The Best Ads for Barefoot Shoes

THIS WEEK’S FODDER
☀️ Good Morning

You’re reading Marketing Fodder, a weekly newsletter dedicated to helping you improve your Meta ads.

Today, we’ll be examining the ads of:

1. Saguaro

2. Merrell

STARTER
Marketing Reads

• Google Search Console recommendations are live

• Fun Fact: 15% of Google searches are driven by a mere 148 terms

• A step-by-step process for making SEO projections

MAIN
Barefoot Shoes

Trends:

According to Google Trends, US search interest (over the last five years) for “Barefoot Shoes” looks like this:

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.

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

#1: Saguaro

The Good:

• The ad copy offers a specific benefit: “freeing your feet from the pinch of traditional shoes”

• The headline and description sections (below the URL) make the purchasing decision easier

• The image provides a compelling before and after; it’s eye-catching and shows a transformation from having pain to having comfort

The Bad:

• No major criticisms, but I would use a “Shop Now” call-to-action” instead of “Learn more” (which would align better with the “Shop Now” text in the image)

The Recommendation:

• Test larger text and different colors of text within the image

• There is no image of the actual shoe, so I would test having a small thumbnail of the shoes (possibly replacing the “Shop Now” text in the image)

#2: Merrell

The Good:

• Simple yet clear ad copy; the customer review is introduced as: “5 Star Review:”

• The image shows a close-up of the shoe and identifies a few features

The Bad:

• More information about why these shoes are better than traditional shoes would be helpful

• The image is a little weak and the features listed are not showstoppers

The Recommendation:

• Test images with a person wearing the shoe

• Test ad copy on the image that highlights why these shoes are better than traditional shoes

Thanks for reading!

Stay hungry and see you in the next issue.

-Kevin