When the production quality of a video ad is better, it performs better on Facebook, right?
But there is a good reason why many low-budget videos on Facebook reach a larger audience at a lower advertising cost than high-quality commercial videos.
In this episode of Shopify Masters, you will learn from an entrepreneur who ran a “bad” ad on Facebook and made $2 million in its first year of operation.
Chad Kauffman is a co-founder of Kitty Poo Club, a company that ships disposable cat litter boxes filled with luxury litter directly to your door every month.
Twenty years ago, video was what we watched on TV, so there was an expectation for television quality. Then suddenly we entered YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Stay tuned to learn why a low-budget ad might be better for you than high-quality commercial ads, what you should focus on in the first 5 seconds of your video ad, and why you may need to direct your customers to a page to learn more instead of a page to buy immediately.
Listen to the podcast below (or download it later):
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Show Notes:
Store: Kitty Poo Club
Social media profiles: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Recommendations: Recharge (Shopify App), Klaviyo (Shopify App), Smile.io (Shopify App), Privy (Shopify App), FOMO (Shopify App), Yotpo (Shopify App)
The Interview:
Felix: Today we are joined by Chad Kauffman from Kitty Poo Club. Kitty Poo Club ships amazing disposable cat litter boxes filled with luxury litter directly to your door every month for a low monthly fee and was founded in 2017, based in Worcester, Ohio. Welcome, Chad.
Chad: Thank you, Felix. I’m happy to be here.
Felix: Yes, glad to have you here. I think I described the idea behind the product, but where did that idea come from? Where did that idea originate?
Chad: Yes, you described it wonderfully. Maybe about two years ago, we were always cat lovers. In fact, I don’t own a cat. I have severe allergies to them, but I love cats and wish I could have one. I have many friends who love cats, and we saw the need to provide a solution for my friends who own cats and face problems maintaining their litter boxes on a monthly basis. Then my dad, who is actually a co-founder with me in this business, came up with the opportunity and said to me, “Chad, what if we made a disposable litter box?” I just looked up and laughed and said, “Yes, Dad, right. I don’t think that’s possible because the litter needs to be changed regularly” and we had many other ideas but I started thinking more and more and began researching the types of litter available on the market and testing them to see if we could develop a box that really works. To be honest, I didn’t think it would be possible.
We started our journey in research and development and looking at different types of litter and testing them to see if we could develop a box that really works. That’s how we came to this idea and started our journey.
Felix: You mentioned that you are an entrepreneur and you have started several businesses in the past, and you are sure that you have many other ideas in the past and at the same time you started this business. What drove you to pursue this idea instead of the other things you could pursue?
Chad: Definitely, first is the massive market size. There are 40 million cat owners in the United States, and these are pet cat owners. There are about 98 million pet cats, and the cat litter industry is worth $3 billion annually. You know, if you have a cat or any other pet, they pee and poop every day and if you are going to own a pet cat you have to have a litter box. We saw that there was a good opportunity if we could develop a disposable box and disposable litter that works well, we could have a good subscription base with recurring monthly revenue. And since the industry is so large and no one in the industry was doing anything similar to what we are doing, we decided to pursue this idea if we could develop a viable product and a well-functioning product.
Felix:
Yes. Of course, there is a large market, and you mentioned that no one is doing what you do. However, there is definitely a lot of competition that could come in and try to replicate this product, or there are other solutions that people are currently using. What have you seen in the competition that made you say: “This is the place where we can come and take our piece of the pie”?
Chad: Absolutely. There are many types of sand available in the market. You can get sand made from wheat, grass, corn, clay, nuts, or silica. The list goes on, and there are many suppliers and stores that sell products from these manufacturers. There are also many subscription services for sand available in the market. If you just go to Amazon as an example, you can subscribe to any type of sand available on Amazon. We decided not to compete with the sand subscription services because anyone can take their sand and turn it into a subscription service, but our hook is actually our box. There isn’t a disposable litter box on the market that can last a full month.
Most of our research and development efforts have actually focused on our box, and that was the hardest thing we had to overcome in the research and development phase. Our box is made of cardboard. Some people see it and say, “Oh my God, I’m not going to buy a litter box made of cardboard.” Yes, you might think that, and we have many people on our Facebook page saying, “Oh my God, my cat is going to destroy this box in just two days. She loves to destroy cardboard.” That’s not true, and the reason for that is that cats have a strong territorial nature and often are the masters of their space. The litter box is part of that domain, and they won’t destroy or tear up their territory. That has never happened. We have many, many, many customers, and we have not received any reports of a cat destroying the box because they simply won’t do that.
Secondly, the box is completely covered with water-resistant paint approved by the FDA, and at the bottom, we have a recycled plastic tray sealed in the box. The box is designed for urine. It is made for cats that spray and can last a full 30 days without any issues.
This is why it is appealing to people, that you are offering them a very simple and convenient solution to eliminate the monthly maintenance of their litter box. If you own a cat, cat owners are cleaning the litter daily. At the end of the week, they completely empty it. In many cases, they are breaking it apart because the urine clumps and turns into concrete at the bottom of the box, and there is a lot of nasty maintenance associated with maintaining a litter box. We have solved that problem.
Now, the second component is the sand itself, and our sand is made from silica gel, which is well known in the market. It is just a mineral from the earth and is 100% non-toxic to animals and humans. Many people will say, “Oh, silica gel, isn’t that toxic?” because they are familiar with the small silica gel packets you might see in women’s handbags or anywhere you are trying to remove moisture from the air, and they’ll say, “Don’t eat it.” The problem is not with the silica gel itself. The problem is that you don’t want to ingest that packet itself into your digestive system. Silica gel itself is perfectly safe for your digestive system.
We have developed silica gel; however, we are completely different from other types of silica sand available in the market. We tried to do a few things. Cats want a natural product, and this is a mineral, so we tried to keep it as natural as possible. Many other types of silica available in the market contain cobalt chloride, which is considered a carcinogen, and that is what makes the sand change color so that people know when their cat has urinated or when the sand is running low. We decided not to deal with that. Carcinogens are not good for you, and they are not good for animals, so we don’t want to be a part of that in our sand.
Also,
It is free from dyes, fragrances, and dust, all of which are attractive components for humans regarding indoor air quality as well as for cats. Because of this, our litter works exceptionally well. You can go an entire month with one cat without any odor in your home. If you own a cat, cat owners believe this is impossible, but this is why we have so many people signing up daily because they can’t believe our product has no odor for a full month, and this truly comes down to the design of our litter.
Felix: I understand. I think you are talking about the practical side of the product and how it works, but how do you convince people to try it in the first place? How do you convince them to give this cardboard box a chance?
Chad: Yes, we decided to offer a money-back guarantee to customers who want to try the product with no risk. Order it, and if you don’t like it within the first two weeks, we will refund your money. We put this offer prominently and boldly on our website and tried to make it simple and easy for users to purchase our product with no risk.
Felix: You also mentioned that there are 40 million cat owners in the United States, and that is a very large market. Do you think this market is growing?
Chad: Yes, the market is growing. There is of course an older demographic getting older, and cats are very popular among seniors because they are low-maintenance pets compared to dogs and some other animals. They make great companion animals and are enjoyable, so you see more and more people transitioning from dogs to cats for these reasons, especially among the older generations.
Phil
Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/kitty-poo-club-facebook-video
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