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What I Learned Burning $14k on YouTube Ads for Candy Japan

candyjapan.com

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Re: What I Learned Burning $14k on YouTube Ads for Candy Japan

#211

Post by keerthiko »

ferongr wrote: post #155
lugg wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that is intentional. Sentence missing from the blog post is still up on the reddit post[1]: > Here's the end result. If the video tingles your weeaboo senses, that's intentional, as I want clearly uninterested people to skip the video as fast as possible. I'll explain why next. ... > Now you might understand why I want to get people not in my target audience to skip – it's cheaper because you don't pay when…

I'm the "target audience" but the use of English made me flinch.

Agreed, as an anime fan (and spent ~4 months in Japan, love candy and love Japanese candy as much), the anglicized "Kony-chee-wa" at the start turned me off more than the concept of the ad. Either use English, or go full anime and do real Japanese with subtitles, ie what anime fans are used to.

Western-accented Japanese is the worst of both worlds.

Re: What I Learned Burning $14k on YouTube Ads for Candy Japan

#212

Post by corobo »

raverbashing wrote: post #189
avree wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Additionally, just because someone is interested in Japanese candies, doesn't mean they like anime. The high-pitched annoying cartoon voice really turned me off right away, and it's not immediately obvious in the first 10 seconds (which is how long you have to watch before you can skip on YouTube) what it's for (after all, CrunchyRoll is a service for watching anime online, not ordering crunchy rolls.)

I think people are being a bit overly critical of the ad Yes, it could have been better, yes maybe there could have been an "adult" version of it. (I don't think the narration is bad, but I'm not used to hearing native Japanese speakers, so that might be it) What I think they should have done is have a copywriter script it. However the phrase "would you like to try some Japanese candy" ends at 0:04 (and "Candy Japan…

The article is being overly critical of the ad system

In this instance it appears the ad may have been more the issue than the system so people are pointing out where the issue may be. Criticism of the ad is essential in this case to determine where the "burning" of $14k happened

Re: What I Learned Burning $14k on YouTube Ads for Candy Japan

#213

Post by Liquid_Fire »

CPLX wrote: post #38

Well the initial snap impression is that the ad isn't very good. But let's talk about how this could have been done better. For starters, I would not pitch a real world get stuff in your mailbox service with animation. There are no photos of the product, the explanation of how it works and why it's not a scam is hand wavy. I don't care how it works I care about what's in it for me, the buyer. There are no clear examp…

> You targeted hardcore gamers, but you're not selling games.

Maybe I missed something, but where does it say he targeted gamers? I only see a mention of the fact you can target it to gamers as an example.

Re: What I Learned Burning $14k on YouTube Ads for Candy Japan

#214

Post by IAmGraydon »

jsonne wrote: post #133
cpncrunch wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your clients' average ROI for these campaigns?

3 to 5x on a cold audience. 5-10x on retargeting campaigns and upsell/cross sells. It really depends on the client though.

I’m finding that extremely hard to believe. What’s the product category?

Re: What I Learned Burning $14k on YouTube Ads for Candy Japan

#215

Post by xstartup »

jsonne wrote: post #95

A few things that struck me. Note I primarily do Facebook consulting so I'm pulling broad generalizations from there but I do run youtube ads as well. 1. Using predefined broad audience categories rarely works. Doing keyword targeting or specific video targeting usually works out better. 2. $10 cpm isn't high. I regularly spend $40+ on Facebook that can be 5x+ profitable ROI. Judging an ad buy only by cpm is short si…

It ultimately depends on what you are pushing without revealing that these stats are pointless.

Sensational news, fake news will get you massive CTR. You'll have cheap CPCs but your ad account will be dead after some time. Yes, Facebook doesn't like it when ad viewers report our ads.

Re: What I Learned Burning $14k on YouTube Ads for Candy Japan

#216

Post by nathan_f77 »

danieltillett wrote: post #210
nathan_f77 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you were getting these customers from AdWords campaigns, instead of high-touch sales? That's incredible.

If true, an incredibly bad sales process. If you have a product that can be sold for $50K via Adwords and you don't also use high touch sales you are an idiot.

Hmm, that’s true. Thanks for your comment, you inspired me to think about creating a platform for independent sales agents, and then I found commissioncrowd.com. I’ve signed up and booked a call with one of their representives. I’ve been putting off sales, but I really need to take that seriously.

Re: What I Learned Burning $14k on YouTube Ads for Candy Japan

#217

Post by xstartup »

dfee wrote: post #167
jsonne wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3 to 5x on a cold audience. 5-10x on retargeting campaigns and upsell/cross sells. It really depends on the client though.

Is there reasoning to not drive this into the ground, I.e. where profitability for the campaign hits 0? At a practical level I wonder if you / they are cognizant of an exhaustion measure, if new campaigns are introduced rapidly enough to continue to maintain a 5-10x return, whether the spend is managed to a predefined ROI, etc. For what it’s worth, I’ve always seemed to drive it into the ground, but those are for sho…

It depends on what you are doing. Many are just middleman, so they sell conversions they drive from FB, the difference of which is your profit. You have an incentive to keep conversion cost as low as possible and quality as high as possible to maintain your conversion payoff.

Driving it into the ground might be profitable for a product owner but not to an ad agency which pockets the middle.

Re: What I Learned Burning $14k on YouTube Ads for Candy Japan

#218

Post by corobo »

nkkollaw wrote: post #192
TylerE wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Fine" is how you go bankrupt. There is way too much competition out there for 'fine' to be enough.

Is that from a fortune cookie? How many many Japanese candies by mail services are there, not a lot of competition here ;-)

I'm always seeing ads for Japan Crate on Facebook. If it weren't for HN posts I'd have never heard of Candy Japan.

Re: What I Learned Burning $14k on YouTube Ads for Candy Japan

#219

Post by mseebach »

ggg9990 wrote: post #180
jypepin wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

advertising is about telling people about your product. If you don't have a great product, it won't sell, no matter how much ads you put out there.

This is usually true but sometimes not. For example products like Grey Goose vodka make billions of dollars despite being indistinguishable from other quality vodka even by self-professed experts.

It's probably splitting hair at this point, but Grey Goose isn't bad vodka, it's just no better than other "good" vodkas (whatever "good" means in context of a product whose defining characteristic is the absence of characteristics). If GG was a foul-tasting vodka, no amount of advertising would save it.

Re: What I Learned Burning $14k on YouTube Ads for Candy Japan

#220

Post by danieltillett »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #216
danieltillett wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If true, an incredibly bad sales process. If you have a product that can be sold for $50K via Adwords and you don't also use high touch sales you are an idiot.

Hmm, that’s true. Thanks for your comment, you inspired me to think about creating a platform for independent sales agents, and then I found commissioncrowd.com. I’ve signed up and booked a call with one of their representives. I’ve been putting off sales, but I really need to take that seriously.

My company sells niche high value software in the same value ball park as the OP and the only thing that works is high touch sales.

My advice is stay away from outsourced sales. It is possible that you might find a good one, but you are more likely to find the secret of how to turn lead into gold.

The major problem you will have starting out is good sales people won't work for a business without an established sales process. Of course without good sales people it is hard to establish an effective sales process (nice catch 22). You are probably best grabbing someone new and keen and hitting the road with them until you have an established process that works. Then hire sales people.

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