Revisiting the Best Ads for Yoga Mats

THIS WEEK’S FODDER
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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. Manduka

2. Yoloha Yoga

STARTER
Marketing Reads

• In case you missed it, Google’s November 2024 Core Update rollout is complete

• Meta’s platforms experienced a global outage on Wed (12/11) 

• Google ads appears to be testing a dedicated “Video” option in the Assets section of Google ads

MAIN
On the Mat

Trends:

According to Google Trends, US search interest (over the last five years) for “Yoga Mats” 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 yoga mats:

#1: Manduka

The Good:

• The ad copy states that this yoga gear is “the world’s most trusted and durable”; while the statement is not backed up by a rating system, positioning a product as the best in a category helps get the attention of the viewer

• Using the idea of a Holiday Gift Guide to promote the yoga gear makes the ad sound helpful and less salesy

• The image is interesting and shows the mat being unfurled (this gives the viewer a good idea of what to expect from the product)

The Bad:

• The image has too much unused space, especially at the bottom

• The headline and description sections are underutilized

The Recommendation:

• Test a customer quote at the bottom of the image

• Add helpful information to the description and headline sections

• Make the benefit of giving this product as a gift more explicit; instead of the current ad copy, I suggest saying, “give the gift of inspiration with the world’s most durable and trusted yoga gear”

#2: Yoloha Yoga

The Good:

• The ad copy encourages the viewer to interact with the ad by suggesting that thoughtful gifts “start here”

• The “Why Cork?” question draws the viewer in

• The image is interesting (shows a yoga mat in use) and also includes a list of helpful features

The Bad:

• No social proof or customer reviews are included in this ad

• The description and headline sections could use more helpful information about the product; mentioning the free shipping and returns is a good start but the ad needs to explain why buying this product is a no-brainer

The Recommendation:

• Test images where the entire mat and person are visible (having someone cut in half can look awkward)

• Emphasizing a benefit (like inner peace) instead of focusing on features would likely boost the performance of this ad

Thanks for reading!

Stay hungry and see you in the next issue.

-Kevin