Looking to Boost Your DTC Conversions but Facing Rising CPAs? Here’s the Type of Ads You Need to Be Running
Rebecca Worsley
Founder, Rainy City | Director, DTC Live | First Female-Founded Shopify Plus Partner in Europe | Building Shopify Plus success stories | Industry speaker & event host
Hello everyone, Rebecca here,
It's Thursday at 9am, which usually means 2 things.
Today, that would be Gamechangers!
This time we decided to shake things up, and make it just that bit more interactive.
So, we decided to introduce roundtables. There are 2 during the day... each lasting 35 mins.
One to focus on On-Site Experience, Personalisation and Marketing
And the other on Elevating Customer Experiences, Finance & Logistics
In this way, we can focus more on your brands and business and your specific challenges to give you all the personalised tips to scale your brand.
So why not come join us at the next one!
Now, drum roll please, the moment you have been waiting for...
The sneak peek of some of our upcoming speakers at DTC Live London!
Date: Thursday, October 17, 2024
Time: 10:20 AM - 6:00 PM
Location: The WestWorks, White City Place
🎤 Jake Xu Co-Founder, ShakeUp Cosmetics Jake and his twin brother Shane struggled with rosacea from a young age, which led them to create their own skincare range in 2019. SHAKEUP aims to enhance men’s well-being through self-care, offering solution-driven skincare and cosmetic products designed specifically for men’s skin.
🎤 Joel Williams CCO, ChaChing ChaChing is a game-changing platform reshaping the purchasing landscape. It allows merchants to acquire customers through a cost-per-acquisition model while rewarding consumers with money back. As an alternative advertising channel, ChaChing focuses on driving conversions, offering a better return on ad spend (ROAS) than traditional click-and-view models.
🎤 Ryan Palmer Co-Founder, London Sock Company Ryan co-founded London Sock Company in 2013, based on the belief that small details, like socks, can make a big difference. A great pair of socks can elevate both style and mood. London Sock Company prides itself on quality materials, thoughtful designs, and their Share a Pair initiative, donating a pair of socks to charity with every order.
If you are a DTC brand and would like to attend FOR FREE, fill in this FORM NOW, to secure one of these LIMITED spots. It is also on a first-come first serve basis.
OCTOBER MUST HAVE DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
October 2-3: London IRX
October 9: London eCom Collab Club
October 17: DTC Live London
Now let's get into what's hot in DTC this week!
👀 Looking to boost your DTC conversions but CPA is rising?
📌 Why context matters more than CTA placement
👑 How Penelope Chilvers Merges Royal Heritage with Cutting-Edge Tech
📣 The type of Ads you NEED and SHOULD be running
Looking to boost your DTC conversions but CPA is rising?
If you’re running a DTC brand, you’re probably familiar with some common hurdles: rising customer acquisition costs, exhausted ad channels, and feeling like your usual marketing efforts are hitting a plateau. 😩
Sound familiar? With the holiday season right around the corner, It’s time to shake things up with native advertising. Native ads are designed to feel more like part of the content people are already engaging with, not something disruptive. They blend in naturally, making them more effective and helping to drive 8x higher click-through rates than traditional display ads. It’s not about being sneaky—it’s about presenting your product or service in a way that resonates more with users.
And when it comes to native ads, Taboola is the leader. Reaching over 500 million users daily across top-tier sites like CNBC, BBC, and Business Insider, Taboola gives you the scale and tools to connect with new customers and drive real results.
Here’s why it works:
Feeling like your usual ad channels are maxed out? Taboola can help you reach new audiences and reduce your cost per acquisition (CPA). It’s a no-brainer if you want to maximise your results without draining your budget.
Ready to get started? Here are some quick tips:
Use Taboola’s feature to re-engage people who’ve already shown interest in your site but haven’t made a purchase yet. It’s an easy way to turn almost-customers into actual customers.
Focus on making your ads feel like a natural part of the content. Taboola’s Creative Shop can help with that, ensuring your creative aligns with the platform.
Let Taboola’s AI tools do the heavy lifting by continuously optimising your campaigns for better performance.
If you’re still wondering whether Taboola is the right fit, check out how Bombas, the comfort-focused apparel brand, used Taboola to knock their holiday sales out of the park.
Last holiday season, Bombas wanted to boost sales for their expanded slippers line. By using Taboola’s native ads and retargeting features like Attentive Audience, they saw some pretty impressive results.
Bombas achieved a 50% increase in ROAS (return on ad spend) during their campaign, with 40% of their holiday conversions coming from their slippers category alone. They also saw a 1.26x increase in ROAS from the Attentive Audience tool. All of this contributed to a highly successful holiday season for the brand.
Taboola is offering to create a native-first strategy that is tailor-made for your brand completely free.
Click here to book yours today.
Why context matters more than CTA placement
We’ve all heard the advice: “Place your CTA above the fold.” We talk about it too here at Rainy City, but read on to understand how we see it and what we really mean.
It’s one of those golden rules in web design and conversion rate optimisation (CRO) that’s considered a best practice. But what if your data shows that this approach doesn’t actually work for your audience?
It might sound counterintuitive, but best practices aren’t universal truths, they’re guidelines based on general trends, not specific insights into your users. In fact, when it comes to CRO, the key to success is remembering that we aren’t designing for averages; we’re designing for real people with unique needs, motivations, and behaviours. And while the theory says a CTA above the fold should drive more conversions, your data might say otherwise.
This is where the value of experimentation (others would call it A/B testing) comes in. It allows you to challenge assumptions, even those that seem non-negotiable, and discover what truly works for your users. In some cases, that means moving away from the expected “above the fold” placement.
Here’s a simple truth: I’m not clicking a CTA if I don’t understand why it’s there, what’s in it for me, and what happens next. It doesn’t matter if the button is the first thing I see on the page, if I’m unsure about it, I won’t engage. Visibility alone isn’t enough. Context is key.
A well-placed CTA is about more than just its position on the page. It’s about understanding when and where the user is in their journey. If they’re at the top of a landing page, just getting acquainted with your offer, hitting them with a CTA might be premature. Users often need more information before they feel ready to take action. They may require reassurance about what happens after they click, or clarity on the value they’ll receive by taking that next step.
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Think about it this way: Would you ask someone to make a purchase the moment they step into a store, before they’ve had a chance to browse or consider their options? Probably not. The same principle applies to your website. Timing matters as much as placement. Your CTA should align with the user’s decision-making process, offering a nudge at the moment they’re ready to act, not before. If you push too early, it can distract or even frustrate users, potentially leading them to exit your site altogether.
Best practice vs. user-centred practice?
Sure, placing a CTA above the fold is considered a best practice, but what does that really mean? A best practice is simply a suggestion based on collective knowledge or historical data across multiple sites and industries. It’s a useful starting point, a hypothesis to test but it’s not the final word.
In CRO, the most important thing isn’t blindly following general guidelines but constantly asking: Does this make sense for my users? What works for one brand or audience won’t necessarily work for yours. Rather than treating best practices as strict rules, think of them as launching points for experimentation or learning.
What we often overlook is that user intent varies from site to site. For instance, in e-commerce, users visiting a product page might be ready to make a decision, which can make a CTA above the fold more effective. On the other hand, users landing on a blog or informational page are often still in an exploratory phase; they're gathering information, comparing options, or educating themselves. Forcing a CTA too early in this context could feel aggressive, and users might need more time before they’re ready to act.
Even within e-commerce, different users come in with varying levels of awareness, and their expectations will influence how and where they respond to a CTA. What’s important is that the best practice is the one that serves your users’ needs, not one that adheres to a generic formula. Every business, every audience, and every website is different. There’s no universal truth for the optimal placement of CTAs or any other element, for that matter. It all depends on the unique journey your users take on your site.
What is the place of experimentation?
When you rely on data and real user behaviour, you uncover insights that no best practice can offer. If your experiments show that users need more information before they engage with your CTA, listen to that data. Try moving your CTA further down the page, add more detailed content to support the call to action, or test multiple CTAs at different points in the user journey.
Testing also allows you to evaluate other factors beyond just placement, copy, design, tone, and timing all play crucial roles. Maybe the problem isn’t the placement but the wording. Is the value proposition clear? Is it compelling? Or maybe the design doesn’t draw enough attention to the CTA. A/B testing can help you fine-tune every element of your page to find out what resonates most with your audience.
Remember, optimisation is about constant learning. Every experiment generates data that helps you better understand your users and make informed decisions. By continually testing and adjusting based on real insights, you’re not just guessing you’re evolving your strategy to better serve your audience.
At the end of the day, a successful CRO strategy isn’t about adhering to a rigid set of rules. It’s about understanding your users, their motivations and their journey, and creating an experience that meets them where they are. Sure, best practices can give you a starting point, but they’re not one-size-fits-all. The most effective CRO strategies are built on data, experimentation, and a deep understanding of your audience.
So, next time you’re told to “put the CTA above the fold,” pause for a moment and ask yourself: Does this really make sense for my users? If your experiment shows that something else works better, trust your data and adapt. Because the best practice isn’t always the right one, it’s the one that’s tailored to your users.
At Rainy City, this is what we mean when we talk about CTA placement. We focus on context. We focus on what makes sense for your users and their journey.
How Penelope Chilvers Merges Royal Heritage with Cutting-Edge Tech
Penelope Chilvers - a brand that's as much about heritage as it is about innovation. Known for being a favourite among royalty, like HRH Catherine, Princess of Wales, Penelope Chilvers combines timeless designs with modern technology to stay ahead in the competitive luxury fashion market.
Established in 2002, Penelope Chilvers has become a hallmark of sophisticated style and quality. With shops in some of London’s most prestigious neighbourhoods—Belgravia, Mayfair, Notting Hill—and Stow-on-the-Wold, the brand offers more than just products; it offers an experience. Each store promises a unique journey through luxury and comfort.
The shift to digital is inevitable in today’s retail landscape, and Penelope Chilvers is no exception. The challenge was not just to maintain an online presence but to integrate it seamlessly with the traditional brick-and-mortar stores. The solution?
Magento (eCommerce Data) + Eurostop (Retail Data) + (Sweet Analytics ) Single View of Customer & Insights = Success
✏️ Top Tip: Ensure that your digital transformation aligns with your brand identity and enhances your customer's journey, both online and offline.
The integration enabled by Sweet Analytics allowed Penelope Chilvers to bring together disparate strands of customer data from online and in-person interactions. This holistic view means the brand can now offer personalised shopping experiences that reflect the unique preferences and behaviours of each customer.
✏️ Top Tip: Use integrated data systems to capture and analyse customer interactions across all channels for a more rounded view of your customer base.
With comprehensive data at their fingertips, the team at Penelope Chilvers crafts marketing strategies that feel personal and direct. Simon Hudson, CEO, shares that "The team at Sweet Analytics supports us every step of the way. Integrating our platforms (Magento and Eurostop) into Sweet was simple; it has not only made it easier to access information as we now have all our metrics in one place, including purchase history, browsing activity, demographic information, and engagement metrics.
What’s great is being able to unify our ecommerce and retail shoppers into one place – so we have real insight into our customers’ behaviour. We’ve used these insights to improve our campaign targeting."
Oliver Spark, CEO of Sweet Analytics, adds
"Sweet allows brands to segment data at a granular level, helping them to create personalised messaging that resonates with each segment’s unique characteristics and preferences, for example loyal repeat customers and potential prospects who have shown interest in specific products or categories. This targeted approach not only improves the relevance and effectiveness of direct mail campaigns but also enhances customer engagement and fosters long-term loyalty."
The results? Impressive. Penelope Chilvers has witnessed a remarkable 30% increase in net sales year-over-year since the integration.
More importantly, they've seen consistent growth over the past five years, both existing customers and new customers, thanks to their ability to adapt and innovate.
✏️ Top Tip: Regularly update your strategy based on the insights gained from data analytics to keep up with market changes and customer expectations.
What else?
Enhanced Customer Insights: Penelope Chilvers gained deeper insights into customer behaviour and preferences across all sales channels. They could identify high-value customers, understand their purchasing patterns, and tailor marketing strategies accordingly.
Personalised Marketing Campaigns: Personalised campaigns segmented customers based on their interests and purchase history, they delivered relevant offers and promotions via direct mail, leading to increased engagement and conversion rates.
Improved Sales Performance: The integrated approach to data management resulted in a significant boost in sales for Penelope Chilvers. By delivering targeted marketing messages to the right audience at the right time, they were able to drive higher conversion rates and increase customer loyalty.
Want to find out more? Check out sweetanalytics.com
Wondering what types of ads your brand should be running?
Here are our top 8 ad strategies that you can start using today.
1. Us vs. Them
If you’ve got a direct competitor or want to introduce a new way of doing things, this ad style is a no-brainer. Highlight why your approach stands out.
2. Big Headline
Got a bold claim? Don’t hold back. Make it the focal point of your ad—let that headline demand attention and leave a lasting impression.
3. The “Hidden” Tease
This one’s pure gold. Tease your audience with just enough to get them curious, driving them straight to your landing page. It’s clickbait with a purpose.
4. Offer
As Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) approach, offers become crucial. Centre your ad around a strong deal—it’s an essential during the holiday season.
5. The Review
We can’t say it enough—leverage your customer reviews! Pair a glowing testimonial with an impactful image, and you’re on the path to success.
6. Handwritten
Personal touches make all the difference. Even something as simple as incorporating a handwritten note in your creative mind adds a human, relatable element.
7. Callout
A classic, but for good reason. Callout ads are ideal for spotlighting your product’s key features or unique selling points (USPs).
Ready to scale your Meta strategy for Q4, book some time in to chat with a strategist to devise a plan!