Deconstructing my 2 top performing ads that generated 12 MILLION dollars in revenue

Part 1 of a two-part series. Stay subscribed or SUBSCRIBE NOW to not miss out on this must-read series!

Hey UGC and marketing friends!

I’m so excited to dive into this two-part series and break down one of my two top-performing ads that generated (a combined) 12 million dollars in revenue for one of my clients. I also wanted to take out time to thank you all for your patience while I recovered from covid this past week. I left you all on a cliffhanger - I know this two-part series is highly anticipated, so without further ado, let’s dive in!

Before I go any further - here is a direct link to the ad I'm referencing throughout this article. Here are some details before I go any further:

• I shot this in early 2021.

• I filmed this when I lived in my 350 SF studio.

• I had complete creative and strategic direction.

• This footage was shot on Snapchat with a filter (which I have since stopped doing).

• This was before “TikTok-y UGC” was a thing - this style at the time was considered “forward-thinking,” which is honestly laughable since it’s such a simple concept that’s been done millions of times since.

• This video was 20 seconds long, and for this client, the sweet spot was 20-30 seconds. That said, we had concepts closer to 60 seconds in length that performed just as well as our historical top performers! Like I always stress: it’s never a one-size fits all, and you shouldn’t completely negate a certain “length” just because you heard someone say, “UGC ads shouldn’t be longer than X.” I’ve given this example many times, but I have a client who has a 15-minute tutorial ad on Facebook that has raked in MILLIONS for them. It really depends on the platform it’s being launched on, who the target demo is, and what the product is.

• The music used is from Artlist - if you want a discount, use this direct link for tasteful and catchy copyright-free music to protect you from legal liability.

Starting with the hook: "These pants have 5 secrets…", which back in 2021 was one of the first of its kind (obviously nowadays with TikTok ads popping off), this hook may be somewhat overused, BUT it can still work. I say this confidently since I've been using the "5 reasons why…" hook, similar to the "5 secrets" hook, and it's been performing! I believe it's not what you say - it's how you say it, and in that same way of thinking, it's all about your EXECUTION regarding the UGC concept. Translated: just because it's a hook that may be "overused," it doesn't mean it can't work or be rephrased to test again.

As a note: I purposely chose this visual hook since prior performance proved that the side profile of a body without a face worked best as a scroll-stopper.

From the hook, we immediately go into the value props: I like to choose the ones that stand out the most to the target consumer. Based on previous ads, these are the value props that have worked the best:

• Dress pant styling, yoga pant feel

• Machine washable and wrinkle resistant

• Buttery soft, 4-way stretch fabric

And then, just really quickly: I always like to call value props “unique selling points (USPs)” because, at the end of the day, you want to have the value props featured in your ad that make this product unique to their competitors. The example I’ve given in the past is: if your client is a lotion brand, there are already a million and one lotions on the market - but what makes THIS lotion special?

As a note, I posed according to the value prop as accurately as possible. I made sure to dress in attire that matched the target demo: working women who desire comfortable dress pants. Additionally, I wanted to make sure the shirt or shoes didn’t take away from the pants.

I didn’t want to have back-to-back profile shots, so I had slipped in the scene before this, followed by a close-up profile of the pants. As far as text goes, we had done multiple trials to see which text treatment worked best - white bar with black text proved to feel most native at the time while also having the most contrast.

And then, of course, I amplified the 4-way stretch fabric value prop by dropping it like it was hot into numerous squats and stretches.

From the hook to the value props, I introduced an ADDITIONAL form of social proof: “Over 2 million women have switched to our dress pant yoga pants.” I say “an additional form of social proof” since UGC is a form of social proof. But sprinkling in a quantified number such as TWO MILLION is pretty captivating. I chose to slip in the social proof at the end of the video, with the hopes of sealing the deal for anyone who managed to watch the video all the way through but was maybe still on the fence.

Followed by the CTA (call to action): Which was, “Get 20% off your first order with code NEW20!” Obviously, a discounted offer always helps give the viewer added reason to click the link to at least check out the landing page and the brand’s product offering. For this client in specific, they were very focused on acquiring new customers through their welcome offer (which, if you didn’t pick up on this yet - this ad is for prospecting, not retargeting). If you aren’t sure what that means, it’s targeted at a first-time viewer who probably doesn’t know about the brand. So these prospecting ads 9/10 times had a CTA related to their welcome offer.

What you don’t see in this ad are the HUNDREDS of variations I submitted for this campaign. I chose specific value props for certain versions and even rearranged the order of those value props (some marketers refer to this as “rearranging the sales sequence). I’d have to go back through my drives to count the iterations, but on an average day working for this client, for every ONE concept I came up with, there were at least 3-5 alternate hooks, 2-3 versions of the value props reordered, and of course, two aspect ratios (4x5 and 9x16). And this doesn’t include the TESTIMONIAL versions where I’d test side-by-side formats VS. intercutting my testimonial footage with the b-roll showcased in this ad. Try to do the math on the deliverables… one concept was always, more often than not, in the double digits. And that’s just for ONE of their SKUs - I made this approach for DOZENS of their products at a time.

I accredit my massive success to remaining equally as strategy driven as I was creatively driven. If you aren’t already offering ONE concept with at least 2 hooks total and 2 aspect ratios (4x5 and 9x16) I highly recommend you revisit your rates and services and consider adjusting them accordingly! Please feel free to comment any follow-up questions you might have. As always, I wish you the best of luck on your UGC journey, continue to use me as a resource - I’m here to help.

*Also, if you haven’t already: grab my 80+ page UGC Guide for 30% off with code: subscriber30

Here is a direct link to part-2!