Revisiting the Best Ads for Earbuds

THIS WEEK’S FODDER
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You’re reading Marketing Fodder, a weekly newsletter dedicated to helping you improve your Facebook and Instagram ads.

Today, we’ll be examining the ads of:

1. Raycon

2. Sennheiser

STARTER
Marketing Headlines

• YouTube announced changes to Shorts; starting October 15, YouTube will allow videos up to 3 minutes long, which is triple the current limit (Read more)

• Why cost-per-click for branded keywords is rising (Read more)

• Best practices for optimizing ecommerce product pages (Read more)

MAIN
Earbuds

Trends:

According to Google Trends, US search interest (over the last 5 years) for earbuds peaks every November, around Thanksgiving, and again, briefly, in December:

How I Analyze Facebook Ads

A great Facebook ad communicates the benefits of the product or service, not solely the features. Think about it like this: a feature makes the product better but a benefit makes the customer’s life better. Features typically describe a physical aspect of the product, while benefits describe a change in the emotional state of the customer. Makeup companies do this well. Instead of focusing on features like ingredient names, their ads highlight how much better someone will look or feel by purchasing the product.

Alright, let’s see how these companies market their earbuds:

#1: Raycon

The Good:

• The image is the standout portion of this ad, and the text at the top of the image does a great job of explaining the benefit of owning these earbuds: blocking out annoying sounds.

• The ad copy highlights three useful features and uses green boxes with checkmarks to make them more eye-catching.

• The headline and description section below the image offer a discount, with a visible code, making it easier for the viewer to take action.

The Bad:

• I’m not a fan of the phrase, “Built to Stay Put, No Matter the Move.” I understand that it’s suggesting these earbuds won’t fall out but “the Move” sounds awkward. “Built to Stay in Your Ears” would be simpler and more effective.

The Recommendation:

• Rephrase the ad copy in the primary text to be clearer.

• Test different image backgrounds.

• Test having a closeup shot on someone’s ear who is wearing the earbuds; this also helps viewers see how they look/fit on a person.

#2: Sennheiser

The Good:

• This ad isn’t great at highlighting the benefit of active noise cancelling headphones (providing relief from annoying sounds), but what it does do well is remove risk for the viewer.

• By putting a free shipping and 30-day return guarantee in the ad copy, above the image, the ad is signaling to the viewer that purchasing these earbuds is a risk-free decision.

• The image does a good job of making these earbuds look futuristic, which aligns well with the “future proof technologies” claim.

The Bad:

• This ad assumes viewers know what “ANC” means. It means adaptive noise canceling, but the ad doesn’t spell it out. The ad also doesn’t explain what “future proof technologies” are in this context.

The Recommendation:

• Spell out the benefit of wearing these particular earbuds.

• I would test a customer review in the primary text or on the image. Ideally, it would talk about the benefit of owning these earbuds. The ad needs some social proof to make it more believable.

Pro Tip

These signals are important for increasing your visibility in AI search engines:

• Structured data: Focus on key entities (people, places, concepts). Use precise terminology and provide context to help AI understand their relevance. Link to authoritative sources and markup entities to enhance AI recognition.

• Citations: ChatGPT prioritizes high-authority publications, meaning “being cited” is even more important here. To improve performance, target high-authority sources used by ChatGPT to enhance brand inclusion in its responses. 

• Natural language: Content strategies must evolve to answer complex, multifaceted questions – rather than simply targeting specific keywords.

Read the full article.