Introduction
This case study examines how Sovran’s Creative Velocity Service helped a leading subscription-based online education platform, successfully scale their ad spend without increasing their cost-per-trial. The strategy involved a comprehensive approach to creative testing, audience research, and campaign optimization.
The Challenge
The primary challenge was to significantly increase ad spend while maintaining or improving the cost-per-trial (CPT), a key performance indicator for subscription-based businesses.
Strategy
1. Quick Wins through Audience Research
- Utilized ChatGPT to analyze customer reviews for testimonials and pain points
- Conducted social listening on Reddit using Gigabrain
- Analyzed Facebook and Instagram post comments for insights
2. Content Remixing
Leveraged existing content library to create new ad variations, keeping costs down and increasing testing velocity.
3. Performance Analysis
Conducted a thorough analysis of existing ads, including top and bottom performers, concepts, scripts, and ad types.
4. Creative Diversity
Implemented a strategy to address different stages of audience awareness and universal human motivators.
5. Structured Creative Testing
- Created a separate creative testing campaign
- Implemented ad set tests with 4-6 variations, each testing one hypothesis
- Set up ad-level stop-loss triggers to optimize spend
6. Scaling Winning Ads
- Utilized Post ID sharing to maintain social proof
- Implemented broad targeting with bid caps in evergreen campaigns
- Set up Conversion API for improved tracking accuracy
Implementation
The Sovran team executed this strategy over a 30-day period, continuously monitoring and adjusting based on performance data. They used Facebook's Creative Reporting to set up a custom dashboard for monitoring creative tests, aiming for a creative win-rate of >10%.
Results and Impact
- Substantially increased monthly ad spend
- Maintained cost-per-trial despite the significant increase in spend
- Increase in strategic creative testing led to substantial and sustained increase in free trial starts
Key Learnings
- Creative diversity is crucial for addressing different stages of the customer journey
- Structured testing with clear hypotheses leads to more actionable insights
- Balancing iteration on winning ads with new concepts is essential for scaling
- Implementing proper tracking and stop-loss mechanisms helps optimize spend efficiently
Conclusion
Through a data-driven approach to high-volume creative testing and campaign optimization, Sovran’s team successfully scaled ad spend without increasing cost-per-trial. This case study demonstrates how the Sovran team took a structured, analytical approach to creative strategy, particularly for subscription-based businesses looking to scale their customer acquisition efforts.