Creative benchmarks for your UGC ads

OK so you got your UGC videos from Influee, you set up your Meta ads and they're not performing. 😬 If you only looked at sales, engagement or click-through rates, you might be sleeping on a pot of gold. What you don't realize is that for example sometimes, the only difference between a bad creative and a scaling creative is a different hook. And you can't know that for sure, if you don't look at metrics such as thumbstop ratio (to a name just a few). 

In this blog, we're going to cover some of the media buying terms and benchmarks that you can keep an eye on, to keep track on the performance of your UGC ads. Based on these, you can make educated guesses on what things to change in your creative in order to scale.

Remember, on average, only 1/8 creatives on Meta will scale. So don't say UGC doesn't work. It's just that particular creative.🫣

Let's go over some of the basic terms first

Thumbstop ratio:  This metric will show you the proportion of people who view the first 3-seconds of your video. It's a metric that tells you how good is your video in capturing attention of the user and causes them to stop scrolling. Generally speaking, the higher the ratio, the better the creative is. It's calculated by dividing 3-second video plays by impressions and multiplying it by 100. (3-second videoplays / impressions *  100).

CVR (Conversion rate): The conversion rate in Meta advertising is the percentage of users who take a desired action, such as making a purchase after clicking on an ad. It is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of ad clicks and then multiplying by 100 to get the percentage. Conversion Rate = (Number of Conversions / Number of Clicks) x 100

CTR: Click-through rate (CTR) is a metric used to measure the ratio of users who click on a specific link or ad to the total number of users who view the ad. It is calculated by dividing the number of clicks on the ad by the number of times the ad was shown (impressions) and then multiplying by 100 to get the percentage. Click-Through Rate (CTR) = (Number of Clicks / Number of Impressions) x 100.

Thruplays: Thruplays refer to a metric used in video advertising that counts the number of times a video ad plays to completion, including both the times the video autoplays for at least 15 seconds and the times a user actively clicks to play the video. This metric can help you understand how many users have watched your video ads in their entirety. 

Most common situations for DTC e-coms brands:

High thumbstop (over 30%) & low Conversion rate

Your hook is good and you're driving traffic to the website, but they don't end up converting. You need to experiement with CTA; change it completely, or add it earlier in the video (an ad can have more than one CTA). Besides that; check out your page loading speed and the UX of your landing page to see what's causing the low conversion rate besides the creative. 

Low thumbstop ratio

Your hook is not working. Change the hook of the main body of the ad. 

Low CTR & High Conversion rate

To put it simply, those people who do click on the ad, also convert. But your ad fails to entice people to click on the ad. You need to increase website visits, by reinforcing CTA, or testing different ad angles. Get inspiration for different ad angles here. 

High CTR &  low Conversion rate

You get a lot of traffic on the website, but people are not converting. You need to make sure that USPs in your ad are also mentioned on the website, that you have a good UX on the landing page, etc. Also, try to implement a retargeting campaign by giving an offer (check out offer ads you can recreate here).

Low CTR & high Thruplays 

Your ads are watched for a long time, which is awesome and you might be onto something here. But there are few clicks and possibly low conversions too. This means that you probably need to change the CTA, embed it mid-video. Make sure that your value proposition & messaging are clear and cohesive also with what's written on the website.  

High thumbstop, low thruplays, low CTR 

Your hook is good, but the rest of the video falls flat. Add the CTA earlier in the video. Test again. Also, try keeping just the hook and chaning the rest of the video completely. 

Creative benchmarks

Please note, the following are average benchmarks and will not be relevant for all ecoms. Benchmarks are subject to change for each niche and target audience. Use this as a proxy or a rough estimate of what "good" or "bad" metrics are. 

Thumbstop ratio > 30% 

Best performing creatives have a thumb-stop ratio of at least 30%. This means that they have a really great hook. If you notice that the thumb stop ratio starts declining over time, this means that your audience is fatigued. You need to change the hook and search for a new winner. You can experiment with capitals, and emojis instead of words.

Things to consider:

• If your product/problem is relatable, your hook rates can be significantly higher overall. Higher hook rates don't necessarily mean higher ad performance. Don't get carried away by focusing too much on the non-sales metrics. 
• If your product/audience is more niche, you can expect a lower hook rate. Identify what the average hook rate is on your best-performing creatives and set a benchmark for your brand. Experiment with different ad angles and hook combinations to identify new winners. 
• Purely focusing on higher hook rates can create click-bait, which is against the Meta advertising policy (sensational content). It's a serious violation which can kill your ad account, so try to avoid it.

CTR > 0.8% - 1%

Typically, a CTR below 1% indicates room for improvement, while a CTR between 1% to 1.5% is considered good, and anything exceeding 1.5% likely signifies a high-converting ad. It's important to note that a CTR below 1% doesn't necessarily mean an ad is unprofitable but rather suggests opportunities for enhancing performance to maximize ROAS.

These are just a few of the creative benchmarks that you can keep track of when checking the performance of your UGC. Don't get discouraged if your creative is not scaling immediately. Deep dive into the analytics and identify the potential root cause of the issue. Then, go back to the creative and iterate. Remember, that you can always easily order extra hooks, CTAs or re-collaborate with winning creators on Influee. Good luck, you got this! 🙌