Overview
After launching the Arau Baby brand in the US (see brand launch details here), we were looking for the most efficient channels for messaging. We found a unique ad channel called Peanut which we took advantage of to test what creative gets the best response from our target market. Based on those results, we tested 5 disparate types of advertising to see what performed best with our audience through Google and Meta, focusing on maximizing our CTR. A summary of the resulting insights is outlined below.
Peanut
This is a fairly young social media platform, exclusively for women, meant to provide a community of support while users go through life transitions (most notably, pregnancy and child-rearing). In addition to a feed where you can post questions and polls, it contains a feature similar to a dating app (shown above) meant to connect with other local mom friends. When we discovered them, they had only offered advertising services for 9 months; their ad space was still far from full and their audience was unconditioned to native ads. Here are 5 main insights that we discovered on this platform:
Messaging around ‘natural’ & ‘synthetic’ makes an impression on our audience. We later sent out a survey testing whether a positive or negative voice worked better; find the result in the last paragraph of this page.
Ad creative with people in the background performs better than shots without individuals. There was one exception to this rule, see the insight below.
Product shots with blue backgrounds absolutely killed. We tested pink, yellow, green, white, and black backgrounds…none of them came close to blue backgrounds. Creatives with simple blue backgrounds even outperformed alternative images with actors in the background.
Calls to action that don’t take themselves seriously perform extremely well. We tested many CTA’s (shop suds, hear more, try natural) but only the call to action ‘goo-goo ga-ga’ caused a significant increase in click rate.
Questions phrased as headlines outperformed. This was due to the format and norms of parental posts on the Peanut platform; feel free to ask me for details when we talk in person.
This platform was great for getting feedback from a community consisting only of our target market. However, we ceased advertising with them after this first round of insights; we decided that we could get a higher ROAS on other platforms. Just before ending our contract, they started filling empty ad space with ads for a ‘+plus’ version without ads, which made our CTR fall even further.
Ad Type Testing
Following initial testing on Peanut, we segmented our content into 5 key categories that we then tested through on Google and Meta. The two content categories with asterisks were the winners.
Brand Intro- Creative that focuses on clear communication of features and offerings of a brand, usually with a more professional feel. In this category, long-form creative performed better for us. This creative was best suited to channels with more in-depth content (e.g., YouTube vs TikTok).
Informational- Infographics, guides, or raw statistics with a shock factor. Our goal was to hook the audience with eye-catching information in the mother category and establish our brand as a source of trusted information in their eyes.
**Product imagery- This is one of the easiest categories to produce content for and is a great fit for brands with unique or appealing packaging. This content synergized with our brand, because our pink packaging tends to catch the eye (an unusual color for a soap bottle) and because our multi-media team and studio are adept at making this content. While this was the second-highest-performing category, it was by far the most efficient when considering production.
Testimonials- Interviews and review features are the best examples of content in this category. We made these ads to build brand trust and create an impression of brand size.
**UGC- We made this content to blend into social platforms and be relatable to the viewers. Our goal was to avoid the appearance of a sponsored placement so that customers stuck around long enough to be hooked. This was the highest-performing category.
This is a summary of what we learned over the first few rounds of advertising for the Arau Baby brand. Take a look at a problem we were able to discover and address with future rounds of advertising on this page.