How high-effort ads crush low-effort competition

Welcome back to Nice Ads! Another week means another three ad creatives to break down and see what we can learn. This week, we're talking about:

• How putting more effort in your ads can result in huge returns.

• The secret to selling basic household items with ad creative.

• A cheap piece of camera gear that can up your production value.

Are your ad creatives underperforming? If they are, then it might be time to try someone else to create them for you.

My agency, Fraggell, helps D2C brands lower their CPA by 30% with our hands-off ad creation and production. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in learning more about, click here.

Leaf Shave

👉 Watch in full here

This is currently one of the top performers for our client Leaf Shave, and it was a really fun ad to make. Everything was shot in our studio here in Manchester, and I think we got some really cool shots that brought the whole piece together.

It's a bit of a long video, but overall, it performs the best across our portfolio. It's very educational and showcases why leaf razors are better than the standard disposable or cartridge razor that most people use every day. The Leaf Razor isn't cheap, and so we need to ensure that we educate the potential customer enough to justify the purchase.

We used a lot of fun transitions to keep the user entertained and probably took apart about a hundred razors to get the right visuals.

At the end of the day, it’s the extra effort that you put into your video ads that helps you stand out from everyone else on the feed. As I always say, "Creative is the moat that you dig around your brand. The more diverse, the deeper the moat."

This is also a great example of how an organic video can inspire a higher-effort video ad. The founder made a similar video for the organic that performed relatively well, and so we decided to recreate that into a higher-end video ad.

If you watch the video and like what you saw, then there's a chance that we could do the same for you. All you need to do is click here to apply to work with us, and we can jump on a call to make something happen.

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Graza

👉 Watch in full here

Graza is one of the newest CPG brands to become popular over the past couple of months, with a product that we all use every day, repackaged and rethought. And with any product like this, you run the risk of people seeing the price tag and running a mile. We're programmed to see items like this and automatically assign a price to them. And so when we see a price that's different to that, we are instantly turned off.

And so it's the job of marketing to help the customer change their viewpoint.

If you have a scroll through Graza ad library, then you'll notice they have a nice, diverse set of ad creatives - some UGC, some images, some problem-solution. But this founder ad is the one that actually caught my eye.

You all know by now that I'm a lover of a good founder ad. They can do wonders for brand loyalty, but in this case, it does wonders for educating the customer.

Nobody is going to be as passionate about a product as the founder. And so when it comes to pitching why your product is worth the price tag, the founder is probably the best person to do it.

The video isn't anything groundbreaking. The founder tells you what, why, and how they founded the brand. Then Pitch the product, and let you make your own decision on whether it's worth it or not. The idea is that you sell them on the vision and the quality of the product in such a way that it becomes a no-brainer for them to part with the extra cash.

TLDR:

• The person fronting your video needs to match the message.

• Presenting your product in the right format can lead to fantastic results.

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HiSmile

👉 Watch in full here

One of the main things I wanted to discuss in this ad from HiSmile is the way it's filmed. This POV (point of view) style of camera angle has become increasingly popular, largely thanks to TikTok. Specifically, TikTok Shop. And it's actually a great way to show your product and put the shopper in your shoes.

We do a lot of this when it comes to packaging a product or demonstrating how it works from a particular perspective, and we actually film a lot of behind-the-scenes content in this style ourselves.

To achieve this, all you need is a neck rig - this is essentially a big necklace that you attach your phone to. Switch it to the wide lens and then press record. It just allows you to get a really cool perspective that you don't see that often, and can create some really nice B-roll.

I think HiSmile uses the POV perspective really well in this, since the whole video seems to be based around an employee at HiSmile telling you about the product and why the new version is so much better than the last. And so it makes sense to mix in some POV shots to make it feel a bit more personal.

Little pieces of gear that you can purchase pretty cheap from Amazon or Temu (if you want to risk it) can have massive effects on the way that your ads look and feel. The fact that we can film ads on our phones is possibly the best thing about modern-day technology. It allows us to get creative and stop the scroll simply by adjusting the camera angle.

TLDR:

• Get creative with your camera angles.

• You don't have to spend a ton of money to make great ads.

That's all for this week's Nice Ads. Thanks very much for watching. It's always a pleasure. If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter, be sure to forward it to them.

If you want to learn more about ad creative, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel here for weekly videos.

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P.S. Did you know that there is a premium version of Nice Ads? Every week, I send you three Canva templates for static ads. You can upgrade your free subscription here.