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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

#251

Post by shagie »

Mithaldu wrote: post #184
shagie wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "what is Japanese candy like" can be answered by going to ITSUGAR and getting some... well... Japanese candy ( https://itsugar.com/crave-japan-blind-box.html )... or Amazon ( https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-assortment-dagashi-TONOSAMA-... - its even prime - I can get it tomorrow!). After I clicked that link, I've got on the order of 50 different Japanese candy boxes showing up in the "related to items you've view…

> So why Candy Japan rather than another one? That is a very good question. I don't know if there are comparison review sites, or how reliable they would be. > I dread the prospect of opening it up and getting a box of sea weed It sounds like you're not the type of adventurous person who'd care for this in the first place? Your mind went, in a leap of fear, from "tastes of sea weed" to "box of sea weed", which are wi…

> It sounds like you're not the type of adventurous person who'd care for this in the first place? Your mind went, in a leap of fear, from "tastes of sea weed" to "box of sea weed", which are wildly different concepts.

Personally, I’ll try things. However, a subscription service isn’t try. You have to be sure you want it to subscribe. Without specics, it’s the random grab bag of clearance items sold for a flat rate.

I’ve had problems with poor quality subscription services in the past. Starts out ok, goes downhill.

This campaign is targeted at people who are familiar with the range of Japanese candies, like anime, and don’t already have a subscription to such. I’m not sure how big that audience is nor am I sure if YouTube videos are the way to reach them reliably (most of the time I’m waiting for the skip advert button to show up).

There isn’t any indication to the type or quality that will be sent. There is no indication that one could indicate flavor preference (I don’t like many chocolate varieties).

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

#252

Post by FidelCashflow »

I'm not sorry to say that Candy Japan will never see any of my money for the simple fact that there's no way that I'll sign up for anything that expects a recurring charge. The whole "service" attitude is flawed in that this is not a service, software as a whole is not a "service" it's an end product. Good for everyone whose pulling money out of these schemes but not a single cent of it will come from me. And $29/mo * 12 = $348 per year. (forming assumptions about the contract i.e. predatory "cancel early" clause and similar) On candy? give me a break, I don't spend that on candy over 5 years even if you include other needless crap like soda and sports drinks I doubt I'd hit that number over 5 years.

I should also add that I'm the epitome of anti-advertisement. The more that I am forced to see (thinking of YT style of ads here) an ad, the more likely I am to NOT* use that product or service. In fact, the more likely I am to purposely avoid that product out of spite.

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

#253

Post by jsonne »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #214
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.

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

Find it as hard to believe as you would like but I have no incentive to lie. The most profitable campaigns tend to be high end consumer goods with a monthly recurring element built into it. The worst performers tend to be anything targeting small business.

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

#254

Post by dmix »

lugg wrote: post #140
dmix wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of the actual (appealing) candy was shown in the ad nor was the most interesting part of his business (the personal need that drove him to created a delivery service) communicated. I was a subscriber to Candy Japan for a few months and I really felt it undersold his offering. It should have been: 1) a personal story of him going to Japan 2) him going back the US... and missing the awesome Japanese candy you can'…

That's a good idea but I suspect you're being a little hard on a guy that went to the expense and clear trouble of getting something like this made, dropping the coin and then sharing the story for us to pick apart. I doubt anyone gets their video based marketing right the first time - another thing an agency would have helped him avoid. Me: I don't really care about the video or the product, I'm just glad he shared…

True, good point, it's always easier to criticize then it is to put yourself out there and create something. I should have been a bit more reserved in my judgement.

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

#255

Post by cpncrunch »

jsonne wrote: post #253
IAmGraydon wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Find it as hard to believe as you would like but I have no incentive to lie. The most profitable campaigns tend to be high end consumer goods with a monthly recurring element built into it. The worst performers tend to be anything targeting small business.

Yes, I'm targetting small business ($25/month typical), and I've never been able to make google ads pay, even after optimizing the f*ck out of it.

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

#256

Post by jasonstuart90 »

I only spent $75k in my life on ads but I had a x2 average ROI on it. The first thing is: you need at min. 30 different ad variations. Copy, animation, video, value proposition, pricing, landing page. Same with audiences. That's just the minimum. Therefore, standardized ones are obviously a no-no. With 1 variation, you've just - as you rightly wrote - burned the money.

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

#257

Post by nkkollaw »

corobo wrote: post #246
nkkollaw wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Sorry for the double reply but I can't edit my previous anymore. I just saw an ad for a "TokyoTreat" while on Facebook too

I think you might have searched for that or "Japan"?

I've never seen any of those.

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

#258

Post by manigandham »

sonaltr wrote: post #235
manigandham wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't exist because it's impossible. Advertising doesn't work like that and anyone who could actually guarantee results would become bigger than Google overnight.

They don't have to guarantee results - Companies are becoming disillusioned about Ads as it is (since they don't understand technology and/or can't compete with companies that do)...we need a platform where such companies go back doing their core-services if you will and leave the rest to experts - As an example - a B2B company making some airplane part does not need to host it's own marketing site (for it's sales pi…

That's called a marketing agency, and they come in all shapes and sizes. If you're a very small company then there are plenty of freelancer marketers that can help you out, even if it's just to setup a basic framework for running campaigns.

An "app" would not be sufficient to handle any of the complexity here.

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

#259

Post by Bokanovsky »

Speaking to a few anime/manga fans I know Bemmu has to compete with giants like J-List who dominate this space. Then there are local "Kawaii companys" in each region, for example Tofu Cute in the UK.

Why doesn't the Candy Japan Website have prominent links to Twitter and other social media?

Have you thought about using Social media more? Let's look at Twitter. Bemmu has almost 6,000 twitter followers, I'm guessing the Candy Japan Twitter account is @candyjapanese with about 250 followers?

While rivals - http://www.japancandybox.com/ has 23K follows and J-List has 155K followers.

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

#260

Post by alwayseasy »

sonaltr wrote: post #235
manigandham wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't exist because it's impossible. Advertising doesn't work like that and anyone who could actually guarantee results would become bigger than Google overnight.

They don't have to guarantee results - Companies are becoming disillusioned about Ads as it is (since they don't understand technology and/or can't compete with companies that do)...we need a platform where such companies go back doing their core-services if you will and leave the rest to experts - As an example - a B2B company making some airplane part does not need to host it's own marketing site (for it's sales pi…

So a self-serve app that would replace the different expertises (creatives, media buying etc) in advertising agencies?
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