Fix those Meta Ad F*** Ups

Howdy readers 🥰

In this newsletter you will find:

🙌 Fix Your Meta Ads: A Smarter Framework for Scaling Profitably

🛍️ Gen Z & Evolving Shopping Trends

🚀Ad of the Day

If you’re new to ScaleUP, then a hearty welcome! You’ve reached the right place, along with 50k+ CEOs, CMOS, and marketers. Let’s get into it, shall we? Oh! Before you forget, if someone forwarded this newsletter to you, don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss out!

Together with Wynter

Get paid up to $600 / hour to give marketing feedback. All you need is a LinkedIn, job title, and marketing brain.

Wynter, a B2B market research platform, is seeking marketers to give feedback on websites and marketing materials. Companies rely on your feedback to better understand what connects with their target audience through detailed analysis of their marketing content and websites.

What's involved:

• Participate in surveys and 1-on-1 meetings.
• Provide feedback on various marketing-related topics.
• Engage at your convenience with no long-term commitment required.

Payout ranges:

• Quick Surveys (5-15 mins): $5 to $95 for providing feedback.
• Demos/Interviews (30-60 mins): $75 to $600 for more in-depth sessions.
• Payments are processed within 5 days via gift cards (eg. Amazon), PayPal or Visa.

It's flexible, low-pressure, and a great way to stay involved in industry trends while earning on the side. 

Sign up as a participant today!

🙌 Fix Your Meta Ads: A Smarter Framework for Scaling Profitably

Scaling Meta ads isn’t just about increasing budget—it’s about building a sustainable system for testing and optimizing creative assets. If your campaigns lose steam as you scale, it’s time to rethink your approach. Here’s a 3-step framework to fix your ad strategy and scale profitably, inspired by lessons from brands that mastered Meta ads.

1. Quality Over Quantity: Build Irresistible Creatives

Many brands focus on churning out dozens of ads monthly to fight ad fatigue. The real problem? Their creatives are irrelevant to cold audiences.

The Fix: Create top-of-funnel (TOF) assets designed to educate and convert new prospects.

• Highlight your value proposition clearly: Why should someone care?

• Showcase your product’s unique mechanism: What makes it work better than alternatives?

• Speak to common frustrations: What have customers tried before that didn’t work?

Pro Insight: The most successful creatives balance education with intrigue. A compelling narrative grabs attention and holds it long enough to convert curiosity into action.

2. Test Strategically: Think Angles, Not Just Hooks

Throwing random hooks at the wall isn’t a testing strategy—it’s a recipe for wasted spend. Instead, take a systematic approach to testing your ads.

A Smarter Testing Framework:

1. Angles: Define the core messages that resonate with different audiences. Example: Highlight time-saving benefits for busy parents, while emphasizing luxury features for affluent buyers.

2. Concepts: Test creative formats like user-generated content, testimonials, or problem-solution visuals.

3. Hooks: Focus on the first 3 seconds to grab attention, but ensure your core message aligns with the audience’s needs.

Why It Works: By starting with broader angles and narrowing down to winning concepts, you create a pipeline of high-performing ads tailored for specific customer mindsets.

3. Analyze & Adapt: Obsess Over Metrics That Matter

To scale profitably, you need to learn from every ad you test. The key is tracking actionable metrics that go beyond vanity numbers.

What to Measure:

• Engagement Rate: Are people stopping to watch? Use thumb-stopping visuals and curiosity-driven headlines.

• Completion Rate: Are viewers sticking around? Shorten your message or increase storytelling clarity.

• Conversion Rate: Are clicks translating into sales? Optimize landing pages to align perfectly with ad promises.

Pro Tip: Regularly evaluate how well your creatives perform for different stages of the funnel. The best ads don’t just drive clicks—they convert cold traffic into loyal customers.

Scaling Meta ads successfully requires more than just increasing spend. By crafting high-quality TOF creatives, testing with precision, and obsessing over actionable insights, you can build a scalable system that delivers consistent results. The key isn’t just creating ads—it’s creating a strategy where every dollar works harder to grow your brand.

🛍️ Gen Z & Evolving Shopping Trends
Insights from Retail Dive and Axio

Gen Z is reshaping shopping habits, favoring niche communities and affordable platforms like Temu and Shein. Brands are rethinking strategies to connect with these fragmented audiences and meet shifting consumer preferences.

The Breakdown:

• Chinese Marketplaces on the Rise: Nearly half of Gen Z shoppers are buying holiday gifts from platforms like Temu, Shein, and TikTok Shop. While 86% of Americans trust Amazon, only 6% trust Temu, showing trust gaps despite competitive pricing.
  
• With 40% of Americans planning to spend less on gifts, 48% of Gen Z shoppers and many millennials and Gen Xers are choosing affordable marketplaces. Gen Z spending is concentrated between $51 and $300 on holiday gifts.
  
• Gen Z’s Connection to Communities: Gen Z values personal connections, with 53% willing to try a brand recommended by their community reflecting shared values and interests, offering brands a way to align with their audience’s identity authentically.
  
• How Brands Adapt: To engage these communities, brands are collaborating with influencers, joining podcasts, and partnering with platforms like Reddit helping them build trust and foster a sense of belonging that drives loyalty and advocacy.

Gen Z’s focus on affordability and niche communities is transforming how brands engage with consumers. To stay relevant, brands must prioritize trust, align with specific interests, and foster a sense of belonging within smaller, well-defined audiences.

Together with Insense

Save $500 + get UGC ads for Q5 within 14 days

UGC videos are high converters for Q5 because they influence purchase decisions.

Leading eComm brands have a way of using UGC content across all their organic and paid marketing channels; from their own brand’s social media to their website, their email campaigns, and their paid social ads.

But get this: The #1 pain point for marketers is having the manpower to find, communicate, and manage collaborations with influencers - especially during Q4.

Enter Insense.

Insense is the leading platform for UGC and influencer campaigns, used by 2,000+ major eCommerce brands like:

• Nurture Life –  Streamlined their UGC content flow with a single team member, reducing their turnaround time from 2 months to 2 weeks, while significantly decreasing CAC
• Solawave –  Received 180+ assets at $0 cost through product seeding at scale 
• Particle for Men – Achieved up to 2x ROAS using Meta whitelisted ads with creators sourced from the marketplace

Through Insense a single marketer can manage multiple campaigns to scale UGC sourcing, or you can opt for their managed service plan and receive up to 18 ready-to-use UGC ads within 14 days.

Book a free no-commitment strategy call and save $500 when you purchase a 4-month plan.

🚀Ad of the Day

What Works:

1. Humorous Copy: “AI made this ad while we were busy playing” cleverly ties into Lovevery's playful and family-oriented brand ethos, while also referencing the tech-driven world in a lighthearted way.
2. Relatable Visuals: The child and playful setup immediately connect with parents, emphasizing a fun and creative childhood—a key appeal for Lovevery’s audience.
3. Brand Alignment: The ad reinforces Lovevery’s focus on enriching childhood through play, resonating with parents looking for products that encourage developmental growth.
4. Modern Appeal: Mentioning “AI” adds a contemporary, innovative twist to the ad, making it feel relevant and fresh.

What Can Be Better:

1. Call-to-Action: Adding a clear CTA like “Discover Play Kits Now” or “Shop Lovevery” would guide parents to learn more about the products or make a purchase.
2. Product Focus: While the playful theme is strong, briefly showcasing or mentioning a specific Lovevery product would make the ad more actionable and product-centric.

Broader Insights:

For brands targeting parents, blending humor, relatability, and a focus on developmental benefits is highly effective. Modern references like AI can capture attention, but they should always circle back to the product's core value proposition.

Advertise with Us

Wanna put out your message in front of over 50,000 best marketers and decision makers?

Find our Partner Kit here🤝

We are concerned about everything DTC and its winning strategies. If you liked what you read, why not join the 50k+ marketers from 13k+ DTC brands who have already subscribed? Just follow this.

At ScaleUP, we care about our readers and want to provide the best possible experience. That's why we always look for ways to improve our content and connect with our audience. If you'd like to stay in touch, be sure to follow us EVERYWHERE🥰

Thanks for your support :) We'll be back again with more such content 🥳