Ever since receiving its first major investment on Shark Tank in 2018, Manscaped has been growing steadily. The men’s grooming brand goes where few have gone before: below the waist. The brand has successfully normalized manscaping, the process of removing body hair beyond just the face and head. It also strives to create a more open and empowered male self-care culture that results in a proactive approach to grooming, hygiene, and health.
This message of positivity and empowerment has earned Manscaped a place in Forbes, a ranking on Inc.'s list of best workplaces for 2020, and the attention of Millennial and Gen Z consumers. Meanwhile, the Manscaped team has grown 500% in just a couple of years, with a 20-strong marketing team that’s hiring new talent on a weekly basis.
At its current growth stage, Manscaped aimed to balance profitability with its goal of boosting brand awareness. The team understood that to achieve this, they would need to tie ad spend directly to first purchases. They would also need to expand their reach, targeting consumers outside of the saturated mainstream channels.
+41%
CTR
+45%
Higher CVR than baseline
+99%
Net new customers
100K+
New U.S. users
20K+
New users internationally
Acquiring New Customers Outside Of The Usual Growth Channels
As the marketing team has grown, so has the number of strategies Manscaped deploys for customer acquisition and brand awareness. Despite using over 30 growth channels — among them social media, paid media, content, SEO, and more — the company still sought to reach more net new customers. To achieve this, the team is constantly testing new strategies. They’re not afraid to go off the beaten track: They’ve leaned into influencer marketing, engaged in podcast and audio partnerships, and tested in-app video.
“Reaching new audiences is an ongoing challenge to get brand awareness and new customers,” explained Jessica Carlson, Paid Media Manager at Manscaped. “Acquiring new users that we may not reach on some of the main channels, such as Google and Facebook, is something we are always striving to achieve.”
This challenge led Manscaped to test rewarded advertising in mobile games. The team expected that the mobile gamer audience would overlap with key customer personas, but hoped that Cost Per Action (CPA) bidding would offset risk while they found their footing. Another draw was that the value exchange model would allow the brand to enhance the consumer experience and increase brand affinity.
“The CPA method of bidding is completely unique to Tapjoy. It allows you to pay only for completed purchases, so it was a no-brainer for us. We have the benefits of brand awareness within the app, but also the unique offering of rewards for users to purchase Manscaped products.”
- Jessica Carlson, Paid Media Manager at Manscaped
