The Weekly Sharpener #135

👋 Hey fam!

I'm really excited to share this 👊 Wednesday roundup with you!

Another Add Creative is out and you're in for a special episode. You get the pleasure of spending some inside the brain of Danil Salukov (CEO of Incense) we deconstruct a different business model than usual: marketplace, what is going on with UGC right now, and much more.

We also break down a new way to structure your creative with Tamir Vakil (Senior Director @ Power Digital) - are you excited to dive into the 🧱 Brick Method?

We learn a few things from our experts about new ad styles and CRO fundamentals from our experts!

Also, make sure to sign-up for the Rockerbox event this month to learn about what’s working in paid marketing (😉 it’s free)

Hope your ads are scaling and LTV is 📈!

Cheers,

Chase

Starting using Pencil to Create winning ads 10x faster with AI.

Special Tip:

3 ways you can quickly make better ad creative:

• Create mashups with your archive UGC

• Make your top performing static an animated GIF

• Use a UGC photo within a static

Courtesy of Fraser Cottrell

Partner with us 🤝

Marketing agencies, freelance creatives, and e-comm experts…want access to our generous revenue share and co-marketing opportunities? Become a Pencil Partner today! You can learn more here.

🎙Add Creative

Come hang with Danil Salukov and learn what it means to provide value to ecom brands. He dives into marketplace building and how UGC has evolved over time!

I hope you enjoy it!

 Spotify 🎧

Guest Content 👑 🐐

From Tamir Vakil

Mastering Collaboration, Creativity, and Testing Requires Structure 🤝

Not all creators understand advertising.
Not all advertisers understand creators

Often, brands in the growth phase lack the resources needed to build an effective framework due to time or $.

Here are 4 things to smoothen the process:

• Choose the right creators for the ad

• Provide a comprehensive brief

• Establish a solid structure

• Have clear deliverables

• The visual attached is a starting template for what I call

The visual attached is a starting template for what I call…

🧱 The Brick Method 🧱

The idea is that each video brick can be added or removed in order to create different ad variations from the content a creator produces.

There are endless ways to go about it, but in my experience, this has been an ideal starting point for CPG brands that are building relationships with new creators.

The Brick Method should improve the editing workflow, facilitate better testing, and ensure the brand gets the desired content pieces that can be repurposed later on.

For each brief, I would pair this board with the specific bricks that I'm seeking, but I also encourage creators to craft their own full ad version along with the bricks' deliverables.

A personal favorite is using 3 hooks in a row from the bricks as an opener. It improves engagement, hold rates, and CTR in most cases.

🚀 Hook + Hook + Hook + Engage + Educate + Trust + CTA

P.S.
Don’t get me wrong... there are a lot of other frameworks that CAN work, or even work better.

But it all depends on how advanced the creator is and the familiarity with the brand.

Why this matters: Structure with running ads is paramount to know you can trust delivery plus the data you receive from budget spend.

The same goes for creating ads - the more structure you have - whether using a system like this or a platform like Pencil. Uniformity allows you to be creative and find winning ads that:

• find a new audience

• re-awaken an old audience

• convert a warm audience

• retain/expand a current audience

Expert Strategy + Learnings

Some amazing learnings from thought leaders in DTC.

Dylan's CRO Tips 🙌

Work on improving your Product Titles. Most people have small boring titles that don't tell much.

Just like everyone reads headlines, on PDPs everyone reads product names.

Try and use a descriptive word or two for your biggest value prop.

For more 🔥 follow Dylan Ander.

Rahul's Paid Media Learnings 🤘

Review ads are great.

But what's even better is getting specific with the reviews.

Find customer reviews on when and why they changed and started using your product.

Follow Rahul and reach out to Reach Digital to work with him 🧠

Worth Your Time 🤌

From our Library 📚

Join the ✏️ community

Sign up to learn and meet 200+ other great founders & operators across DTC.

Curious about what we're building? 🧱

Check out our roadmap and upvote what you think is important! If we have missed anything, you can add your suggestions as well.

YouTube Channel 📺

Check out our library of amazing video content on creative, ads, and ecom operating.

Our Preferred Tech Partners 👏

• Foreplay - spy on your competitor’s ads + save what you like

• soona - studio-level assets in days and without the heavy cost. Yes, please. (Use Pencil39 for a free first photo)

• Motion - you want insights on your ads - make it fast/easy/actionable.

• Social Snowball - frictionless affiliate programs for your customers and creators

• Triple Whale - attribution - need I say more

• Air - keeping all of your assets organized is a pain. Air makes it delightful.

• Creative OS - if you love making ads on Figma, you'll love this.

• Insense - your one-stop shop for sourcing and working with creators.

Fav Newsie's

• Nice Ads 

• Chew On This

• Cody Plofker’s newsletter

• Acquire Weekly

• Your Content Should Sell

• The Performers

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