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Today we are back with another case study covering a DTC brand ad strategy.

Microbe Formulas, established in 2017 by Dr. Todd Watts and Dr. Jay Davidson, is a leading wellness company specializing in natural solutions for gut health and detoxification. With a valuation of $200 million, it offers supplements designed to support microbial balance and promote overall wellbeing.

It was in mid 2020, then VP of Marketing Dave Huffman faced a challenge. As the brand grew from $8 million to $32 million, Dave was still focusing a lot on ads. The catch here was that he didn’t have that much time nor he wanted to hire an agency for that purpose.

The problem before the brand was how can they efficiently guide individuals from complete unawareness to product awareness, ensuring profitability in the long run, all while staying compliant, minimizing time spent managing accounts, and avoiding the need to hire additional employees ?

What Dave implemented was a fundamental three stage approach. It starts with utilizing content to assess and confirm topics, followed by scaling up with successful content repurposed into videos, eventually leading to enhanced product pages featuring enticing offers.

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1. Test Content topics

Here, they conducted tests to identify the topics that resonate most with those who are unaware.

Are they generating clicks? Engagement?

Their sole focus here is on testing to determine whether individuals in their most responsive audiences will click on and engage with the content.

Dave prioritized traffic and landing page views because their aim was to ascertain if the topics resonate with those most inclined to click and read the content.

If they do, they proceed to Stage 2 to assess its resonance with larger audiences.

2. Validate best performing contents

If the topics connected well with the most responsive segments of Microbe Formulas' audience, it's time to expand the reach and assess if the performance remains consistent.

Additionally, after achieving this, the brand shifted to a purchase objective to increase its chances of making a sale sooner and began constructing retargeting pools consisting of individuals with a higher likelihood of making a purchase.

3. Realign and Scale

Now, we have content that we've confirmed resonates well and is also aligned with specific products.

To scale this effectively, Dave repurposed the content into bite-sized, BuzzFeed-style snippets and included a product/coupon code offer at the conclusion.

If you lack a video team, you can efficiently accomplish this using a tool like Biteable.

Before involving his video team, Dave was creating these snippets in 20-30 minutes by extracting the top 3-5 points from an article and inserting them into a Biteable template. Then, he concluded with a product aligned with the content and a product-specific coupon code.

At this point, if ads fail to meet Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), refrain from discontinuing them. They've reached this stage, indicating the content's quality. You might just need to experiment with thumbnails, video sequencing, or your landing page/offer. Refer to the diagram for a decision tree.

Now, remember at the start we mentioned that Dave did not have much time.

So how was Dave able to achieve this without spending hours into the account ?

Dave delegated this task to a customer support representative who had zero prior experience with running advertisements.

However, what he had were two crucial attributes: extensive knowledge about the brand’s products and customers, coupled with a genuine interest in learning Facebook advertising.

Dave established the process, provided initial ad examples, and oversaw all three stages of the process. They had weekly check-ins, and Dave conducted spot checks on the campaigns every 72 hours.

The result ?

After applying the above strategies and testing for 60 days, across all efforts to reach new audiences, they invested $75,000. This resulted in an incredible Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) of 2.48 within a 7-day window and a 3.61 ROAS within a 28-day window.

Microbe Formulas' Facebook ads strategy is a masterclass in using content and precise targeting to drive growth. By testing, refining, and scaling their messaging, they turned clicks into conversions and dollars into data-driven success. It's a testament to how smart strategies and a bit of creative flair can transform ad spend into impressive ROAS. So, take a page from their playbook, and watch your own campaigns flourish!