The Best Facebook Ads for Insulated Water Bottles

THE SPREAD
Morning Marketers!

Today we have some quick bites on Google, Meta, and LinkedIn. Then, we’ll get into the main course and look at the Facebook ads of three companies that sell insulated, steel water bottles. Finally, we’ll end with some SEO news and the best ad competition.

Don’t forget to vote at the bottom of this email.

Last week’s best ad poll winner: Ridge. Check out last week’s newsletter to see Ridge’s minimalist wallet ads.

STARTER
Quick Bites:

• Google may acquire HubSpot, but there’s no offer on the table yet (Read more)

• Meta is testing a “Threads Bonus program,” where creators can earn money from content, but it’s invite only right now (Read more)

• Post formats that are working on LinkedIn in 2024 (Read more)

MAIN
The Best Insulated Water Bottle Ads:

This week we are looking at the Facebook ads of three companies offering insulated, steel water bottles:

1. Hydro Flask

2. MiiR

3. Owala

What’s so interesting about insulated water bottles?

According to Grand View Research, the global reusable water bottle market was valued at 9.28 billion dollars in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 4.4% through 2030.

Environmental concerns and a desire to reduce plastic waste is driving people to seek out alternatives to single-use plastic containers.

How I Analyze Facebook Ads

A great Facebook ad communicates the benefits of the product or service, not solely the features. Features are cool, but customers really care about what those features do for them (the benefit). For example, a water bottle that is easy to hold is a feature. But, a water that signals how eco-conscious you are is a benefit (you gain status).

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

#1: Hydro Flask

The Good:

• The image does the heavy lifting for this ad.

  • The placement of the Hydro Flasks in a desert setting communicates how the product solves the problem of being hot and dehydrated.

  • Having the cactus and boulder block out the background also helps the viewer focus on the product.

• The image text helps guide the potential customer’s thoughts toward a buying decision.

  • “Festival Season is Here…” introduces a pain point: it’s festival season and you don’t have a eye-catching (status boosting) water bottle.

  • “Hydrate in style” is the largest text on the photo because it solves the pain point introduced by calling out that festival season is here. Hydrating in style really means having a water bottle that your friends and peers find attractive/impressive, similar to a fashion accessory.

  • Finally, the “Shop Now” button within the image is how the potential customer can secure the solution offered by the product.

The Bad:

• The Primary text doesn’t help differentiate this water bottles from others. Keeping a drink cold when it’s hot outside is pretty standard for an insulated water bottle.

• Ideally, the benefit would be more clear in the primary text but the text overlaid on the image helps define the benefit.

• The “Shop Festival Collection” description seems uninspiring. Calling out limited availability or a free shipping deal would likely be more effective.

The Recommendation:

• There are two “Shop Now” call to actions on this ad (one in the image and one in the usual location at the bottom of the ad); This may be perfectly fine, but I would test other call to actions within the image text, like “Get Yours Today,” or “Buy Now.”

• Test a bullet point list of features and benefits in the Primary text.

• Test different colors of Hydro Flask within the image.

Let’s look at another Hydro Flask ad:

The Good:

• This ad shows that Hydro Flask understands why customers buy from them. It’s not really about how cold the beverage stays, it’s about standing out and boosting social status.

• The Primary text does a great job of highlighting that by saying, “Make your mark with a bottle as unique as you are.” Having something unique that others don’t is a big part of status (think expensive sports cars).

• The image provides nice examples of customized flasks, showing the process of picking the flask, the color, and then the engraving.

• The call to action within the image, “Customize Now,” is better than the “Shop Now” we saw in the previous ad.

The Bad:

• Again, the description section, with the text “Custom Hydro Flask,” does not add urgency or excitement to the ad.

The Recommendation:

• Test including a quote or review from a happy customer about having a custom Hydro Flask.

• Test different background colors within the image, or even a desert landscape again.

• Test benefit-focused language in the description section below the image; it’s right next to the call to action button and helps the potential customer feel like they are making a good buying decision.

#2: MiiR

The Good:

• MiiR takes advantage of the Primary text space above the ad to educate the potential customer on what the company stands for: “supporting people and stewarding the planet.”

• The ad does a great job of communicating the benefit of a MiiR bottle: “replacing single-use water bottles and coffee cups with products that can be enjoyed for generations.”

• Having a broader mission, like reducing environmental waste, is effective way to garner brand loyalty and provides a compelling reason to choose this product over that of a competitor.

The Bad:

• The Primary text is long. People scrolling through their Facebook feed may be put off by the length of text.

• The framing and background of the photo is more distracting than it needs to be.

• The photo contains no text. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case it would be helpful to say something like, “Good for the planet, good for you.”

• This ad has no description (the text section underneath the image, below the URL).

The Recommendation:

• Test different image backgrounds, or shift the camera angle to be a more head-on view of the table that the bottle is sitting on.

• Test a short version of the Primary text. The second paragraph could be reduced to “Independently owned and operated, our focus is supporting people and stewarding the planet”; this would help it look less like a wall of text.

• Test having description text that highlights a free shipping offer or a limited time offer.

• Also, test different bottle colors within the image.

Let’s look at another version of a MiiR ad:

The Good:

• Unlike the previous ad, which focused on the environmental mission of MiiR, the first sentence of the Primary text in this ad focuses on the range of beverages that MiiR bottles can handle: “Morning coffee, evening happy hour, and everything in between.”

• Testing an ad with a product focus rather than a mission focus is smart and allows MiiR to see what resonates most with the target customer.

• The image looks great and shows off the stand-out factor of the bottles, which MiiR only hints at with the phrase: “Design forward.”

The Bad:

• Again, the Primary text is long and may get skipped over because it looks like a wall of text.

• The description is also missing in this ad.

The Recommendation:

• I would test cutting out the second paragraph in the Primary text (that starts with “New to MiiR?) to see if CTR increases.

• Test different text within the image and highlight more benefits of owning a MiiR.

• Test a variety of background colors.

#3: Owala

The Good:

• The Primary text is interesting because it starts with a question that the target customer would have: “What makes the Owala FreeSip so different from other water bottles?”

• The next paragraph then answers that question with a list of features and concludes with another question that asks the target customer, “What more could you ask for?”

• This format works well because it gets the target customer to actually consider what the product is or does. On a platform like Facebook where ads are interrupting the scrolling experience of a user, being able to shift the viewer’s attention to the product is vital.

• The image is simple but effective because it conveys what the bottle would look like in someone’s hand.

The Bad:

• The eyesore of this ad is the URL below the image. Having “HTTPS://” looks clunky and less trustworthy because other brands simply use their name plus dot com.

• The description section under the URL is underutilized and could be used to promote a limited time offer or an additional feature or benefit.

The Recommendation:

• Test text on the image, maybe even a quote from a happy customer.

• Fix the URL so that it reads “OwalaLife.com”

Let’s look at another Owala ad:

The Good:

• The Primary text of this ad does a great job of intertwining the benefits of the product with the features of the product. Having an easy to hold and easy to sip bottle becomes part of why the bottle stands out (the benefit).

• The image is great because it reenforces the message of the Primary text and provides an example of where this water bottle would stand out: on a bike ride.

• The model in this image shows her face and eyes (which is somewhat rare in ads), making this ad feel more real and authentic compared to competitors.

• The idea that sipping from this water bottle is cool or stylish is a great way to differentiate this water bottle from others.

• Pointing out in the description that the design of the spout is patented is adds credibility and interest.

• The URL looks normal, unlike the previous ad.

The Bad:

• Saying the spout is “iconic” and “already a legend” may not resonate without more explanation.

The Recommendation:

• Test variations of the Primary text. It has potential but could be improved by emphasizing why the patented spout is so great. Something like, “Sip like a legend with our patented spout.”

SIDES
SEO Morsels:

• Stand out from AI content with “Deep content,” which is what Google really wants to see (Read more)

• Do you have declining organic traffic? These questions may help you find out why (Read more)

• How often should you update your content? This article provides some answers (Read more)

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