In this blog, we will explore five advanced video ads frameworks that empower you to create high converting ads. With these strategies, you’ll effectively communicate to your highly aware prospects that your product is the ideal solution for their needs, compelling them to take action now.
Understanding Your Audience
A highly sophisticated, product aware audience exists in a highly competitive market, where numerous products or services offer similar solutions.
At this level of market sophistication, consumers are no longer just discovering options —they are fully aware of the range of alternatives available. This means they’ve already been exposed to multiple pitches and are familiar with how your product compares to others. The challenge here is standing out in a crowded landscape.
But how can you stand out in a sea full of competitors? In addition to understanding your audience and knowing what they’re looking for, you need a clear message that emphasizes your product’s benefits, builds trust, and demonstrates superiority.
That’s why, at Primer, we’ve developed five advanced video ads frameworks that will help you create compelling ads to capture the attention of these discerning prospects, proving that your product is the perfect fit for their needs and encourages them to hit the “Shop Now” button.
| Framework Finder | Highly Sophisticated |
| Product Aware | Frameworks: TPE, QUEST, FOMO, SUE, HIW Emphasize the advanced features and integrations of your product Provide in-depth case studies, believable positive results, ROI calculators, etc… |
1. TPE: Technical – Practical – Emotional
The TPE Framework is a fresh approach that combines technical details with practical tips and a touch of emotion. It’s a great way to make your videos stand out and capture your audience’s attention.
- Technical: Showcase the product’s features, showing its superior capabilities.
- Practical: Demonstrate the practical applications or use cases
- Emotional: Appeal to the audience’s desires, aspirations, or pain points, building an emotional connection
Why it works: Sophisticated audiences are looking for clear, compelling reasons to choose your product. Features highlight the unique aspects they can’t find elsewhere, while practical use cases show how your product fits seamlessly into their lives. The emotional connection then bridges the gap, appealing to their deeper needs or aspirations.
Example: a fitness brand could begin by showcasing the advanced technology in its equipment (e.g., unique resistance technology). It then shows how the equipment can improve workout efficiency (practical use case), and finishes by connecting with the audience’s desire for a healthier lifestyle (emotional appeal), urging them to take action with a powerful CTA.
| Section | Element | Captions & Stickers | VO | Footage |
| 1 | Hook | |||
| 2 | Technical Features | |||
| 3 | Use Cases | |||
| 4 | Emotional Benefits, Desires, or Feelings | |||
| 6 | Ending / CTA |
2. QUEST: Qualify – Understand – Educate – Stimulate – Transition
The QUEST Framework is your secret weapon to guide your audience from problem to solution, positioning your product as their trusted advisor.
- Qualify: Identify the specific problem or need your audience is facing.
- Understand: Show empathy by acknowledging the audience’s pain points.
- Educate: Introduce your product as the solution and explain how it addresses their concerns.
- Stimulate: Build excitement by demonstrating benefits and results.
- Transition: Create clarity on the next steps and what’s needed to move forward.
Why it works: QUEST is a journey, guiding the audience step by step from identifying their problem to embracing your product as the answer.
By qualifying their specific needs and understanding their problems, you make the audience feel understood. Education on the product’s unique benefits, followed by stimulation through proof and value, builds interest. Finally, the transition offers a smooth push to act, with a clear call to action.
Example: Imagine you’re a skincare brand. Your QUEST ad is for your star product: a serum for hyperpigmentation (qualifying your audience), you show empathy by expressing how frustrating can be to find a product that works (understanding), then you teach your viewers about the formula of the serum (educate) and stimulate interest by showcasing glowing testimonials and before-and-after results (stimulation). To finish, you add a powerful CTA (transition).
| Section | Element | Captions & Stickers | VO | Footage |
| 1 | Hook | |||
| 2 | Qualify | |||
| 3 | Understand | |||
| 4 | Educate | |||
| 5 | Stimulate | |||
| 6 | Transition / CTA |
3. FOMO: Fear of Missing Out
Have you ever felt that intense urge to be at an event with your friends, terrified of missing out? Well, that’s exactly how this framework works.
It leverages that same urgency, pushing your audience to engage before it’s too late and highlighting why your product is essential for staying in the loop.
- Create a feeling of exclusivity or limited-time access.
- Highlight the benefits that others are experiencing from your offering.
- Suggest a potential regret: if you don’t act now, you will miss it!
Why it works: FOMO works by creating a sense of exclusivity and urgency, appealing to sophisticated buyers who want to stay on top of trends and avoid missing valuable opportunities.
Example: A popular music festival announcing its lineup for an upcoming event. They could emphasize how quickly tickets are selling out, showcase enthusiastic social media posts from fans who have already purchased theirs, show previous events and create an exciting sense of urgency that makes potential attendees think, “I can’t miss this experience!”
| Section | Element | Captions & Stickers | VO | Footage |
| 1 | Hook | |||
| 2 | Trend or Popularity Statement | |||
| 3 | Showcase Demand | |||
| 4 | Product Intro | |||
| 5 | USP | |||
| 6 | Urgency | |||
| 7 | Ending / CTA |
4. SUE: Scarcity – Urgency – Exclusivity
This framework motivates consumers to act quickly and feel privileged to be part of an exclusive offer.
- Scarcity: Show limited availability to encourage immediate action.
- Urgency: Create a sense of urgency through deadlines, countdown timers, or “limited-time offers.”
- Exclusivity: Make the offer feel special and unique, something others may not have access to.
Why it works: This framework effectively taps into the sophisticated audience’s desire for unique and valuable experiences, inspiring them to take action.
Example: A luxury watches brand is offering a limited edition watch for Christmas (scarcity). The watches will be available for pre-order for a limited time (urgency). The watch will feature exclusive features that will not be available in future models (exclusivity).
| Section | Element | Caption & Stickers | VO | Footage |
| 1 | Hook | |||
| 2 | Scarcity | |||
| 3 | Urgency | |||
| 4 | Exclusivity | |||
| 5 | Ending / CTA |
5. HIW: How It Works
This framework motivates consumers to act quickly and feel privileged to be part of an exclusive offer.
- Use a Hook with an intriguing fact or question
- Walk the audience through how the product works, highlighting key benefits at each stage.
- Show the product in action to reinforce your points.
Why it works: The HIW framework works because it provides clear, detailed insight into how the product functions and why it is superior. Product aware, sophisticated audiences appreciate a logical, fact-based explanation and value proof of functionality.
Example: in this case, the video starts with a question, followed by a step-by-step explanation of how to use the product while demonstrating its use. To finish, there is social proof showing how much people love the product.
| Section | Element | Caption and Stickers | VO | Footage |
| 1 | Hook | |||
| 2 | Product Intro | |||
| 3 | Explanation / Benefits | |||
| 4 | Demo | |||
| 5 | Ending / CTA |
Time to Make a Move
Each of these video ads frameworks acknowledges the depth of awareness and sophistication in the audience by providing logical reasoning, building trust through social proof, and offering emotional or psychological triggers to prompt immediate action.
The effectiveness of these strategies lies not only in their structure, but also in your implementation. Be authentic, deliver genuine value, and always appreciate your audience’s intelligence. Test your creatives as much as you can to get even better results.
Start implementing these frameworks today to watch your conversions grow.
Get Video Ads with These Frameworks Crafted By Growth Experts
In the competitive realm of DTC marketing, these video ads frameworks serve as your secret arsenal for engaging even the most discerning and informed audiences. By mastering and utilizing TPE, QUEST, FOMO, SUE, and HIW, you’re not merely selling a product—you’re creating captivating stories that resonate with your audience’s needs and aspirations.
Your Growth Marketing Team: Partnering with Primer means we take care of everything—strategy and planning, production, reporting, and optional media buying—to achieve your growth objectives. You can focus on your business while we deliver the results.
Creative On-Demand: Access a subscription-based marketing creative platform to request UGC, videos, images, and landing pages crafted by top marketing creative strategists and designers who understand what drives conversions.
Your landing page is the first intentional point of contact for your customers. Your ad templates led them to your landing page, and now it’s time to generate conversions and make a sale.
Is your landing page effective and provides your target audience with the best possible experience? The only way to know is to test it, but you can be more confident and avoid wasting time by ensuring you have the necessary elements of a winning landing page.
Elements of High-Conversion Landing Pages
The best landing pages focus on the customer’s journey and guide them toward conversion. In other words, consider what your audience needs, from scannable copy to custom-made visuals emphasizing your brand’s product or service, and make sure they can access it on whatever device they’re using.
Landing Page Templates
Keep your landing page template in mind. These variations address different things in their headers, and the remaining structure depends on the goal. For example:
- BDQs (Buyer Decision Questions) – Address the key questions your customer needs answered before they are confident buying. Include concise answers, stats and proof, and include unique selling points mixed in with your answers. I.e if you were buying a car, you would need to know the MPG, the # of doors and the paint color.
- Listicle – In a sequence, specify why your product will solve problems or what makes it unique. Using the listed examples as proof, promise to satisfy your future customers.
- Vs. Alternative – Position your product as the best possible solution to a customer’s problem, comparing directly to traditional solutions, your direct competitors, or doing nothing. You should provide meaningful comparisons vs alternatives, trustworthy testimonials, and a breakdown of why your product is the best solution.
- Sales Questions – Rather than you reminding them their problem or goal, ask a question that causes your target customer to recall their problem on their own. Continue asking Qs so that they remember how urgently they want to solve it, and how they’ll feel when they solve it. Once they’ve reminded themselves of what they want, they will be excited to follow through with your call to action (CTA) right away.
- Personalized – Simply state what makes your product different. Get the press talking about how great your product is, demonstrate how easy it is to get the product, share customer testimonials, add before and after pictures, and show what makes the product special.
- Press/Testimonial – Start with a quote validating your product’s selling points and show quotes from press outlets, customers, and UGC examples. Tell customers how easy it is to reach similar results and guarantee the product fits their needs.
Download Primer’s favorite landing page templates here!
Landing Page Key Elements
Run through this at-a-glance checklist to make sure your landing page has all of the essential elements that set it up for success.
- Most Crucial: Information that addresses your audience’s core Buyer Decisions Questions (BDQs)
- Differentiation from potential alternatives and competitors (position directly vs the alternatives)
- A focused and direct headline addressing your target audience according to your landing page template
- Clear calls to action (CTAs) both above the fold and in each section
- Easily scannable copy with no more than 3 lines per paragraph
- Responsive design — optimized for mobile and desktop use
- Uncluttered, consistent design elements throughout
Browse our landing page gallery to glimpse this checklist in action.
Strategizing Variety
Variations
Landing page wins fatigue much more slowly, so you get more bang for your investment in landing page creation. Once you find a win, you can easily scale that win by swapping the hero section headlines, body copy, images and videos (as well as within other sections) to improve results. This will give you a way to test a specific message or feature within the page without creating an entirely new page.
Test With Primer
Whether you’re looking for someone to deliver ready-to-launch landing pages designed to convert or you need a partner to develop and manage your landing page testing strategy, Primer can help.
You can access high-converting landing pages, images and videos with Primer On-Demand, Primer’s trusted online platform.
Interested in learning more about how Primer can help you create video ads and landing pages that convert? Schedule a free consultation today.
When you hire Primer, you don’t just get a growth marketing agency. You get a full-stack growth marketing team. We consider our agency clients “partners” because your goals become our goals and we work closely to achieve them together.
The testing methodology we rely on for your growth requires quick action, close management, and a lot of creative, which requires a full team. That’s why each agency partner doesn’t just get one marketing manager, they get an entire Primer growth marketing team that’s dedicated to their success.
Here are all the new team members you get when you hire Primer:
Vice President of Paid Media
The Vice President of Paid Media on your Primer team oversees all your marketing efforts and long term business goals and needs. This person works with you to establish a forward-vision of where you need your business to go and how ad campaigns can help you get there. With your vision defined, they will then work with the Director of Paid Media to strategize more immediate needs on an ongoing basis to ensure we reach your long term goals.
Director of Paid Media
You’ll have a Director of Paid Media overseeing your account strategy along with immediate business needs. This person is invaluable as he or she can provide an immense amount of insight into the direction you could take with your ad strategy. The Director has eyes and ears into a wide range of businesses, constantly learning from what is or is not working, and applying those insights to help you win.
Growth Marketing Manager
In addition to the Director, you will meet with your Growth Marketing Manager every week to discuss performance, insights, and goals. Your Manager handles the execution of the immediate marketing strategy that you determined with the Director of Paid Media. The two of them will be your closest team members at Primer. The Growth Marketing Manager works closely with the Creative Strategist to execute on your immediate goals.
Creative Strategist
The Creative Strategist will help translate higher level goals into specific creative assets, taking into account current trends in footage, text, audio, music, etc., and optimizing for all the different ad platforms and mediums. They will create a strategy for the creative of a campaign, put together thorough creative briefs, and assign the designs out to our team of graphic designers, video editors, or landing page designers.
Graphic Designers, Video Editors, and Landing Page Designers
At Primer, we know the pathway to growth is great creative and a lot of it. With the creative we produce for partners held to very high standards, you can be sure that you’re getting high-quality creative in a short turnaround time from top-notch designers. With our partnership relying so strongly on creative, the design team you get has been rigorously vetted. Our designers and editors have decades of experience, degrees from design institutions, and/or have held employment at leading brands. To learn more about the design team, check out The Team Members You Get with Primer On-Demand.
Creative Director
This person is the final gatekeeper on your ad creative, ensuring that what we’ve produced for you is on-brand and performance-driven. As an extension of your team, your Creative Director knows your brand guidelines inside and out and oversees the brand identity, look, and feel of every single asset. Every design goes through a quality assurance check by the Creative Director before being delivered to you for review.
Ready to Expand Your Growth Marketing Team?
Consider Primer as your centralized growth marketing team. With an agency team of over 6 people dedicated to the success and growth of your accounts, you can be sure that you’ll be poised for growth far quicker than going solo.
“We really depend on Primer as an extension of our team. Their strategic input and deep knowledge in direct marketing is essential to our growth.” – Zach Phillips, Co-Founder of Nom Nom
If you’re ready to expand your team, schedule a call today!
A few weeks ago, Primer On-Demand had its public beta launch. Primer On-Demand is a platform that allows you to get high-quality creative assets designed for conversion and produced by our creative team in 2 to 4 business days. We’re excited to share our first external product update!
Here’s a look at some updates we made to make Primer easier than ever for you.
Introducing The New Dashboard — With In-Primer Messaging and the Activity Feed
Recent Activity Feed
Previously, customers would only receive emails about the status of their creative requests, any lingering tasks they have, or questions from our team. Then we realized – you need to be able to see all of your Primer updates, tasks, and conversations in one place. This new dashboard puts some crucial workflows right at your fingertips:
- Message Board
- Your Tasks
- Activity Feed
Now you don’t have to switch back and forth between email and Primer to know what’s going on in your Primer projects. Let’s dive into each feature.
Messaging
Now you can message your Primer team with any questions , right from the dashboard.
Have a question about a request you’re putting together? Need a change to your required or optional reviewers? Want to communicate something to the Primer team, but not sure the best place? Send the team a message from the dashboard!
Recent Activity Feed
Quickly get up to speed with everything you, your team and Primer are doing within your Primer project. Click the › to go to the relevant item, or hover over the dot on the left to check the timing.
Your Tasks
In one glance, see if you have any outstanding reviews waiting for you.
Comment Notifications
When a creative request is in the review stage, there are usually multiple reviewers. It can be hard to keep track of the comments that are added via email notifications, which is how it worked previously.
So we’ve added some in-app comment notifications so you always know when there are comments from teammates or Primer.
Click the bell to view the notifications. Click the › to see the comments. You can also mark notifications read individually or mark all as read.
We even added comment counts and a subtle red dot to indicate you have unread comments on a request. This is helpful when viewing projects from the Creative Requests page.
Referral Thank You Gifts
Thanks to everyone who has shared Primer On-Demand and/or Agency with their friends and colleagues. We really appreciate all the kind words.
We’d like to send both you and our new partners thank you gifts for the referral. Your Primer rep should already be in contact, but please reach out if you haven’t heard yet or are interested in sending referrals soon!
Thanks For Reading!
If you’re interested in Primer On-Demand, click here to learn more and get started.
Already a customer and want to send your feedback or ideas for improvement? Let us know by emailing brady@goprimer.com.
If you’ve heard about Primer On-Demand and/or the testing methodology we use to run our partner’s ads, you might be wondering, “is this an agency or a product?”
The answer: both!
At Primer, the name of the game is growth. That’s why we’re the go-to hypergrowth marketing company for brands that need to scale fast. But that can look a bit different to different companies depending on their needs.
Our agency partners and our internal creative and growth teams all use the Primer platform to manage our partner’s ads, creative requests, and creative workflow. However, even companies that want to continue running their own ads can buy Primer On-Demand to get unlimited creative produced by our team.
Is Primer an Agency?
Yes! On the agency side, we help brands grow fast through paid social advertising and top-notch ad creative. Primer started as an agency and has been in the business for almost 10 years.
When you test more, you win more. That’s why we test more than anyone to find the best images, videos, copy, audiences, and landing pages to continuously hit your growth goals on each individual channel.
Our creative team designs creative assets tailor-made for growth, while our growth team manages your entire experimentation process to ensure you’re making the right moves with your ad spend. You can expect:
- Rapid-fire testing
- Custom landing pages
- Continuous pipeline of ads
- Full-service account management
All you do is sit back and enjoy the wins, like these happy clients (view case studies).
Is Primer a Product?
Yes! Primer On-Demand is a software platform that allows you to get high-quality creative assets designed for conversion and produced by our creative team in 2 to 4 business days.
The biggest growth lever is ad creative, so companies interested in growing fast need a lot of great creative to test. Unfortunately, it’s hard to build a continuous pipeline of high-quality assets in house. So, we built Primer On-Demand.
 |
 |
Primer On-Demand was initially used to simplify the creative workflow between us and our partners, while also simplifying the ad management process by bringing it directly into the app. But now, all companies can use Primer On-Demand to build their creative pipeline (even those that want to keep their ad management in-house)!
Brands love it because they can make unlimited requests for creative assets that are focused on conversions, whether images, videos, or landing pages, and get them back fast. They can then easily make edit requests if needed and get final deliverables all within the app.
Learn more about Primer On-Demand.
Interested in the agency or product?
Whether you want to grow fast with our agency’s rapid-testing process or get a constant flow of creative that’s designed to convert, Primer can help.
Get started with Primer On-Demand here. To book a growth consultation for full-service management, click the button below.
We’re excited to announce the public beta release of our platform, Primer On-Demand, starting today! Get access to our top-notch creative team whose core focus is making ad creative that converts. Under development for the past two years and in testing since January 2022, we’re taking the platform, rated 4.9 stars, public with new features and improvements. Growth marketers everywhere can now use Primer On-Demand!
Keep reading to learn how it will provide you with conversion-focused ad creative that will help you grow fast while making your creative workflow a breeze.
What is Primer On-Demand?
Primer On-Demand is a platform that allows you to get high-quality creative assets designed for conversion and produced by our creative team in 2 to 4 business days.
What we learned from years of running millions of dollars in ad spend: the biggest growth lever is ad creative. Fast-growing companies need better creative, and they need more of it. But it’s hard to build a continuous pipeline of high-quality assets.
Within Primer On-Demand, you can submit unlimited requests for creative assets that are focused on conversions, whether images, videos, or landing pages, and get them back fast. With your feedback, we’ll revise it until it’s right. But that may not be necessary – on average, On-Demand customers approve an asset in only 1.1 rounds of revision. Ultimately, Primer is the platform to build a continuous pipeline of high-quality creative.
Here’s how it works:
Join for a monthly fee (no contracts required!) and make a creative request.
Our design team fulfills your request within 2-4 business days.
You provide feedback exactly how and where you want it.
We design it using our best practices in growth marketing it and email you when it’s ready for feedback.
And email once again when all of your stakeholders have approved it.
You can access this asset (along with all your other finalized assets) anytime in your Creative Library.The best part: unlimited requests for the same monthly price!
What do we mean by beta?
This beta release of Primer On-Demand is a work in progress that’s dependent on your feedback. Conversations with our beta customers are pivotal in helping us to improve the product for your needs. Though currently rated 4.9 out of 5 stars, we hope to make it better and better for growth marketing teams before a bigger launch later this year.
You can provide feedback directly within the app or by sending an email to our co-founder Brady at brady@goprimer.com.
Ready to get started?
Learn more about Primer On-Demand, get access to the demo, and start a tutorial here.
We’ve officially partnered with TikTok to produce performance marketing videos for advertisers through the TikTok Creative Exchange! The Creative Exchange allows brands like yours to use our video ad expertise to grow quickly on the platform.
Every single one of our partners that we’ve worked with on TikTok has been featured in TikTok’s Top Ads, their library of top-performing ad creative. This achievement has garnered us a spot as one of the top agencies on TikTok, even giving us access to unique beta opportunities.
100% of the partners we’ve worked with on TikTok have been featured in TikTok’s Top Ads.
Do you want to be featured, too? If you’re a direct-to-consumer brand needing to hit growth goals, we may be a perfect fit.
“Our unique method works extremely well on TikTok,” said Primer CEO and Co-Founder, Kamo Asatryan. “We take formulas that have proven to work across multiple partners and platforms and create a version that is native to TikTok. The results have been incredible.”
A Must-Have For B2C Brands
As TikTok’s influence as an e-commerce engine grows, advertisers are finding huge opportunities to tap into a highly engaged audience of shoppers. A recent study from Insider Intelligence found that 71% of TikTok users worldwide shop when they stumble across something in their feed, stories, or other content.
“Right now, TikTok is one of the most powerful platforms for advertisers, combining the two most successful marketing tactics of 2021 and 2022: short-form video and UGC content. Any DTC brand would be remiss not to invest in TikTok,” said Primer COO and Co-Founder Brady Flynn.
More TikTok resources
Looking to amp up your performance marketing videos yourself?
- 7 things you can try that get our partners on TikTok Top Ads 🔝
- 9 ways to create outstanding video ads that convert [Free Templates + Examples]
Not on TikTok quite yet?
Curious how you can better leverage TikTok?
Like the sound of all this? Schedule a call with us to learn how we’ve gotten our partners on TikTok ads, and how we’d hope to do it for you, too.
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.
- Have empathy for your customers. Show them you care and understand their needs by speaking directly to their most important questions about your product.
- CPAs are the lowest they’ve been since early pandemic days. Utilize opportunity.
- 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.
- UGC is what users are responding to these days. Test native-style ads featuring “real people” showing how they can benefit from your product.
- 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.
It takes a lot to keep social media ads performing these days. While budget, audiences, and account strategy can all have an impact, the biggest driver of success (or failure) is your ad creative. And the secret to having winning ad creative is to test a lot of it.
There are several ways to test your social media ads, making it hard to strike the right balance between launching new “big idea” ads vs. small tweaks, or iterations, of those big ideas. Thankfully, we’ve found a method that helps us find winning ads fast. We call it the Outlier Method.
The Outlier Method
At Primer, we have a simple, four-step approach for our creative tests that allows us to launch dozens or even hundreds of high-quality social media ads per month:
- LAUNCH: Ideate and launch “big idea” ads based on key questions buyers have. (Get our step by step guide on ad testing here.)
- PAUSE: Pause underperforming ads and determine the ads that beat the account average and become top performers — the “wins” — we call these the Outliers.
- SCALE: Scale the budget for the “wins” and make creative iterations on them for your next test.
- REPEAT: Periodically start a new “big idea” process and repeat steps 1-3. We do this 1-2 times per month for our partners.
With this method, it is easy to launch dozens or even hundreds of ads per month. In this article, we’ll define big ideas and iterations, explain why they’re important, and show you how to leverage both for your social media advertising.
Step 1: LAUNCH
What is a “big idea” in advertising?
For social media ads, a big idea is a brand new idea, theme, or creative style. Generally, for every big idea, you should create 3-10 ads and launch them into one combined “big idea test.” This is also sometimes called research and development, or R&D, testing.
How to create big ideas in paid social 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.
Resources for creating high-quality ad creative that converts
When you create new paid social creative, you have the opportunity to try a new style or new content for any of the following ad elements. Below, we’ve linked to a few of our free templates so you can hit the ground running sooner:
- Copy
- Static Imagery
- Image Headlines
- Facebook and Instagram Videos
- TikTok Videos
- Calls to action (CTAs) — See a full list of Facebook calls-to-action and a full list of TikTok calls-to-action
- Headline — This is usually a compelling value prop framed as a next step (e.g. Get 15% Off Now)
- Video thumbnails
- Landing pages
An example of a big idea test
For our partner, Farmstead, we wanted to test an idea that visually shows how much value a customer would get by using Farmstead’s grocery delivery service. For this test, we created 9 images and GIFs, each taking a slightly different approach to the concept.
https://goprimer-1.wistia.com/medias/0xcu36l0w3?embedType=async&videoWidth=381
 |
 |
Step 2: PAUSE
Within 48 to 72 hours after you launch, you should start making adjustments to the ads within your test. Quickly pause the ads that are underperforming in order to focus on the wins. (Don’t sleep on this – you don’t want to waste money on poor performers.)
Find the wins. A “win” is a top-performing ad that is a performance outlier. Wins should have better performance than your account average by at least 10%. They should also have at least 10 conversions.
After figuring out which ads for a test are wins, you can then move on to step 3: SCALE.
Step 3: SCALE
Now that you have identified your winners you can increase the ad spend to the wins and then start to scale. The fastest way to scale is to create at least 3 ad creative iterations on your winning ads
What is an iteration?
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.
For example, let’s say we have an ad with the same image but a bunch of different headlines.
 |
 |
 |
If multiple versions of that ad (with those different headlines) perform, it’s likely that something about the main image is leading to increased conversions.
Once you have a top performer, iterations can help refine performance. Over time, you’ll be able to combine multiple winning elements from different ads (say, one top performer’s headline and another’s image) into a new Franken-ad.
 |
Since each element has been proven to work multiple times over, you should see even better performance when combining them all together.
Tip: For every win, create at least 3 iterations. Focus on changing 1 or 2 key aspects of the ads (see a full list of what to test below).
How to create good iterations
Ways to iterate on landing page wins:
- Change the header section at the top of the winning landing page. You can include a new header/hero image, new headline, and a new subhead
- Include a different call-to-action on your buttons
- Swap sections of the landing page around
- If you have a testimonial section, change which testimonials are there
- Keep the copy the same but change the landing page’s images
- Test a longer or shorter version of the page
- Test out a different signup or purchase flow after your button click
- (If applicable) Swap which product you feature
- (If applicable) Change what audience you’re focusing on (e.g. a women-focused page vs. a man-focused page for clothing)
Ways to iterate on video wins:
Select one or two core elements to test and change within your winning video, such as:
- Different testimonials
- Different call-to-action
- Different first frame
- Different thumbnail
- Change the order of the sections within the video (e.g. swap order of price and UGC sections)
- Keep the captions the same but swap the background imagery for something new
- Keep everything the same but swap for a new color scheme
Ways to iterate on image or GIF wins:
Select one or two core elements to test and change within your image/GIF, such as:
- Keep the copy the same but change the main image
- Keep the main image the same but change the main headline
- Change the call-to-action
- Add animation if there is none
- Change animation to static
- Add or swap the background music
- Try the same image with a different color scheme
How we used the big idea and iteration process to scale Farmstead
Step 4: REPEAT
Keep this process going. As you continue to find wins, iterate on those wins. Then, depending on your budget, you should also launch new big ideas 1 – 2 times per month. This continuous pipeline of new tests ensures that your ad account is never going stale and that you always have ads that can support more budget.
Ready to find some big wins?
Altogether, this method significantly and rapidly expands both the number of ads you’ve launched and the advertising spend you’re putting towards proven top-performers. It allows you to spend with a clear strategy for growth rather than wasting money on a series of mediocre, big idea tests.
If you’re ready to try out our Outlier method, you can D.I.Y. with the help of our step-by-step guide to ad testing for social media ads. In it, you’ll find out exactly how often to test, how many ads to test each month, and how to structure your creative testing.
If you’re looking for help scaling and testing your ads, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll handle it all for you – the creative strategy, design, production, reporting, and media buying. You just enjoy the wins.
Just need help producing the creative? Try our new Primer On-Demand platform and get access to a team of expert marketing designers. Make unlimited requests for images, videos and landing pages.
Book a consultation to get started.
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
- Is Revlon a good quality foundation?
- How much does it cost?
- How do I know what it will look like on me?
- Where can I buy it?
- What does it look like on other people?
- Are other people happy with it?
- 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:
https://goprimer-1.wistia.com/medias/2g01hbfbu6?embedType=async&videoWidth=381
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.
| https://goprimer-1.wistia.com/medias/psat1syox4?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=3 | https://goprimer-1.wistia.com/medias/7z2eulr5dx?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=3 |
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.