KIWICO

KiwiCo tested using Reels-style ads creative on Instagram and Facebook together with its standard ad creative and saw a 30% higher return on ad spend when using both together compared to either one alone.

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THE STORY
Science and art projects for kids

KiwiCo delivers monthly crates filled with hands-on projects for kids of all ages. Each crate is based on a theme—such as science, sensory play, games or geometry—and are intended to inspire excitement, curiosity and moments of discovery.

27%

lower cost per purchase when using Reels-style creative together with usual standard creative, compared to using either one alone

30%

higher return on ad spend when using Reels-style creative together with usual standard creative, compared to using either one alone

We’ve seen that Reels can be a significant acquisition lever if we engage audiences in an authentic way that reflects an understanding of their needs. Based on the success we’ve seen, we've optimized our ad creative to mirror Reels-style content featuring catchy sounds and text stickers, and plan on investing more in the strategy as part of our holiday efforts.
LISANN ARNDT, PAID SOCIAL MARKETING MANAGER, KIWICO
THE GOAL
Increasing subscription sales

KiwiCo wanted to attract new customers and increase subscription sales.

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THE SOLUTION

Testing Reels ad creative

KiwiCo had seen success by running its usual standard video ad creative in Reels in prior campaigns but was curious about whether it could maximize its investment in this placement by building new ad creative specifically in the “language” of Reels. To understand how to undertake this approach, KiwiCo partnered with Meta for guidance.

The team at Meta suggested that KiwiCo build Reels-style creative to run in Reels, as well as in Feed and Stories on Instagram and Facebook. This meant following Meta’s best practices by ensuring that the creative assets were:

  • entertaining and used a mix of visual effects, music or storytelling
  • digestible and easy to understand and rewarding to watch
  • relatable for the intended audience, unpolished and spontaneous

To differentiate the Reels-style creative even more from its usual creative assets, Meta advised KiwiCo to follow its “creative essentials” recommendations. These creative essentials include building vertical video assets (9:16 aspect ratio) with the audio on and keeping key messages within the Reels “safe zone”—this means leaving the bottom 35% of the ad space free from text, logos and other key creative elements to ensure that important brand elements aren’t overlapped by the Reels user interface.

To understand how well this specific Reels-style creative could perform, KiwiCo ran a multi-cell conversion lift study that compared the performance of the brand’s standard creative, the new Reels-style creative, and a mix of the two across Meta placements:

  • Cell 1: ran its usual video ads using standard product-focused creative across Feed, Stories and Reels on Instagram and Facebook
  • Cell 2: ran video ads with Reels-style creative (developed specifically with Reels in mind) across Feed, Stories and Reels on Instagram and Facebook
  • Cell 3: ran a combination of video ads with standard creative plus Reels-style creative across Feed, Stories and Reels on Instagram and Facebook

KiwiCo delivered all ads to US adults aged 25 and over and used the Advantage+ campaign budget feature to automatically distribute the budget across the best-performing ad sets in real time.

KiwiCo determined the results of its May 11–25, 2023 campaign using a multi-cell Meta conversion lift study, which revealed:

  • 27% lower cost per purchase when using Reels-style creative together with usual standard creative, compared to using either one alone
  • 30% higher return on ad spend when using Reels-style creative together with usual standard creative, compared to using either one alone
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We want to engage new and existing customers in a relevant way to drive conversions and ultimately grow our KiwiCo customer base, and Meta’s technologies have supported our goal by helping us reach new people while helping us measure our return on ad spend easily.
JONATHAN FUKUHARA, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, KIWICO
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