Speaker:

It was blowing that out of the water.

Speaker:

It was crushing on every single

metric that a marketer looks at.

Speaker:

We saw revenue go up, we

saw our MER come down,

Speaker:

which are all like your north star

metrics of like, Hey, this is working.

Speaker:

This is going well.

Speaker:

Hey there. Thanks for tuning into

the E-Commerce Evolution podcast.

Speaker:

We're going to take just a minute and

tell you a little bit about my agency OMG

Speaker:

Commerce.

Speaker:

Now we work with some of your favorite

eight and nine figure D two C and

Speaker:

omnichannel brands.

Speaker:

And our specialty is profitable scale.

Speaker:

We love taking great brands and

amplifying their growth profitably.

Speaker:

We've helped a number of brands go from

zero on YouTube to spending as much as a

Speaker:

million dollars in 90 days

while hitting a CAC or

Speaker:

CPA target.

Speaker:

We've also helped multiple brands

launch on Amazon or just add

Speaker:

scale to Amazon.

Speaker:

We took Boom Beauty from zero to

almost $6 million in sales their

Speaker:

first 12 months on Amazon.

Speaker:

So if you're not satisfied with

your current level of growth,

Speaker:

if you're looking to diversify channels,

Speaker:

maybe you're a little too dependent

on meta and you want to add YouTube or

Speaker:

you're not pleased with

your Amazon growth,

Speaker:

then we need to chat.

So visit

Speaker:

us@omgcommerce.com, click

the Let's Talk button.

Speaker:

We'd love to schedule a complimentary

strategy session with you.

Speaker:

And with that back to the show.

Speaker:

Well hello and welcome to another edition

of the E-Commerce Evolution podcast.

Speaker:

I'm your host, Brett

Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce.

Speaker:

And I am so excited about today's topic.

Speaker:

This will be a first,

Speaker:

we've never talked about this

topic in the history of the

Speaker:

podcast. We're diving into AppLovin.

Speaker:

How should you be thinking

about AppLovin how to use it,

Speaker:

can you really scale on it? Will it

work for you? Is now the time to scale?

Speaker:

And we'll get into all the ins and outs.

Speaker:

And so my guest today is Miranda Pinger

Speaker:

and she's an OMG client

with Cuddle Clones,

Speaker:

gotten to know her and Ryan

and the team at Cuddle Clones,

Speaker:

super smart marketers, amazing products.

You'll hear about those in a minute.

Speaker:

And get this,

Speaker:

she scaled from zero to

$80,000 a day on app 11

Speaker:

last holiday,

Speaker:

and now it's a staple in their marketing

arsenal and going to scale this holiday

Speaker:

as well. She's going to tell you how

she did it and all the ins and outs.

Speaker:

And so with that, Miranda, welcome

to the show. Thanks for coming on.

Speaker:

And how's it going?

Speaker:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

We're almost in the heat of q4.

Speaker:

November is knocking on our door somehow.

Speaker:

Crazy.

Speaker:

It's already here. So yeah,

it's Black Friday time.

Speaker:

It's Black Friday time

for sure. And today,

Speaker:

who knows when people will

actually be watching this,

Speaker:

but today was a big day for you.

Speaker:

You were the keynote to a big

presentation with my buddy Taylor Holiday.

Speaker:

So tell us about what you did today

because like in presentation mode today.

Speaker:

Yeah, definitely. I've got

my presenter's hat on. Yeah,

Speaker:

we were talking about the success of

AppLovin and channel diversification,

Speaker:

which has been a main topic of this year

that I think a lot of people have been

Speaker:

talking about.

Speaker:

And it's been a key thing that I've

been trying to unlock for Cuddle clones.

Speaker:

We've added App 11 last year. We've

added YouTube and Snapchat this year.

Speaker:

So I think a more diversified

brand is a healthier brand.

Speaker:

So if you're on Amazon, if you're

on lots of different places,

Speaker:

I think you can reach customers in a much

healthier way versus if you're all in

Speaker:

on one channel,

Speaker:

you're going to have a really hard time

when that one channel is having a down

Speaker:

day or is struggling to grow.

Speaker:

Totally. There's more stability

with channel diversification.

Speaker:

Usually the channels can feed off

of each other at least a little bit.

Speaker:

There's not always a

ton of channel overlap.

Speaker:

We'll actually talk about that as

it pertains AppLovin. But yeah,

Speaker:

love working with you guys

and growing on YouTube.

Speaker:

I think get the perfect

product for YouTube as well,

Speaker:

but more on another episode

today is all AppLovin and

Speaker:

also what was that event and where can

people check out the replays or do you

Speaker:

know?

Speaker:

Yep, you can find it on the Operator's

podcast, you can find them on LinkedIn,

Speaker:

on X and on their website

and they'll have a recording.

Speaker:

So if you want to hear even more in depth

from people outside of my voice who've

Speaker:

really had success on the platform,

Speaker:

and that's kind of where

the place to find it.

Speaker:

Check it out. I love it. So

before we dive into AppLovin,

Speaker:

we're going to start with that zero to

$80,000 a day scale run that you had

Speaker:

last year, which is just phenomenal.

But for those that don't know,

Speaker:

what is Cuddle clones?

Speaker:

What do you offer and why do

pet lovers go crazy for your

Speaker:

products?

Speaker:

Yeah, cuddle Clones has a special

place in my heart. Say I have a horse,

Speaker:

so I'm all in on the animals. And then

I have always grown up with rescue dogs.

Speaker:

Amazing. And I have a rescue dog myself.

Speaker:

So love animals have always been

really drawn to 'em and they hold a

Speaker:

special place in my heart.

And I love the mutt mixes.

Speaker:

I have a Clie cattle dog mix. So.

Speaker:

Mutts are generally the best, right?

They, they're not pretentious, right? Yes,

Speaker:

they're generally loyal, they're often

cute, their own signature unique looks.

Speaker:

So I'm a mud fan as well.

Speaker:

So all in on animals. So that's why

working with Cuddle clones is so much fun.

Speaker:

And so Cuddle clones,

Speaker:

what it was founded on was creating

custom replic because of your pet.

Speaker:

So we have custom stuffed animals of your

dog or your cat or your horse or your

Speaker:

gerbil. And most often people do buy

them when they pass away. So I think too,

Speaker:

having a breed,

Speaker:

I can't just go out and buy a stuffed

animal that looks like my dog because he's

Speaker:

unique and everyone's dog is unique.

They don't all look the same.

Speaker:

So if you go to cuddle clones,

Speaker:

you can buy a stuffed animal

that looks exactly like your dog.

Speaker:

They're all handmade. There's only one

of a kind. There's only one of your dog,

Speaker:

there's only one cuddle clone of your dog.

Speaker:

And these are phenomenal. I just want

to underscore when you say custom,

Speaker:

and when you say replica of your pet,

Speaker:

it's crazy how much this looks like your

pet. My business partner Chris Brewer,

Speaker:

has a small dog named Bubbles who

he adores and Pauls is still living,

Speaker:

but you did a clone of bubbles

and I'm telling you what,

Speaker:

you look at a picture of real bubbles

and clone bubbles and you're like,

Speaker:

I'm not really sure. I'm not really

sure because they're not moving,

Speaker:

so I'm not really in the picture. I

don't know which is which. It's crazy.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker:

They're very lifelike and our team

puts so much love and care into every

Speaker:

single one they create. And that's

clear when you get the product.

Speaker:

And I think that's unique when you buy

something that's a hundred percent custom

Speaker:

online, you might be a little

skeptical of like, Hey,

Speaker:

I don't know if this is going to

turn out. I don't get to preview it.

Speaker:

I'm putting in all my information in

photos and then getting a product.

Speaker:

It's really special

brand close to my heart.

Speaker:

And in addition to the stuffed animals,

Speaker:

we pretty much sell anything you'd like

to put your pet's face on as a gift.

Speaker:

We also sell on the site.

Speaker:

So our other bestseller that we had a

lot of success with on AppLovin and we're

Speaker:

testing on YouTube now is

your pet's face on pajamas.

Speaker:

So everyone loves getting

Christmas jammies,

Speaker:

so make it even more

special with your pet face.

Speaker:

PJ's for grownups, kids and for your pet.

Speaker:

So get some PJ's with your pet's face

on it and have your pet wear it and you

Speaker:

wear it too. It's a super

fun combo. And yeah,

Speaker:

love what you guys are doing

and love how you scaled.

Speaker:

You guys are really smart marketers,

like I mentioned. And so let's dive in.

Speaker:

So this year, YouTube is new, Snapchat

is new. Last year app 11 was new.

Speaker:

What led you to test app 11?

Speaker:

And then walk us through that

story of zero to $80,000 a day.

Speaker:

Because my guess is that was not

your target or your expectation.

Speaker:

I'm assuming that exceeded even some of

your wildest thoughts on scale there.

Speaker:

Yeah, definitely. I think onboarding

any new channel is a lot of work.

Speaker:

You have to get a pixel,

Speaker:

you need to figure out the

ins and out of an ad account,

Speaker:

you need to get your ads uploaded.

It's a lot of work regardless of.

Speaker:

Panel.

Speaker:

And so heading into Black Friday

last year we were a bit behind Target

Speaker:

and Meta was underperforming what

we had thought it was going to do,

Speaker:

and we were kind of like, this is not

looking great heading into Black Friday,

Speaker:

we should be a little

bit more up on revenue.

Speaker:

We were crushing all year

and then November was getting

harder as the CPMs were

Speaker:

rising on meta.

Speaker:

Was that the main issue you think? It

was just the competition in the auction.

Speaker:

CPMs rising on meta and that's what kind

of put a damper on what was otherwise a

Speaker:

great year up to that point.

Speaker:

And I think economic factors too, and

the users on Meta and Meta's algorithm,

Speaker:

I think other people were having similar

issues last Q4 with trying to scale

Speaker:

past what they had done previously on

Meta and previous years and months.

Speaker:

That's kind of where we

were at mentally last Q4.

Speaker:

So that's where Sean Frank from

Ridge was tweeting all about

Speaker:

AppLovin and dropped Kathy's email into

Speaker:

the Twitterverse. And.

Speaker:

Kathy's from AppLovin.

Speaker:

Yes. Yeah, Kathy's son,

Speaker:

she's awesome if you get to

see her give any presentations.

Speaker:

And so we emailed her and got

onboarded pretty quickly after that,

Speaker:

probably a couple days

we sent over our assets.

Speaker:

At the time the platform

was not self-serve,

Speaker:

so in order to get into the platform,

Speaker:

you had to be spending at least

$30,000 a day on meta, and

Speaker:

that was your proof that you

could get into the platform.

Speaker:

They just wanted to keep it small because

it wasn't so you couldn't just get in

Speaker:

there and work on it yourself yet.

Speaker:

Got it.

Speaker:

But they helped us with all of our

assets and getting things uploaded,

Speaker:

and then at the time there

was an onboarding credit,

Speaker:

so that was also an incentive

of, Hey, if this doesn't work,

Speaker:

we'll just not spend our own money.

So that was helpful too of, okay,

Speaker:

we're going to onboard with this

credit and if it doesn't work,

Speaker:

we'll just turn it off

and no harm, no foul.

Speaker:

Yep, totally makes sense.

I love the setup there.

Speaker:

Hey, we're not hitting our goals.

We're not hitting our targets.

Speaker:

And good entrepreneurs, good marketing

teams, you don't accept that,

Speaker:

right? You're like, no, we want to

hit our goal and exceed our goal.

Speaker:

And so what else do we have out

there? And also any smart marketer,

Speaker:

you're living on D two

C, Twitter or D two CX,

Speaker:

so kudos to you following smart people

like Sean Frank. And so you're like, Hey,

Speaker:

let's give this app 11 thing a try.

Speaker:

And so what did that look like?

Speaker:

So obviously you started Zero

because it was brand new.

Speaker:

How long did it take

to get to $80,000 a day

Speaker:

and what did that look like?

What was that experience like?

Speaker:

I'm assuming it was quite a ride.

Speaker:

Yes, and so the thing about Cuddle clones

is it does most of its revenue in q4,

Speaker:

so because it's a great gift, everyone

wants to buy it for the holidays.

Speaker:

So that's where we're a

bit unique compared to an

average G two C brand where we

Speaker:

have to work really,

Speaker:

really fast in a very short window

of time because we're also custom,

Speaker:

so we can't just Amazon prime

you a custom order in a few days.

Speaker:

So our shipping cutoffs

are much earlier. Yeah.

Speaker:

Totally. That makes sense. Yeah.

Speaker:

Because the earlier we have a shorter

window, so you have to act very,

Speaker:

very quickly in a short period of time

and make sure you're hitting all your

Speaker:

KPIs on a daily basis.

Speaker:

Every day does count when 30 days out

of the year you're going to do most of

Speaker:

your revenue.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker:

Like every day is a few weeks

or some days are a month

Speaker:

to other times year. And

so it totally makes sense.

Speaker:

It's nice because you can dial

up the urgency for the buyer.

Speaker:

So that's real urgency,

not manufactured urgency,

Speaker:

but it means you can't

screw it up every day really

Speaker:

matters for driving those

new orders. So yeah.

Speaker:

Were you just glued to the app 11

dashboard increasing budgets and bids

Speaker:

constantly or what was that journey like?

Speaker:

Yeah, you actually couldn't

touch anything at the time. Okay.

Speaker:

You got it.

Speaker:

There was Nova fiddling

of my fingers. So yeah,

Speaker:

the team is the one at the time that

was managing all of our budgets.

Speaker:

So we had a Slack channel with them and

they would give recommendations to us,

Speaker:

but I genuinely couldn't touch the

platform. I couldn't adjust a budget,

Speaker:

I couldn't touch anything,

which sometimes as a marketer,

Speaker:

sometimes it's good to have

to ask someone else, Hey,

Speaker:

can you do this for me so that

you're not the one touching things.

Speaker:

So that's kind of how we started

with them. And obviously now,

Speaker:

but at the time you

couldn't touch anything.

Speaker:

So they onboarded with our whole

ad account, all of our videos,

Speaker:

and essentially we had a $10,000 credit,

Speaker:

and if I was the one doing that

with 10 grand, I'd been like, oh,

Speaker:

let's spend 300,

Speaker:

maybe 400 a day and then we'll go to a

thousand and then maybe we'll go to 2000.

Speaker:

In my head,

Speaker:

that's probably how I would spend

10 grand for the brand and they

Speaker:

spent it over the weekend,

so it was like boom,

Speaker:

the 10 grand was out the

door in a couple days.

Speaker:

Let's go man. And so how did that

first 10 K perform? Obviously? Well,

Speaker:

because you scaled up

dramatically after that, but yeah.

Speaker:

What kind of CPAs were you seeing

in comparison to other platforms?

Speaker:

What did that look like?

Speaker:

It was blowing that out of the water.

Speaker:

It was crushing on every single metric

that a marketer looks at click through

Speaker:

rate.

Speaker:

Validated by Triple whale. Right?

Speaker:

So you're using the pixel from App 11,

Speaker:

but you were really validating

through Triple Whale.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah. So we had that third party

source that you could really trust.

Speaker:

We saw revenue go up, we

saw our MER come down,

Speaker:

which are all your North star metrics

of like, Hey, this is working,

Speaker:

this is going well.

Speaker:

It's working, it's.

Speaker:

Working. And so we were like, alright,

cool. Let's put our own money in this.

Speaker:

Now we spent through their

$10,000, we have proof of concept.

Speaker:

So at that point we were at.

Speaker:

A quick question here on the volume,

Speaker:

because I've got thoughts on this with

a few other platforms, YouTube namely.

Speaker:

But did they recommend condensing that

Speaker:

$10,000 spend into a

tight window because the

Speaker:

algorithm works better that way

and because they feel like you can

Speaker:

learn and grow when you spend that

much money in that tight of a window?

Speaker:

Or was it more about they knew what your

goals were and they knew that you had

Speaker:

this 30 days to kind of make hay and

so they were trying to hit that target?

Speaker:

Yeah, I think we both were

seeing such good results.

Speaker:

So early on it was kind of a no-brainer

of we just this thing day over day,

Speaker:

will it break, will it hold? And

that was kind of the crazy part of,

Speaker:

to sit there and say, okay,

well we spent five grand a day,

Speaker:

let's go to 10 grand and then see

the 10 grand keep holding steady

Speaker:

roas, keep nothing went down

that scaled crazy, alright,

Speaker:

let's do 30 grand today and

then alright, let's do 45,

Speaker:

let's do 50.

Speaker:

And then it got to the point where within

seven days I was telling them, okay,

Speaker:

let's spend $80,000 today on

Black Friday and let's just go.

Speaker:

Because again,

Speaker:

we have such a short window where most

marketers probably wouldn't go that hard

Speaker:

in it, but it's like I've

got three weeks here,

Speaker:

we got to make as much

revenue as possible.

Speaker:

Totally. But it made sense because

you've got the triple oil click data,

Speaker:

so you see click attributed

data from these campaigns,

Speaker:

you can see your global sales,

you can see your MER globally,

Speaker:

your in new customer, CPA type of thing.

Speaker:

And so you knew you were on

it was working and so why not?

Speaker:

That's fantastic.

Speaker:

So you basically gave them your

meta ad account and then they were

Speaker:

tweaking some of your top meta creatives

for that initial run or what were the

Speaker:

creatives like in that first run?

Speaker:

So we had some meta creatives, but

for our bestseller, the Pajamas,

Speaker:

we actually didn't have a ton of video.

Speaker:

Most of our winning ads

on meta were stills,

Speaker:

and that's what had always

worked on meta for us.

Speaker:

So we didn't invest into a lot of video

at the time because Meta didn't usually

Speaker:

deliver it or spend as much on it compared

to all the stills that we would make

Speaker:

of the product.

Speaker:

So we actually didn't have a ton of

video when we launched and we kind of

Speaker:

scraped some together of, okay,

Speaker:

well here's a good voiceover and here's

some good visuals that we have in the

Speaker:

drive. It was very much piecing

stuff together on the fly.

Speaker:

It wasn't a giant production timeframe.

Speaker:

It was working with my

creative strategist, Sydney

and us being like, okay,

Speaker:

this is what we think

could work on the platform.

Speaker:

Let's make a true ad because we know

someone's watching an ad and kind of see

Speaker:

what happens.

Speaker:

So we really didn't have a Meadow winning

video that was active in app love,

Speaker:

perfectly honest. Got.

Speaker:

It crazy.

Speaker:

So you pulled it all together for App

11 and I think it'd actually be useful.

Speaker:

I know there's been quite a bit of

chatter online and on D two C Twitter and

Speaker:

stuff about App 11, but for those

that don't know, what is App 11?

Speaker:

So what kind of ads are you running?

Where are these ads showing up?

Speaker:

What is App 11 for the uneducated?

Speaker:

Yeah,

Speaker:

so App Eleven's been around for quite

a while in the mobile app space.

Speaker:

So it's a platform that's

existed for a while,

Speaker:

but it's new to us e-comm folks because

it wasn't open to e-commerce before.

Speaker:

So they have all this

advertising data on mobile game

Speaker:

players and typically if you think about

if you've played mobile games on your

Speaker:

phone, you would get more

ads for mobile games.

Speaker:

And so if you're playing Candy Crush,

Speaker:

you're going to get an ad for Clash

Royale or you're going to get ad word

Speaker:

scapes, you're a different ad.

Speaker:

And they recently then rolled out

this e-comm platform Axon to where

Speaker:

now e-comm ad buyers can buy

inventory on a mobile game.

Speaker:

Yeah, it's amazing. So

these are all video ads.

Speaker:

They show up on mobile apps, mobile games,

Speaker:

they're nons skippable, so you

could exit out of the game,

Speaker:

but they're nons skippable, right?

Speaker:

So if I'm playing Candy Crush and not

the paid version or whatever and the ad

Speaker:

pops up, I can either close

or watch it basically.

Speaker:

And in most cases, you're

actually entering into an

agreement with the game of,

Speaker:

Hey, I want to earn extra coins,

I want another try at this round.

Speaker:

And so you're kind of entering in this

agreement with the platform of saying,

Speaker:

Hey, it's.

Speaker:

A gamification of watching the

ad to earn a little something.

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly. So you're entering into

this agreement with your game of saying,

Speaker:

Hey, I will give you my time.

Speaker:

I'm going to give you 30 seconds

of my time to watch this ad and

Speaker:

you're going to give something in my game.

Speaker:

I love it.

Speaker:

Love it. People go into it

knowing I'm watching an ad,

Speaker:

I have voluntarily given the

click to say, I will watch an ad.

Speaker:

People are expecting

to see an ad, they're.

Speaker:

Expecting to see it, there's

something in it for them.

Speaker:

So they're not resenting the ad maybe

like they do in other platforms.

Speaker:

And so that's maybe part of why some

of these ads are really accepted and

Speaker:

responded to. So super, super

interesting. Now the platform though,

Speaker:

so in the early days when you scale from

zero to a hundred or zero to 80 KA day

Speaker:

in less than seven days,

Speaker:

that was all managed by

the app 11 team now itself

Speaker:

serve.

Speaker:

What does that look like and how

Speaker:

important of a part of your marketing mix

is App 11 today and even when it's not

Speaker:

peak season?

Speaker:

Yeah, it's remained between 20 and 30%

of our media mix all throughout this

Speaker:

year.

Speaker:

And at this point I've spent a couple

million dollars on the platform and it's

Speaker:

continued to help our brand grow this

year. And because of the seasonality,

Speaker:

I'm really expecting it

more growth heading into Q4.

Speaker:

And as we sit today in October, it

is our largest spending channel.

Speaker:

It is currently surpassed meta by

a lot for the month of October.

Speaker:

Crazy in 2025. It's so crazy.

Speaker:

And we've never spent in the

month of October ever on app 11.

Speaker:

So this is all brand new data and

brand new customers for October.

Speaker:

That's amazing.

Speaker:

Let's talk a little bit about

who is the buyer here, because

Speaker:

the buzzword obviously in marketing over

the last year or two is incrementality,

Speaker:

meaning can we get net

new customers from this ad

Speaker:

endeavor that we wouldn't

have gotten otherwise?

Speaker:

Or are we just paying for another ad

that's going to be inserting itself along

Speaker:

the buyer journey for people

that we're going to buy anyway?

Speaker:

And what's really clear about App

11 is that these are net new buyers.

Speaker:

And from your experience,

Speaker:

it looks like there's not a lot of

crossover between typical AppLovin buyers

Speaker:

and meta buyers. Can you

talk a little bit about that?

Speaker:

Who are these buyers

coming from? App Love.

Speaker:

Yeah, so we actually

looking in Triple Whale,

Speaker:

we saw there was less than a 5% overlap

from our meta customers and our app

Speaker:

love, and that was at of

42,000 orders last Q4.

Speaker:

So it's a very large data set as well.

Speaker:

So out of 42,000 orders, less than

a 5% overlap with Meta's customers.

Speaker:

And we did find pretty often that the

app Levin customers were first click

Speaker:

buyers. They would click on the

ad, they would go on our website,

Speaker:

and they would check out that day

because you gave them 30 seconds of

Speaker:

information for them to read versus

you saw still on Pinterest or

Speaker:

Meta,

Speaker:

or you just saw a graphic

on a Gmail website where you

Speaker:

have to go learn more on the site.

Speaker:

So your time on site is going to be

longer and you may need to have more

Speaker:

questions answered versus if you

watch a 32nd commercial of the

Speaker:

product that tells you everything about

it, you're much more ready to buy.

Speaker:

Yeah, it totally makes sense. And your

product is pretty straightforward,

Speaker:

at least the pajamas are the cuddle clone.

Speaker:

Maybe this wasn't going to have a few

more questions and it's more expensive,

Speaker:

but do you think part of that where people

were clicking and buying one day was

Speaker:

because it was holiday or are

you seeing that now even when

Speaker:

you're not running during, I

guess now is almost peak holiday,

Speaker:

but when you're running in the off season,

Speaker:

is it still kind of that click

and buy day one from map 11?

Speaker:

Yeah, we do see that a lot.

Speaker:

We see probably one of the highest day

one ROAS out of all our channels on app

Speaker:

11 I think just because of the time that

the customer spends with you. I mean,

Speaker:

attention's the new currency.

Speaker:

So every app and every social media

channel is trying to just capture your

Speaker:

attention and that's what you're buying

with app Love is attention for a full 30

Speaker:

seconds.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah,

Speaker:

it's crazy and attention

that someone has agreed ahead

Speaker:

of time to give you. And

so again, I think there's

Speaker:

less resistance and probably

less resentment as well,

Speaker:

which has got to work in the

advertiser's favor. I would think.

Speaker:

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So let's do this.

Speaker:

I want to spend quite a bit of time on

the creative side because as with any ad

Speaker:

channel, creative is the biggest lever.

Speaker:

Creative is what's really

going to move the needle,

Speaker:

that's where you're going to win or lose.

Speaker:

But let's talk about targeting

and media buying for a minute.

Speaker:

Longtime media buyer did TV back

in the day, of course now Google,

Speaker:

YouTube and Beyond and stuff.

Speaker:

And so I do like to tinker on occasion

and pick audiences and all these things.

Speaker:

Yeah, no, I know you, you guys

geek out about that as well,

Speaker:

but what is possible, what

is not possible on app 11?

Speaker:

Yeah, so there is no targeting,

Speaker:

there's no toys and rules

to tinker with, which.

Speaker:

Partially makes me very nervous,

Speaker:

but I obviously know Sean Frank really

well and several others and seeing your

Speaker:

success, I'm like, okay,

Speaker:

I get it that the algorithm's smart but

still makes me a little bit nervous.

Speaker:

Yeah, I think the most important part

is your ad creative doing the targeting,

Speaker:

which we've talked about. Everyone's

talked about with meta, leave it broad.

Speaker:

That's been a topic for the past five

years of don't put target demos on your

Speaker:

meta account, leave it broad,

let the ads do the targeting.

Speaker:

I think that's kind of the brave new

world that we're going to live in as

Speaker:

advertisers of making

really good creative that

Speaker:

an algorithm can pick up of

who to serve it to. I mean,

Speaker:

I think all the social platforms,

Speaker:

platforms have cracked that with organic

content and viral reels, viral tiktoks,

Speaker:

they knew who to show it

to based on a few times.

Speaker:

So the same thing's going

to happen with advertising.

Speaker:

Makes a lot of sense.

Speaker:

And so basically the levers you

have to pull mostly creative,

Speaker:

we'll talk about that in a minute,

but you've got your budget,

Speaker:

it's your daily budget, you've

got bid and that's pretty much it.

Speaker:

And how do the bids and budgets work?

Speaker:

Yeah, so you'll set either for e-comm,

Speaker:

you've got cost per purchase

or you've got a target roas.

Speaker:

So whatever works for your business,

you can try both. I've tested both.

Speaker:

I have success with both and

whatever works for your business.

Speaker:

And then you're going to set a goal.

Speaker:

So whether that's your target

goal is to hit a 300% ROAS or a

Speaker:

100%, whatever that is,

Speaker:

you're going to input your goal there

or your cost per purchase goal and the

Speaker:

algorithm's going.

Speaker:

To do you start with that goal. So

when you first launch with App 11,

Speaker:

do you recommend having a goal or you

recommend having a little more open where

Speaker:

they're just like, Hey, get me

as many conversions as you can.

Speaker:

I would recommend having a goal that's

closest to your business objectives.

Speaker:

The algorithm's pretty smart to know to

put you in the auctions that it thinks

Speaker:

it can win on. So that's what I've

discovered is putting the truest business

Speaker:

goal that you can into the auction and

that way it can go out and find your

Speaker:

ideal customer at a target

that makes sense for you.

Speaker:

The other options you have for targeting

are either day zero roas or day seven.

Speaker:

So if you want more data,

Speaker:

usually I would recommend using day seven

because it's going to just the system

Speaker:

more data. I use seven

day on meta as well.

Speaker:

So that's just kind of what I found

the most successful for our brand.

Speaker:

But you can do whatever fits

your business objectives,

Speaker:

but usually day seven is feeding

it the most data as possible.

Speaker:

Makes sense. And I think

just like any platform,

Speaker:

the more conversion data you feed it

feed the better the algorithm is going to

Speaker:

get. And if you have the seven day window,

Speaker:

you can rest with some confidence that

there's going to be a lot of day one or

Speaker:

day zero conversions. Those

will be captured obviously

in that seven day window.

Speaker:

So yeah, that totally makes sense.

Speaker:

And so then what kind of data

can you see from this then?

Speaker:

Are you seeing things like CPM and

Speaker:

CTR and CPCs and things like that?

Speaker:

Is it calculating those

and showing those to you,

Speaker:

or what does the reporting look like?

Speaker:

Yeah, you'll see the same

things you see in meta,

Speaker:

I think what makes it different or

again, your interactives, your end cards,

Speaker:

those are things separate from your video,

Speaker:

but you'll still see your click through

rates, your CPMs, what you're paying,

Speaker:

and then you can also still

see day zero, day seven,

Speaker:

day 28 row and platforms similar

to how you can measure in meta,

Speaker:

especially if you don't have a North

Beam or a triple whale to pull out those

Speaker:

attribution windows

longer than seven days.

Speaker:

Got it, got it. Makes sense.

Speaker:

And then are you actively

going in and pausing

Speaker:

creatives,

Speaker:

adding new creatives or mostly are you

letting the algorithm do its thing and

Speaker:

basically if there's a

creative that's not working,

Speaker:

it's going to take that to zero on

its own. What does that look like?

Speaker:

I think it all depends on the journey

you're on with app 11 and where you're at.

Speaker:

I think you should pause ads after

Speaker:

a certain period of time if they

aren't working for your business,

Speaker:

especially if you have a lot of them

in there. If you've only got 30 or so,

Speaker:

I would just let them all, leave

them all on, let them learn.

Speaker:

But we got to the point where we had a

couple hundred in each campaign and then

Speaker:

it got to the point where it was

like, okay, we have a lot of data,

Speaker:

we're feeding the system, let's

try and concentrate this more.

Speaker:

So at that point we did go in and turn

off ads that didn't perform over a 60 day

Speaker:

window. So we gave it a lot

of time to see if like, Hey,

Speaker:

is this going to be successful?

Then we did turn some ads off,

Speaker:

but I think you're perfectly safe to

leave them on for a long period of time,

Speaker:

especially as you're starting.

Speaker:

Cool, that's great.

Speaker:

And then are you doing

one consolidated campaign

Speaker:

per product line? So maybe you guys

did one for clones, one for PJ's,

Speaker:

or are you doing separate campaigns

maybe by avatar or customer persona?

Speaker:

What does that look like?

Speaker:

We have just one campaign

per product type.

Speaker:

So PJ's have their own campaign clones do.

Speaker:

That's how I run everything on Google

and Snapchat and Meta just to keep those

Speaker:

personas of that product in one place.

Speaker:

The conversion rate is the same and

the A OB is the same per product.

Speaker:

So I wouldn't recommend mixing products,

Speaker:

but I think keeping them in their

own campaigns, this is fine.

Speaker:

You can have a hundred ads on

one product and be healthy.

Speaker:

Got it, got it. And the algorithm

is going to decide, okay,

Speaker:

I know who going to like this ad and

who's watching, who's responding to it,

Speaker:

things like that.

Speaker:

And they won't spend on an ad

that's not successful either.

Speaker:

I think that's something important to

note that it's not going to pick up an ad

Speaker:

and spend a lot of money

on it at a bad ros,

Speaker:

which I think sometimes you'll see

happen in meta if it's not successful and

Speaker:

it's not hitting targets, it's not

going to spend very much on it,

Speaker:

so it's going to drop to the bottom.

Speaker:

So I would not worry about that happening

because I think people worry about the

Speaker:

meta of like, oh,

Speaker:

it picked up this ad and it's spending

crazy money and it's a 0.2 roas.

Speaker:

I don't dunno what Meta's doing with it.

Speaker:

That won't happen with Apple and I

have not seen that happen. And again,

Speaker:

that's with a couple hundred

creative we've tested,

Speaker:

I have never seen that happen.

Speaker:

Got it. Totally makes sense. Okay,

Speaker:

so let's get into the

creative side of things.

Speaker:

This is where the magic really

happens. So these are all video ads,

Speaker:

they're all vertical, correct? So

we're not running landscape ads,

Speaker:

these are all nine by 16 or four

by five or one by one, correct?

Speaker:

Or are they all nine by 16?

Speaker:

They all need to be nine

by 16. Yeah, no scores.

Speaker:

Got it. So all nine by 16.

Speaker:

Talk a little bit about

how long are these ads,

Speaker:

what are the requirements of the platform

and where are you finding the most

Speaker:

success? At what ad length

are you finding wins?

Speaker:

You can upload up to 60 seconds.

Speaker:

I would recommend doing at

least 30 at the low end.

Speaker:

You can upload shorter than that,

Speaker:

but we usually see a lot more

success having longer ads.

Speaker:

People go in there expecting

to watch a longer ad.

Speaker:

So I think if you only

showed them 15 or 16 seconds,

Speaker:

you're just not utilizing the platform

enough and the time that you have with

Speaker:

the customer.

Speaker:

And I think just to draw a

quick parallel to YouTube,

Speaker:

we spent millions a month on

YouTube and we see the same thing.

Speaker:

You can run fifteens and people like them

and maybe they get less frustrated or

Speaker:

something like that, but

usually people don't respond,

Speaker:

they don't click or they

don't convert. And so yeah,

Speaker:

I love that 30 to 60 seconds

and just test within that

Speaker:

window,

Speaker:

but you got a captive audience they've

agreed to watch and so tell them enough

Speaker:

to get them excited to

overcome objections,

Speaker:

to get them to click and to take

action. So that makes a ton of sense.

Speaker:

Now are you running polished ads?

Speaker:

Are these like UGC mashups?

Speaker:

Do these look like a meta

ad look more like a TV ad?

Speaker:

Talk about the style of ad.

Speaker:

Yeah, I would say it's kind of

right in the middle of those things.

Speaker:

So we've got millions of followers

on TikTok and on Instagram and

Speaker:

Facebook and those viral entertaining

videos that everyone's like, oh,

Speaker:

just plug it into meta,

it's going to work.

Speaker:

That actually doesn't work

great on the platform.

Speaker:

Someone's going in there

expecting to see an ad.

Speaker:

So I think you can still be entertaining

and you should still be entertaining as

Speaker:

a brand, but I don't think

you need to be super polished.

Speaker:

And I also don't think you should run

something that's pure entertainment driven

Speaker:

because someone's expecting to see an

ad and I think you're not utilizing your

Speaker:

time with the customer if you aren't

giving them information about the product

Speaker:

and following a story

arc about your product.

Speaker:

Yeah,

Speaker:

it's such good advice and I think you

could draw a few parallels to TV just more

Speaker:

from a call to action standpoint

or a structure this like an

Speaker:

ad versus an organic post that you just

want to go viral on TikTok or something

Speaker:

where if you look at, and

I come from the TV world,

Speaker:

if you run a TV ad that's

just entertaining or just fun,

Speaker:

people may watch it and

people may remember it,

Speaker:

but they're not going

to take action on it,

Speaker:

they're not going to make a purchase.

Speaker:

And so you need to structure that ad

where you are telling people where to

Speaker:

go, what to do, getting them hyped up

to buy, you got to ask for the sale,

Speaker:

things like that. And so totally

makes sense. Make this a commercial,

Speaker:

not just a fun viral video.

Speaker:

So what are some of the components then

if you look at your winning ads versus

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ads that did not win,

Speaker:

what are some of the components or what

are some of the things that the winning

Speaker:

ads have in common?

Speaker:

Yeah,

Speaker:

the winning ads definitely flow

more like an advertisement than an

Speaker:

entertaining video that you

would see on social media.

Speaker:

So I think that's something to keep

in mind and I think the more you can

Speaker:

overcome objection ahead of time for the

customer when you are telling a story

Speaker:

to them is the most important. So

some of our winning videos have,

Speaker:

we sell long pajamas,

we sell short pajamas,

Speaker:

we sell pajamas for

your kids and your dogs.

Speaker:

So those questions are already

out of your head of, oh,

Speaker:

well can I get this for my kids?

Speaker:

So they have kids sizes already have

overcome that objection. Would highly

Speaker:

recommend taking all your meta comments

and questions and putting them in an ad

Speaker:

because we would get those all the time.

How can you overcome them before that?

Speaker:

They even have to go looking for it.

Speaker:

So I think that's a really important

thing to keep in mind when you're running

Speaker:

ads there. And also just give them

all of the features and benefits.

Speaker:

If you're selling a supplement, what

are the health benefits that you'll see?

Speaker:

What is the before and after state? What

is the problem you're trying to solve?

Speaker:

And then give them the solution

with your product. So I think.

Speaker:

That.

Speaker:

Can go very DR style and you are wanting

to get a response and a reaction from

Speaker:

these people.

Speaker:

So how can you tell your story in that

short window to where there's nothing

Speaker:

left they have to question except

putting their credit card in.

Speaker:

Totally makes sense. Yeah,

Speaker:

it's one of those things where

questions left unanswered

Speaker:

objections left unaddressed

will cost someone to not take

Speaker:

action,

Speaker:

they're not going to click and they're

not going to do what you want them to do.

Speaker:

And so yeah, what are the FAQs, what

are the top features and benefits,

Speaker:

address those and then ask for the clicks.

Speaker:

Are you guys kind of following one of

the YouTube formulas that we use as hook

Speaker:

product demo social proof,

Speaker:

which we weave some objection busting

in there and then call to action and

Speaker:

there's some different layers and

different things we do there as well,

Speaker:

but would that kind of be the

flow for AppLovin as well? Right.

Speaker:

We still want to think about even

though we get a captive audience,

Speaker:

we still want to think about the hook,

Speaker:

still need the product demo there still

need some objection busting and social

Speaker:

proof and they need a

clear call to action.

Speaker:

Any tweaks or nuances

you would share there?

Speaker:

No,

Speaker:

I would just say that the hook is

important but it is not going to make or

Speaker:

break.

Speaker:

I think about a YouTube ad if you don't

capture their attention in five seconds.

Speaker:

Your host, yeah.

Speaker:

Audio, but same thing with meta.

Speaker:

If you don't capture your attention in

0.2 seconds, you're scrolling. So I.

Speaker:

Think.

Speaker:

That's the point where you

don't have to do, I think meta,

Speaker:

you have to get a little crazy with your

hooks to get someone to stop scrolling

Speaker:

and yeah.

Speaker:

That thumb stop rate is huge for YouTube,

Speaker:

the skip rate is huge or

the view rate is huge,

Speaker:

but here is it maybe more that the

hook is about getting someone in

Speaker:

the right frame of mind and getting

them thinking about your product or

Speaker:

prepping them for selling

rather than thumb stop or view

Speaker:

rate.

Speaker:

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker:

And some of our winning ads

is our pajamas in a state that

Speaker:

kind of looks like a fireplace,

Speaker:

so you kind of get that

cozy energy from it and.

Speaker:

Totally you're.

Speaker:

Like, oh, this is cozy, this is warm,

Speaker:

this is the emotion

that comes with pajamas,

Speaker:

which is important. Same thing if

you're selling a problem solution.

Speaker:

If you're selling

something for performance,

Speaker:

what is the feeling you're going to

have with that product to start the ad?

Speaker:

I love that. Yeah. What emotion

do you need to evoke for this?

Speaker:

It's like love and adoration for

your pet and it's just good family

Speaker:

vibes and stuff like that.

As we lean into holiday,

Speaker:

the fireplace and stuff kind of

feels like Christmas morning.

Speaker:

It all just feels right.

Speaker:

So it's like getting someone

in the right frame of mind,

Speaker:

love that so little nuance on the hook,

Speaker:

you're prepping them to sell them,

Speaker:

you're not so much worried about

thumb stop rate or view rate.

Speaker:

So that's really cool.

Speaker:

What other elements in the ad itself,

Speaker:

and I want to talk about things like

in card and the DPAs and stuff that are

Speaker:

part of this. So I think a lot

of people don't dunno about,

Speaker:

so we'll talk about that in a minute,

Speaker:

but other elements of the video ad

itself that are critical to have.

Speaker:

It's really important to

have an offer in your video.

Speaker:

Obviously we know offers

are important in e-commerce,

Speaker:

give someone a reason to buy,

Speaker:

but I think we've even tested not having

offers and ads to see what's going to

Speaker:

change and usually the click-through

rate drops by at least 2% statistically.

Speaker:

Whoa. So when you say offer,

Speaker:

you're saying specifically

save this much, get this deal,

Speaker:

we've got this sale or

this promotion going on.

Speaker:

So you're talking about

that kind of offer.

Speaker:

Yes, for sure. So what's the offer?

Speaker:

And it's easy too to switch out if you

don't have an offer in the video and you

Speaker:

want to have it in an end

card or an interactive,

Speaker:

you could change those out every weekend

if you've got a different offer every

Speaker:

weekend.

Speaker:

So that's also a unique thing where you

don't have to go shoot a whole new video

Speaker:

or edit into Premiere and edit a video.

Speaker:

That's great. That's great. Okay, cool.

So let's actually talk about that.

Speaker:

So every video ad then has

an in card and an interactive

Speaker:

after it. So talk about what

are those and how do those work?

Speaker:

So you'll have images that you can upload

and then you'll also have interactives

Speaker:

and the system will feed through in

testing different things. So images,

Speaker:

you could take your top stills from

meta and reincorporate them as your end

Speaker:

card.

Speaker:

You can take product images

of no context at all,

Speaker:

just product image and you could also

just go very off or heavy on your end card

Speaker:

of like, Hey, black Friday sale

going on now save 50% bogo,

Speaker:

whatever that is.

Speaker:

You can also put into that image the

interactive end cards are different.

Speaker:

So those are more of, it says interactive,

Speaker:

so you can scroll on them.

Some of them are quizzes.

Speaker:

You could run a quiz and

someone can click on it.

Speaker:

So you're trying to get the

user engaged with the ad.

Speaker:

I'm sure if you've played a mobile game,

you've played one where it's like, hey,

Speaker:

drag this over here in the

ad so that you're touching it

Speaker:

and that makes you more

likely to engage with it.

Speaker:

So these are the same way with

e-comm where you can ask a quiz.

Speaker:

You can also make them scrollable so

there's somewhere you can input a bunch of

Speaker:

images and then the user can scroll

through them so they're actually touching

Speaker:

the ad and interacting with it.

Speaker:

So great.

Speaker:

And there's also something psychological

about if you are interacting with the

Speaker:

ad, clicking on things

or hovering over things,

Speaker:

you're more likely to

take action and purchase.

Speaker:

And so what I'm going to do,

Speaker:

I'm actually going to share

my screen and we will walk

Speaker:

through one of your ads.

I'm going to mute it.

Speaker:

I know this is only going to be most

valuable for people that are watching the

Speaker:

YouTube video,

Speaker:

but I'm going to have you give a

commentary here and I'll chime in as well,

Speaker:

Miranda as we go.

Speaker:

But this is one of your current winning

ads and you can see if you're watching

Speaker:

this, we got, what is this word?

Speaker:

Scape is the game that

someone is playing here and so

Speaker:

of course they're trying to level up or

whatever got this bonus gift and then

Speaker:

here's the ad,

Speaker:

and now we're seeing a closeup of the

pajamas with a cute furry dog on there and

Speaker:

then someone holding their pet.

There's that family room with

Speaker:

the family. Kind of taking a look here,

Speaker:

how did you select these? So these videos

that they're showing us rapid fire,

Speaker:

it's showing clips of different

styles of pajamas, pajamas on people,

Speaker:

pajamas that are folded and kind

of on the bed type of thing.

Speaker:

How did you select the

video clips for this?

Speaker:

Yeah, we wanted to have a variety and

I think when you have UGC content,

Speaker:

mixing it with a voiceover we have

is really effective of keeping

Speaker:

attention and then also showing

different use cases of the product.

Speaker:

So we don't just have a 20-year-old

influencer wearing pajamas. We have the.

Speaker:

Whole.

Speaker:

Family around the tree. We

have kids, we have the dogs.

Speaker:

There's a lot of content around the tree

in this ad at Christmas time to kind of

Speaker:

evoke that feeling of.

Speaker:

Totally.

Speaker:

Having Christmas pajamas.

Speaker:

Just giving family all that.

Speaker:

Yeah, so those are kind of the reasoning

behind having lots of different clips,

Speaker:

showing it on the bed really close up

so it's not just on a model. So okay,

Speaker:

when you open your package,

what is it going to look like?

Speaker:

I think too if you shop for apparel

and in person in a store, it's folded.

Speaker:

It's not on your bed, it's on a display

and you're touching it and feeling it.

Speaker:

You can't do that with e-commerce.

Speaker:

So it's like how can you evoke the

same feeling of going into a store,

Speaker:

picking up apparel, feeling it,

Speaker:

touching it and opening it visually

in an ad so that you can get that

Speaker:

same feeling that you would

get going to the mall?

Speaker:

Yeah,

Speaker:

it's so good and we run a lot of

mashups for a lot of different brands

Speaker:

from popcorn to accessories to skincare,

Speaker:

and we did this back

in the day with native,

Speaker:

we would always try to find a lot

of diversity with the UGC just like

Speaker:

you're talking about

because you want the person,

Speaker:

whoever you're trying to get to buy to

either see themselves in the ad or to

Speaker:

see the person they're buying

the gift for in the ad.

Speaker:

So you've got some clips

here that are just kids,

Speaker:

two kids sitting on the fireplace with

the stockings behind them or sitting on

Speaker:

the hearth or whatever.

Speaker:

You've got a couple of people that

are just slightly older by themselves.

Speaker:

You've got some people in their twenties,

Speaker:

you got some young families that include

mom and dad, everybody's wearing PJs.

Speaker:

So you've got some real diversity there

where someone's going to watch this

Speaker:

one.

Speaker:

It's fast paced so you're not tempted

to look around the room or check your

Speaker:

watch or something like

that you're watching,

Speaker:

but then you're also going to see

yourself or your loved one in this ad,

Speaker:

which is really, really important.

Speaker:

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker:

I think the most successful ads we've

had on AppLovin two include a lot of

Speaker:

different use cases too of

buy it for your grandkids,

Speaker:

buy it for your significant other,

Speaker:

buy it for your best friend trying

to evoke maybe if they don't

Speaker:

like it themselves,

Speaker:

but I know someone with a dog who I

need to get a gift for and then if we

Speaker:

mention it, that recall is there.

So I think that's important too.

Speaker:

If you are trying to not hit a

niche audience and you want to go

Speaker:

really broad, you have to

go broaden your ad too.

Speaker:

So if you just have a 20-year-old creator

talking about why she bought them for

Speaker:

herself,

Speaker:

you're going to find 20 year olds who

want to buy it for themselves and that's

Speaker:

great,

Speaker:

but if you want to get it out to everyone

and everyone who sees it to buy and

Speaker:

for that ad to grow in that pocket,

you have to go broader in your ad.

Speaker:

Same way that you would go broader in

your targeting if you were to touch all

Speaker:

the controls.

Speaker:

Totally. And there's a reason if you

watch direct response ads or even mini

Speaker:

infomercials where someone will give

all the use cases and you may be

Speaker:

tempted to say, well it's obvious it's

pajamas, you can buy it for anybody,

Speaker:

why do I have to list it? But sometimes

you seem to be really obvious,

Speaker:

people are not thinking deeply about

your product and so saying buy it

Speaker:

for your kid or for your grandkid or for

your niece or your nephew or whatever,

Speaker:

you kind just need to make the

right suggestions because people,

Speaker:

we can't assume that people will be

thinking about that on their own.

Speaker:

And you see an ad, you

may not like it yourself.

Speaker:

I mean there's a lot of things here. Yeah.

Speaker:

Totally.

Speaker:

Especially in the holidays, I'll

see an ad for something, I'm like,

Speaker:

I don't like that, but I'm like, oh,

but my husband might like that but.

Speaker:

I got to buy a gift for Exactly. But.

Speaker:

If you don't call it out,

Speaker:

I'm probably not going to subconsciously

think that unless someone was like,

Speaker:

Hey, buy this for your significant other.

Speaker:

Buy this for someone

else other than yourself,

Speaker:

especially if you are trying to target

people outside of what they would buy for

Speaker:

themselves.

Speaker:

Love it. How holidays love it.

So then as we're going here,

Speaker:

there's a shop now button at the bottom

that's always there and then you show

Speaker:

this 60% off deals. You talk about,

hey, the best ads have offers.

Speaker:

There was a hooray audio

that goes on with that.

Speaker:

So you've tested these ads

with and without the 60%

off or with other discounts

Speaker:

or whatever and this has been your winner.

Speaker:

Yeah,

Speaker:

definitely having an offer and

especially if you are a brand that

Speaker:

advertises in Q4 and you are

something that people gift to others,

Speaker:

I think the urgency of like, hey, this

is a deal you should get right now,

Speaker:

it's for the holidays, limited time

offer. Another thing we do a lot is like,

Speaker:

hey, you need to get it

in time for Christmas,

Speaker:

especially it being a custom product,

you don't have until prime day,

Speaker:

two day Amazon it to your

house on December 22nd

Speaker:

that you have to get these

ahead of time. So I think too,

Speaker:

if you have a product with longer lead

times leaning into that urgency of like,

Speaker:

Hey, you have to order this now because

otherwise you just don't have it for

Speaker:

Christmas, no matter if you want it or

not on this the 22nd of December, you.

Speaker:

So offer plus some urgency, bonus

points if it's points, points,

Speaker:

urgency, that just is totally

legit. It makes sense here.

Speaker:

So now we're looking

at cuddle clones logo,

Speaker:

white background shop now button at

the bottom. This is the end card.

Speaker:

Is that what we're looking at right now?

Speaker:

No, you're not quite at the end

card yet. This is just the video,

Speaker:

but we're trying to really put that

brand name in as you're watching the

Speaker:

ad. I think too,

Speaker:

if you think about if you're watching

a reel or if you're watching a TikTok,

Speaker:

you're going to see the brand name

Speaker:

as the title there or if you run a white

listing ad it'll be partnered with,

Speaker:

so the brand name's always on

an ad on a social platform.

Speaker:

Most cases you'll see the brand

name and the logo somewhere.

Speaker:

So we like to insert it into the

video somewhere or mention it verbally

Speaker:

so that even if you don't

make it to the end card,

Speaker:

you heard the brand name or you saw it

visually and our logo is actually purple,

Speaker:

but we added the red because

it's Christmas. Again.

Speaker:

Bringing.

Speaker:

Continuing to bring all of that

holiday recognition into it.

Speaker:

Totally makes sense.

Speaker:

And I know one of the things you mentioned

when we were prepping is that real

Speaker:

comments, there's a lot of people

that just clicked on bought,

Speaker:

but there's also really a common journey

where someone saw it on AppLovin and

Speaker:

then searched on Google.

Speaker:

So that's where you really have

to make the brand name clear.

Speaker:

You don't want them just to get the

idea and go search for something else.

Speaker:

You want them searching for

you afterwards on Google.

Speaker:

That is the second highest customer

journey is either AppLovin to purchase or

Speaker:

app AppLovin to Google to purchase. So.

Speaker:

Crazy.

Speaker:

Again, super important that brand recall.

Speaker:

And if you don't have the brand recall,

they're like, what was that thing?

Speaker:

Was it pajamas with my dog on it?

Speaker:

You better be targeting all of

those broad keywords as well.

Speaker:

Absolutely. Absolutely. So.

Speaker:

You didn't advertise to them and

then they went to your competitor.

Speaker:

Yeah, which happens a lot. Yeah,

Speaker:

you're just giving someone an idea and

helping out a competitor. Congrats.

Speaker:

So now this I believe is an Incar arrest.

Speaker:

You got low at top custom pet

face pajamas as the headline.

Speaker:

Then we got these are shorts, PJ's,

Speaker:

closeup of the cute dog's face,

actual picture of the dog there,

Speaker:

get some highlights of some

features and stuff there.

Speaker:

So this is the end card

that we're looking at.

Speaker:

So here's an interactive

end card. If you play it,

Speaker:

it's going to go through

different color variants.

Speaker:

Oh, nice.

Speaker:

Nice. So it's very

interactive animation style.

Speaker:

Again,

Speaker:

there's different variety where you can

scroll with your thumb across several

Speaker:

photos. You can ask

them a quiz at the end.

Speaker:

So there's different ways to interact

with them through that end card that I

Speaker:

think is very different than most

ads you'll see on any other platform.

Speaker:

Totally.

Speaker:

So we had the interaction where there's

different styles of PJs popping up

Speaker:

there. Now we've we're looking

at something that looks

more like a feed ad or a

Speaker:

collection of Google shopping

ads type of thing. A DPA,

Speaker:

this is a progression

or this is a separate,

Speaker:

this is a different in

card that you could test.

Speaker:

This is the DPA A at the very end. So

if you toggle this on in your settings,

Speaker:

this will always appear

on all of your ads.

Speaker:

So that's kind of where the

customer can interact with

Speaker:

your feed directly from Shopify.

Speaker:

So this is where you can then show

the products or show the customer what

Speaker:

products you have to offer.

Speaker:

Have you tested this

with and without price?

Speaker:

So right now we're

seeing sweatshirts, mugs,

Speaker:

all that has your pet's

face on at PJ's of course.

Speaker:

Have you tested that with

and without the price listed?

Speaker:

No, at this point we have not

tested with the price listed.

Speaker:

I'm not sure if that's an

option yet in their offerings.

Speaker:

I kind of like this, I actually

not showing the price here.

Speaker:

This is something we

test a lot on YouTube.

Speaker:

You can make your YouTube ad shoppable

and you can insert your feed into YouTube

Speaker:

ads.

Speaker:

And I've found that actually sometimes

that kills your conversion rate if you're

Speaker:

showing the price of something too

soon before they're really sold,

Speaker:

before they've interacted

with your product enough,

Speaker:

it can actually be a detriment.

Speaker:

And so I think it's kind of cool

that there is no price there.

Speaker:

So we'll keep playing this

here and then basically, okay,

Speaker:

then basically you're just showing the

progression then someone clicking through

Speaker:

to the website.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker:

Great, great. Love it. So talk about this,

Speaker:

I know now in every platform obviously

utilizes AI in some form or fashion,

Speaker:

but now you can upload lots of different

elements and then Apple Oven is going

Speaker:

to piece those together and test

those and find winning combinations.

Speaker:

What are the variables that the AI

is combining to try to build winning

Speaker:

ads for you?

Speaker:

So I think something important to

follow in their best practices.

Speaker:

So if you're making a creative set,

you can upload up to 10 videos,

Speaker:

up to 10 interactives and up to 10 images.

Speaker:

And then your DPA is always going to

be connected if you have turned on.

Speaker:

So that's.

Speaker:

All part of a creative set,

a that ad group type thing.

Speaker:

So those are newer, those didn't

exist earlier in the platform,

Speaker:

so that's a newer feature.

Speaker:

But what I found and what they suggest

is best practice is doing a couple videos

Speaker:

and then as many interactives as

possible, as many images as possible.

Speaker:

So best practice I found is do two to

three videos and in a set and then you do

Speaker:

10 interactives. 10 images.

And in their media library,

Speaker:

which is unique compared to meta,

Speaker:

you can see the performance

of that end card or image as

Speaker:

a standalone versus how

it performs with nice.

Speaker:

So if you have the same

end card in four campaigns,

Speaker:

you can measure just the

performance of the end card,

Speaker:

regardless of where it lives. Very.

Speaker:

Cool.

Speaker:

So that's something

that's important. And two,

Speaker:

testing your end cards in your images.

You can look at the performance.

Speaker:

So if you have say two that

have a lower click through rate,

Speaker:

pull those out and try

to test more and keep,

Speaker:

how high can you get your click

clickthrough rate and test through those.

Speaker:

I think that's the most important part

of someone deciding to click forward.

Speaker:

So can you show the offer? Can you

show the features in the end card?

Speaker:

We have one brand that

I've worked with of two,

Speaker:

can you show as many products

as possible on the end card?

Speaker:

So we're showing all

the colors of the PJ's.

Speaker:

Can you show all the variants that

you have so that someone's like, oh,

Speaker:

well I don't like pink,

but I really like blue.

Speaker:

If.

Speaker:

They see that you have for blue,

Speaker:

they're more likely to click or say you

have shoes and I don't want sandals,

Speaker:

but I saw that you have

sneakers. I like sneakers.

Speaker:

And then they'll click through.

Speaker:

So kind of just thinking through what

can you show them about your product

Speaker:

before they click to make them really

want to go through to the widest amount of

Speaker:

people.

Speaker:

Totally makes sense.

Speaker:

And then do you have a setup where

if someone clicks on the in card,

Speaker:

that's maybe taking them to a different

page versus if they're clicking in the

Speaker:

DPA that's going directly to that

specific product detail page?

Speaker:

Or what does that look like?

Speaker:

You'll just pick one landing page per

creative set. So if that's your PD DP,

Speaker:

but if someone does go to the DPA,

Speaker:

they can click on a product

that maybe was not in the ad.

Speaker:

So that's where your DPA is going

to be a little bit different.

Speaker:

So if someone sees all of our pajamas

that we offered where there are

Speaker:

our standard line, but we also have

sweatpants that is included in that dpa,

Speaker:

someone might click on the sweatpants

and then they're going to end up on the

Speaker:

sweatpants pdp. So that'll

be a little bit different.

Speaker:

But in the grand scheme of things,

Speaker:

most times when you do

have the DPA connected,

Speaker:

it has a much higher conversion

rate than if you did not.

Speaker:

Very cool. So let's talk about how many

creatives do you need to get started,

Speaker:

and then I want to talk a little

bit about creative fatigue,

Speaker:

and then I want to talk about creative

diversity in a second as well.

Speaker:

But how many creatives do

you need to get started?

Speaker:

You just need one really. I mean,

you can add more. I'd suggest more,

Speaker:

but I mean,

Speaker:

Q4 last year we spent a million dollars

and we probably had less than 30

Speaker:

creatives in the platform. So.

Speaker:

Great.

Speaker:

I really don't think you need hundreds.

Speaker:

I think you need probably five great

ads and then continue to test and make

Speaker:

more and see what works for you and

your brand on the platform. But no,

Speaker:

you don't need a lot to get started.

Speaker:

Cool.

Speaker:

And then in terms of longevity or creative

fatigue or these wearing out after a

Speaker:

week or two,

Speaker:

are these more YouTube and TV where maybe

you've got a winner that can run for

Speaker:

months or a year plus? What

does the fatigue look like?

Speaker:

Much more like YouTube.

Speaker:

We have a winning ad that's been

running since November 21st, 2024.

Speaker:

That's always at the top.

Speaker:

I love it. Yeah, it's.

Speaker:

A great ad. So yeah, if you have got

a really good winner like YouTube,

Speaker:

you can run it for a very long time and

it'll continue to reach new people and

Speaker:

continue to perform, continue to test.

Don't just get one winner in there.

Speaker:

Totally and.

Speaker:

Done with it,

Speaker:

but you definitely don't need to continue

refreshing them every single week

Speaker:

with 30 new ones. I feel like Andromeda

and Metas starting to gear towards,

Speaker:

so definitely not as high as a fatigue

as meta. Definitely more like YouTube.

Speaker:

Love that. And then let's talk a

little bit about creative diversity.

Speaker:

And I know that's kind of the name of

the game as everybody's talking about

Speaker:

Andromedan meta and things. It's like,

I wouldn't say iteration is dead,

Speaker:

but this idea of subtle

variations where it's like we have

Speaker:

15 or 30 or a hundred versions

of basically the same ad,

Speaker:

but just with slightly different hooks

and so different endings and things like

Speaker:

that. I know now on Meta Meta's

going to treat those all one ad.

Speaker:

And so now it's saying take bigger swings,

Speaker:

make the creatives quite

different On YouTube,

Speaker:

we're still finding some wins if

it's kind of the same core video,

Speaker:

but very different hooks

that can work really well.

Speaker:

And so we're still iterating.

Speaker:

We're kind of trying to do both

iterate and take big swings.

Speaker:

But what are you finding in app Loven?

As far as creative diversity goes?

Speaker:

We've definitely tested different things.

Speaker:

We found more success with

iterations at this point.

Speaker:

We have a couple core winners. We've

sliced and diced 'em different ways.

Speaker:

We've made some short,

we've made some long,

Speaker:

we've called out different

things than others.

Speaker:

And then also doing the same of big

swings as something that's totally,

Speaker:

totally different. Maybe using

a different creative agency,

Speaker:

using a different influencer.

Speaker:

So that's where I think

you should do both,

Speaker:

and I think you should

do it at a quality level.

Speaker:

I would not just make

creative for creative's sake,

Speaker:

that's all different and you

spent five minutes on it,

Speaker:

you should really be thinking about

these ads and your customer and making a

Speaker:

good informational ad,

Speaker:

not entertainment and not something

that was thrown together really quickly.

Speaker:

And with poor intent,

Speaker:

you should think really deeply on it of

what you want to make and what you want

Speaker:

to portray. It doesn't have

to be high production though.

Speaker:

I mean all that content you saw is UGC.

We've spent millions on the platform.

Speaker:

We have a very small in-house

creative team, scrappy team,

Speaker:

so you don't need to be a

multimillion dollar brand with a

Speaker:

videographer and a camera

to have success here.

Speaker:

Yeah, I love that. And then the logo

looks really professional. The end card,

Speaker:

the DPA that's got all those product

images look really great and look

Speaker:

professional. But yeah,

the video looks like UGC,

Speaker:

but that makes it look authentic and

trustworthy and fun and doesn't make it

Speaker:

feel like just a standard ad. So yeah,

Speaker:

I think that makes a lot of sense.

Speaker:

What we're doing on the YouTube side is

something similar where we're looking

Speaker:

at, hey,

Speaker:

what are our winning hooks and measured

by view rate and what do they have in

Speaker:

common and what do the

losers have in common?

Speaker:

And then the ads that have

the best click-through rate,

Speaker:

what do they have in common and what are

we doing in terms of the product demo

Speaker:

and what are we doing

in terms of the offer?

Speaker:

And then what is the highest conversion

rate? And we're just kind of looking at

Speaker:

the similarities and over time we're able

to iterate and able to say like, Hey,

Speaker:

we saw for this baseball ad,

Speaker:

it was like this product line just didn't

really work. Or for this skincare ad,

Speaker:

it was the founder on

camera saying these things.

Speaker:

It just worked consistently

over and over again.

Speaker:

And so then you're able to take lessons,

Speaker:

take that next iteration

and maybe take a big swing,

Speaker:

but take a big swing

that's informed by data.

Speaker:

I know I probably want to mention these

things and maybe I'll just take a big

Speaker:

swing in terms of saying

it in a different way.

Speaker:

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker:

So yeah.

Speaker:

I think you can have a good

mix of quality content,

Speaker:

but it can be UGC and it definitely

doesn't need to be a TV commercial.

Speaker:

So I think that's where it's very similar

to YouTube in those ways where you

Speaker:

want to seem authentic,

Speaker:

but you also want to portray a story

to the customer at the same time. Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah, portray the story.

Speaker:

You got to hit all the points of

overcoming objections and strong call to

Speaker:

action, all those things which are

really, really important. Great.

Speaker:

Any other mentions or callouts

as far as creative goes?

Speaker:

Anything we didn't talk about that's

important from a creative standpoint?

Speaker:

No, I think we touched on

everything. I would just say

Speaker:

to think about the way that these

customers interact with the platform.

Speaker:

When you're adding creative, you can

100% add your meta creatives in here.

Speaker:

And depending on how the style of them

is, they may perform really, really well.

Speaker:

But if they're purely entertainment,

Speaker:

you're probably not going to have a

lot of success right out of the gate.

Speaker:

And you should probably

make some creatives that are

closer to a YouTube ad or a

Speaker:

commercial compared to something

that's just either eye catching hook

Speaker:

or an entertaining video.

Speaker:

Yeah, I love that.

Speaker:

Maybe one last thing here before we wrap

up and talk about how people can learn

Speaker:

more about you and also buy

some amazing pet centered gifts

Speaker:

for the holidays.

Speaker:

Talking again about lack of

overlap between App 11 and social.

Speaker:

I think you had mentioned that there's

a true classic tease case study where

Speaker:

meta was mainly selling to women

buying for their significant other

Speaker:

app love and was more men buying

for themselves or maybe have that.

Speaker:

Yeah. But yeah, was it

the inverse of that?

Speaker:

Yeah, so I think you can reach new

audiences, especially on app love,

Speaker:

and I think everyone also talks about

the older demos are always really

Speaker:

successful. You can

find those on app love.

Speaker:

You can also find 20 year

olds who like to play scape.

Speaker:

So I think regardless of your

brand, you should give it a shot.

Speaker:

And I think there is a wide variety

of demos on here that you can reach,

Speaker:

just like Meta.

Speaker:

Makes a ton of sense. I

think the time is right.

Speaker:

You need to diversify if you've got

video content and can pull together

Speaker:

something that will fit for app 11. It

just makes a ton of sense. So first off,

Speaker:

Miranda, if someone is like, all right,

Speaker:

I got to check out these cuddle clones

and see what these are all about and I

Speaker:

need to check out the PJs, how

can they learn more about you?

Speaker:

Go to cuddle clones.com.

Speaker:

You have to order before December 10th

if you really will. These at Christmas.

Speaker:

Now.

Speaker:

Click now. Yeah, make sure you

go get them well ahead of time.

Speaker:

They can all be made to order for you.

Speaker:

And I would venture to say, and I've

got several pet lovers in my house,

Speaker:

this will be their favorite

gift. You get this for somebody,

Speaker:

it's going to be the gift they talk

about and share with other people,

Speaker:

and you'll get to see them wear it for

years to come. And then what about you,

Speaker:

Miranda?

Speaker:

So I know you are active on X

and you're speaking at operators

Speaker:

events and things like that. How can

someone connect with you or follow you?

Speaker:

Yeah, follow me on X on

Twitter, Miranda Tinger.

Speaker:

Just look me up. I'm sure I

can tag it at the bottom here.

Speaker:

I'll send it over to you, Brett. That'd

be great. Just an advertising nerd.

Speaker:

And I like communicating with

everyone online. I live in Ohio.

Speaker:

There's not many media

buyers in Ohio over here,

Speaker:

so it's nice to connect with other

marketers that work in DC because I don't

Speaker:

quite live in an area

where that's a hotbed.

Speaker:

Totally. That's same. I'm in Missourian,

Speaker:

so it's like most of my friends

who are e-commerce nerds

Speaker:

or media nerds are on the coast

or somewhere else. So yeah,

Speaker:

love that connection. Awesome.

Any other asks, requests,

Speaker:

anything else coming up that you

want to mention to the audience?

Speaker:

No, but I hope everyone has a good

Black Friday. It's going to be a wild,

Speaker:

wild west I think this year.

Speaker:

And if you can diversify and

have success like we did,

Speaker:

I ended up packing PJ's in the warehouse.

Speaker:

I'll ask you for after everything I

sold, so I'd love to do that again.

Speaker:

It's like, congrats Miranda, you made

app love and work as a thank you.

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You get to go pack orders in the

warehouse. Oh yeah, that's fun.

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I can think of the way worse things

to do for sure. So love that. And hey,

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if channel diversification is on

your Christmas list or beyond,

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actually probably based on

when you're going to hear this,

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reach out to us at OMG Commerce.

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We'd love to talk to you about opening

up opportunities on YouTube or on Amazon

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or Meta or things like that. And so

would love to chat there. Miranda,

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thank you so much for the

time. This has been phenomenal.

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I'm all hyped and pumped up

to go run some AppLovin ads.

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Sounds good. Hope everyone else is too.

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Awesome. Thank you. And thank

you for tuning in as always.

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We'd love to hear from you. If you

found this episode to be helpful,

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share it with someone else that you

think might enjoy it. And with that,

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until next time, thank you for listening.

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