0:00
- I'm coming back to the office for one of the first times in three months, since the pandemic started. (door creaks open) Hello? Oh, weird. Oh, it's like entering a tube. (door slams and startles him) Last time we were in the office, we were using VHS tapes to make our YouTube videos. That's crazy. Hello? Hello? Sam? Where is everybody?
0:25
Sam, Jonathan, hello! You ready to make a commercial? - Hell yeah! - Let's do it! Today I'm spending $750 on Instagram ads. I deserve some goddamn tea. Hey mom, let's go make some art. What's a Zadiko Tea Co.? Zadiko is the best tea ever, so go get some Zadiko. How was that? (upbeat music) If you don't know, I'm starting a tea company, and I'm running out of clever camera angles in my house.
0:57
I already did this, this, this, this. So today you're just getting this. I've got episodes about why I'm doing this, the flavors, how I made my name and logo. And so far I've been wrong about everything. My original flavors were totally off. (grimaces) I had to work really, really hard to find a good name, and I totally blew through my $500 budget. I failed.
1:19
Today, I'm making commercials. I'm filming five different ads for Instagram, and I'll be ranking their click-through performance, to crown a winner to see what type of social content performs the best in growing a new business. We're talking about marketing, which look, that's my advantage here. You're already watching my marketing, but for you, if you're just starting out. For me, if I didn't have my following, what kind of content would be worth making and promoting?
1:43
That's what we're gonna find out today. - Hi, I'm Stephi Kornfeld. I work on social media strategy, influencer marketing, talent booking. - [Zach] And you're also my sister. Hey! (laughter) - Social media is the most important thing that you can do as a brand. You want to be where the consumers want to be. When you pick up your own phone, what are you clicking on? You're clicking on Instagram, clicking on Twitter.
2:06
- That sounds like a full time job. And I have several full time jobs right now. - It is a full time job. It's my job. (laughs) - I think I have like $36 left in my budget. How much of your time will that buy? - Half an hour? - For today's experiment, I'm gonna be making commercials and seeding paid media on Instagram to see what kind of content actually performs the best. - You definitely need to spend a decent amount of money to get meaningful data.
2:30
- 30 Bucks? (upbeat music) 35? How much? Seriously, tell me, I dunno. - I don't think there's any magical number, honestly. The higher you go, the bigger your sample pool's gonna be, which will make it the most accurate. - Certainly more than my original $500 budget. But I'm spending more so that we can see and get real data about what actually works.
2:53
- [Danny] I don't know about expert, but I definitely feel like I care more than anyone else about Instagram ads. I'm Danny Gonzalez. I make videos on YouTube, mostly in the commentary genre. I believe what brings us together today is my series about bad ads on the internet. And also a video that I did where I tried to recreate some of the bad ads. Hey, why don't you subscribe to the channel? - Why do you think ads have gotten so weird?
3:18
- One, I do feel like it works a little bit. So I made one ad that was a good, honest attempt at making an ad, and then two really strange ads. The one that got the most clicks was one of the weird ads. - All ads are about grabbing attention and standing out. And so what better way to stand out than to haunt people's dreams? - Yeah, exactly. Please subscribe to my channel.
3:41
(smacking) While we're here at the office, I'm having the guys taste the tea, see what they think. - Oh, it smells amazing, very, very minty. - Just kind of makes me want to look out a window at the snowfall. - Makes me super horny. - Great tea, boss. - We're launching all the social handles tomorrow from when I'm filming this and I'm not ready at all. I have no posts lined up, I have nothing. - You're launching this tomorrow?
4:05
That stresses me out. You need a social strategy. - Don't you be stressed out. That's what makes me stressed out. Let's just go for it, right? Taking my clothes off on camera. It's good to be home. - [Danny] One thing you can take from these Instagram ads is before you even have a chance to like skip the ad on YouTube or scroll past it on Instagram, you want to stop and be like, wait, what is this? - Hey, I'm Zach Kornfeld. Does this ever happen to you? This needs to be faster, doesn't it?
4:29
- [Stephi] People have super short attention spans. So you need to capture people's attention literally within that first second. - Hey, I'm Zach Kornfeld. Does this ever happen to you and you're all tired, and you're sleepy, so you drink coffee, but then you get all jittery and you spill all over yourself. Zadiko is best tea ever. Go get some, Zadiko Tea. How was that? These are all you heard personal wigs? - Correct, they are. I've got one for every occasion. - [Stephi] Just think about you holding your phone and scrolling.
4:54
What makes your thumb stop? If you're creating an ad, you want to basically be like would I stop for that? And usually for an ad, the answer is no. - Hey mom, what's a Zadiko Tea Co? That's the best tool in the world. - [Stephi] But if something is surprising or interesting or goofy, then maybe you'll stop. - Okay. Okay.
5:19
Jonathan had a tent in his car. I've never set up a tent before. I'm already ready to give up on this. - You deserve some tea, Zadiko Tea Co. Drink me up. Drink me up. Drink me up. Drink me up. (silly music) Drink me up. The crow's really loud. Huh? - [Jonathan] Yeah, they're pretty loud, yeah. Are crows sexy?
5:42
- [Jonathan] Yeah, sexy like a crow. (upbeat music) - [Zach] Now, before we get into the results for the ad, there was actually another secret experiment going on, for I Zachary Kornfeld am, technically speaking an influencer. Influencer marketing really could be a whole other video, but people get paid a shocking amount of money to promote other people's brands. - Working with an influencer can start from free product, so essentially no money to 50,000, a hundred thousand dollars.
6:10
- How much does Kylie Jenner cost? - A lot more than a hundred thousand dollars. - Hey, Kylie, do you like tea? Send. Kylie Jenner not responded yet. So I promoted Zadiko myself. Based on one post and a few stories, I got some interesting data. So let's dive in. From my 1.4 million follower account at KornDiddy, which by the way, it should be way higher.
6:34
These stories got 64,000 impressions. About a thousand people clicked through to the new at Zadiko page. And about 12 hundred people clicked through to my website. From those, the stories got anywhere between a thousand and 4,000 clicks, which doing some math here gives us a .0196, click through rate, not great, but that's a thousand people who are now interested potentially in buying my tea.
6:57
So you can see how it's scaled. That strategy could really pay off, especially if you're posting every single day. Now the question of scale, it really is hard to beat YouTube. After my first video, when I announced my website, I got over 95,000 people visiting my website in a single day and nearly a third of those people signed up for my email list. That is why it's so important to build an organic following, especially when you're starting out.
7:21
Even if not at this scale, if you can create a genuine connection between you, the brand with the creator and the consumer, nothing can beat that. (whistling music) The commercials are done. I'm gonna put paid media behind them and crown the ultimate winner. But first let's watch them. For years, I've been trying to find the perfect tea for me and my needs and I couldn't. So I decided to make my own, Zadiko Tea Co. Wake up with Zach's Breakfast, an energizing black tea with an anti-inflammatory blend of turmeric, ginger and sarsaparilla.
7:50
And dare to relax with Mission Chill, an herbal blend of peppermint, spearmint, chamomile and so much more designed to help you unplug and chill out. Be the first to try my teas at zadiko.com. (elephant trumpets) I liked this one a lot, 'cause I actually think it does do a good job of explaining why I'm doing this, what the flavors are, and what's unique about this project. This just makes me really happy.
8:13
By the way, those are my flavors. I'll talk you about the process more in depth in the next episode. But we went through a lot of iterations to land on the right flavors. They are so (beep) good. Taking Danny's advice, I wanted to try get weirder. Hey, I'm Zach Kornfeld. Does this ever happen to you? You're all tired and you're sleepy, so you drink coffee, but then you get all jittery and you spill over yourself. Or maybe you have anxiety like me, so you can't sleep. And then you're tossing and turning all night long.
8:37
Well, there's a solution: Zadiko Tea Co. Zadiko is the best tea ever. Go get some, Zadiko! First of all, it's perfect. I love it just how quick and dense this one is. There's so many shots happening so fast. I don't know that this is the best for selling tea. It's funny. You thought those flames were hot. Wait until you check out this bod. Hey, there.
9:00
Life can be hard, really hard. (groans) (log hits ground) I deserve some goddamn tea. (slurps) Ahh! Zadiko Tea Co. Drink me up. (sighs) Oh. (giggles) Good heavens. This one's hot. You know, this one's gonna get the people going. If you're scrolling through Instagram, you better hope that your siggy oth isn't watching over your shoulder.
9:27
It's gonna do things to ya. You know, now that I'm watching all of these, I would say that I wish that the tea were in the commercial. We locked the flavors in, but I don't have it. (in deep voice) Gotta sell my hot bod. A huge market for tea is the enlightenment crowd. So I wanted to show them that this tea can do that. (humming) (whispering) Zadiko Tea Co.
9:50
Zadiko Tea Co. Zadiko Tea Co. Zadiko, Zadiko, Zadiko Tea Co. (chirping) Made from the finest ingredients on Earth. (exhales) (slow, new age music) - You know, that one's very bizarre, but it intrigues me. I want to know. I'm like, "Whoa, this dude's got it figured out." (psychedelic music) I think that one's gonna do very well.
10:18
Okay, Stephanie said you want to capture their attention. Let's watch. (upbeat music) (in little boy voice) Hey, mom? (in high-pitched voice) Yes, son? What's a Zadiko Tea Co.? What did you just say to me? Zadiko Tea Co. Where did you hear that? Zadiko.com, yeah. That's the best tea in the world. (upbeat music) All right!
10:43
I'm so proud of you. Thanks, Mom. (dance music) Okay. So let's talk about that one. I would be very upset if I got this ad. I'm just gonna say it. I think I've done a bad thing. Maggie watched this one and she said she didn't care for it. - [Danny] I think the conclusion of my video was that from running three ads over the course of multiple days and spending $20,000, I gained about 40 subscribers on my channel.
11:13
YouTube ads are really more for like increasing brand awareness rather than generating clicks to your website. - I'm now gonna post all these commercials pointing to my website and using the backend on Shopify. Not to be confused with this back end, hey, 'cause he really ended up stats of how many people are visiting each day, what device are they using, which ad did they come from and using all that, we will crown the winner. On Instagram, I paid 100 buckaroos for each ad and they promised me 28 hundred to 75 hundred impressions.
11:45
How many of those resulted in a clickety click? (in deep announcer voice) Welcome to the first annual Zadiko Instagram Awards, featuring Timothée Chalamet, Millie Bobby Brown, with musical performances by BTS. Now please welcome your host, Zach Kornfeld. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Thank you.
12:07
Please settle down, settle down. Okay, we got a long show to get to, all right, cut it out. Hey, Brad Pitt, how are you? Thanks for being here. In last place, we have actually a surprise last minute contender because on Instagram, in addition to the commercials, as opposed to some photos and this one with Bowie got a ton of engagement.
12:30
For a hundred dollars, I got a hundred and 30 clicks. A hundred dollars, over a hundred people visiting the website could have paid off. I should also jump in here and say that surprise, surprise. This is a flawed experiment because I don't have anything to actually sell. So I'm measuring how many people clicked, but I'll never know how many of the people actually want to buy.
12:53
If you do this, wait 'til you actually have something to sell. Bringing up the rear of the ads, we have me being sexy. Ouch, this one hurts. I love this ad. I think it's very funny. Doesn't work to sell tea. Maybe if I'd had an actual sexy man, maybe if I had actually had the tea or what the tea does. Sex sells is what they say.
13:18
I don't know what this sex is trying to sell. (slurps) Ahh! Commenters didn't think that this was about tea. They thought that maybe it was a porn or maybe a dating app for scrawny, pasty men who look like they've been rolling around in a barber shop floor. (cat meows) Moving right along. In 4th place with a hundred and 96 clicks, we have, Hey Mom, the weirdest (beep) thing that I have ever made is still somehow better than me being sexy.
13:52
(squeaking) (squirt) There were a lot of comments that were upset and confused. People who do not follow me were alarmed, but we got a big old jump to 3rd place with a whopping 314 clicks, the infomercial. This was actually my favorite of the bunch.
14:16
This one was pretty effective. I mean 314 people saw this ad and said, yes, I want to know what the (beep) is going on with this guy. For a commercial that's about a product that will calm and center you, this is the most chaotic mess that it ever has been. Zadiko is the best tea ever. Go get some. Maybe not the most surprising, but it didn't too well. 1st and 2nd place, a dead heat.
14:42
The difference between 434 and 418 clicks, we have I can't do math, not that many clicks between, separated these two. The yoga commercial and the normal-ish ad. Both of these ads I love and dearly, but the winner with 434 clicks is the real commercial.
15:11
Yay, yay, yay! Of all the commercials I made, this is the only one that actually said what the products are. I think it shows when you're making your brand strategy, you can lean into a niche. You can be specific. All of my commercials were really weird and none of them bombed that bad. So going back to where we started the series with my $500 budget, my official recommendation is don't spend money here.
15:37
I'd rather see you spend your money and more importantly, your time creating content and curating content, then promoting it. I do seem more official in this suit. Like I've been doing this whole thing in t-shirts. Why the (beep) would you listen to me? But now (light explosion) I got a suit. Still wearing a shorts though. The next time you see me one week from today, the tea will be going on sale. Months of work, everything has been leading up to this.
16:02
I'm gonna be very busy, packaging, pricing, production. There's a lot to do, a lot of exciting stuff. One more week, Zadiko Tea Co. I'll see you next Monday. (upbeat music) (triumphant trumpet music)