When you hire Primer, you don’t just get a growth marketing agency. You get an extension of your 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 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.

 

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 ad creative 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?

• How to Get Started with TikTok Ads: The 2022 Guide 🤓
• 7 Reasons Your Company Needs TikTok Ads

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. 

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.

 

It takes a lot to keep a paid social account 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 ads per month:

1. LAUNCH: Ideate and launch “big idea” ads based on key questions buyers have. (Get our step by step guide on ad testing here.)
2. WIN: Pause underperforming ads and determine the ads that beat the account average and become top performers — the “wins”  — we call these the Outliers. 
3. SCALE: Scale the budget for the “wins” and make creative iterations on them for your next test. 
4. 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?

In social media advertising, 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.

 

Step 2: WIN 

What is a win?

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 paid social. 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 

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. 

 

As a fast-growing, direct-to-consumer (DTC) business, it can be hard to stand out among the competition. Especially if your brand is among the largest DTC category: apparel and accessories. 

How can you create ads that stand out in TikTok, Facebook and Instagram? We’ve compiled 10 scroll-stopping ads from top DTC fashion apparel and accessories brands and broken down the winning features so you can apply them to your campaigns today.

 

1. AllBirds – Facebook Video A

What they’re selling: sustainable, lightweight footwear.

The ad:

 

Why the ad works:

• Shows the shoe in action. We can imagine ourselves running with these shoes more easily because the ad shows not just the shoe in action but also a person putting on the shoes before running in the woods. 
• End card with the logo. Instead of a static end card, we see the Allbirds logo flash before a video of the runner. 
• Highlights additional selling points in the headline. Allbirds takes advantage of headline and description real estate to share two more reasons to buy: “free shipping + free returns.”

 

2. Reformation – Facebook and Instagram Image Ad

What they’re selling: eco-friendly, upscale women’s clothing.

The ad:

 

Why the ad works:

• Highlights additional selling points in the headline. In this instance, “shop responsibly” speaks to sustainability. It subtly positions itself against the competitors (largely fast fashion retailers) with this headline.  
• The image headline appeals to buyers’ emotions. “Get some compliments” taps into their buyers’ desire.
• Uses a casual tone in its copy. “Thanks, it’s Ref” achieves a few things for this ad: it allows the brand to speak for itself; it converses with the headline in the image; and it stays true to the brand’s casual, “best friend”-esque tone.
• Plays with color. While most of the “thumb-stopping” ads you’ll find on this list utilize a bright color palette, this ad focuses on having the monochromatic outfit stand out against the bright background of the webpage. 

 

3. StitchFix – Facebook Video Ad

What they’re selling: a personal stylist box.

The ad:

 

Why the ad works:

• Includes a compelling testimonial in the thumbnail. The user quote serves as social proof of how awesome the service is. It’s particularly scroll-stopping in a thumbnail because that’s the first thing people see. Continuing the user-generated content (UGC) throughout the video also makes it feel relatable and approachable. Bonus that StitchFix says these are “real clients paid for their time.” 
• Shows unboxing footage. Not only is unboxing a current trend on organic social media, but it adds a sense of trustworthiness and excitement.
• Describes the process in easy-to-understand steps. The video breaks down what StitchFix is and how to use it very easily: we learn that you sign up, take a style quiz, and then have clothes picked for you delivered. 

 

4. Pact – TikTok Video Ad

What they’re selling: women’s underwear.

The ad: 

 

Why the ad works:

• Has a person in the first two frames. We’ve found that our best TikTok ads showcase a user in the first two frames. This suits the overall shift to more UGC-style content. Learn more about creating ads that work on TikTok. 
• Shows unboxing footage. Pact, like StitchFix, uses unboxing video to complement the rest of their ad. Here, it’s equally successful at making the video seem like a real customer’s journey, and thus being more trustworthy. 
• Shows a variety of style options. In multiple frames, we see different color and style options, including in the hand of the narrator, on a screenshot of the website, and laid out one-by-one. 
• Has captions (good for both sound on and off viewing). A bonus is that this particular caption style is native to TikTok and reflects TikTok’s “auto-generated” captions.
• Calls out some unique selling points that might appeal to an ideal buyer. (e.g. How Pact’s underwear is sustainable because it’s made from organic cotton.)

 

5. Alo Yoga – Facebook and Instagram Stories Ad

What they’re selling: workout and athleisure clothing. 

The ad:

 

Why the ad works:

• Adds a sense of urgency with “limited edition” messaging. By including “limited edition” in a rotating sticker, this ad not only adds a reason to buy right now (as opposed to later) but also implies an increased sense of exclusivity and competition. It fits with the higher-income audience Alo is likely targeting. 
• Shows a full outfit. Matching separates are in right now, and Alo’s ad is not only on-trend, but it also makes their clothing seem more wearable by styling an outfit for buyers right away. They made two versions of this ad: one with a bandaeu top and shorts, and one with a bra top and capris leggings. Tip: Swapping outfits but keeping the rest of your ad the same is a great way to test which product items have the most click-through interest. 
• Includes simple motion. One way to stand out from the crowd with your images is to make them GIFs. Here, Alo Yoga takes the static one step further by adding animation to key copy: “blue splash” and “limited edition.”
• Hints at the season in the description. Alo stays relevant to shoppers by including a nod to the current season. Here, we see it in a less prominent location: the description (“So essential for all your summer plans”).

 

6. Fabletics – TikTok Video Ad

What they’re selling: men’s athleisure apparel.

The ad: 

 

Why the ad works:

• Uses a conversational tone. This ad sounds like a friend talking to you, which makes it seem less like an over-the-top sales pitch.
• Shows the website and different color options. We’ve seen this before: showing the real user experience on a website and the variety of product options entices a variety of buyers and makes your brand seem more legitimate. This ad does something unique, though: instead of just using a screen recording of the website shopping experience, we get a video of the woman actually using the website on her computer. Having her hand in the frame makes this feel like a real user experience.
• Uses native-feeling green screen trend. By utilizing the green screen TikTok filter, this ad feels on-trend and native to the platform. You can also use this filter to keep a person in frame, even when showing off screenshots.
• Has native-style, “auto-generated” captions (good for both sound on and off viewing).

 

7. Mejuri – Facebook and Instagram Image Ad

What they’re selling: trendy fine jewelry. 

The ad:

 

Why the ad works:

• Shows a real number of customers. By including “over 20,000” in their sub-headline, Mejuri makes the positive reviews seem more tangible to potential customers. This is much more impactful versus saying something vague like “Thousands of five-star reviews.” 
• Visually shows the stars in the star rating. It may seem like a small thing, but we’ve found that ads that include the stars on the image when talking about the number of positive reviews perform better than those without that same imagery. 
• Adds two secondary selling points in the description. They make efficient use of the description space to pack in two more reasons to buy: “free shipping and easy returns.”

 

8. Rocksbox – Facebook and Instagram Stories Ad

What they’re selling: a jewelry rental subscription box.

The ad:

• *Made by Primer

 

Why the ad works:

• Image headline is a press quote. Press quotes, like user testimonials, add a sense of trustworthiness to positive feedback. Here, for example, seeing “the best” feels truer (and less like exaggeration) than if the brand were to claim this themselves. 
• Shows a variety of styles. There’s a style that works for everyone, from cute avocado earrings to refined gold chains. By showing a variety of options, you can entice a wider buyer base. People may click on the ad because one specific piece of jewelry caught their eye, and they want to sign up to get it.  
• Blue headline background stands out. The sold background color imitates Instagram story captions, while the specific color choice—a bright blue-purple— stands out against the pink background, making the press quote pop. 

 

9. James Allen – TikTok Video Ad

What they’re selling: custom engagement rings.

The ad:

 

Why the ad works:

• Walks users through the purchase. Videos that follow the “how to” format perform well because they guide the viewer through the buying process and let them know what to anticipate when ordering. This ad walks the user through every step of the process of buying a ring at a specific budget. (More video hooks here.)
• Shows users exactly where to look. Because this video is so jam-packed with information, it uses additional design elements, like arrows and circles to direct attention to the portions of the screen that the voiceover discusses.
• Shows the product on a real hand. After spending so much time on the James Allen website, the ad brings it back to a real person: at the end, they show this DIY’d ring on a real hand.

 

10. Warby Parker – Facebook and Instagram Stories Ad

What they’re selling: prescription eyeglasses. 

The ad:

 

Why the ad works:

• Regional call-out. When your goal is to grow in a specific market or with a specific product, it’s best to filter out unqualified customers by not only targeting the audience but also targeting the content to speak with those you want to reach. This Warby Parker ad creative speaks directly to their target: buyers in D.C. 
• Native text style in the image. The black text and white background combination in the image mimics the text style of both Instagram stories and TikTok videos, making this ad feel organic.

 

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What can we take away from these 10 outstanding fashion ads?

Here are 5 rules of thumb for making your content stand out on the feed:

1. Include native-style captions and trends to blend more organically into the platform you’re on
2. Walk users through the full buyer journey (decision making, after ordering, and unboxing)
3. Choose eye-catching, scroll-stopping colors 
4. Make use of the description to further differentiate your product
5. Use your ad creative to target your consumers

 Want to use paid social to stand out from your competition?

Primer works with several DTC apparel and accessories brands, helping them scale their business and hit their goals. If you’re interested in learning how Primer can help you, 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.

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