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TeePublic is an online marketplace where thousands of indie artists design and sell their own t-shirts. TeePublic does all the printing, so artists are free to focus on what they do best—creating awesome visual art. TeePublic also allows artists to apply their designs to other wearable and usable products, like hoodies, tanks, onesies, masks, notebooks, mugs, pillows, totes, tapestries, pins, phone cases, laptop cases, stickers, and magnets.
Like many Primer clients, TeePublic had been struggling to formulate a video ads strategy. Before partnering with us, they were still searching for the knowledge and resources to make video ads an effective part of their marketing strategy.
TeePublic then partnered with Primer and launched an aggressive testing cycle for video ads, which produced a ton of learnings that ultimately helped TeePublic lower their Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) goal and achieve their target CPA.
Who Is TeePublic?
TeePublic is an e-commerce brand founded in 2013 that sells thousands of t-shirts designed by indie artists through their online marketplace. The company was acquired by Redbubble in 2018 and has since expanded their product line to include custom-designed smartphone cases, mugs, pins, tapestries, stickers, pillows, and more.
TeePublic’s value proposition is that there’s a design for everyone, whether you’re looking for a cat eating tacos or a Stranger Things and Pokémon mashup.
Before partnering with us, TeePublic faced several challenges when trying to formulate a video ads strategy that met their specific goals.
[design note: this is where we would include the video testimonial from Tee Public]
TeePublic’s Video Ads Strategy Challenges
Their ad strategy lacked video resources.
TeePublic primarily relied on static ads and gifs. However, their output of video ads was minimal. Their only video was branded and long-form.
Communicating their value proposition was difficult.
Most of TeePublic’s advertising featured still images–product shots of shirts for sale on their website. While this clearly showed examples of their products, it failed to communicate a larger value proposition, benefit, or story. Volume was part of that challenge.
For a company selling a huge variety of different kinds of shirts, it was challenging to show that they offered something for nearly everyone—especially in a non-video format.
Ambitious goals set a high benchmark for success.
TeePublic first started their partnership with Primer in the early fall of 2022. Their goal was to ramp up video advertising in time for the holiday shopping season, which kicks off with Black Friday.
TeePublic wanted to reduce their CPA, or the amount they were spending per conversion, but they weren’t getting the return they wanted on static ads.
We helped them achieve a decreased CPA of 6% while increasing purchasing volume by 68% (when compared to the previous period).
Partnering with Primer
TeePublic partnered with Primer to jumpstart their video ad strategy. As a Creative Studio Partner, TeePublic managed its ad spend while Primer managed the creative strategy and production.
To meet TeePublic’s timeline, Primer started with an aggressive sprint cycle, producing 24 videos in the first month through two 2-week sprints. Comparatively, Primer usually starts with 8 videos per month, but TeePublic needed to capitalize on the holiday season, and the clock was ticking.
For each 2-week period, we tested 3 “big idea” video ad themes, with 4 iterations of each big idea.
Primer had to test at a much higher volume than normal to find out what value and benefits resonated most with TeePublic’s audience.
[client quote]
Here’s how Primer took advertising beyond the product.
When creating TeePublic’s video ads, we tested multiple concepts:
- Led with “millions of designs” to highlight the variety TeePublic offers on their site, in addition to there being a “design for everyone.”
- Focused on the expression of unique indie artists and how they can use TeePublic to make designs showcasing “whatever you’re into” or “whatever is on your mind.”
- Integrated real, positive reviews.
- Used video to showcase more unique shirts.
- Created User-Generated Content (UGC) ads that talked about quality, personalization, and finding a unique niche.
- Paired designs with niche callouts to favorites–like the “beardo” and “Cat Lover” shirts–to show “there is a design for everyone.”
- Ran featured platform native sounds, transitions, and effects to make the ads feel more organic and genuine.
- Used a unique Polaroid framing device to tie TeePublic tees to a memorable experience.
- Emphasized the fun of searching for a truly unique shirt.
Primer Used These Video Ad Templates to Score Big Wins
- Buyer Decision Questions (BDQs) template - This type of ad answers the most important questions buyers would ask during the purchasing process. The BDQs template helped us discover the most impactful value propositions, which we used to inform other ads.
- Reviews template - Press and testimonials provided the social proof.
- Vs. the competition template - This compared the TeePublic experience and quality to the worse experience and quality of its competitors. We showed what went wrong with competitors and how TeePublic provides a better alternative.
At first, TeePublic deployed these ads on Facebook and Instagram, then expanded to TikTok. Primer used its creator network to complete the first project, but for TikTok, they helped TeePublic navigate TikTok’s Creator Marketplace to find talent using our TikTok Creative Exchange.
By leveraging our ability to bridge connections on the TikTok Creative Exchange, we helped TeePublic connect with content creator Andrew Parker and showcase him in their video ads.
TeePublic produced multiple winning ads featuring Andrew. Here are the results.
The wins scaled across platforms, too. According to TeePublic, “A couple of the “Another One” videos did really well for us on TikTok as well, so it is cool to see them as top performers for Meta.”
This “another one” ad featuring Andrew is a recent top performer. The ad leveraged a top TikTok sound trend and leaned into people buying more and more from TeePublic–implying you can’t stop finding designs you’ll love.
Here’s how TeePublic won big using our video ad testing strategy.
Results
By producing so many video ads at the outset, Primer banked a lot of footage that it could use to easily and quickly create more content.
We helped TeePublic find Andrew, a creator that they really liked and want to work with again, and who continues to serve as a resource for creating UGC ads across multiple platforms.
Through the high-volume testing of video ads using our Outlier Method for rapid ad testing, TeePublic moved beyond just sharing their designs and elevated their brand story to show “there’s a design for everyone.”
Assets created for the holiday season met TeePublic’s marketing goals and have continued to perform well into the new year.
In three months, we helped TeePublic meet their target with a decrease in CPA by 6% and increased purchase volume by 68% (compared to the previous period). With continuous testing going into Q1, we decreased CPA by another 10% while increasing purchase volume by an additional 11%.
[client quote]
Simply put, Primer enabled TeePublic to leverage video ads that provided greater returns on their investment than traditional, static ads—and well beyond the holiday buying season.
Want to Partner with Primer?
Primer works to help our partners, like TeePublic, develop winning ads and scale by handling the process for you, including creative strategy, design, production, reporting, and media buying.
If you need high-quality ad creative with a rapid turnaround, our online platform Primer On-Demand gives you access to videos, images, and landing pages with a proven track record of driving conversions.
Schedule a free consultation with Primer to learn how creative testing can help you script successful video ads.
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