This meme is too good. Brilliant, funny, true, etc… 😉
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 How Manscaped makes the most of Meta’s ad tools
📦 The secrets to making ads that convert
📦 Using text overlays to provide clarity to your video creatives
📦 The top four things US businesses need to know before shipping to Canada
📦 Chocolate reimagined, weighted pillows, and oat milk lattes
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
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Welcome back to the Brand Breakdown series that dives headfirst into the marketing strategies that keep the biggest brands afloat.
This week, the marketing musketeers at the Pilothouse Meta team reveal how Manscaped makes the most of Meta’s Ad tools. Do your thing, Pilothouse! 👇
🤗 We all have our favorites
We’re huge fans of using segmented creative like this. This format makes it so easy for designers to add value and highlight a product’s unique selling points (USPs). One of Pilothouse’s top performers across our portfolio is in the quadrant format—where we use each quadrant to highlight a key message from the brand for their consumers.
This version of the quadrant ad from Manscaped is great! The layout keeps us engaged with the title and benefit statement by bringing our eyes full circle across the ad. They should test the inclusion of offer details like free shipping against this version to see what generates more engagement from their audience.
It would be cool to test the rust-resistant angle using any sort of proven data they have on this, such as how long it lasts. After all, one of the major pains in this market is having to spend far more money than necessary to replace razors!
The headline is great but it only speaks to those who use disposable razors. More consumers in this market likely use a dedicated razor because it’s their favorite and gets the job done—exactly the way they want.
In other words, they count on their product of choice to shape their image. That’s a huge hurdle to overcome as a competitor, so we’d recommend split-testing some other statements about why this razor is so amazing or leveraging some scarcity plays to create some urgency and seal the deal.
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🎁 The perfect gift
“We both love it” is a very clever gifting angle. The video shows the open product box with a text overlay describing what’s inside. Thank goodness for text overlays! Otherwise, creative like this can be more confusing than informative.
It goes to show the value of including visual descriptions in your video rather than solely relying on audio. Ads often play on the feed without audio, so make the most of your screen time!
For review scores, we see black star emojis perform exceptionally well. It would be interesting to test the black star emoji against the conventional yellow we see here.
Manscaped could also compare one testimonial with the others or even play around with the location of this element in the ad. If Manscaped wants to deviate from the testimonial format, they could use top-performing product-benefit copy and see how that performs in their portfolio.
The element that stands out (or rather doesn’t stand out!) is the lack of scarcity or urgency here. Why miss out on opportunities to improve their conversion rate? Since it’s catered to Father’s Day, an early bird offer often does well before major seasonal events.
🧑🤝🧑 Everyone needs one
We’re loving the copy, but we recognize the potential for clever wordplay. Take Dad’s new tool, Mom loves it too, for example! Addressing the core audience and potential gifters cleverly and succinctly can only benefit your brand.
We thought of one hypothetical version of this ad where we have a dad character winking at the audience to drive up the engagement and play into the meme.
A funny, scroll-stopping ad is a Goldilocks ad for any brand that needs more traffic and wants to potentially leverage the algorithm.
🤗 Positive associations
It’s interesting to see Manscaped advertisee availability at Best Buy. This is an effective version of social proof, but it would be intriguing to test this against As seen at Best Buy. This subtle messaging difference could drive more DTC sales rather than tricky-to-track third-party retail sales.
The creative would depend on Manscaped’s objective—either drive up Best Buy sales via brand awareness and use a mixed-media modeling tool to measure or build positive brand associations.
The split style creative constantly reengages us as we look around the ad. Ads like this aren’t creatives we just scroll by. We read each quadrant because it’s easily digestible and we’re curious about what each has to say.
In the future, Manscaped could experiment by mixing lifestyle and product images or using lifestyle video with some static product shots to keep the content varied.
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🔥 Hot drop
This “introducing” angle likely performed very well as we see new product drops drive tons of hype in consumers because they always want to be the first. This is a common marketing psychology trick that isn’t lost on us or any seasoned marketer.
Manscaped should try Just Dropped or New Arrival above the fold in the creative to get people excited about the drop.
One thing that makes us a bit skeptical is the error in the copy. It’s easy to miss, but that checkmark being spaced differently than the other three on the list makes us wonder about the legitimacy of this ad. Always triple-check your copy!
We don’t see any reviews on the product page so consider showing them (if available) to increase buyer confidence. Don’t let precious social proof stay hidden!
When including gifts, there’s always a new angle to explore. For example, do you highlight what the gift is and how it benefits the featured product, or do you take an educational angle to introduce the brand to new customers?
Test against this ad with a dedicated landing page where you don’t reveal what the gifts are. 🤫 Get someone really engaged with the possibilities behind that “secret door.” Use a value proposition on the landing page and then reveal your secrets to drive up that commitment!
💄 Beauty in simplicity
We love subtle beauty. The post-click experience is where we’d be looking for details on the formulations to understand why it’s worth our investment.
Some of that info is on the landing page, but the landing page from this ad is anything but simple. It should be simple to buy the two products pictured, but the options available to the consumer make it more demanding than it should be.
Complex landing pages aren’t necessarily a bad thing if they work flawlessly, but always test your approach to bundled products to see how the congruence of your offers impacts performance!
🤔 Double take
This ad is hilarious and incredibly creative. We’d expect Manscaped is paying no more than the ideal click cost for this one. One exploration to consider is a benefit statement under the fold, combined with a conversion-focused angle like scarcity.
Though the tone is light-hearted, this premium product could benefit from further testing to blend the brand’s tone with its technical benefits over their competitors.
Testing the integration of the brand’s tone with a wide variety of subjects could ultimately broaden their audience over time.
👋 Conclusion
That concludes this edition of DTC’s Brand Breakdown with the Pilothouse Meta Team and Manscaped!
If you’re eager for more sizzling insights from your favorite brands and the largest social platforms, stay glued to our Brand Breakdown. Next week’s breakdown walks us through Manscaped’s email strategy, and you won’t want to miss it!
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🔊 Have you heard our latest podcasts?
💚 "Enlightened Hospitality" and the Secret to Killer CX with Eli Weiss from Jones Road Beauty.
💄 8-Figure Beauty Empire Trinny London's Epic Organic Content.
🚗 The Road to 9-Figures with Cody Plofker from Jones Road Beauty (Plus Cody’s YouTube and Meta Ads Funnel Breakdown).
🤑 How Not to Grow an 8-Figure Business (Obvi Panel - C-Suite Preview).
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DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Michael Venditti. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.
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