The Art of Advertising (full masterclass)

In this video, we're going to cover everything you could ever desire to know about advertising in the modern era. I

shot some of this direct from the Can Lions Advertising Festival in France and picked up the rest here in my studio. We

have some special guests. But the goal here is if you're ever going to run an ad in a modern world, whether it's for a brand, for a services business, whether it's for yourself, if you want this in your toolkit as a marketer, we're going

to cover it all. We're going to talk about positioning a brand to succeed inside of advertising. We're going to talk about the concept of hooks and why it actually matters in ads just as much as content. We're going to cover

as content. We're going to cover emotion, persuasion, and psychology and review 10 psychology tactics that are going to help you convert in your marketing. We're going to go through

marketing. We're going to go through digital ad types. My friend Lucas from Dark Room is actually going to walk through all the different types of digital ads and keywords. Everything

from Amazon to Instagram to Google. You

get an idea of the full toolkit you have to play with. We're going to talk a bit about traditional advertising and its place in the modern world, types of ads that work, and I'm actually going to go through a bunch of different ad types you should be running for every business

or at least considering. We're going to talk about direct response and making money in the traditional sales side of advertising and then end a little bit on landing pages, funnels, and the things

that actually make your ads work on the other end. This is going to be the

other end. This is going to be the longest video that I have ever made. I

want you to view this as a resource you can come back to whenever you're get get to advertising for your business. And I

want you to think of this and everything I put in here as you are building your toolkit. You are going to take some of

toolkit. You are going to take some of the ideas I put out there, some of the strategies, the networks, the psychology, and find the things that you feel like resonate with either your customer or your style and then list

those things out and build a toolkit. I

will have a full guide with all of this available for download in the description for free. So, if you want text versions as well as some templates for these, that is all going to be there. This is going to be a great one.

there. This is going to be a great one.

It's going to hit the money-making side of marketing versus just the creative side I talk so often about. If you're

ready to do it, let's lock in.

[Music] So, why should you listen to me about advertising? I'm a former designer who

advertising? I'm a former designer who worked my way through to director and eventually to CMO. I've overseen nine figures in metas-pend and work on these platforms with client brands and my own every day. You'll hear a lot of these

every day. You'll hear a lot of these anecdotes around the way and I'm out here at CAM with my friends at Dark Room, a serious performance agency who's worked with Lollipop, Saws, lots of household brands and up andcoming CPG.

And we're doing this event here at CAM with everyone from CMOs to entrepreneurs who are really in the weeds now talking about these conversations and the real data behind them every day. And that

leads us to positioning. I didn't

position myself as a commentator or as an employee or a billion-dollar entrepreneur, but as an operator who lives this true expertise that's not removed from the battle and it's surrounded by other experts to help

shape a worldview you can learn from.

So, you probably heard the word positioning, but what does it really mean? Positioning starts with product is

mean? Positioning starts with product is reinforced by marketing and is about the association your product and your brand has inside the consumer's mind which is a choice on your behalf and how you

create the product design the product and how you advertise it. So a good example is a brand like Volvo who is associated with safety. They are

positioning themselves as a safe family vehicle where you are basically buying peace of mind. And the first type of positioning that I'm going to talk about is category creation. This is when you create something completely new to

position yourself as a unique offering on the market. So a good example is an Aura ring where there had been rest optimization and some of these other things that existed with smartwatches or devices but they positioned it inside of

a new form factor focused on achieving that optimization in your life without interfering with the rest of what's going on. And then someone like AG1

going on. And then someone like AG1 where vegetables have been around forever even some greens company but they basically created a ritual around getting what you need for your body in a new way in a new form factor. And that

leads us really quickly to the second type of positioning which is called position against. This means you're

position against. This means you're positioning against a leader or an enemy inside of an existing category to say we are better in a different way. I love

using that AG1 example for someone new because there's a new company Grunts that has come out by positioning basically against AG1 saying you are doing this thing that's healthy for you but it tastes bad and it's a weird experience. Like why are we still doing

experience. Like why are we still doing this way? Let's give it to you the way

this way? Let's give it to you the way that you will enjoy having in a gummy.

And also that means it's not just for adults, it's for kids. they are

positioning against an existing industry incumbent. You look at the same thing

incumbent. You look at the same thing with you look at a local bookstores trying to position against Amazon.

You're not buying from this conglomerate. You're buying from your

conglomerate. You're buying from your local neighborhood bookstore. We just

happen to have an online store or a classic Apple positioning itself against PC with this kind of line of ads that was made very famous where they're saying this is a PC and associating it with this like older antiquated type of

person and I'm a Mac. I'm this new person so many more people want to be.

And another type of positioning is really highlighting a difference in your product through choice of words. I call

this smart positioning because it happens so much with the word smart. So

for instance, we had phones and then we had smartphones. So someone created that

had smartphones. So someone created that idea of if you have this phone that's not smart, it is therefore dumb. It was

a positioning choice. I've used this multiple times inside my own career. One

of the first projects I worked on using something like this was in the defense industry. And then we did another one

industry. And then we did another one inside of uh the consumer drones where basically we put chips and a set of and apps associated with initial camera drones and positioned as a smart drone against dumb drones that couldn't do

some of the functionality that we had.

This is in the same way you see a brand like eightle be like hey here's a traditional mattress. Well it's really a

traditional mattress. Well it's really a dumb mattress because we have all this technology and all these things that enable you to have this modern experience. Call that smart positioning.

experience. Call that smart positioning.

That leads us to value positioning. This

is positioning based on cost. This is

one of the easiest types of positions to make where you say, I'm going to look at what everything costs in a market and I'm going to say how much cheaper do I have to be for consumers to always pick that if they are price conscious. This

is a harder and harder way to position because it gives you less room for advertising spend to secure customers, but it also gives you a high likelihood when they see it. You have a higher chance of conversion just at a lower

margin. As we've gone through time in

margin. As we've gone through time in the world with Amazon brands and brands online and timu that costbased positioning has basically been eroded by overseas brands by duplicate goods in a way that makes it really hard for a lot

of entrepreneurs to succeed with cost positioning but it's still worth understanding. Then we have niche

understanding. Then we have niche positioning. This is around positioning

positioning. This is around positioning around subcultures. Whether that's

around subcultures. Whether that's around language, areas of demographics, backgrounds, races, size, anything where you say this is built by us for us. That

becomes a type of positioning that makes someone feel like they want to buy because of a more associative instinct that feels like this is something that was created for me. I'm supporting my people. And then we're going to go to

people. And then we're going to go to counterculture positioning. This is

counterculture positioning. This is where you say there's a whole existing category, but we're going to make something alternative. We're going to

something alternative. We're going to make something extreme. Liquid death is a great example where the B there used to be a lot of Evian, a lot of Dani on the shelves and you say something with this is a pure lifestyle, heavy metal.

Usually it's that kind of extreme aesthetic. You put that right next to

aesthetic. You put that right next to it. There's a certain buyer that goes,

it. There's a certain buyer that goes, I'm extreme. Like I want this like

I'm extreme. Like I want this like alternative. Like I'm different. And

alternative. Like I'm different. And

they'll go towards that. And this is an excellent, especially with Gen X who all believe that they're unique and beautiful snowflakes and they make their own taste is an excellent way to market to them. We've seen this in everything

to them. We've seen this in everything from coffee with people like Black Rifle to water cafes and restaurants. And then

we have generational positioning saying we're going to take a product or category and position it towards a certain age. I'll bring this up in

certain age. I'll bring this up in cosmetics. There's a company called

cosmetics. There's a company called Jones Road that positions itself a little bit older. They become an accessible point for older women to feel excited about getting into makeup and cosmetics. And that's reflected in the

cosmetics. And that's reflected in the model choices they use in their advertising, some of the copy and the way they put things together. And it's

not exclusive, it's just focus. Same

thing with lower younger positioning, the way you've seen uh a brand like Half Magic come in and say this would really appeal to a younger demographic. Again,

it's not excluding the older, but it has a lot of the trappings of something that would make someone younger be excited by it. And positioning is important to

it. And positioning is important to start with because this impacts the lens you approach in your advertising. Your

positioning is the core of what every campaign starts with. You're positioning

generationally by a niche subculture, a counterculture, or based on price.

That's going to be one of the first things you consider when you go to make a great ad. And now I want to get one thing out of the way before we keep rolling through this. I want to talk about AI. Really, this is a conversation

about AI. Really, this is a conversation about tools and mediums. Inevitably, whenever I do one of these videos, people like, "What is AI going to do this? What does AI mean?" And we talk

this? What does AI mean?" And we talk about that. Let's talk about ad formats.

about that. Let's talk about ad formats.

To make good ads, there are formats you choose from to go advertise. Let's break

those down. So, the first is a designer making an ad. This is someone saying, "Hey, let's take some existing product photography. Let's put some copy with it

photography. Let's put some copy with it and let's design a asset, whether that's for digital or to get printed out or put on a billboard that is a designed ad.

It's an ad type that you can make." Now,

in our modern world, as we get into more video friendly stuff, we also have in addition to those like static designed ads, we'll have 3D ads. things like

you've seen like you're actually animating a 3D of a product into a scene or you're doing just an animation or a 2D or a cartoon style video. It's called

a 3D and animated ad. So we enter into video whether it's on television, a video billboard on your actual video in a short form. That is a format you can choose for an ad. Then we have produced video like video that you can do on a

shoot or video that's being done like for a campaign with actual people inside of it. And then we have this new

of it. And then we have this new incumbent the last few years UGC video which is getting user generated content.

That's getting actual normal human beings to do a video promoting a product as if they were just a normal person, a consumer giving a review. It's basically

a more candid style. So we sort of stacked up these different types of ads.

There's another one I love to call out called ugly ads where people are saying, "Hey, we actually we want to take that design. We're still going to design it,

design. We're still going to design it, but it's going to be a post-it note.

It's going to be a screenshot of the notes app. We're going to make these

notes app. We're going to make these really simple ads." Another good category for this. And then AI is just a segment of this. Now, there are AI video ads. Veo 3 has really enabled this where

ads. Veo 3 has really enabled this where you can create a lot of B-roll and scenarios completely animated without having to do a produced shoot. But the

core of that ad and what makes it function is almost exactly the same as what a produced ad is. One of the only differences is now you have an open creative world where you could show something hyperrealistic of real people engaging in the product or if you wanted

that ad narrated by a panda bear or a Spartan inside a horse, whatever it is, you're able to execute on that creative vision. And then same thing with design.

vision. And then same thing with design.

AI design might be useful from some variations now, but isn't designing full ads to the standard with which they'll perform. But it can basically be a tool

perform. But it can basically be a tool in the toolkit of those designing to add background images to get variations and layouts. And that's where this all fits

layouts. And that's where this all fits inside the framework. When you go to design your ad campaigns and look at what tools do I have in my toolkit, knowing that you have designed ads, you have animated ads, you have actually

produced video and photo shoots, you have UGC and content from other folks, and then you have some of the AI components you can plug into. It gives

you a full breadth of toolkit that you can say this is the different ways I can approach putting together assets for a campaign. This video is sponsored by

campaign. This video is sponsored by Framer. Framer is an awesome platform

Framer. Framer is an awesome platform for creating websites. I especially want to call this out for creatives who are trying to build your own portfolio site or build a site for your agency or business because they have an amazing

combination of things. It really appeals to design and aesthetic oriented people.

Why I like this is this is the simplest platform where I can actually make complicated beautiful things versus a lot of platforms where you get templates that are mediocre or you have to really go all out with complex code to do it.

We're in the era of the enabled designer, the enabled creative. You can

do so much now with the combination of tools available to you and framework is just a great example of how you can in less time than ever make truly gorgeous websites. And showing some examples of

websites. And showing some examples of these templates here. So this is Fabrica. I'm actually looking at redoing

Fabrica. I'm actually looking at redoing my website in this exact theme right now. Beauty of Frame is that these are

now. Beauty of Frame is that these are templates that have all these little things. The way that the scroll is, the

things. The way that the scroll is, the way everything loads, the parallax, the edges, the corners, the video integrated your site out of the box can look like this. Like that is an amazing advantage.

this. Like that is an amazing advantage.

And all these are available. I think

these are like uh some are $79, some are $99. Here's another one, another agency

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one. I love especially in a mobile first world where everyone's consuming on their phones. Things that work on cards

their phones. Things that work on cards like this I think is a great way to do it cuz you can really visualize how those cards change when they go down into mobile. Finally, I want to talk

into mobile. Finally, I want to talk about this workshop thing that they have. I'll do I'll do like a deeper dive

have. I'll do I'll do like a deeper dive on this in a future video, but this is basically an AI for advanced components.

So, basically, uh, one of the reasons that I've really shifted over workflow into framer is because if I want something like a number counter or an analog clock or a text scrambler or any of the things shown here, I can

literally type into the workshop what I want and it will create something like right there in front of you. It's

actually magic. And especially for simple visual elements that you don't want to take the time to design or figure out or kind of develop something custom for. There's so much of that from

custom for. There's so much of that from these like slider examples, counters, a lot of these little things you can do on web that help you actually make a creative vision. The fact that you can

creative vision. The fact that you can like type those in and get something that's very relevant to what you're trying to create is is amazing. So, if

you haven't heard of Framer before, if you're looking for a new website platform, uh definitely check it out at the link I have below in this description. I appreciate Framer for

description. I appreciate Framer for sponsoring this video. We're going to do more content with them and some tutorials on what I'm working on with them and things you can do there. But

check out them and their templates if you want to kind of guarantee you have a beautiful design driven site you can create interesting things on that does everything you need out of the box. They

are an awesome platform to learn. Let's

go. But no matter what you choose, we need to have a conversation around hooks. What do I mean by hooks? There's

hooks. What do I mean by hooks? There's

basically two types of content and advertisements right now. Advertisements

are almost always what we call an interrupt. This means that someone is

interrupt. This means that someone is doing something else and your advertising interrupts them versus a choose to watch. YouTube, for instance, is a choose to watch. When you clicked on this video, you saw my thumbnail, you saw my title, and you chose to watch it

versus what's next to it. It did not interrupt your feed the way an Instagram video when you swipe up comes up next, then have to reel you in based on you seeing it. Those are two extremely

seeing it. Those are two extremely different experiences. But now, if I

different experiences. But now, if I have an ad placement in this video, which we probably do, it's going to interrupt what I am talking about unless I found a really amazing way to integrate it to make it feel natural, which I will try to do. And then when you're going into TV or you're going

into a streaming world, basically everything is interrupt. You're

interrupting a movie or whatever it is.

And what happens there is a little different on your phone. When you're on a secondary device and why traditional marketing is failing so badly is because everyone just looks at their phone when you're watching the NFL and they go to that commercial, everyone just opens

their phone. When you are same thing if

their phone. When you are same thing if you get that Amazon ad at the start of whatever video that you're uh putting on their streaming service, you just look at your phone. So, not only does the ad interrupt, but then it has to compete with a device that is addicting in its

own way, that has better content on it.

And that's why those ads are just never ever going to perform the way they did 10 or 15 years ago. But this is where the hook becomes important. So, I have whole videos where I dive in digestion of the hooks, but really is the first 3 seconds of your video. What gets someone

to not scroll through it? Or if you're interrupting them and no matter what it is, how do they basically get interested enough to watch versus like scroll away or look at a device or click bypass as soon as they can? And so this gives you

a extremely small window in a combination of the first visual that they see, the first thing that they hear and whatever that they can read that is on the screen to get the message across that they need to keep going and they need to keep watching. And you will see

this metric measured all the time and you are meta ads manager. They have a metric called hook rate which is the amount of people that actually watch beyond this. When you go into your

beyond this. When you go into your Instagram analytics, they're going to show you 3 second rate is inside there.

It'll show you how many people are going beyond 3 seconds. And you'll notice that this is the key metric. 3 second watch time to nonfollowers is the key metric with which Instagram promotes your video to people that don't already follow you

and is a huge deal. So everything that you think about should be about 3 seconds. Now this applies in multiple

seconds. Now this applies in multiple ways. It's the same thing with a

ways. It's the same thing with a carousel or a static image. People need

to be retained on that for 3 seconds plus for the networks to care about it and they will judge that in the ads. And

it's also an amazing rule in more traditional formats as well. It's like

how do I utilize you have less time when you're looking at a banner ad, less time when you're on a listing for Amazon. you

get a second or two seconds max. But the

same principles apply. I need to hook in. And so an anecdote from uh the

in. And so an anecdote from uh the series I did with air recently and my friend Jason was on there. He used to be an art director at Amazon and when he had done cut 30 and he was saying hey when I learned how to make content the biggest reveal for me as an art director

here where I work on all these client projects every day is that my god like if I thought of everything like hooks immediately all the assets I'm making is better. And this was a epiphany for him

better. And this was a epiphany for him when he was explaining it to me. It was

epiphany for me as well. And because I think it's one thing that basically every advertiser now comes from usually a more traditional design background.

That's how I got started there. Or a

more traditional marketing background and they're not creators. But if you're a creator, even if you're just in high school making TikToks, you and your friends dancing, you know the importance of a hook and you know what has to happen in those first few seconds. And

so I cannot emphasize enough that whether you are making something for television, whether you're making a print ad, whether you're making a carousel, whatever it is, that that first 3 seconds is the number one thing that you need to focus on. When you

review, when you go creative reviews with teams, whatever it is, when you review stuff back from a creator, when you create something, the first and most important thing to focus on is, are people going to stop scrolling? Is this

interesting enough? And I would do the litmus test of pull your feet up and pull your ad up and is it that good? But

moving into making good ads from there, let's talk about psychology and tactics.

This is one of my favorite parts of this, something I've never talked about in a video that I absolutely love to because this gets into kind of the dark arts and the nuance of marketing. So,

first let's talk psychology tactics. We

have emotion, we have persuasion, and we have culture. These are all ways that

have culture. These are all ways that you can kind of manipulate people into doing what you want with marketing, for lack of a better term. So, what I mean by emotion, so first is storytelling.

The idea of a hero's journey, creating compelling copy, I highly recommend if you have any story you're trying to tell, anything happened to your business, you're trying to tell, founder story, literally go to chatbt, put the story in and say, can you rewrite this

with a hero's journey arc? You can

Google hero's journey and you will see it's a formula that basically all the most popular books in history tend to follow. Someone has a setback and they

follow. Someone has a setback and they go through an arc that redeems themselves and there's a payoff. If you

do that, you will begin to basically follow a formula that works for how people want to engage with content and stories. And then we have humor. Humor

stories. And then we have humor. Humor

is a super easy thing to hook with for content, almost too easy. Why it's too easy is because it's very hard to finalize. One of my favorite quotes from

finalize. One of my favorite quotes from traditional advertising is that people don't buy from clowns. This is a particularly relevant quote because that's why you see humorous creators get a lot less brand deals rather than be a lot less impactful when they do get them

is because at the end of the day people will laugh. They will hook you in, but

will laugh. They will hook you in, but it doesn't necessarily make you want to buy. There's almost every other

buy. There's almost every other technique that I'm going to talk through is going to be more impactful than humor. But if you can hook with humor

humor. But if you can hook with humor and then reinforce with some of the other tactics we have here, you can begin to find a unique recipe. But

that's one of the four emotional tactics is going to be humor. The next one is going to be fear. And fear is the most impactful. How do I prevent this? That

impactful. How do I prevent this? That

is the core idea of any fear. And you

want to tap into your consumer psychology of I want to look bad at that big event. I'm going to go bald before I

big event. I'm going to go bald before I should. I'm never going to get a husband

should. I'm never going to get a husband or a wife. I'm going to die early.

Whatever it is. Playing those up inside of advertising is what makes often the most successful ads is having people prevent the end result. And the last one and the most intangible is aspiration.

How do you make people want to be something better than themselves? Or how

do they basically view that buying your product buys them into a new life? After

emotion comes persuasion. What are you going to do within your advertisement to actually make someone take the action that you want? So, the first item is social proof. Basically, showing them

social proof. Basically, showing them through reviews or testimonials, whether that's part of the ad or the whole thing, the success that your product has given them. The second one is scarcity,

given them. The second one is scarcity, saying, "This isn't going to be around for long. This deal is going to be done

for long. This deal is going to be done in 2 weeks. This is why the drop marketing of fashion works so well.

You're never going to be able to get this t-shirt again." And then we have authority. Someone that they believe in

authority. Someone that they believe in and love is telling them to get this thing. This is why you see Andrew Andrew

thing. This is why you see Andrew Andrew Huberman sells so many products as he's developed all this authority with somebody. And then we have belonging.

somebody. And then we have belonging.

Someone buying something because they want to feel like they are a part of something greater or a part of a community or someone understands them.

That's emotion. That's persuasion. And

persuasion in particular plays out as a battleground on Tik Tok shop. I would

recommend going and watching top Tik Tok shop ads because they are using the most core fundamental human psychology to sell there. It is always like this deal

sell there. It is always like this deal is not going to last for long. I can't

believe they allowed us to do this or they will leverage as hard as they can.

And social proof is built into all of them because you'll see the comments, you'll see the sales numbers, but they are immediately selling. You want to look like this and be like this. And

then last is the cultural element of this. There is relevancy. Basically

this. There is relevancy. Basically

showing that you understand the things your consumers understand. This is a tactic that you have. There are through lines or the ability for you to put different things that are going on in the universe around you through your content that again show you as someone

who understands the culture or is driving the culture in a way the consumers respect. And then aesthetic

consumers respect. And then aesthetic and just the idea of how things look, how you present them can then tell that you are a part of something modern or positioning yourself as more traditional, whatever it is. It's the

most intangible suspect of this. But

that combination of what emotions are you playing to inside of your advertisement? How are you persuading

advertisement? How are you persuading somebody? And then what is your kind of

somebody? And then what is your kind of relevance to them in culture is what makes a great advertising campaign. And

so let's get into 10 tactics to consider. Use this to build a toolkit.

consider. Use this to build a toolkit.

Take the ones of these you like. Use

this full list that's in the guide you can download below. And then every time you're going to run a campaign, think about if you can integrate some of these. So the first is loss aversion.

these. So the first is loss aversion.

This is that people fear missing out more than they crave improvement. So

something like most brands are wasting 30% of ad spend. Like are you kind of selling them that hook there is something better out there. Then we have anchoring. This is a price psychology

anchoring. This is a price psychology tactic. It's why you see three prices a

tactic. It's why you see three prices a lot where someone will set a high reference point so that their medium or low price thing seems to be much more reasonable. normally $1.99 now $7.99

reasonable. normally $1.99 now $7.99 works not because of price but because of the comparison between the two.

There's also what's known as the decoy effect. It's the threepric option. A

effect. It's the threepric option. A

high priced anchor mid-pric best low price that's kind of too little and forces people to the middle. This works

in pricing pages, ad bundles, etc. Then we have the prat fall effect or uh the eight mile strategy and that's that flaws create trust whereas per perfection repels. That's about adding

perfection repels. That's about adding honesty to ads. Like we're not the cheapest but we're the most durable.

things like that. And from the eight mile tactic, it's like get that stuff out of the way before they can say it.

Get their objections handled. And

there's the idea of visual suggestion and semiodics. How do you shape

and semiodics. How do you shape perception through color, texture, fonts, etc. Like using Sarah fonts and beige tones can imply you're more prestige, whereas high contrast neon is stereotype, just more experimental or

youthful. This idea of familiarity bias.

youthful. This idea of familiarity bias.

Repetition builds trust. The more we see something, the more we believe it. This

is why I often encourage brands to kind of repeat their taglines or their main messages again and again until they're tired of them across every medium you possibly can. The more you've kind of

possibly can. The more you've kind of heard that, the more it's reinforced.

And this is something that doesn't seem to have an effect for the first year or two years, then really begins to add up.

And then what we'll call temporal landmines before summer hits while supplies last. Time pressure activates

supplies last. Time pressure activates action, especially with a seasonal or cultural reference, and it's worth including. Then there's behavioral

including. Then there's behavioral mimicry. This is a really important one

mimicry. This is a really important one for kind of the modern era where you use UGC your influencer videos or branded content to basically subtly mimic your actual audience's like real lives and how they talk and how they work. And one

of the key ways to do this is go look up on Tik Tok shop like or just on Tik Tok in general real customers using your product and your category or what your customer does. Don't look at the videos

customer does. Don't look at the videos just about your product. Look at their other content. How do they talk? What

other content. How do they talk? What

words do they use? What do they do? What

are their actions like? And then you do like a POV day in the life whatever video and you're actually doing all the things that the consumer does and integrating your product. That's going

to work much better. And that's that this mimicry technique. Once you hear about it, you're going to start realizing how much this is used inside content. That's an intentional choice.

content. That's an intentional choice.

And then I'm going to end with this idea of identity is more important than logic. People justify with logic, but

logic. People justify with logic, but they buy with identity. You don't just sell the what or the why. You sell who they will become. You don't just sell that you're going to be able to like buy this gym set to be get more fit. You

actually don't want to necessarily be more fit. You want to be X type of

more fit. You want to be X type of athlete. You want to be able to complete

athlete. You want to be able to complete a CrossFit game. You want to be able to do whatever. So really look at that end

do whatever. So really look at that end result from a lifestyle perspective. All

right. So now I'm going to bring in my friend Lucas. We are going to walk

friend Lucas. We are going to walk through all the different types of digital ads as much as the key terminology that you need to know. Let's

hit it.

[Music] All right. Like I mentioned, I am here

All right. Like I mentioned, I am here with Dark Room, the performance agency that we're doing this whole event here at K. And I want to introduce Lucas, who

at K. And I want to introduce Lucas, who is the one of the founders of Dark Room, uh to help educate y'all exactly on the different types of advertising, specifically digitally, and what you should do for your company when. Lucas,

want to give a little background about uh your company and journey getting here?

Yeah, for sure. So, we're a a digital commerce agency. We focus exclusively on

commerce agency. We focus exclusively on retail media, marketplaces as like one section, social commerce, so Tik Tok shop, affiliate, um a lot of the stuff we've been talking about, and then direct to consumer and digital

advertising. I really view those things

advertising. I really view those things as like three pillars to have effective strategies for consumer businesses today. So, retail media, which we can

today. So, retail media, which we can dive into, social commerce, digital media, and there's all like a bunch of different permutations and it is kind of complex. So, we can we can talk about

complex. So, we can we can talk about it.

And so, Lucas is deep in it. What kind

of clients do you work with? Uh any kind of particular projects you want to shout out, give people some context.

Yeah. So, I mean, we work with leading consumer brands. So any mid-market

consumer brands. So any mid-market business that is in a consumer category that's selling on TTOC, Amazon, other marketplaces at retail, like that's our sweet spot. We really specialize on the

sweet spot. We really specialize on the businesses that are like between 5 and $150 million in revenue. So these are challenger brands that are growing fast and we help hypers scale them. Um we've

worked with I mean hundreds of brands at this point uh at this point. A couple of my callouts though I have them right here. Burton, Garrett Light, Necessary,

here. Burton, Garrett Light, Necessary, Lollipop, Dead Cool. We did a video on DeadCool. Um, but it's really like

DeadCool. Um, but it's really like brands that have high consumability and that's the traditional CPG type play layers.

Perfect. And so I think uh diving a bit into this, we talk a lot about the content funnel and the advertising funnel is a similar thing. You basically

want to choose to advertise for different layers of your business in different places. Want to give a little

different places. Want to give a little breakdown of like what that funnel means and how you think about it when you're putting that together for a brand?

Yeah, I think it's really dependent like if you're a brand owner and a founder, you need to contextualize where you're at in your life cycle. So, like, are you just starting out and like your advertising dollars are super precious?

You're probably going to be spending a lot more money on the bottom of funnel.

You want to focus on conversion. We do

visualize the entire funnel though, just to make things easier. This is like marketing 101. So, you have upper

marketing 101. So, you have upper funnel, midfunnel, bottom of funnel, or top of funnel, tofu, midfunnel, mofu, fu. Like those are the acronyms that

fu. Like those are the acronyms that people usually use in definitely drop tofu in as many meetings as you can just to you know if you're not throwing acronyms out there like are you even a marketer that's what you need to be asking

yourself for for me it's really a question of like what type of business are you and like what sales channels are you on that's going to dictate where you should be investing advertising dollars.

The sales channels that exist from a high level are for most CPG companies, Amazon, DTOC, and retail. And then

within Amazon, like there are other marketplaces that are kind of offshoot.

So you have Walmart, you have Target. I

think this is going to be a huge trend that starts to evolve like other 3P marketplaces, meaning the brands selling their product.

Yeah. So what's the acronym 3P mean for the people?

Yeah. So 3P is like I'm basically a third party seller on Amazon. Uh they're

buying that product on Amazon, but it's coming coming from me. It might be facilitated through Amazon's warehouse, but that's 3P. 1 P is uh the retailer like Amazon or Walmart. They're buying

product directly from me in a PO. Yeah.

And that is housed and and it's their inventory that they have margin on and they get to sell.

And you're helping promote that through ads on their platform.

Yeah. And there's a whole bunch of nuances to how you should do one P or 3P. We could do a whole video on that.

3P. We could do a whole video on that.

But yeah, I think we we'll stick to probably some of the more like digital the things people should really kind of learn and focus on to start. Let's double click on Amazon uh real quick. If you are looking at the funnel and you're trying to

generate business on Amazon uh and you don't know what any of these things are kind of what should you start? What are

those core advertising types on Amazon?

Yeah. So I I think of Amazon it's like your it's like Shopify and Google had a baby together, right? So you can have a branded experience on there. You have

your own Amazon storefront. Looks like a DTOC site these days. You list all your products on there but you benefit from having all of the search uh query and intent being directly on platform. So, a

platform where people buy. There is a high conversion rate on there compared to anything else in the world.

63% of purchases start on Amazon. Um,

63% of ecom is is happening on on on Amazon.

This is something I call out all the time to brands who don't want to be on Amazon or intimidated by Amazon. It's

like, hey, your consumer, if they're seeing you on TikTok or Instagram, 63% of them aren't actually going to go search that website, right? They're

going to start searching on Amazon to start. And if you're not present there,

start. And if you're not present there, what is the experience? Who's then

owning that sale? Maybe they go take the second step, but probably not. And so,

especially as you start to get real traffic, knowing and owning this is a huge step of any brand journey.

Yeah. I think if you're a consumable, like you need to be on Amazon full stop.

Like that's where people buy grocery.

That's where they're buying CPG, skincare. The only product category

skincare. The only product category that's really difficult still is apparel. But that's, you know, I speak

apparel. But that's, you know, I speak to Amazon and their team pretty consistently on the emerging brand side.

They have such big internal benchmarks for getting and they started to add in like they have a whole new luxury section with like Oscar Dearenta. They're working

hard to try and prioritize that. And

it's always good to lean into a bit of what the platform is prioritizing so you get some incentives etc. Let's go into ads. Like what are the ad types on

ads. Like what are the ad types on Amazon? If you're just getting started,

Amazon? If you're just getting started, you want to do some bottle of funnel advertising. Where does that where does

advertising. Where does that where does that?

Yeah. So, okay. So, brands that start out, Amazon is a very robust advertising ecosystem. So, you have your top

ecosystem. So, you have your top offunnel placements with DSP, which we'll get to, and Amazon Marketing Cloud. But if you're a brand that's just

Cloud. But if you're a brand that's just starting out, you're going to be living in the traditional uh search intent type placements. So sponsored product

placements. So sponsored product advertisement, sponsored brand, basically indexing for users who are searching for the type of product that you offer or tapping into the uh the search intent and the brand the demand

generation that you're doing off platform. So if you're doing organic

platform. So if you're doing organic social on Tik Tok and you're really growing demand for your business and people all of a sudden start searching for your brand on Amazon, you want to be showing up there from an organic perspective and you probably want to be

bidding on some of those terms. That's unfortunately just like Google. we call

it an Amazon tax, but you want to make sure you're winning the bid and sometimes you'll have competitors winning on your bid if you're doing something right off platform.

And so the format with which you're able to do that is basically like you're able to show a sponsored listing just has your listing highlighted or there's like banner ads that appear at the top basically. Any kind of tips or uh things

basically. Any kind of tips or uh things on making sure you're like making the most of that small real estate when you actually get to use it. Yeah, I honestly think like leaning into video, which is like what we talk about on a lot of a

lot of the the the advertising formats today, is really important. But for new brands, I think you want to lean into storytelling on Amazon in short form ways. I don't mean like someone a

ways. I don't mean like someone a founder talking on screen describing the product like we're using little clips that are highly branded that kind of demonstrate why you should buy, you know, you're calling out some top selling points. You're basically doing the

points. You're basically doing the basics of your positioning.

Yeah. I'll show you. So, for one of our brands, saws, you know, one of the different placements that we use. So,

this asset right here in the beginning, it's like showing the making of a chicken parm. Um, and it's showing the

chicken parm. Um, and it's showing the product and how it's getting made. Like,

this would be a sponsored video ad that you would run as a banner placement when someone searches pasta sauce, for instance. And this has this asset right

instance. And this has this asset right here has incredibly high performance.

And this is for a brand new brand to platform. So, they're competing against

platform. So, they're competing against Carbone or Ryos, but we're trying to tell our unique story through making pasta or chicken parm or pizza product in action. Yeah,

in action. Yeah, most Amazon businesses if they've been running it for a long time, they're not leaning into creative.

And that's where the opportunity is for advertisers being like, "Hey, you're competing against incumbents who are kind of used to their mix. If you're

doing something new and exciting, you get to you get to leverage."

That's the name of the game with all advertising. I would just say like your

advertising. I would just say like your brand starting out on Amazon, you want to be as close to the bottom of funnel as possible. So, you're bidding on

as possible. So, you're bidding on keywords that really matter for people who are searching for your product and want to buy it.

Let's move that all the way to the top of funnel. If I'm a big brand, I've been

of funnel. If I'm a big brand, I've been doing this a little bit on Amazon. We

know it's a growth channel for us. We

want to really go generate awareness.

All right. And we're not going to get super dive deep into attribution and things. This video is a little more

things. This video is a little more focused on the ads themselves. But I do want to then just kind of lean over into one of the other segments you talked about. Let's talk about Google and

about. Let's talk about Google and YouTube and their properties and kind of where they live in your funnel and what are some of those kind of same way we talked about DSP or like the Amazon, you know, search ads. What's worth knowing for young marketers out there?

Yeah. So, I think the traditional playbook with DDC businesses has been like you have your meta Google split.

Meta is demand genen and it's direct response. You're targeting customers

response. You're targeting customers through that to drive demand for your B TOC business. And then Google is

TOC business. And then Google is capturing a lot of intent based targeting, people that are already moving towards either your category or your product.

Yeah. And it depends on the type of product you have. If you have something that's super utilitarian, it's solving a need that people have and they search for pretty consistently. Google's going

to be your bread and butter. I have a lot of clients that were starting out.

Most of their budget was in Google because they're just capturing that there's a niche. There's a rift in the market and they're able to win the bid and they're able to win the sale and they're driving demand that way, too.

And there's something I like to talk about a lot when it comes to choosing what ad platforms to run is that you have to decide if you're basically like interrupting or intercepting. And so

Google is like an intercepting platform to me. This means that someone is either

to me. This means that someone is either looking for your category, they're trying to buy a knife and you are a knife brand or they are trying to buy your brand and you are concerned about whether you're going to show up close enough to that sale to be able to

intercept it organically that you then want to spend that money on. If there is a large amount of demand there, this is a great platform to be able to build out some pretty straightforward economics and you'll kind of be able to hit some some natural scale points. But there's

also some like non-arch there too.

There's like Pmax and things like that.

What what are your your views on those platforms and where do they fit in that marketing funnel?

Yeah, there's Pmax. You know, obviously like Google Shopping is a huge part of the equation. There's YouTube as well,

the equation. There's YouTube as well, like talking about TopFunnel. YouTube

has been crushing it for our brands, especially when you run the MM um and you see some of the credit.

Not to be confused with MLM. We're not

running the MLM on this video. You know,

I'm sure the next thing I think that's going to be really big in the Google ecosystem as Gemini becomes more uh established is Genai Ads, which honestly like does that exist already? I haven't tried that.

It does, but let me let me show you. So,

and while we're going before we hit geni ads, what's pmax?

So, pmax is a it's it's really similar to advantage plus or dynamic bids on Amazon. It's Google's AI offering to

Amazon. It's Google's AI offering to better target audiences and please with everything on their network. And

this means anyone who has Google ads installed on their sites. This means

every advertiser that they have any level of partnership with when you see one of those like banner ads will search ads on the side. Basically, you can get you can buy those through like kind of standard systems or you can say let Google buy these for me through PMAX.

Correct.

Yeah. And Google also has a it's very similar to Amazon DSP. They have their their network of publishers that it's just a very robust ecosystem. So, you're

basically tapping in and this is where media buying is going like the platforms are moving to a place where everything is a lot more automated. They know who your audience is. They know who you should be targeting. they know what type of ad format's going to perform best.

And so you're basically saying, "Hey, go out and do your work and and and drive conversions for me." And all these platforms are saying that's where things are going. The only caveat if you're

are going. The only caveat if you're starting off though and you know what bids and and what placements you should be buying, go manual to start. We always

do this for our Amazon and Google clients because there's no data to go off of if you're just starting out.

Yeah. And also, I just have never um had amazing experience with PMAX through and through. I've I've spent a absolute boat

through. I've I've spent a absolute boat ton of money on YouTube ads that has gone uh extremely well. But yeah, so just putting out there with a grain of salt. These things all exist, but

salt. These things all exist, but they're all particular scenarios and some of them I think go better than others. Let's talk about Gen AI ads. Um

others. Let's talk about Gen AI ads. Um

I know nothing about those so curious to hear what you have to say. Let's let's

take a step back. So Gen AI ads would be, you know, obviously LLMs are a really big thing today like Yeah. Chat

GBT, Gemini. Yeah, exactly. There's a

whole bunch of publishers actually and derivatives of chat GBT that are basically just chat bops for for certain audiences. The thing that I'm pushing

audiences. The thing that I'm pushing and advising our brands on is there is an entire AI marketing funnel where people are discovering and buying products that's fully insulated from all

of the traditional media that's going on and being spent through brand marketing and performance marketing.

And you'll probably I curious about this from your perspective. Are you ever going to see like a banner ad or you know Yeah. inside that?

know Yeah. inside that?

It's happening right now. So there's two types of formats right now. This doesn't

exist in chat GPT yet because they're really focused on just like building the best experience. They have hired

best experience. They have hired advertising execs, but I think it's just like down the road map for them. But you

have other types of LLMs and and chatbot interfaces. There's something called

interfaces. There's something called liner for students that has, you know, tens of millions of users. And there

these So if you're trying to hit 18 to 21, you should go smash that. Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. Basically, so these are the these are some of the stats. There's

two two platforms I use that I'll call out here. I use KA for Genai uh

out here. I use KA for Genai uh placements like the banner placements and then I use context for in feed in response type hyperlink responses which

I'll show you an example of two. They

have a ton of ad advertising inventory.

I'll give you a couple stats. 2x higher

CTR verse Google, 6x clicked conversions verse Google, 7% average clickthrough rate, 3x longer engagement period than traditional search, which is [ __ ] mindboggling. But what

are they charging? You know what I Is uh is it worth it economically too?

Yes, let's go.

CPMs are great. Uh it's a CPC based model. Well, this we're always when

model. Well, this we're always when you're in this, you're always looking for like what's the alpha. I talk a lot about Tik Tok shops. There's a massive amount of alpha still there, but then you're super deep on every single channel that you could buy on.

Everyone's always being like what is being underserved? What are people under

being underserved? What are people under buying on? Cuz then the CPMs are still

buying on? Cuz then the CPMs are still low. Like I when I first started really

low. Like I when I first started really getting money in my life is when the Facebook CPMs were extremely small, right? And you're like this is an

right? And you're like this is an amazing period of life. And gradually

and gradually now we're paying $3 for a click to go to a landing page, you know?

And I think what what you're on a macro level, what you're seeing is traditional paid media, people just like trust it less. You get hit with an ad on

less. You get hit with an ad on Instagram, you're like, I don't want to be pushed product. Same thing with search, like you have all these you you kind of people understand the game.

Whereas I think with LLMs, like you trust the responses you're getting. You

trust it. It's like there, but you build this rapport with it that we're we're still it's going to be years of unpacking that to get somewhere. So

the Gen AI ad platforms right now, they're working really hard to make sure that the placements they're giving are highly contextually relevant. So if I'm searching and I'm like, I have dry skin and like really bad rosacea or whatever,

like Sarah, exactly his uh his brand partnership right there.

Shout out the gods. And so with that, how do you how do you create a good ad for Gen AI? Like you're on the edge of this. Any best practices? Any things to

this. Any best practices? Any things to think about if you are a marketer being like, I don't want to mess up this platform? I think there's a ton of alpha

platform? I think there's a ton of alpha here if you're just starting out because I I listen I pitched Aloe Yoga. I just

pitched Unilever. They're like

interesting but we're just going to keep spending in Google and Meta.

And that is that's the that's the alpha.

That right there is where you get your money.

That's the alpha. So for some of these platforms, the way that these are getting administered, they're not like really self-s served yet like fully.

It's like in those early days where it's like an Excel sheet and you're talking about you're saying, "Hey, these are the audiences I want to target. These are

the exact type of needs that I have and the platforms are going out there and they're delivering on that. These

platforms are raising a shitload of money though. They're raising so much in

money though. They're raising so much in venture. That's actually how I'm finding

venture. That's actually how I'm finding out about a lot of these. The VCs are introducing us directly. There are

certain audiences that are great. So

within context, for instance, there's a really strong mom audience. Gaming

audience is really big. Skincare

education. We talked about wrapping up Google walking into YouTube.

the success I've had on YouTube with ads. We've done some really direct

ads. We've done some really direct response related stuff. We basically do VSSLs on YouTube. I even when we were doing toy stuff, it was literally a VSSL which is just like a video sales letter.

It's like, hey, we're going to go walk through the journey of like what is the problem, agitate the problem, present the solution, back up the solution, like do it because you have like a full length of video to do it. If you hook people past those first two seconds, you

get a long time to be able to pitch them something. That's been a format that's

something. That's been a format that's been successful for me, but I know a lot of people also optimize for really short ads, do a whole bunch of things. Where

would you start with buying on YouTube?

Any terminology, advice, strategy?

I honestly think it's it's really dependent on the product. I love YouTube as like a It depends on the category really, but I do like it as a top ofunnel placement for consumer businesses. If you have something

businesses. If you have something visual, like a product, like I I want to be on YouTube. I like it. The targeting

capability is very robust. It's also

good to cross over to retail. We did a very big campaign supporting a target launch where we basically were looking at all of our data be like, "Yo, YouTube is the only really like attributable thing we saw lift to." We just hammered YouTube as like probably half of that launch support campaign. It worked

really well.

And then I also think if you have something either educational or direct response probably like the stuff what were the ads that you were running?

Yeah, we were running stuff for gelb blaster but it was very much like we just chose the VSSL style. We were

comparing like sizzle real style ad to like typical product spot to we had then we had a founder story and then we had a VSSL and founder story and the VSSL crushed for us on there.

Yeah, if you can master like traditional long form direct response VSSL like that format can be successful in so many different places. I also run that on

different places. I also run that on meta with a UGC hook and then I just run into the full infomercial or VSSL.

That's what all this is. Yeah. And this

that's like the trick basically I feel like on all these platforms is like hook whatever it doesn't matter. You can do you can do viral hook, you can do UGC hook, whatever it is go into this traditional sales format as soon as you if they're staying to watch that video and you've you've run that like they're

going to follow that flow. That flow is based on like consumer psychology. Yeah.

And I think there's this because of the advent of like short form social and meta advertising, people were like, "No, it needs to be a 15-second ad." But like that's just not true. If you can engage someone and they're interested in the video, they'll watch the entire thing

and those people will buy. And if even if they watch the 14 seconds, but click through, all you matters is the clickthrough, you know, where whether they do it at second three or second 15 or at the end of the 90, like it's just getting them that next that next level.

Getting into Tik Tok, this is a fun one.

And Tik Tok, I will just disqualify first of like do not like run any polished quality ads like on Tik Tok.

There's I've seen one or two of them work, but like it's that native feeling.

It's that exact like it would look on a short form video. Lwood is an amazing example of this. You are a male watching this video, you've probably been served Lwood ads on Tik Tok where they literally just make it look like any video you would see, whether it's like a fit check or a style or it was put on.

They run them constantly. They spark all their organic posts. It works really well as an advertising strategy. And

then it's all just based exactly like it is on short form where like the hook is super important, the payoff is important, but you're a little more focused on the CTA in terms of the copy.

breakdown if you want to start working on on Tik Tok ads on shop versus not on shop. What's what's some of your your

shop. What's what's some of your your thoughts?

I honestly think like Tik Tok is is an ecosystem very similar to I honestly think it's very similar to Amazon cuz it's a search platform.

Yeah.

Yeah. Amazon and uh Instagram together.

I think Tik Tok I mean we we talked about this. Tik Tok is where you are

about this. Tik Tok is where you are like building community and brand especially if you're a consumer business today. I think in some luxury categories

today. I think in some luxury categories it's really like it's tough still.

Again, if you're consumable, if you're if you're in beverage, if you're in supplements, if you're in cosmetics, like you can really hit there. We do Tik Tok shop. We also run Tik Tok ads. I

Tok shop. We also run Tik Tok ads. I

think you know there's a couple of different types of ad formats.

So we have Spark, we have GMD Max. I'll

hit Spark real quick and we talk about GMD Max. And so Spark has where you take

GMD Max. And so Spark has where you take an existing video. So I've done this. A

lot of people will spark my content on there. They'll be like, "Hey, give them

there. They'll be like, "Hey, give them an ad code. They run the ad comes from my account, but whenever they click it or go to view it, actually just leads to the landing page." that can be on a Tik Tok product. So for on Tik Tok shop, so

Tok product. So for on Tik Tok shop, so you can actually be going directly to buy on the listing or that can be to a third party landing page as an extremely successful format. Usually it basically

successful format. Usually it basically caps out what I've seen is we'll run it run it for a couple weeks installation returns and goes. But you can really have a very timely nature. If you're

loading in a lot of creative into Spark, it works well. You're basically

advertising through others. But if you want to get more robust and do something like GMV Max, what does that look like?

Yeah. So GMBB Max is an ad format and it's like basically like a type of bid that you're running for it's for Tik Tok shop. So with GMV Max you set an ROI

shop. So with GMV Max you set an ROI target and it takes into account your organic sales and your rorowaz from paid sales and it's basically kind of like trying to optimize for what your GMV threshold is for the entire

and so it brings so just across real quick. Rowass return on ad spend GMV is

quick. Rowass return on ad spend GMV is just basically the revenue value generated gross merchandise value on platform. We

use GMV for for marketplaces really. So

you're going to use it for Amazon, you'll use it for Tik Tok shop. Tik Tok

shop though, you need to go, you know, it's a tough thing to to operationalize.

You need volume, you need content, you need branded content, and you need to build community. So it is a is a

build community. So it is a is a extremely the flywheel takes a lot to get spinning. But then once it's

get spinning. But then once it's spinning, it is just an absolute [ __ ] machine. But yeah, probably not the

machine. But yeah, probably not the first thing on the list where people are going to go after if you're like learning this for the first time. But

definitely when we look at those areas of alpha, one of the biggest ones if you're willing to go get that. We're

recruiting creators and we're training creators. And then we are managing what

creators. And then we are managing what this you know how the creators actually interact and we're seeing them and doing our bundles and managing our platform.

Then we're briefing and feedbacking and turning it into this big flywheel and we're trying to get thousand plus videos a month from affiliates. It's it's an amazing place to be because all that natural money that comes from what they're generating with their organic

content, there's 100% alpha and just sparking as much of that as you can putting that and out of your organic content into these kind of more robust bidding campaigns and like really building uh something unique there.

So when we do shop, we think about shop management. This is like the technical

management. This is like the technical operation side of things. So that's like your traditional Amazon ops like you know integration, inventory management, discounting, all the other promotions,

shop hygiene, etc. etc. Then you have creative flywheel basically that affiliate pipeline that you were talking about where it's volume and it's also making sure you're working with the right people, ad management, spark, GMV

Max, so on and so forth. I think this is going to become very automated in the future. And then live shopping. I mean,

future. And then live shopping. I mean,

I'd honestly love to get your take on live shopping. Like, uh I So, it's

live shopping. Like, uh I So, it's actually interesting. So, I think we had

actually interesting. So, I think we had talked about earlier. I was actually at like a live shopping, what's the right word? Like, not a dungeons was a really

word? Like, not a dungeons was a really nice area, but like a live shopping megaplex in LA where they actually had a bunch of rooms. They're all selling luxury, vintage, and they had like eight or 10 creators on live at any time, all on their own account selling live, generating a lot of money. The live

shopping is one of those where like it's definitely the fringe. It's huge in China. It's a successful additional part

China. It's a successful additional part of a already existing Tik Tok strategy.

I don't think it's a strategy by itself to launch on it and it's great for some certain demographics. So, I think some

certain demographics. So, I think some of the top uh live shopping experiences right now, at least in the categories I look at are in Spanish. There's some

alpha in in that and like who buys in that way. And there's also this the idea

that way. And there's also this the idea that if you host it as an event, you build them up, you make it a recurring thing. The way uh goalie did this really

thing. The way uh goalie did this really well or you have like, hey, my holiday promotions, we're going to cap it off with a big live with other influencers.

We're going to bring it in. It's like

useful as a basically like a tentpole part of a existing campaign strategy or as something once you've already got your shop dialed and you want to elevate it, but it requires being live like a lot like hours and hours. A good Tik Tok

shop live is 4 hours, 6 hours, 8 hours.

It's not like we pop on for an hour and try to sell. I don't think the America is going to be like a full copy paste of like what's going on in China in terms of how live manifests and and grows. But

I was uh on the phone with you know one of the head of Tik Tok shop in in hair care and you know they're doing a million-dollar GMV live sessions over 4 hours now. So that's that's great. You

hours now. So that's that's great. You

know it's proof of concept. It's

working. Um and I think it's going to be a big part of the equation. I'm curious

though in your world in creative in creators and the creator economy. Like

there's like so many different there's like a spectrum here, right? It's like

you've got hosts who are doing live and they're like almost sales people and then you have like pure creators.

Well and it's interesting. I've I go live on Tik Tok. Tik Tok, one of the alpha points as a creator is if you have a video ripping on Tik Tok and you go live, it pumps that video. So, I went live Friday at the airport. I had this product versus brand headphones video

ripping. It was at like 600K. By the

ripping. It was at like 600K. By the

time I got off the live, like 35 minutes later, it was like 750. Like, they will rip your ripping video to promote the fact you're live because it has that circle on it. So, that's like a bit of creator alpha. And then also, you get

creator alpha. And then also, you get people to approach you as hosts. So,

I've had that a few times. I was

actually talking to that bag company just cuz I'm curious. I was like, "Hey, can I do a 4-hour live? What kind of sales would I generate?"

I could you could sell so much. Uh, and

so but I think we're going to try and give that a shot and be like just out of pure curiosity. And I'm like cool. I

pure curiosity. And I'm like cool. I

would 100% look at if there's a brand I believe in or we can have some fun with it like be a host because you'll notice like these lives that went really well for goalies like Kevin Hart shows up and like people are doing skits and I feel like if we had all the personalities that were in this house and we were all

live right now and like had the big bingo wheel and like people were were taking shots every time you did a thousand. We could sell a lot of product

thousand. We could sell a lot of product and have a good time.

You need a producer.

I couldn't switch products. I was trying to move the thing. It was just too frustrating. I was like

frustrating. I was like that's that's what we're doing. I plan I think we're going to do HQ in New York live stream studios multiple of them close to Tik Tok shop HQ and we'll just continue to reskin those studios for

different brands bring different people in but I do think for creators like there's a lot of different ways to monetize now like you could go and get good at direct response sales and sales psychology and you could be a host for skincare and you can get paid

if you are a creator and you are not like really getting money that is a you're in your own head you could be running live you could be doing Tik Tok shop you should be getting these brand deals people are just kind of wondering Why is this money coming to me? And it's

like the money is there for you to take.

I'm like considering hiring creators full-time to do live shopping. Yeah.

Like which is what this is what these so the people at this luxury bag company, they're like salaried employees and they get us small commission and they're selling like $600 700 stuff and they have targets and stuff to hit, but they get that hey I get to come in here and they all have their own social and it

was an interesting operation to see happening at scale where I was like oh they have we could go on their thing right now and they probably have seven or eight people live. Meta ads the most important one probably but also I think one of the easier ones to explain. Do

you just run all the creative into ASC and just call it a day or what's the strategy there?

We definitely leverage ASC, but I think there's so many different ways that we structure campaign types and like try and keep uh account hygiene really.

So if you nothing you're starting this for the first time and you're like, hey, I'm going to go set up a go set up some campaigns. Like what do you need to

campaigns. Like what do you need to know?

I I start with the foundations of like what is my salesunnel? So like what type of product and what is the CPA that I need on that product to have be first purchase. Exact. That's Yeah. So that's

purchase. Exact. That's Yeah. So that's

what does it if I kind of in $16 if someone buys that product do I make money on the other side or $30 you basically get to this number what that looks like and then you know you structure your campaign types around

that with multiple creative formats within those campaign types and you can have all different types of creative formats within that you have short form videos you have uh DPA you have um different types of stats

that's actually good we can cover this so I have this whole section in this video where we talk through the different formats like here's a UC ad here's a standard ad here's 3D here's what AI looks like we did not talk about DPA, dynamic product ads, which is basically saying, uh, hey, let's take

your catalog of what you have in Shopify, all the products you have, and let's basically show you those graphics with like light info on it. And then

there are some services like Marpipe and a few others, I don't know what you guys use, that will then like layer some existing, more exciting graphics on top of that. And I think the challenge with

of that. And I think the challenge with Meta once you get into that space is like they have a pretty robust dashboard where you're looking at lastclick attribution and different type of

attribution sources in platform. I know

this video isn't about attribution, but really the things that I focus on when we're looking at meta campaigns and meta performance is we look for hold rate, clickthrough rate, thumb stop ratio on particular ads to know what the

throughput is and if the creatives are performing. Last click attribution is

performing. Last click attribution is very hazy because of the tracking transparency, privacy restrictions that happened. That's why we leverage tools

happened. That's why we leverage tools like MM. It's very if you're a small

like MM. It's very if you're a small brand, you're only running meta, this is a very it's pretty easy. As soon as you start getting into a world of multiple things running at once, it's it's a it's an item. But I would say for most

an item. But I would say for most businesses like if you're in fashion like your statics, DPAs, carousels, those are going to perform really well.

But don't discourage like you need video assets. It can be iPhone assets too and

assets. It can be iPhone assets too and you should you should run those in your campaign. ASC and non-ASC campaigns and

campaign. ASC and non-ASC campaigns and give the real quick what do you have and why very close to I would say Pmax in that you know Meta is going to go out and you're you're not going to be targeting

particular audiences. It's going to go

particular audiences. It's going to go out and serve the ad and find the right audience for your product and it's going to leverage signal on the advertising format to determine that and basically the machine learning algorithm will will

work for you and learn and get better.

That's opposed to doing manual bidding on the on the meta side.

Any other recommendations or things you absolutely want to know if you are like really diving into ads making great creative?

I would say like for me the what what I'm seeing is like creative is really the big lever that brands have today.

Like if you're a new brand starting, focus on that. And you know, a lot of these brands make a lot of these platforms are very easy to start self-service in. So don't feel the need

self-service in. So don't feel the need to hire an agency for that type of stuff. Like I think it's really

stuff. Like I think it's really important for entrepreneurs to to start so they can learn like what's good, what's not good, the terminology, and so on and so forth. It's a good start watching uh Orin's videos and this type

of content, but don't get discouraged with all the acronyms. Like go out and try these things.

All right, so fresh off that, let's go through types of ads. So your biggest job as someone who's in advertising is to make a master list of types of ads.

Again, I will include this list in the link I have down below. But when you have this big list, you're basically going to have a checklist. Every time

you do a campaign, every time you do a launch, you can go through and be like, is this type of ad relevant for what I want to do? Because performance right now is a game of volume. The more ads you load into meta, the better your campaigns do. The more organic posts you

campaigns do. The more organic posts you do, the better your organic is going to do. And so, the more references you have

do. And so, the more references you have that are creatable, the more things you can brief becomes a weapon. So, we're

going to walk through 10 that I think everyone should have in their toolkit.

The first is the problem solution app where you lead with the problem people are having and then present your product as the solution. This can be done in more normal ways or in more conceptual ways. One of my favorite examples of

ways. One of my favorite examples of this is the Snickers bar. You're not you when you're hungry where they're showing somebody being a gorilla or whatever it is and then they have the Snickers and they're back to normal. It's a good example of a problem solution. And

second is the founder story ad. I have

run a lot of founder story ads. I took

founder story ads into movie theater placements into streaming. Tested them

through Meta and YouTube. I've run a lot of money in founder ads. Dollar Shave

Club being the ultimate example of this.

But basically, how do you tell an interesting more produced version of why someone started something? And again,

going back to that hero's journey idea, how can you have that founder story follow that hero's journey of something epic happened? They had to kind of

epic happened? They had to kind of resolve it and find a solution. Their

arc comes all the way back up. This

especially works if it's a story that resonates to the customer. The biggest

founder ad I won was uh I ran was with a couple who was a founder who created a product for kids because of experience with their kids. And since their demographic matched the aspiration of the parents who were buying their

product, the ad crushed. Then we have the reaction testimonial where someone actually tries something out and then they respond to it. It's a classic UGC format, but works really, really well, especially if you can see actively the

before and after. Then we have the listical or like five reasons or three reasons. And this doesn't have to be

reasons. And this doesn't have to be about your product. It needs to be about the goal that they achieve, right? Like

the five things I'm doing to improve my weight loss or whatever and your supplement is one of them or the five things you're doing to become a better creator. and your microphone is one of

creator. and your microphone is one of them. But making that kind of listical

them. But making that kind of listical format, whether it's written or whether it's in video, is a great ad type. And

one of my favorites, justification of a selfish desire. This is a killer format.

selfish desire. This is a killer format.

If you can find it, the best example of this is the PC Philippe ads where it says, uh, you don't really own a PC Philippe. You merely hold on to it for

Philippe. You merely hold on to it for the next generation. And it's like dads with their kids. All this is doing is just justifying you buying a PC Philippe by saying it's a present for your kid.

Right? We all know that the PC Philippe is not for the kid, it's for the dad.

And if you can find that same way to look at it, whether that's treating as a little treat or you deserve this or you're actually buying this for someone else or it holds its share of resale value is a such a winning format. Then

there's before and after prove it ads I like to call it where it's like here's exactly what we like before and here's what it's like after and just showing that contrast or you can just go straight to prove it. Shot on iPhone is one of the best prove it campaigns where you'll see a billboard says shot on

iPhone. You're like that is a photo that

iPhone. You're like that is a photo that was shot there blown up at the size and it's wonderful. They are literally

it's wonderful. They are literally proving it without even having to show the before. Another great one for this

the before. Another great one for this is the legendary Blendec will it blend where the owner of the blender would basically throw random stuff inside the blender to see if it would work and the more crazy and aggressive it was and as basically him being proving it on the

product. I'm going to literally prove in

product. I'm going to literally prove in front of you that this does what I say it does. And if you can do that, whether

it does. And if you can do that, whether it's showing the camera result or showing if it blends as a massively impactful thing in the shortest amount of time possible, how do you in 10 seconds prove your value proposition?

And obviously the will blend has that element of being really interesting and aesthetic at the same time. If you can uh build something like that, you've got a winner. And there's the POV ad,

a winner. And there's the POV ad, presenting the lifestyle of your customer in an aspirational state. This

is what the life is like with your product integrated. The transformation

product integrated. The transformation arc or the walking through all the steps it takes to achieve a desired result.

The expert breakdowns is another great one where you take someone either someone in your company that's super smart and knowledgeable. If you have a science officer or a founder really knows their [ __ ] or if you get an influencer to do this. I do this a lot for launches for other brands. When you

see my sponsored content, they want someone from a marketing perspective to be like, "Here's why this thing is so good." So, there's an expert breakdown

good." So, there's an expert breakdown of it. Then there's a remix reply ad,

of it. Then there's a remix reply ad, another great one for the modern world, where you basically take a top question you're getting, put it up with one of those question graphics, looks like a Tik Tok comment or Instagram comment, and respond to it with a video. That is

a excellent just kind of let's take a really common painoint and solve it.

It's a good ad format. And then last, we're going to talk about the contrarian hottake. This is a great talking yapping

hottake. This is a great talking yapping format. You just want someone yapping at

format. You just want someone yapping at the camera where you're going to say something that people would find often incorrect. They may argue in the

incorrect. They may argue in the comments, but it takes a position of your product. A good example of this is

your product. A good example of this is we had a guy in Cut 30 who had a fiberbased product and he was basically like unpopular opinion. You shouldn't be caring about ingesting all this protein.

You should care about ingesting fiber.

Got a lot of comments cuz people were obviously all love protein right now and fiber is kind of an enemy. But he was able to really eloquently make his point and then build into that. Same thing as another cut 30 person who had had about being like 90% of women are wearing the

wrong bra size and then kind of getting into some of the conversation from there but then showing like how you actually help solve that with a product like hers. But that is the beginning of the

hers. But that is the beginning of the toolkit. Every time you see an ad from

toolkit. Every time you see an ad from now on, part of your homework here, I want you to think about what kind of ad is it, like especially if it's good. A

lot of ads are bad, but if you see an ad that's good, be like, "All right, does it fit in one of these formats?" And if not, jot it down and make a name for it.

Because I've named created most of these myself, just as I build my toolkit, and now you have another thing on your list, and you'll start to notice the more you have on this list, and the more often every time you're doing a campaign or every time you need to put in new assets, you can just roll through this

list and be like, "Oh, let's let's do a POV ad. Let's do an unpopular opinion.

POV ad. Let's do an unpopular opinion.

Oh, I we have an expert that we can use to talk about this." and it's going to make your life so much easier.

[Music] That was a whole bunch of ad types you can use for your business. I want to have take a second to talk about direct response. It's a big enough ad type and

response. It's a big enough ad type and it's big enough idea to take it's warrants it whole section inside this video. And this is a school of thought

video. And this is a school of thought for a certain type of marketer. It's

really sales and conversion focused.

It's worth having in your toolkit. I'm

just going to break down some of the rules for how I view direct response and what I've kind of read and utilized about it that you can look at in your toolkit. So the first note when you

toolkit. So the first note when you think about direct response, this is a sales effort. This is sales focused

sales effort. This is sales focused marketing. It's done in copy and it's

marketing. It's done in copy and it's done in videos. If it doesn't produce a measurable response, then it's not marketing, it's art. That's like a core of this is if it's not going for a sale, here's how many sales I got from this that this is not belong in direct

response. And they really focus on the

response. And they really focus on the offer, not the branding. Branding

doesn't matter here. It's about the product. Branding is a byproduct. Might

product. Branding is a byproduct. Might

be helpful, but it's not the goal. The

offer there is front and center.

Discounts bundles bonuses deadlines.

That is what makes this perform. Not

worried about vibes or looks at all. You

are focused on what you are selling and communicating it. In direct response,

communicating it. In direct response, the rules always include a strong call to action. You tell the customer exactly

to action. You tell the customer exactly what to do next. Don't just imply it.

Call now. Order today. Claim your free gift. Ambiguity kills conversion. This

gift. Ambiguity kills conversion. This

this works. And they build this out in a structure, and that structure matters.

Headline, sub headline, offer, poof, the offer works, call to action. It's the

most simple version. There's expanded

versions, too. And then scarcity and urgency work. People delay actions

urgency work. People delay actions unless they're pushed. And you have to in your ad basically act as the sales rep on the phone trying to get you to make a decision today and not call your wife. Deadlines, limited quantities,

wife. Deadlines, limited quantities, expiring bonuses, calling out people on their procrastination. These are

their procrastination. These are essential tools inside of that advertising. And then repetition,

advertising. And then repetition, sticking with that message, having your we'll talk about message match in this in the last section I do here, but this idea that the more you say the thing, the more you reinforce it, the better it goes. And that repetition, especially if

goes. And that repetition, especially if you know you have a winning message, is more important than creativity and testing lots of messages. And then we have positioning yourself as a trusted expert. That's a huge part of direct

expert. That's a huge part of direct response. The person talking has to be

response. The person talking has to be credible. And the more credible you are,

credible. And the more credible you are, the easier the process goes. But Dan

Kennedy has this thing. I think it's called magnetic marketing. Basically, it

becomes so credible and useful that leads come to you basically pre-sold. I

look at this as Huberman selling for AG1. Anyone is who is a fan of him has

AG1. Anyone is who is a fan of him has pre-sold whatever he's going to sell you. And that's your job as a founder or

you. And that's your job as a founder or as a person finding a spokesperson for the brand to become that magnetic. If I

was selling you a book on marketing and you've watched a hundred of these videos I've given you for free, you would be pre-sold and being like, I believe what this guy says. I would love to get this in book format. That's a key part of direct response is if you're if you're

missing that, you need to engineer it or pay for it. And then last is never be boring. If the copy feels like a

boring. If the copy feels like a corporate press release or a brochure, it is dead on arrival. Entertaining,

provoking, shocking, whatever it takes to keep them reading is the goal versus just filling it out. If you combine those elements together, you have this kind of idea of direct response. It's

presented inside a VSSL or a video sales letter where someone is literally selling through this on a video like this or the same thing as copy on a lander. Get to our next phase, the last

lander. Get to our next phase, the last part of this. Landing pages and funnels.

I'll touch on this briefly. It's not the point of this video, but it matters a lot cuz you can make the most amazing ad. If they go to a landing experience

ad. If they go to a landing experience that doesn't work, then basically you're going to lose the efficacy of this thing you made because where they're going isn't built to convert. So, a couple quick notes on that. Landing pages where ads die or thrive. There's a couple key

concepts. Message match. That is the

concepts. Message match. That is the message in your ad should match what's on your landing page. means you need a bunch of variants of your landing page or to incorporate it. But if you have a core big thing called out as your main value prop, that better also be on the

page they go to to go convert. Then we

have social proof. Again, this is actually reinforcing not just with reviews but also with like videos or them seeing real people testimonials as to why this was efficacy right there where they are to convert. Same thing

with reviews and then questions. Always

having those questions on there to actually answer any of the objections they have. Go through every objection,

they have. Go through every objection, list out every objection someone could have, write those and put them on the landing page. And that is having your

landing page. And that is having your offer be scroll stopping. when you

actually have your price or your bundle or whatever it is, having it nice and big on the page and called out and being like, "Wow, I need to go get that."

Whether that's the power of your product, photography, any number of ways you can achieve it. And last is potentially think about a downell or an upsell. Upsell can raise your average

upsell. Upsell can raise your average value. But downell is important because

value. But downell is important because if you're not going to convert, making sure you're getting email, you have some alternative is worth thinking about if you are seeing that you're not getting this efficacy out of that first drop.

But getting those landing pages dialed, having your funnels dialed, a huge point of making your ads there. That'll be a separate video likely, but it's worth understanding as an advertiser that sometimes you may be doing your best job, but if you're not also helping take

responsibility for what happens next, then you may not see the full value.

Anyway, I know we covered a ton inside of this video. They're already

downloadable guides in the link below to get you started building your toolkit.

That is the goal. I want you to start building your toolkit for advertising.

Hopefully, you've gotten a number of new ideas into how you can structure ads and ad types and networks to try on. So,

whatever you worry in the future, you have this video to come back to start diving in. There's lots of things I put

diving in. There's lots of things I put in here. You can Google and TBT and go

in here. You can Google and TBT and go down the rabbit hole on from direct response to PMAX, whatever it is. And I

just want to make this be like that big intro, really understand it. So, thank

y'all for coming along with me, also seeing some of we put together at CAN along the way. And appreciate y'all watching.

[Music]