Third-Party Branding (3PB) | Pilothouse Digital

Key Findings:

Relatable Third-Party Brands Outperformed Generic Ones:

Third-party brands that closely matched the top-performing customer personas showed significantly better performance compared to more generic 3PBs.

Fine-tuning the tone and content style to align with specific personas proved crucial.

Cost Efficiency:

The average cost per acquisition (CPA) for third-party branded content was half that of branded content.

Enhanced Engagement Metrics:

Third-party brand content achieved substantially better click-through rates (CTR) and cost per click (CPC) compared to other ad account content.

Understanding Your Customer Persona:

Success with third-party branding hinges on a deep understanding of your target audience. Use tools like Meta custom reports and GA4 to gather insights into:

Demographics: Region, age, gender (remember, GA4 can also share interests)

Platform and Placement Preferences

Example Persona Analysis:

Imagine your data reveals a key customer persona: males in their 50s, interested in the outdoors and cooking, living in warmer states. For a cookbook, you could then create content that:

Reflects their environment (e.g., summer outdoor settings)

Aligns with their interests (e.g., cooking in the wilderness videos)

Matches content they usually engage with (e.g., viral sound bites, memes). Choosing a theme that resonates with your persona, like “BBQ Wizard,” can also make your third-party brand more appealing to its target audience than your own brand name.

Creative Range and Tone:

Develop a variety of creative content that encapsulates the identified persona, experimenting with:

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Different tones of voice

Memes

Pinterest/blog-style content

It’s beneficial to test these tones alongside your branded content to see which performs best and to understand if you need to diversify your content strategy.

Importance of Cost Efficiency:

The third-party brand’s CPA being half that of branded content is significant because it demonstrates the potential for more cost-effective customer acquisition. Lower CPAs allow for better budget allocation and more roomfor creative testing.

Impact on CTR and CPC:

The goal of third-party branding is to create content that feels organic and natural in your customer’s feed. By producing relatable content, you increase the likelihood of higher engagement rates (CTR) and lower advertising costs (CPC). This strategy helps in educating your audience aboutyour brand subtly and sets up more effective retargetingwith branded ads and maximizing ROI.

Summary of Results

3PB

BRAND

Spend

CPC

CTR

CPM

CVR

AOV

Purchases

Purch.

CPA

BRAND 1

$3,542

$2.55

0.34%

$8.70

3.10%

$175

$82

BRAND 2

$24,894

$1.16

2.53%

$29.34

4.15%

$115

892

$28

BRAND 3

$16,930

$2.49

0.80%

$19.93

2.64%

$551

180

$94

Branded

BRAND

Spend

CPC

CTR

CPM

CVR

AOV

Purchases

Purch.

CPA

BRAND 1

$574

$2.43

0.31%

$7.49

0.42%

$337

$574

BRAND 2

$119,243

$1.60

1.63%

$26.11

3.39%

$120

2,543

$47

BRAND 3

$176,603

$2.59

1.01%

$26.03

1.30%

$435

889

$199

3PB
BRAND	Spend	CPC	CTR	CPM	CVR	AOV	Purchases	CPA
BRAND 1	$3,542	$2.55	0.34%	$8.70	3.10%	$175	43	$82
BRAND 2	$24,894	$1.16	2.53%	$29.34	4.15%	$115	892	$28
BRAND 3	$16,930	$2.49	0.80%	$19.93	2.64%	$551	180	$94

Branded
BRAND	Spend	CPC	CTR	CPM	CVR	AOV	Purchases	CPA
BRAND 1	$574	$2.43	0.31%	$7.49	0.42%	$337	1	$574
BRAND 2	$119,243	$1.60	1.63%	$26.11	3.39%	$120	2,543	$47
BRAND 3	$176,603	$2.59	1.01%	$26.03	1.30%	$435	889	$199

Results from a 6-week test comparing third-party branding (3PB) to branded content across three brands in different verticals.

Conclusion

While third-party branding doesn’t always work for every campaign,it’s a valuable strategy when it does succeed. Our study showed that strategic use of 3PB can significantly improve campaign performance, making it a worthwhile consideration for brands aiming to enhance their digital marketing efforts.

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If you’re a brand owner who still isn’t using third-party branding on Meta, it’s time to start. The results speak for themselves.

Enhancing Digital Marketing Through Third-Party Branding (3PB)

Key Findings:

Relatable Third-Party Brands Outperformed Generic Ones:

Cost Efficiency:

Enhanced Engagement Metrics:

Understanding Your Customer Persona:

Example Persona Analysis:

Creative Range and Tone:

Importance of Cost Efficiency:

Impact on CTR and CPC:

Summary of Results

Creative Examples from the 3PB Test

Cookware brand

Health and Wellness brand

Jewelry brand

Conclusion

Let's Do DTC Differently