How 2 Marketers Built a $100 Million Brand in 3 Years

A pet supplement brand launched in early 2019.

By January 2022, it had been valued at over $100 million with over $100 million in annual sales to match.

Much of its success can be attributed to the perfect blend of branding and direct response marketing, which the two founders had a strong background in.

Having worked at and built marketing agencies in the past, the two founders of PetLab Co. have relied on three marketing strategies to build and grow the brand to what it is today.

In today’s newsletter, let’s take a closer look at PetLab’s ads and landing pages to see how they implement branded direct response strategies.

Before diving in, it's crucial to recognize the advantageous niche they operate within. PetLab has positioned itself in a niche that lends itself exceptionally well to the application of branded direct response marketing techniques.

The pet industry, particularly the segment focused on pet health and wellness, is inherently conducive to emotionally driven marketing. Owners are deeply invested in the well-being of their pets.

As you’ll see, the emotionally-driven aspect of PetLab’s marketing is especially prominent in their ads.

1. Emotionally Driven Meta ads

The majority of PetLab Co.’s paid social traffic comes from Meta ads.

These ads seamlessly blend direct response copy with engaging user-generated content (UGC), particularly in the style of TikTok videos. They don't just sell products; they tell emotional stories that resonate with their audience.

PetLab’s UGC uses direct-response heavy hooks and story-based ads that keep viewers watching like the following:

Problem-solution (call out a problem and provide the solution)

Curiosity-based education (educate the viewer about a problem and demonstrate the solution)

Emotional storytelling (tell a story that agitates pain points and position the product as the solution)

Notice how each ad educates the viewer about the root cause behind the problem and then positions the product as the solution that addresses the root cause.

This is what direct response copywriters call the unique mechanism. For your ads to have maximum impact, it’s important to state a unique mechanism behind the viewer’s problem as well as the solution you’re selling.

Your ads will be much more effective if you’re able to teach your viewers something new and then position your products as the solution to the “real root cause” of their problems.

This is what makes PetLab’s ads so powerful.

2. Landing Pages with Direct Response Copy

PetLab’s direct response strategy doesn’t stop at Meta ads.

Driving cold traffic directly to a product page isn’t always effective, so they often use advertorials as landing pages.

Pages like this and this.

These pages serve as a bridge between the ad and the product page, leveraging direct response copy to agitate pain points and evoke emotions that prime the reader for a purchase. By nurturing leads before they even see the product, PetLab ensures higher conversion rates and maximizes sales potential.

Importantly, the angles used on these pages are broad, which allows the brand to test ads with a variety of different angles that lead to the same destination.

In my experience, it’s ideal to use broad angles for your landing pages and rotate through several angles and variations with your ads before testing a new landing page.

This is one of the best characteristics of an advertorial: you can quickly create and split test variations even on a limited budget.

Recently, the brand has been driving traffic to advertorial style landing pages like these.

These landing pages adopt a “breaking news” format by positioning PetLab’s products as a breakthrough that many pet owners are using.

But there’s a major difference:

The call-to-action at the bottom is a two question quiz that then drives the viewer to the product page.

Side note: If you’d like to learn how to write effective advertorials that convert on cold traffic, you can learn here.

3. Demand Testing

What sets PetLab apart is their innovative approach to product development. Instead of developing a new SKU first, they run Meta ads to test consumer interest in potential products before investing in development and stocking inventory. This "lean testing" methodology has allowed PetLab to offer a wide range of products that customers actually want to buy, all thanks to the data gleaned from social media engagement.

While most brands will only have one or two SKUs that scale profitably via Meta ads, PetLab has multiple because of their willingness to test and confirm consumer demand before investing in inventory.

Instead of relying on rounds of venture funding, PetLab has focused on building a strong community of loyal customers from the outset. By leveraging positive unit economics, immediate product-market fit, and exponential growth, they've created a foundation of raving fans who are eager to support their brand.

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There are many other direct response tactics PetLab has used to rapidly grow in the span of a few years, including post-purchase upsells, which we’ll be covering in a future newsletter.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about the strategies PetLab uses, feel free to directly reply to this email, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Talk soon,

Sharad

@pmktg00

P.S. If you own or operate an e-commerce brand generating at least $1,000,000 in annual revenue, feel free to book a call with me to discuss how we can improve your ad creative or email/SMS marketing strategy.

To further enhance your e-commerce and marketing skills, you may be interested in signing up for one of the options below:

1. If you’d like to learn the marketing strategies we use at Hidden Tempo to work with prominent clients and drive results for them, check out the AI Powered Marketer.

2. If you’d like to learn how to write high converting advertorials, check this out.