Jan 23, 2024
READ TIME: 5 MINUTES
Welcome back, Renaissance man 👋 .
Today, we’re thrilled to share the ins and outs of a success story. Turning a simple dog toy over $150,000 in sales across various EU markets.
TODAY, AT A GLANCE
Scaling success: Research, Selection, Niche Understanding
Product research strategy: Efficient Copy-Paste Strategy, Market Adaptation, Speed Focus
Product testing: Selective Approach, Market Trials, Performance Analysis
Supplier checks: Quality Assurance, Optimal Sourcing, Cost Efficiency
Product page optimizations: Conversion Focused, Detailed Content, Strategic Pricing
Expansion and scaling: Budget Scaling, Market Translation, Engagement Boosting, Creative Diversity
SCALING SUCCES.
Let’s rewind into January 2023,
My VA was doing product research and gave me a list of 50+ products for that day.
I checked into it, and I had approved 10 products to test for the next day.
One of them was this simple dog toy (LINK).
The reason we could scale this simple product up to $150k is simply because we understood the problems within that niche.
Dog owners struggled to find a durable dog toy that would not tear apart after a day or 2.
We took advantage of that, and we made sure everything was on point, from creatives to product descriptions and Images.
Within the following sections, I will explain to you exactly how we found this product and how we scaled it up to $150k.
PRODUCT RESEARCH STRATEGY.
Our product research strategy is pretty straightforward.
We always copy & paste what is already working.
We have different stores in different local EU markets.
All these stores are tailored to that market.
This means local payment methods for each store, local currency, native languages, localized domains, and localized logos.
When we see something doing well in any of the big 4 countries,
We will always test the products in the Dutch market first.
Same creatives, same product images, same product descriptions.
The reason why we copy & paste everything is because we do not want to put effort into any product without knowing if it works or not.
There is a high chance the products you’ve found in your research will fail.
It’s a waste of time to perfect everything from the start.If a product is working, it can even be sold on a shitty product page.
This strategy allows us to test at least 10+ products a day.
Speed is everything in dropshipping; the more you test, the more profitable products you will find.
We use spy tools such as Afterlib and dropship.io to scout dropshipping stores in any Big 4 countries.
Then, we will combine our findings with the FB ads library to see if these stores have scaled any new products in the last 7 days.
We always want to be early and only look for products in the last 7 days.
Any product beyond that will not be tested, as other drop shippers have likely already jumped on that product.
PRODUCT RESEARCH TOOL.
We’ve been using Afterlib for the past 2 years, and it is also the tool we’ve been leveraging the most in our product research strategy.
Within the next section, I will show you exactly how.
As we’ve been using Afterlib for a while already, we have contacted them, and they got us a special 10% discount for our community.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:
For only $9.99 a month, you can already use the basic plan, which is more than enough for now if you’re a beginner.
With Afterlib, you can scout other dropshipping stores easily within seconds.
Combine it with the FB ads library, and you have a constant flow of new products to test.
Use “DSR10” for an extra 10% off.
PRODUCT RESEARCH.
We used Afterlib to scout as many dropshipping stores as possible.
This is what our filters most of the time look like:
Technology: Shopify
Country: USA
Language: English
CTA: Shop now
Platform: FB Ads
Filter on: Last 7 days.
Now, we have opened a second tab with the FB ads library.
Every time we see a dropshipping store, we check within the FB ads library what is being sold.
If any product within the stores we’ve found has only launched in the last 7 days and has been scaled, we save it in our Google Sheets.
We keep working fast; This means we save the product and move on to the following product.
Later on, we will analyze what kind of products we’ve found.
Speed is what matters.
We kept doing this until we had built a list with 50 products.
Then, we pick the best products based on the ad performance of the competitor.
Is it running many ads or not?
We pick the products based on profitability.
Can we sell it for at least a 3x markup?
And we pick the products based on if it’s a problem-solving or not.
For me, the absolute factor is always the performance of the ads; If it’s running many ads in the last 7 days, we always prioritize this over any other aspect.
All the others are more like bonus points.
PRODUCT TESTING
Out of the list of 50, we picked 10 products to test for the next day.
For all these products, we copied & pasted everything and just ran it in the Dutch market.
Out of the 10 products,
Most failed, some were break even, and we had 1 doing well.
It had a high CTR % (3+%) and low CPCs (around 0.40), all with only English creatives in the Dutch market.
These were the creatives we had been using:
Within the first day, we were already profitable; roas was around 3, I can remember.
We kept the product running for 48 more hours to make a final decision.
We killed all the other products that did not give us any signs of profitability after $20 campaign spent.
72 hours in, the roas was still stable for the dog toy and it gave us a green flag to optimize and do supplier checks for quality assurance and negotiations.
SUPPLIER CHECKS.
We promptly asked our supplier to source from 3 factories and send us videos.
NEVER OVERLOOK QUALITY CHECKS!
You should never scale any shitty products; before you scale any product, always check with your sourcing agent or supplier.
Then, once we picked the factory with the best qualities, we told them we could scale this product up to thousands of units.
This resulted in a discount on COGS; we got them for around $1.3, cheaper than usual.
Ultimately, we sold over 5k units, so do the math.
Meanwhile, we were also optimizing our product page and creatives to maximize the profits.
PRODUCT PAGE OPTIMIZATION
To optimize our product page, we used Amazon.
To make sure we optimized for conversions, we used several different sections from this store for our dog product (LINK)
I will be showcasing this in the following examples.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Within Amazon, we’ve found multiple listings to see what other people are complaining about
Based on our findings, we adjusted the product descriptions so no customer will be left with questions.
We removed any hesitation for the customer if there were any when considering buying this product.
Leveraged this with images such as other toys that are ultimately being destroyed and images of our toys that have been used by dog breeds that were heavy chewers, you got yourself a money machine.
Examples:
PRODUCT IMAGES
For the product images, we picked the best product listing from Amazon with the best product photos and edited it back into the native language for the stores we were selling.
Example:
SOCIAL PROOF
We milk any product that is profitable for us right away with testimonials and thousands of reviews to boost our conversion rates.
Example:
US VS THEM
We highlighted our product vs any random other dog toy and made our benefits and features visible on why it’s different than any other toy.
Letting people know that there is nothing else they should be looking for.
Example:
EXPERT PROOF
Then, we created a section within the product description with an image of a Veterinarian and a dog with our product, telling how good it was for their teeth.
Example:
GUARANTEES
Lastly, for the product description, we’ve closed it off with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Example:
If you run a long copy description, you always have a sticky add-to-cart enabled or multiple CTA’s bringing you back to the product so people can quickly check out.
BOOSTING AOV
As we also saw that people were buying multiple toys at once, we created a bundle offer of the 3 colors available.
Instead 1 for $22.95, we sold 3 for $45.95
OUR AOV got boosted by 25% doing this.
Example:
REMEMBER
The reason we could make this product so successful is simply because we understand that people love their dogs and would do anything for them to be healthy and have the best times of their lives.
Always trigger people with emotions and relatable scenarios so they can visualize them.
Example:
EXPANSION AND SCALING.
Let’s start off with the CBO strategy,
It’s always easy and straightforward.
1 campaign running on 1 open ad set started at $50.After the first 72 hours, we always double the budget after 48 hours of the ROAS and CPP being profitable.
This means:
$50 → $100
$100 → $200
$200 → $400
And so on…The highest daily spent for 1 campaign was $2,000
TRANSLATING CREATIVES
Once we reached $10k in sales, we started translating the creatives into the native market language.
As we tested the product within the Dutch market, this means the Dutch Language.
Once translated, we added the creatives to the same CBO campaign; we created a new ad set for the Dutch creatives and scheduled it for the next day.
Continuously optimize on Campaign level, never create new campaigns for new creatives!
ENGAGEMENT BOOSTING
After $20k in sales within the Dutch market, we introduced comments under our Facebook ads to boost engagement.
There are several services available for this on the internet.
This service will place FB comments for you underneath your FB ads.
We used different images of a dog playing with the toy, which added validity and drove increased purchases.
For example, we used dogs like German Sheppards, which are aggressive chewing dogs.
If this toy could withstand a German Sheppard, people would assume it’s indestructible.
Not only does it have proof of validity, but other people have started to share their images of their dogs, which has resulted in lots and lots of engagement underneath our ads.
That is good because the FB AI algorithm will see this as an ad people like and drive us better traffic, lower CPM, and lower CPCs.
MARKET EXPANSION
We continually expand to different markets once we have reached $30k in sales.
We already had proof that it was a winning product.
So, we do things correctly from the start.
This means updated product pages and translated creatives.
We expanded to Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Israel and Denmark.
The CBO strategies are all the same within the markets.
We also boosted with comments underneath the ads for the different countries.
CREATIVE PRODUCTION
Once we successfully introduced the products into new markets, it was time to milk the campaign's lifetime with new creatives to reduce ad fatigue.
We constantly tested different angles; as you see, we even created VSLs for different markets.
All newly introduced creatives will be created within the same campaign into new ad sets.
CONTROL AD SET
After testing out new creatives, the winning creatives will also be uploaded into a “Control “ Ad set.
The control ad set allows us to build a portfolio with all our winning creatives within 1 ad set.
Over time, FB will spend the most money on this ad set because it simply converts the best; it is the ad set with all the best creatives inside.
