Ad Breakdown: Curology, Lumin, Obvi
If you've been running out of creative juice or inspiration for your ads, start here.
Today we'll tackle 2 beauty brands and 1 supplement brand.
Ad 1: Curology
Breakdown
Did you see that before-after transition hook? Simple, easy and effective. It has been a staple for us in adding a bit of entertainment in our ads. You can experiment with different types of transitions — try a snap one.
Problem: Adult acne and sensitive skin.
The problem is quickly introduced with before-photos and then followed up with the solution.
Solution: Customized skin-care product through a quiz.
The key to beauty product ads is showing the transformation. It’s heavy on the visual proof so your customers should visualize themselves going through the entire process of purchasing and using it.
Let’s face it, we hate surveys and questionnaires — we just want to get to the point.
Unless it creates a “customized” experience.
Quizzes are great if you have multiple products that offer similar solutions.
We love using screen-recordings of the site in our ads because it allows the customer to see their journey so it reduces the friction of trying to find where to click.
Another company that’s great at this is Lumin. More on this later.
TLDR: Simple transition hook showing before-after. Screen-recording your quizzes makes it easy to visualize their journey on the site.
Ad 2: Lumin
Pause. Why are we looking at a woman if the customer demographic is obviously men?
- One, women are “authority figures” in this category because they know more about skin care.
- Two, it taps on a deeper desire.
Surface desire - men want better skin.
Deeper desire - men want to look attractive.
Problem: Women can tell if a man does not take care of his skin.
Great problem callout and hitting a common insecurity — not being seen as attractive.
Solution: A 3-step skincare routine delivered through a quiz.
Just like earlier, it takes you from the quiz to the products.
Lumin’s questionnaire is not as deep as Curology’s. Why?
Most men do not know skincare lingo.
Key takeaway - understand how your target customers speak and their level of knowledge on a topic.
I also love the use of ✅. It feels organic.
Just don’t overuse emojis as it may feel cheap.
TLDR: Men want to be attractive for women but don’t know how. This ad hits both of those problems by using an authority figure and educating them.
Ad 3: Obvi
As UGC videos are getting used everywhere, brands are starting to blend it more into traditional ecom ads.
Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is a topic for another day.
First let’s look at that hook — instead of simply just showing your product, try doing the reverse shot to keep it more engaging.
What I love about Obvi ads are their diversity.
While this specific ad will not be their best performing ever, I love how it creates a mash-up of styles.
We got the Tiktok UGC, trendy transitions, product photos, educational, screen recording and your standard problem-solution.
Problem: Dry and brittle hair.
The problem is set-up early on with a clear demonstration.
Solution: Obvi’s collagen-infused supplement.
As the hero is looking for a solution, she looks at a previous ad on Tiktok.
Really great way of introducing your solution organically.
You can try,
- “I saw this ad on Facebook from [brand] and I had to try it…”
- “I was browsing Facebook and I found [brand]…”
This can also be used as its own intro-hook.
Then, it goes on to to show the features (ingredients) and benefits.
Great ad for unaware buyers.
TLDR: Try the reverse-hook to introduce your product. Test out the mash-up style UGC that combines education, product photos and trendy transitions.
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