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The fastest way to do advertising market research

Do you know exactly what customers need to hear about your products?

Author

Nabeel Ismail
April 17, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

At Factor, we employ two market research methods in our process of creating viral paid social ads. The first, a streamlined approach that takes a few hours. The second, a comprehensive approach that takes a few days. In this post, I’m sharing everything you need to do the streamlined approach for your brand.

Analyse client and competitor product pages

The first step is to analyse client and competitor product pages. This will give you a rough understanding of what the product is, what problems it solves, who it solves these problems for and its main features and benefits.

  1. Analyse the client’s product page and answer these questions:

    1. What is the product?

    2. What does it do?

    3. What problems does it solve?

    4. Who does it solve these problems for?

    5. What are its main features?

    6. What are its main benefits?

  2. Repeat this process for 5x competitor product pages

Analyse and transcribe 100 customer reviews

In my decade of direct-response marketing experience, nothing gives you an understanding of how to sell a product like manually analysing 100+ customer reviews. Today, many in the industry use ChatGPT to summarise and extract insights. While AI summaries have their place in the process, you miss the real insights and learnings that way.

The mere act of analysing, reading and transcribing 100+ customer reviews ingrains angles, features, benefits and customer verbiage deep into your mind. At the end of the process, you know how to sell this product because you’ve analysed 100+ real customer reviews. This is the true value of this step of the process. Do not take shortcuts, as they often accidentally make the journey longer.

  1. Create a Google Sheets document with the columns:

    1. Angle

    2. Tally

    3. Verbiage

    4. Notable reviews

  2. On the client’s product page, analyse 50x customer reviews

  3. In the ‘Angle’ column, note down key angles and buckets

    1. For example, if you read a review saying “I’m Keto and this supplement is the only one that works for me”, add “Keto” as an angle. Be very comprehensive when noting down angles and buckets. Do not skip any possible angles and ensure you cast the net as wide as possible. You can consolidate later.

  4. In the ‘Tally’ column, note down each time an angle is mentioned

    1. For example, if you’ve read 10x reviews so far and 3x mentioned “Keto”, your tally column should read “3”. This is a crucial part of the process as it allows us to prioritise which angles to focus on in our marketing, in order of popularity.

  5. In the ‘Verbiage’ column, transcribe the exact words and phrases that customers use to describe the angle

    1. There’s no secret here. You’re copy/pasting the exact words and phrases that customers are using to talk about the angle. This will come in handy when we’re brainstorming ads.

  6. In the ‘Notable Reviews’ column, paste any reviews that are extra-detailed or that you think will perform well if used as testimonials in ads

  7. In a new Google Sheets tab with the same layout, repeat this process on a competitor’s product page for another 50x customer reviews

Spend 30 minutes browsing the internet

After analysing client and competitor product pages and transcribing 100+ customer reviews, you should be starting to understand how to sell this product. Next, we’re going to use the angles that we’ve uncovered and search the internet to find places where real people talk about their related problems and solutions. We’re looking for Reddit threads, forums, YouTube videos and so on. We’re only looking for real people having real discussions, not blog posts written by a copywriter for SEO purposes.

  1. Choose an angle and Google key terms and phrases

    1. For example, if an angle uncovered in research was “keto” and a commonly used phrase was “keto flu”, you could:

      1. Google “keto flu electrolytes reddit” or “keto flu electrolytes forum”

      2. YouTube “keto flu advice” or “keto flu electrolytes”

  2. Spend 30 minutes analysing and transcribing any noteworthy information that you find while browsing real discussions

  3. Often, we’ll spend far more than 30 minutes on this step as it always proves incredibly fruitful. A rule of thumb is to spend as long as you need per angle before the information starts getting repetitive

Create a Eugene Schwartz inspired marketing brief with a custom GPT

We’re massive fans of Breakthrough Advertising at Factor. It’s a book that every operator should read, whether they work in marketing or not. We’ve built a custom GPT that we feed the information gathered above into, and out comes a marketing brief in the format of Breakthrough Advertising’s principles.

  1. Click here to open Factor’s Schwartz GPT

  2. Export the client’s Notion Market Research file

  3. Follow the GPT’s prompts and upload the file when requested

  4. Read the GPT’s marketing brief output, could it be better?

    1. Request another brief attempt if necessary

  5. When you’re happy with the output, copy/paste the contents into the client’s Notion Market Research file

Brainstorm 25x motivations, angles and barriers

At this point, you should have a very good grasp of the product, its features, benefits, angles, customers and so on. Now, it’s time to turn your research into a list of the possible motivations, angles and barriers that we can use in ads.

  1. Open the client’s Notion Market Research file

  2. Under Motivations & Barriers:

    1. Brainstorm 25x motivations, phrased “I want X so I can Y”

      1. For example, “I want a sugar-free electrolyte mix so I can use it while on keto”

    2. Brainstorm 25x barriers, phrased “I wouldn’t buy this because” or “I don’t need this because”

      1. For example, “I wouldn’t buy this because it’s not sugar-free”

      2. For example, “I don’t need this because I’m already healthy”

Choose the top 5 angles, features and benefits

Using the information gathered through the process above, distill your thoughts into the top five angles and motivations that we can use in ads. Ensure that these are the most popular mass-market angles. A rule of thumb is to choose the angles with the highest customer review tally. That said, reviews only tell you why customers are currently buying a product. Your research and intuition may uncover new, untested and mass-market angles that we should test in ads.

  1. Angle 1 - (Example) “I want a sugar-free electrolyte mix so I can take it while on a keto diet and replace all of the electrolytes that my body is losing”

    1. Feature & Benefit: Sugar-free so it’s perfect for keto and carnivore diets

    2. Feature & Benefit: Zero carbs so it’s perfect for keto and carnivore diets

    3. Feature & Benefit: High in electrolytes so it replaces everything your body needs

    4. Feature & Benefit: All natural ingredients so it’s ideal for health conscious individuals

    5. Feature & Benefit: A variety of real fruit flavours, including an unflavoured version, so there’s something for everyone

  2. Angle 2 - I want X so I can Y

    1. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    2. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    3. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    4. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    5. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

  3. Angle 3 - I want X so I can Y

    1. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    2. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    3. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    4. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    5. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

  4. Angle 4 - I want X so I can Y

    1. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    2. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    3. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    4. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    5. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

  5. Angle 5 - I want X so I can Y

    1. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    2. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    3. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    4. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

    5. Feature & Benefit: (feature) that helps me (benefit)

Next, distill your thoughts into the top 5 barriers and objections that we can use in ads:

  1. Barrier 1 - (Example) “I don’t need this supplement because I already eat healthy”

    1. Counter Positioning: "You’d have to eat 5kg of broccoli to get the same amount of magnesium as 1 scoop of (product)”

    2. Counter Positioning: “Today I learned that 75% of Australian’s don’t get enough magnesium”

    3. Counter Positioning: “I’m a doctor and 99% of my patients think they get enough magnesium, but they’re wrong. Here’s why…”

    4. Counter Positioning: “1 scoop of (product) vs how many carrots I’d have to eat to get the same amount of magnesium”

    5. Counter Positioning: “5 signs that you’re magnesium deficient (and don’t get nearly as much as you think)”

  2. Barrier 2 - “I wouldn’t buy this because” or “I don’t need this because”

    1. Counter Positioning:

    2. Counter Positioning:

    3. Counter Positioning:

    4. Counter Positioning:

    5. Counter Positioning:

  3. Barrier 3 - “I wouldn’t buy this because” or “I don’t need this because”

    1. Counter Positioning:

    2. Counter Positioning:

    3. Counter Positioning:

    4. Counter Positioning:

    5. Counter Positioning:

  4. Barrier 4 - “I wouldn’t buy this because” or “I don’t need this because”

    1. Counter Positioning:

    2. Counter Positioning:

    3. Counter Positioning:

    4. Counter Positioning:

    5. Counter Positioning:

  5. Barrier 5 - “I wouldn’t buy this because” or “I don’t need this because”

    1. Counter Positioning:

    2. Counter Positioning:

    3. Counter Positioning:

    4. Counter Positioning:

    5. Counter Positioning:

Summarise your research into an actionable executive summary

If you work on many products and brands, as an agency does, it’s crucial to create a succinct executive summary that you can read to refresh your memory. The best time to write this executive summary is immediately after you’ve completed the research process. There are things in your head that, if not captured immediately, will disappear forever into the ether.

To create an executive summary, simply answer these questions:

  1. What is the product?

  2. What problems does it solve?

  3. Who does it solve these problems for?

  4. What are its top 5 motivations and angles?

  5. What do we need to say about each motivation/angle?

  6. How aware and sophisticated are its customers?

  7. What are the alternative and competitor solutions?

  8. What do we need to say to stand out in the marketplace?

How to turn your research into a pipeline of viral ads

In my next post, I’ll share the exact process that we use to turn our research into a never ending list of viral ad ideas that profitably acquire customers.

You’re an ambitious, fast-moving and fast-growing DTC brand. Your agency partner should operate in the same manner. Let’s grow your brand together.

  1. Book a 20 minute discovery call here

  2. Visit our website to learn more about our services

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