If you spend a lot of time on the online DTC community, you may have heard of the term “banger ad”. If not, you’re probably wondering wtf I’m talking about.
I want to define a “banger ad” and show you some examples, because I think the question clears up a lot of confusion when it comes to the eternal question “are my Meta ads working?” If you have a banger ad, success is undeniable–you know it’s working.
But first, I want to thank this week's sponsor: Segments Analytics.
Segments Analytics integrates with your Shopify store and finds you actionable, profitable customer segments instantly, then lets you push those segments to your marketing channels seamlessly.
What Is A Banger Ad
A banger ad checks all of the following boxes:
- Siphons up the majority of the budget in its campaign/ad set within 12 hours of launch (usually, this happens in two to four hours).
- Starts driving in-platform conversions within 24 hours of launch.
- Achieves a ROAS that is much higher than the brand’s in-platform benchmark.
- Drives a noticeable increase in sales of the product(s) featured in the ad.
- Has staying power; maintains its performance over 2-3 weeks, minimum
If you’re still wondering “have I ever launched a banger ad?”...you haven’t. It’s undeniable.
These ads can transform a struggling new brand into a viable business. They can help established brands bust through growth plateaus. And, as a brand scales, they become increasingly necessary to maintain and accelerate growth.
According to Common Thread Collective, this is a common outcome for every 100 ads launched by the average brand:
- 4 become banger ads
- 8-20 become nominal spenders, driving 2-5 conversions per day on average
- The remainder are duds; they don’t drive spend at all
This observation aligns with my experience, but for fashion brands, there is one important caveat: product determines “banger” status as much as, or more than, creative execution. So, for fashion brands, the quest to find banger ads is also a quest to produce best-selling products.
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A banger ad and a best-selling product are a powerful combo. But how are your best sellers impacting customer LTV?
The dirty secret of the fashion industry is that best sellers can often dilute LTV, because they're reaching a much broader audience who is less familiar with your brand.
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Segments Analytics also helps you identify your highest value segments, provides insights to help you craft relevant marketing messages, and then lets you push those segments to Meta, Google and Klaviyo with the click of a button.
Brands with big, broad product assortments–brands like ILIA Beauty and Jambys–use Segments Analytics to maximize the ROI of their retention marketing, lift repeat rates and increase customer LTV.
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Examples And Common Characteristics
I’m going to share two examples of videos that turned into banger ads for a former client. Interesting, they are both Instagram reels that we repurposed into ads:
Example 1
Example 2
Something interesting to note: neither of these styles were runaway best sellers until we launched the linked ads. Once the ads were live, both styles sold out within a week.
The brand reordered both styles, which took several months to get back into stock. When that happened, we relaunched the ads. But by that time, the ads were no longer bangers. They drove some sales, but they were no longer the top performers in the account.
Banger ads shouldn’t be the foundation of your strategy unless you’re able to do two things first:
- Develop an understanding for the type of products that typically create banger ads, and then put several shots on goal with each collection.
- Develop excellent inventory forecasting capabilities or the ability to reorder and restock within a few weeks, not months.
Otherwise, you may find yourself in a situation where you’re chasing unpredictable Meta results and making bad inventory investments. Remember, no one can predict winning ads with perfect accuracy, so don’t make huge inventory investments based on your “gut feelings” here.
How Can I Make More Winning Ads?
Here are a few ways you can improve your hit rate and scale your account:
1. The Meta user loves sparkly, shiny, bright, colorful things that look more expensive than they are. I covered that in more detail here and here.
If you can make this your brand aesthetic, you are much more likely to win consistently. Even if this isn’t your aesthetic, you need to study which products tend to drive more profitable spend on Meta and make more products with similar characteristics.
2. Make more ads, in more different styles. Develop a list of 10 ad formats that are relatively easy to execute (ex. Try-on videos, TikTok-style quick cut videos). Then, when a product appears to have potential, shoot it in all 10 formats to scale further.
3. More ads, period. Remember the stats from the first section–if you know what you’re doing, one out of every 25 ads you launch will be a banger. If you’re only launching 25 ads a month, you’re only launching one game-changing ad per month.
4. More focused creative strategy. Depending on the breadth of your assortment, it might not be financially feasible to shoot and test everything. You’re better off making a smart, data-informed judgement on the top 25-50% of your assortment, and shoot those.
5. Do more lofi content. The content that performs best is usually content that looks platform native. Look at how fashion influencers and real people are showcasing you and your competitors, and then make ads that look similar. Like mirror selfies.
In next week's members-only issue I am going to share a list of proven creative formats that will help you make more banger ads.