale your business is faster than ever. And you, the marketer, are held accountable for meeting these ever-changing needs, often without enough resources.

We get it. We’ve been there, and we see it with our partners time and again. You’re strapped for design resources. And engineering resources. Every new martech system seems to require a “simple” integration that still needs some form of decoding from an expert. Your ad accounts need new creative, but your design queue is filled with other priorities.

The one constant among all of this is your goals. No matter what, you need to hit your goals.

Direct-to-consumer brands need to achieve some form of repeatable (and ideally scalable) growth. For our partners, that comes in the form of paid social advertising, but when they come to us, they are often seeing their CACs climb up and have topped out in their ability to scale.

Why? The reason is almost always the same: they are not testing enough.

(more…)