It’s hard enough to grow a fashion and apparel brand: Competition is high and differentiators at times, can seem subtle. While digital marketing is an obvious component of any eCommerce business, it contains its own specific nuances in the clothing vertical that can complicate things further.
There are many things to consider when ADM is building a paid social media strategy for an apparel brand. We need to think about how campaign types, landing pages, creative types, etc will work together to be both efficient and effective for the client. In this blog, we’ll lay out the framework of approach, from creative types and formats to the KPIs we track throughout the funnel.
The Building Blocks of Effective Apparel Marketing
Good apparel advertising relies on harmony between your ads, your website and online store, and your inventory. Typically, ADM’s highest-performing fashion and apparel clients show their products specifically and beautifully in their ads; send traffic directly to product landing pages (PDP) or collection pages; and have few-to-no “out of stock” products.
If there are items out of stock, having a landing page that shows alternate variations of the advertised product can be an effective strategy as well—but you rarely want to create demand for a product that users can’t immediately buy.
The relationship between creative and targeting is also pivotal for successful clothing ads. At ADM, we ensure we are reaching the right shoppers by incorporating distinct strategies for returning customers, remarketing, and prospecting/acquiring new customers. Different groups along the sales funnel require different messaging.
If a brand is running an Advantage + campaign, the targeting is limited and audiences (remarketing and prospecting) are combined— so differentiating messages is less of an option. For these campaigns, it is important to have creative that captures the shopper’s attention no matter where they are in the shopping process, so that they click through and purchase.
Revamped Retargeting Increased Purchases by 146%
ADM redesigned ASRV’s retargeting audiences, dramatically improving campaign scaleability that resulted in a a 146% boost in social purchases.
The Best Meta Ad Formats for Fashion Marketing
Ad types also play a huge role in successful fashion campaigns. Meta is the biggest player in social marketing, and it offers several different ad formats that can be serious business drivers for apparel brands on Facebook and Instagram.
- Carousel ads are a classic. They allow you to show multiple products and have the shopper scroll through which increases engagement.
- Collection ads, similar to Carousel ads, allow you to show up to 4 products in a grid format. This shows the shoppers all of the products at once rather than having them scroll through.
- Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) show various products within the brand’s catalog. They are in a carousel format for increased engagement. In addition to prospecting, they can be used to retarget shoppers who have interacted with products on your website, searched for the product on their web browser, or interacted with your other ads. The shopper will see the specific apparel item or similar ones in your inventory.
- Product tag ads allow the shopper to click on multiple products in one ad and get details on each product. Ads with product tags send shoppers directly to a product detail page which allows them to shop the ad and move from the discovery and research phase towards a purchase. These ads increase site traffic and post engagement, and are great for getting more shoppers to discover your brand and products at scale.
- User generated content (UGC) videos show people using and wearing the products in everyday life, building brand trust. At ADM we have experienced great success utilizing UGC in campaigns. Typically, video view rates for UGC are significantly higher than more traditional styles of video ads. One of ADM’s fashion and apparel clients saw video view rates 185% higher than the industry average when testing UGC videos.
Apparel Creative that Drives Sales
In apparel advertising, the creative style works for one brand may not work for another. That said, ADM works with enough clients in the industry to know what users generally respond well to in fashion ads.
- Extremely high-quality visuals to showcase the product using flatlay, stacked, or on-model imagery. Product photography matters, but don’t go overboard with settings: Users focus should still always be drawn to the product itself.
- Clearly-stated product benefits and selling points, like what the fabric is made of or that it is lightweight and breathable, directly in the image
- Lifestyle imagery that showcases different ways to style and wear your products. Slideshows and carousels have typically been the best ad formats for this type of imagery
- UGC that both showcases products and endears your brand and its products to users through relatable voices and social media content styles
- Testimonials that give users a sense of fit and feel—what they would likely be researching before deciding to purchase from your brand or another.
Each brand will require different tailoring of its message and visuals, but on a fundamental level, these are the elements that broadly contribute to the success of an apparel marketing campaign.
Building Trust Through User Generated Content
Transitioning to UGC improved this headwear brand’s social ROAS by 28%.
Other Social Platforms Clothing and Brands Should Be On
Meta is hardly the only social advertising platform that provides value for fashion brands. Pinterest is ideal for showcasing product collections, gift guides, and style guides. Shoppers can discover new ideas, and brands can use Promoted Pins, Product Ads, and Idea Pins to capture attention. Using brand-specific keywords helps apparel brands appear in search and home feeds, with style and gift guides performing particularly well. On the whole, Pinterest offers a great bang-for-the-buck in social advertising and its audience is particularly aligned with apparel brands.
TikTok is the new goliath, and it natively welcomes with engaging, UGC-style video content like testimonials, unboxings, and influencer collaborations. These formats build trust and influence purchasing decisions. It also offers a TikTok Shop function, for seamless in-app sales.
Snapchat‘s younger audience makes it a great platform for offering virtual try-ons through Lenses, allowing shoppers to experience how items might fit.
Reddit is a hub for reviews and recommendations, with 90% of users reporting visiting to discover new brands and products. Apparel brands can leverage this platform to build trust, as shoppers often base purchase decisions on peer reviews.
The Most Important KPIs Throughout the Fashion Marketing Funnel
Gauging success in apparel marketing should be done by looking at each stage of the funnel separately. Top of funnel campaigns are used to gain brand awareness. For these campaigns, it is imperative to tout your most important product feature, unique selling points, and new products. Success for these campaigns is determined through:
- Impressions and cost per thousand impressions (CPM)
- Reach and cost per reach
- Video views, video view rate, and cost per video view
- Engagement and engagement rate
Middle of funnel campaigns are primarily used to drive traffic to the brand site. These types of campaigns should showcase your new arrivals, what’s back in stock, and your best-selling products. Success is measured by:
- Click through rate (CTR)
- Cost per click (CPC)
Additional metrics like reach and engagement (for example, video views, likes, comments, shares) also remain important in the middle of the funnel, because they can show intent.
Bottom of funnel campaigns focus on purchases. This is where you need to show off your top selling products and back in stock messaging in this stage as well as the middle of funnel as these are things that shoppers interested in the brand look for when deciding to purchase. Testimonials, product features & benefits, and sales also help shoppers convert. When determining success for these campaigns, we look at:
- Average order value (AOV)
- Cost per purchase/conversion
- Conversion rate
- Return on ad spend (ROAS)
Across your eCommerce marketing efforts, it’s vital to have strong tracking and measurement implementations that allow you to look at each channel’s contributions throughout the funnel.
Reaching Revenue Goals With a Cross-Channel Strategy
With an analytical, coordinated approach, ADM helped johnnie-O improve its digital marketing ROAS by nearly 15% year-over-year.
Better Approaches to Apparel Marketing
With so many brands competing in the same lane, it can be difficult to grow an apparel brand—particularly for new entrants. Standing out on social requires a strong understanding of both the technical and creative profiles of each social platform and how those work together.
If you’re looking for a marketing partner that can jumpstart both your creative pipeline and your growth strategy, reach out to the team at ADM. We’re an experienced growth marketing agency that works closely with brands of all sizes to find new revenue through paid social, SEM, programmatic techniques, and we’d be happy to discuss your brand’s needs or conduct a thorough marketing audit of your current strategies.
