US-based men’s grooming brand USTRAA developed streamlined, Instagram-worthy creative for its carousel ads to promote its shaving line to its target audience. This case study looks at how the brand made smart use of targeting with its hip, sexy image to boost sales 14 times over.
Case study summary
• New grooming brand wanted to reach young, mobile savvy men
• Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network campaign aimed to reach as many people from its target audience as possible
• Men responded to the creative, which was reflected in the 14 increase in sales of USTRAA.
The challenge
The brand wanted to drive sales of USTRAA; a recently launched range of grooming products aimed at men. It wanted to reach a certain type of man: young, mobile savvy and interested in good design.
Its specific goals were to increase revenue by 10X and drive 2X more website traffic.
The solution
The brand ran an optimised campaign across Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network to reach as many people from its target audience as possible.
It used carousel ads to display its products visually and allow people to scroll through a variety of creatives. Understanding the way its audience thoughtfully curates its Instagram feed to be visually inspired, the brand invested in creative that matched the Instagram aesthetic.
The creative featured minimalist product photography for on-trend items from its USTRAA line, such as beard tonic.
The copy had a confident tone, announcing that “well groomed is the new sexy” and telling men that USTRAA products haven’t been tested on animals, “just rascals.”
One visual suggestively placed a range of grooming products next to a jewellery box and a “do not disturb” sign, along with the copy “when your beard is your pickup line.” It applied a variety of Instagram filters to give the ads a retro feel. Collectively, the suite of photos had a modern and sexy feel.
As well as targeting 18 to 35-year-old men who use certain devices and operating systems, Happily Unmarried used Website Custom Audiences to retarget website visitors and lookalike audiences to find people similar to existing customers.
The results
Its cross-platform, six-month campaign (which ran from August 2015 —February 2016) reached the right people, tripling website traffic and driving a 12X increase in monthly revenue.
Men responded to the creative, which was reflected in the 14 increase in sales of USTRAA.
Manish Anand, Head - Marketing (eCommerce) at USTRAA, said: “Instagram helped us reach our audience: young men who are looking to discover new brands on mobile who care passionately about good design. Visually, Instagram fit the aesthetic of our USTRAA line perfectly, so it made sense to leverage it for our launch.”
