I run https://teapaw.org/t.co/BhWt0jqk5i: we scale DTC brands to 8 figures and beyond and train in-house media buyers. Strategist, Speaker, Trainer & Investor.
Joined December 2008
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Thanks for the shoutout @spencepawliw ! This distinction changed how we celebrate creatives
You're not making as many "Winning Ads" as you think
The term "winning ad" is overused and poorly defined
I'm just as guilty for using it in a ton of posts.
My question to you is...
Have you ever tried to define "Winning ad" ?
Most people I ask either:
Can't give a specific answer.
Or only base it on KPIs
"Ads that hit KPI after 7 days"
But those definitions are costing you money
Because you're sending false signals to your team...
As crazy as this sounds
I've spent the last 2 months just trying to define this with my team & coaches lol.
And on that point, I want to give a big shoutout to @NehalKazim
This dude is by far one of the most underrated and unknown savages in all of ecom
But back to the point
WINNING ADS exist on a spectrum
There are levels to how BIG ads can win.
Here are the 3 variables we've identified that apply to deciding how "big" a winning ad is
Variable #1: The % of Ad Spend
0% - 100% (The higher the percentage of spend the ad gets, the bigger the winner)
Variable #2: The Target KPI
0x ROAS - 100x ROAS
$10,000+ cac - $0 cac
(Again, the higher the ROAS/lower the CAC, the bigger the winner)
Variable #3: The Total Days Running
0 days - 10,000+days (The longer it runs, the bigger the winner)
Now that we know the variables of a winning ad
You can actually start deciding what makes a winning ad for you, much more easily.
Our team internally is still brainstorming what we want to call these different levels of winning ads
And more specifically, plotting them on graphs for our creative team to see
But, if you ask me, those 3 points above are crucial for every D2C brand to understand that:
NOT ALL "WINNING ADS" ARE EQUAL.
Your team or agency might think "they're killing it" just because they have ads graduating from ABO to CBO after 7 days... lol
But by telling your team that you want to maximize those 3 variables
It should help them work towards what we currently call
"Super winners"
Which are ads that:
A. Suck up a ton of spend (40% or more)
B. Hit above our target KPI
C. And run for 2+ months (ideally even longer)
"Super winners" will increase KPI at your current spend, which means you can then spend more
Which, if I'm not mistaken...
Is the goal of every creative team.
Or at least it is for ours.
Media buyers, this is just a joke...bid in the way that helps you sleep at night
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
One of the most important metrics for a subscription business is the "net change of subscribers". For one of our 8 figure clients, the net change growth rate was negative for 10 out of the 12 months.
The reason: increasing prices and reducing subscription discount.
It was a decision made before we came on and the revenue started trending down, ever so slowly. Until we caught it.
We called in an emergency meeting (all hands of deck), created a series of metrics to analyze, the client made a handful of adjustments (and more by their extended team / agencies) and we are now on an up trend!
Main change was reverting the discount.
The point here is the importance of calling emergency meetings before things actually become an emergency. We are grateful we caught it and were able to turn it around with the brand (even though we are not on the retention optimization side). Doesn't matter: same team!
There's a good chance you have an emergency meeting you should have called with leadership or a specific department but haven't yet.
This is your sign.
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
We love the email teams we work with for ecommerce clients. That 40% of revenue from email did come from somewhere...
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
Ad Spotlight # 11: Drive Time
If you're buying a car and you're saying I will save a $1,000. You have my attention! Money flying at 7 seconds was great.
The ad is fast-paced, fun, and makes you feel like you’re missing out if you don’t at least check if out. Some people might say it's cheesy with all the money flying around but if you're starting the second half of your buying journey (starting to get serious about buying), this catches your attention.
What did you think of the ad?
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Tip To A Million A Month # 29: less offers = more scale. We just audited a meta ad account with 54 campaigns, 27 offers, 5x frequency and only 22% of the account hitting targets...all while spending $300k/month.
Unnecessary levels of complexity. Reminder: "simplicity scale, complexity fails" - Dan Moore
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
Media buyers know how good it feels when this hits.
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
This month, we off boarded one of our legacy clients that we have had for years: we 10x'd their brand from $400k/month to $4mm/month.
Great partners get married and terminate relationships professionally. Here's what we handed the next team in our offboarding:
1) Master sheet (KPI sheet for decision making)
2) Sensitivity analysis (profitability doc to model revenue, ad spend and profit)
3) $1mm/month strategy slide deck (including raw list of initiatives)
4) Cross channel ad budget sheet
5) Points of technical failure (complex tech stack required this)
6) Offer matrix for new bundles (offer development doc)
7) Avatar overview (qualitative)
8) Customer avatar data (quantitative)
9) Market data (quantitative)
10) Copy catalog (messaging used internally)
11) Creative depository (launch ready, raw/UGC, CTAs, brand assets
12) List of creators (including winners)
13) CRO docs (plan, data, learnings)
14) Financial model
15) Rep contact details
In addition to these docs, there are offboarding / transition calls with the new agencies to increase their chances of success (instead of sabotaging it, like most agencies do).
Start new relationships strong. Wrap them up strong as well; your clients deserve it.
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
Only if creative strategy for ecommerce brands was "everyone is a customer"...
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
Ad Spotlight # 10 with Ryze. First impression: How much do people have to rip off your product to create an ad like this?
This is a unique problem to product who's one of the leaders in the market.
This ad also only works when the market has heard of your product so many times where you're not even selling the benefits or outcomes of the product in the beginning, but just what the knock off brands are doing.
This is also an ad for people in the middle or bottom of the funnel (ideally), instead of this being a potential first touch point.
What do you think of this ad?
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When ecommerce attribution complexity peaks...
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
Ad Spotlight # 9 with @Barbie First impression: Wasn't sure why there's an adult as the focal point with the mention of Barbie but kept watching.
Cookie dough first mentioned at 10 seconds.
I personally don't know the @SweetLorens brand but was a bit confused if Loren was fictional or a real person. Sweet Loren's looks like a really well designed brand, lots of product diversity and seems like a good partnership at a quick glance.
Connecting cookie heart dough to "you can be anything" is a big claim.
What do you think of this ad?
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
Tip To A Million A Month #28: launch one new ad channel at a time. It's very tempting to launch 2-3 at the same time but it's easy to get distracted and leads to a much higher failure rate.
Launch 1, optimize, scale (or turn off) and then move to the next channel.
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
In 2025, free shipping is expected but here's how larger ecommerce brand store owners look at free shipping (especially if they lose a lot of money on it):
1. If their product is priced as competitively on Amazon, consumers will choose Amazon and their Shopify store struggles
2. There are markets where the product is so heavy where shipping accounts for 20%+ of retail value. One of our clients shipping fee is 31% of revenue and they provide free shipping).
3. If all of your competitors do it, you get bullied by the market to do it (even if you don't want to).
4. They look at it as good will / investing into the customer experience, to maximize LTV.
How do you think consumers look at free shipping in 2025?
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Ad Spotlight # 7 with AUDI AG: Truly Audio.
First impression: definitely some intrigue. Was waiting to hear her heels walking. Then, what on earth is that on her head (is she from the future or present).
They didn't present the EEG tracker until 15 seconds in so I can see why that may confuse a viewer.
Initial moments of higher excitement didn't really connect to their facial expressions or body language. The off the chart excitement at that end wasn't congruent either.
38 seconds in when I truly felt something.This ad is from Vietnam so there may be some cultural differences.
What do you think of this ad?
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
Ad Spotlight # 6 with Valerion Vision Master.
First impression: I thought it was going to be "just another ad for a projector" and the hook is a bit confusing (6 seconds before understanding what's even happening).
But then, the animations starting at 15 seconds started getting really good.
The pacing of different parts of the video seems incongruent to keeping someone's attention for minutes (example: 29 seconds)
But all of that was made up by incredible edits, high quality home environments and great model selection. The voiceover was also professional but not over the top.
What do you think of this ad?
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
Tip To A Million A Month #26: being "too profitable" on new customer acquisition (for ecommerce) is a problem. Balance "high profitability" with volume.
10x return on 100 customers paying $50 is not the goal.
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!
Here are 6 questions to review your 2024 advertising:
1. What were our best performing "ad channels" and why
2. What were our best performing "ad creatives" and why
3. What were our best performing "landing pages" and why
4. What were our best performing "offers" and why
5. What were our best performing "emails" and why
6. What were our best performing "promotions" and why
What else would you add to this list?
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Follow @NehalKazim to learn how to add a million a month in revenue profitably!