UA Bites #2 — Youtube to Skyrocket Scaling
Welcome to UA Bites, a series where we analyze the creatives apps and games use to acquire more users, and catalyst growth.
We’re taking ad creatives under the microscope to understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to paid performance.
1. VIBE: Calm, Focus, Sleep
The app has got great potential — it’s backed by AI. Besides solid technology, it’s got quite a unique angle on the meditation music niche — so it would def have strong value props. (You know, the ones you should highlight in your ads.)
Anyways, this is the only ad they are running on Facebook now. Perhaps, the time hasn’t come for heavy marketing promos just yet?
First off, never ever promote your app from another social profile. Please!! I’m begging you here. That’s easily the worst you can do to your brand. (Quite an exception: when promoting from influencer accounts.)
Also, this ad would only go well with those who are already familiar with your brand. Not suited for cold audiences.
2. Fastyle — Intermittent Fasting
An interesting approach to a diet app promotion. Here’s why it might not perform the best on Facebook:
- The animation is too complex AND it doesn’t connect to the app’s offerings at any level. The first couple of secs would be a great animation for a mobile game so that it would tell its story.
- The animation’s complexity diverts your attention from actually reading the script (especially when muted) so you will not even realize it’s a diet app’s promotion (until the next scene at least).
It’s a high-quality production — they just need to figure out their value props, the brand (identity), and go from there.
3. Bloom: CBT Therapy & Self-Care
I really like this one: it has a sense of calmness (so it does a great job at waking emotions!!) while giving you a glimpse into what you can achieve with the product.
Plus, it further educates you about mindfulness. So the post has value on its own.
It has high production value and shows brand identity clearly.
As for the calmness, take a moment and drive your attention to the sounds — see how it’s in sync with the movement of animation on screen? These little things are what make a great ad. Pay attention to your production as well.
4. BetterHelp — Online Counseling
A YouTube ad, finally! So many of our clients are asking us about YouTube right at the beginning. This is certainly not the platform we recommend starting with but when you have the budget and ready to scale… oh boy!
The main difference between YouTube and Facebook is that the first depends more on a story than the latter. So what does that mean?
Well, if you pay attention to the video ad above, you’ll understand. It tells a story of a young woman not being heard.
You see, user intent on this platform is quite different — people are coming to YouTube either to learn something or to be entertained. This is the content that fits well with the platform and sort of blends in.
And frankly, more than 2.4 million people have watched it so far. Which accounts for more than 100k USD ad spend calculating with an avg. CPV (Cost-Per-View).
5. Youper: Self-Guided Therapy
This one seems high-quality in terms of design but when it comes to marketing there are a couple of SMALL things (again!) they might overlook and that’s causing lower performance:
- Movement in the background is too intense while the text shows only for a couple of secs. The text should be on the screen for a longer period to consume OR having a less intense background could be an option.
- This ad works great as part of a message sequence but might not do its job (acquiring new users) properly on the first touch.
Overall, the colors are nice and great concept!
Tools we used
I did this entire analysis relying on our 21-point Creative Checklist, the same one our team uses every time creating new ads.
If you want to give some tweaks to your ads on your own then go ahead and download our checklist.
If you’d like our direct help planning and implementing these strategies for your app, then click here 👈💰
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