Have you ever wondered why your creatives tend to have a short shelf life?

This is what an amateur media buyer would go through on a weekly basis👇

New creatives they have launched do well in the first 2 weeks but CPA starts skyrocketing again. Their dopamine hit is over and they are back to square one.

Leaving them frustrated.

I call this the ‘creative dopamine trap’.

What if you could squeeze more juice out of it and save time & money? And have more time to think about more creative breakthroughs?

Here’s the thing:

We all buy things for different reasons.

Your creatives should do the same. But it doesn’t mean your team needs to go into another production shoot. Your core concept of the creative can stay the same but how you sell could be slightly changed.

A good example of variant testing comes from Bonds.

Campaign: Bonds Total Package

In the competitive world of men's underwear, Bonds understands that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't cut it when it comes to capturing the attention of various target audiences.

With creative variations, they were able to connect deeper with subsets of customers whilst maximizing their production costs.

It would be absurd to spend another production coming up with another angle but what they did here was a genius move. (And you should apply the same principle to your eCommerce brand).

It will save you time, resources, and headaches, and most importantly prevent you from burnout. (Yes, I have been here and it’s a terrible place to be).

Bonds recognizes that every demographic, whether it's a working professional in their 30s or a retiree, has unique desires, preferences, and perspectives in life.

Their creative team has done a fantastic job of creating a series of tailored messages that speak directly to the specific needs and aspirations of each group. They understand that language, humor, and life outlook vary across demographics, and they have honed in on these nuances to get their creatives to resonate with the target audience.

This is why deep customer research is so important! Do your research!

Identifying One Main Selling Point

Let’s look at their unique value proposition (UVP):

• 🩲 a support pouch that provides exceptional comfort and support.

While the UVP remains consistent, Bonds has skillfully created variants of their video hooks to cater to the different perceptions of the UVP based on each demographic's life stage.

This level of segmentation ensures that Bonds’ messaging gets a clear cut through in each sub-market.

Hint 💡: They are focusing on fundamentals rather than tactics! They are able to create a stronger connection with their target audience by focusing on the fundamentals.

• What 'customer language’ do they speak? Is there a particular jargon that your customer resonates with?

• Does your marketing team know who the creative is for? Specificity adds clarity in your messaging.

  • men → men in the 30’s → men in the 30’s that are into financial well being

• What are they (customers) looking to buy? What’s their dream state?

Before I deep dive into how Bond has executed this, let’s go over the ‘standard’ approach to video right now in digital marketing.

But to be a great media buyer/growth marketer, you must understand that there are sub-blocks of a body. By mixing the orders of these blocks, you can build a new entire creative without going to another UGC creator or creative production.

Requesting this type of video edit only takes you 20-30 minutes after a creative deep dive. Allowing Facebook campaigns to last longer and giving you fewer headaches.

The Bonds team took the same framework and applied it to their Youtube campaign.

• Bonds team has only replaced different bodies to cater to different customers

Variant A: "A wine rack for your pinot."

Demo: 60+ male

Desire/Wants:

• my pinot is an excellent vintage

• age is important, that’s why storage is important

Result? 1M Views.

Variant B: "A portfolio for your assets"

Demo: 30+ working professionals

Desire/Wants: They are busy in their career and the topic of finance is a huge part of their life.

• whether it is a big listing or a small listing, you got to protect your assets

• invest in something where boys have plenty of room to hang

Side note: Gavin Rubinstein is a real-estate celebrity and Bond’s team did an excellent job leveraging celebrity power.

Result: 976,000 views.

Variant C: "A tacklebox for your tackle"

Demo: 30 & 40s that love adventure

• a proper tacklebox ensures that your rod stays untangled

Result: 1.9M views

Okay, now I think you understand how Bonds creative team ‘repurposed’ their videos by changing their body creative blocks.

But here’s the best one yet.

Variant D: "A bento box for your three-piece sushi"

This amassed 2.5M views. The best ad so far.

• when preparing the bento box, the rice balls and the nori must be separate

Takeaways From Reviewing Bonds Commercials

Not all variants will be successful.

But the point here is to test at least 5-10 variants of your winning ad. Don’t give up on just testing one ad. Test multiple variations of the ad.

It is possible that your 3rd variant may outperform your 1st one. (This happens to me multiple times).

So don't go back to storyboarding with new creators and video shots and wait for 3-4 weeks to get a new one whilst your ad account suffers. Create variants of your existing winning ad. It will surely help stabilize your creative performance.

Have a look at a test I ran with different hooks.

They all have been given enough impressions and spending to judge its performance. We aren’t just looking at ads that have spent $100 to get statistical significance. They all have spent a lot.

Have a look at 34D vs 34B. They have a $10 difference in cost per purchase. The hook is much better as well for 34D. If 34D is able to get to the same amount of spend as 34B without the cost per purchase increasing drastically, this is a win for me.

I did not have to come up with a new entire video angle. I did not have to request a new UGC asset. This hook change only took me 2 days from ideation, and video edits to launch.

Saving me time and headaches to come up with a new creative angle.

Try this out and let me know how you go.

That’s a wrap!

Hope this helps any media buyers, creative strategists and eCom brand owners out there.

Good luck!

If you have any questions, you can comment below. Happy to help.