Your Weekly Pencil - April 13, 2022

April 13, 2022

Will Hanschell

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Hey Pencil Fam!

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This Wednesday we're bringing the fire to your inbox, so thanks for joining us here. As usual, we are packed with information to help you understand what's going on in the world of e-commerce and growth + how you can use it to take off

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In this issue you’ll find:

The 8 Best Ways to get ad creatives
Ad of the Week
Winning the third wave of DTC
19 concepts marketers need to know
A simple ad creative hack (you can do it yourself today!)

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8 Best Ways To Get Ad Creatives

You're an e-commerce business and you need creative to use on social media channels & paid ads. Meta found: When creative is strong, it’s the overwhelming driver of in-market success: up to 80% for traditional TV and 89% for digital advertising.

So...how to how find those creatives? Get the details How to get ad creative

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Ad of the Week from Farmer Focus

Chicken never looked this cool. Check out this great story ad format from the team at Farmer Focus. They are focusing on customer efficacy, while displaying their packaging and their message that they deliver high quality chicken to all their customers.

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Content That Matters

Winning in the Third Wave of DTC E-commerce

We're in a new era in the DTC world friends and it's time to recalibrate how you're looking at your business. The second wave came to a uncermonious end (thanks) when iOS14 changed the game. Now let's embrace the change!

First Wave -> the foundations of disruption
Second Wave -> Cheap ads and the avalanche of capital
The third wave is more complicated

The two main challenges brands are facing:

Less effective digital advertising
Intense competition at the category level

How can you combat this:

Own your audience niche
Diversify your levers for growth
Precision Messaging

The best brands will take those three and move to:

Micro -> Casading Positioning: solving for a niche then moving to a wider customer surface area.
Creating a continuous insights flywheel to feel iteration on positioning and serve those adjacent audiences with more inclusive messaging + expanded product lines.

Why this matters: You can ignore that this is happening (PLEASE DON'T). There are practical frameworks and triggers that you can easily leverage to embrace the new wave of e-commerce that's upon us.

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The lawsuit against FB over 'Potential Reach' metric inflation

A lawsuit accusing Meta's Facebook of deceiving advertisers about its Potential Reach tool has been ruled as a class action.

This seems to be one of the reasons that detailed targeting was removed and will continue to lessen as time goes on. The exact quote

"Effective 11 April, users on Facebook and Instagram may use the control to set preferences across ad topics that reflect the interest targeting categories advertisers may use to reach them and the content they might see in an ad"

Why this matters: Another push from Meta towards broad targeting. Your creative will be even more crucial as the OG ability to find customers through audiences continues to wane.

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How online shoppers are finding inspiration

Google released a new batch of data on shopping insights. Here are some of the most interesting tidbits to leverage.

66% of shoppers said they’ve failed to find a product when trying to explain it using only words. (this is why paid social can be so effective when paired with other channels)
65% say they often or sometimes shop or browse online when they’re not looking for anything in particular.
60% of shoppers say they often or sometimes get inspired or prompted to buy something even when they aren’t actively shopping
39% of shoppers say they often or sometimes look for a specific outfit online after they see someone wearing it.
48% of shoppers have taken a screenshot of a piece of clothing, accessory or home decor item they liked (and 70% of them say they’ve searched for or bought it afterward).

Why this matters: Prospects are looking to be inspired. You have to have multiple strategies to take advantage of your opportunities. The key is to remember that the path to purchase is not linear. Be where you customers are, with different ways for them to understand the value that you provide. TikTok, IG, Google, Referral. All of these matter, and who knows when someone is ready to be inspired!

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Thread of the week

From Katelyn Bourgoin of Why We Buy - here are 19 concepts marketers need to know. Here are our top three

Every Purchase Begins with a trigger
We’re unconsciously influenced by even small details or a primer
We place a higher value on things when they're in limited supply aka Scarcity

Why this matters -> make sure you read this entire thread, it's pure gold. We suggest after you've done so, audit what methods you are using to share your products with your prospects. Once you've found 2-3 that make the most sense for your product/audience and layer them in.

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