Success Stories
Transforming User Acquisition with Creators Based Ads on TikTok
The Goal
Mercado Pago is the largest payments and collections ecosystem in Latin America. It is democratizing access to financial services in more than 18 countries, transforming the way we pay, transfer, collect, and connect. As the Fintech with the highest number of active users in Latam, they needed to scale their Growth strategy in Argentina and Mexico using new channels to continue expanding their user base by the end of 2021 and 2022.
Their goal was to attract 100% new users to their app. The challenge was not only to increase the volume of app downloads but to drive highly engaged users who would register and actually use the app! To achieve this, they wanted to launch User Acquisition campaigns on TikTok, one of the fastest-growing social channels with the highest number of unique users in the region.
However, achieving a successful campaign on TikTok would require using native ads that followed the TikTok mindset. In other words, the ads needed to feel like TikToks, not like traditional advertisements. The Mercado Pago team knew that by using creatives that followed the User Generated Content (UGC) style, they could improve performance by 50%. However, working with Creators and UGC creatives was new territory for them.
How do you choose from the extensive universe of Creators the ones that best fit your brand? How do you adapt your creative message to the TikTok mindset?
"Working with a Squad of Creators can transform the way you advertise your brand and attract users."
The Solution
Mercado Pago partnered with Winclap Creative Studio to launch a specific creative strategy for User Acquisition campaigns on TikTok. With this creative expertise, both teams worked together to adapt a message that would be attractive and relevant to users on the platform. They created Storyboards together, turning the creative strategy into authentic TikTok stories.
Working with Creators Based Ads played a crucial role to achieve authenticity. The creative strategy was based on producing content generated by real users (not influencers). These were creators with the skills to record short, entertaining, and original videos, under the guidance of creative specialists (Creative Account Managers) from Winclap Creative Studio and the Mercado Pago Acquisition team.
Creative Strategy based on Creators
Trendy ads: The TikToks had to follow (and even anticipate) the trends of the platform's content.
Positive Messages: Using inspiring and inclusive phrases that empower.
“Explosive Ads”: All the creators featured in the ads had to be professional dancers, true experts in moving their bodies.
The Creative Account Managers at Winclap searched, evaluated, and presented different creators who could follow trends and align with Mercado Pago’s premises.
This is how a squad of Creators for Mercado Pago was put together.
Combining Creativity and Performance
Once the creative strategy was designed, the creators were selected, and the videos were produced, over 7 performance campaigns were launched on TikTok to acquire new users. While ads are the best lever for optimization on TikTok, it is also necessary to work with specialists who understand TikTok For Business to optimize all the platform’s levers.
The teams from Winclap’s Creative Studio and Growth Experts collaborated with Mercado Pago’s Performance Marketing team to optimize the campaigns.
Some of these optimizations included:
- Creating specific events to identify unique and non-repeated new users. This allowed TikTok’s algorithms to search and show ads to people with a higher likelihood of becoming new Mercado Pago customers.
- Adjusting attribution windows to precisely measure which users were being converted by the campaign.
- Testing multiple audiences: Lookalike Audiences, demographic targeting, audiences segmented by the Top 5 interests that brought the most traffic volume.
These optimizations allowed for the discovery of new users with better conversion rates in the funnel.
The Results
Mercado Pago found a larger proportion of brand new users on TikTok.
The platform went from being an exploratory channel to becoming a key network for acquiring new users and reactivating existing ones. It also proved to be an effective medium for retargeting campaigns and reconnecting with existing users (but that’s a story for later!). ?
With User Acquisition campaigns using creator-based content on TikTok, Mercado Pago managed to increase new users by 2x, boost the Install/Event conversion rate by 4.6x, and reduce the cost of acquisition by 20%. This not only gave them the confidence to increase their Paid Media investment by 40% but also to use TikTok to communicate new business units.
Mercado Pago revolutionized the way we access financial services.
TikTok revolutionized the way we communicate.
Winclap joined these revolutions to take them further and closer to the users.
Together, they transformed the growth strategy.
