Sharing what I've learned

Sometimes, sharing some other performance marketers’ lessons with you

And I analyze & compare the best ads on the internet (this issue)

Dogs can't talk

Dogs can't act

Dogs can't give you a testimonial

For other categories we rely on a person saying the product changed their life. Pet brands can't do that.

The dog is the customer. The owner is the buyer. The dog can't confirm anything worked. (No doubt the owner can feel if the dog is feeling good or not)

That gap forces these brands to prove things differently:

Claymation. Cheap to make and barely anyone in pets is using it yet.

Authority. Vets and doctors doing the talking, not influencers.

Problem-first b-roll. Showing the itching, scratching, ear infection and dog playing works.

Opens by pinching the dog's skin to show the condition up close

The owner is already picturing their own dog by two seconds

The pain isn't the itching. It's the guilt of choosing between her favorite thing, being outside, and her comfort.

The fix lands because it doesn't ask her to give up the thing she loves.

The physical pinch turns a vague worry into something visible, so the owner feels caught.

Opens with an action, throwing old products in the trash, before any claim is made.

Then it explains the mechanism, a gut imbalance making the immune system overreact.

Ends on "I'm ordering more," which shows belief without asking you to take anyone's word for it.

Watching someone discard what they used to trust signals proof louder than any spoken claim.

Starts with a dog's ear scratching, then cuts to a zoomed-in shot of a dog's infected ear.

You feel disgust and you want to solve the problem or make sure your dog doesn’t have this problem.

The regret line, "I would have told myself," sounds like someone admitting they wasted years on the wrong fix.

Disgust creates an instant urge to make it go away.

It taps a real fear every owner has, that their dog is quietly suffering from something this bad.

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Call out with curiosity. "If your dog eats grass, do this every day."

Reframes something owners already see, grass eating, as a hidden signal of a bigger issue.

Backs the claim with a number, 3 million units of good bacteria, so it doesn't float on its own.

The curiosity gap forces the brain to keep watching until it gets the answer.

"Don't buy this until you hear this" stops the scroll through warning, not promise.

A vet delivers the message, which adds authority most pet ads can't get.

Lists almost every symptom a dog could have, so more owners spot their own dog in the list.

Hands the proof to other owners instead of one voice.

A warning feels like advice, not an ad, so the guard drops before the pitch starts.

Borrows the S tier to C tier ranking format people already trust from tech reviews.

The vet trashes two other products first, so the recommendation feels honest by the time it lands.

Exact numbers, 28 days for breath, 90 days for plaque, make it sound measured instead of hyped.

Watching the expert reject other options first makes you trust the one they pick.

AI-generated ad that educates about biology.

"What happens at a microscopic level when your dog itches" is a question owners never thought to ask.

The yeast and gut bacteria explanation gives a reason, not just a fix.

Stacks two proof points, 2.3 million owners and a peer reviewed journal, on top of the science.

When an ad explains the cause, the fix feels like a logical conclusion the viewer reached themselves.

Three things, in order, each building on the last. Gut health, skin barrier, cell repair.

By the end, the product feels like the sum of three fixes instead of one vague promise.

Closes on "hundreds of five star reviews," letting proof do the final push.

A simple ordered list is easy to follow, so the argument feels complete before you can poke holes in it.

They rotate breeds instead of running one Golden Retriever everywhere. Shepherds, mixed breeds. And others.

Dogs aren't one audience. Each breed owner pictures a different dog with different problems.

When an owner sees a dog that looks like theirs, the ad stops being about "dogs" and becomes about their dog.

Every ad explains why before it claims what. The mechanism does the selling.

Show the problem before the product. The itch, the ear, the skin. Owners need to see it to care.

Bring in authority when you can't get a testimonial. Vets and doctors carry the weight a customer normally would.

Use numbers, not adjectives. "3 million units" and "28 days" beat "fast" and "powerful."

Steal formats people already trust. Tier lists, listicles, and negative framing all feel native, not salesy.

Claymation is wide open. Cheap, easy, and almost nobody in the pet industry is doing it yet.

If your customer can't talk back, pets, babies, anything without a voice, this is the playbook. Let the owner talk, and the mechanism prove it.

Rotate breeds, don't run one dog. When the dog on screen looks like theirs, the owner stops scrolling.

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