📰 BFCM, Consumer Psychology & More

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Master the art and science of creative strategy

Creative minds. Math-obsessed media buyers. To ship more winning ads, you need both worlds working together. 

Introducing: Thumbstop. 

Thumbstop is a weekly newsletter covering the art and science of creating winning Meta, TikTok, and YouTube ads. 

⚡Creative strategy templates 
🔬The science behind effective hooks  
💰 Winning TikTok & Meta ad formats 
📊 Time-saving reporting techniques 

Who is this newsletter for:

👉 DTC and ecom creative teams looking to build their data skills 
👉 Heads of growth who want to increase their creative skills 
👉 CMOs who want to build effective creative performance teams 

Every week, you’ll get new growth & creative cheat codes used by top DTC and ecom brands. New issues are sent every Sunday. 

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SIDE NOTE: Today’s edition is a little shorter than normal because it’s been a slow news week, so you get some of your time back! Yay!

THE COMPREHENSIVE BLACK FRIDAY/CYBER MONDAY GUIDE IS HERE

Last year, we released our BFCM prep deck, and it was amazingly received by the e-commerce marketing community, so we decided to do it again, but this time, we put even more elbow grease into it. In this free guide, you’ll find everything you need to prepare your brand for the largest sale season of the year, including our own tips and advice on campaign structure and more!

A CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY CRASH COURSE

Consumer psychology is incredibly important, yet it is often neglected in favour of leaning more into what works for the ‘brand.’ In my experience, leaning too heavily into ‘brand’ tends to yield mixed results as it often foregoes marketing best practices, whereas leaning into what consumers truly want tends to yield greater returns. With that in mind, Chase Dimond recently shared a thread of questions that subconsciously run through a consumer’s mind when making a buying decision. To learn more, check out his thread below, where he goes down in great detail.

NEW GENERATIVE AI FEATURES COMING TO META ADS

The internet loves Generative AI, and so do I (mostly). Meta recently announced a handful of new Generative AI features coming to their ad creation process, which will help users create better ads with a click of a button. Among these new features are:

• Image Expansion, which will use AI to expand 1:1 or 4:5 images seamlessly to 16:9 vertical images

• Background Generation, which will, as you expect, use AI to produce a series of convincing backgrounds for your product to sit on

• Text Variations, which will use AI to produce new copy options for your body text and headline sections.

You can check out the full breakdown on Meta’s website here to learn more.

A WINNING AD BREAKDOWN

Ever wonder how people end up finding the winning ads that they use to scale from ad accounts from 1 to 100? Well, look no further because Marin shared a full breakdown in this X thread about how he discovered this winning ad and exactly what makes it a winning ad. This is incredibly useful info for anyone in the swing of creative testing at the moment. You can read his full breakdown on X here.

• INFLUENCER FARMS ARE TAKING OFF: Influencer farms, otherwise known as influencer incubators, are both incredibly profitable and incredibly dystopian.

• FREE FONTS FOR MINIMAL DESIGN: Joe Diver recently shared a thread showcasing some of his favourite free fonts for minimal designs.

• AN ADVANTAGE+ GUIDE: Meta has a new guide for getting maximum profitability out of Advantage+ campaigns.

COCO TEA — COOL

Agency: GIGIL Manilla

For those familiar with milk tea, punching your straw through the lid is a thing of ritual. Obviously, it’s necessary, but it’s also oddly therapeutic. In this ad from GIGIL Manilla, they lean into this, using it as an outlet for your frustration. While I admit that the bit went on for a little longer than I would have liked, I thought that the way the humour was executed was fantastic: subtle yet obvious. It wasn’t over the top, but the comedic relief was still front and center, a fine balance I think they struck wonderfully. Additionally, it made the product the center of the story in a way that didn’t feel forced. Overall, I really liked this ad.

MICROSOFT — SURFACE LAPTOP STUDIO 2

Okay, while this may not be the typical ad type I cover here, I just had to share this. It’s just so beautiful. Microsoft has been known to really nail their animations in their product release promotional videos, but this is next level. It makes the product appear extremely modern and sleek while showcasing its capabilities in an engaging way. No boring bullet points are required here. I think this promotional video does an exquisite job of showcasing the product’s creative capabilities through fantastic animations and video editing tricks, with the end result making me want to buy one, even though I really don’t need it.

While you’re here, let us know how you enjoyed this week’s edition, and consider leaving additional context once you submit your response so we know how to continue improving the newsletter:

Have a great week,
Cory