Objectives

With the mission of supporting new parents save money for their children's future, Beanstalk got in touch with Kurve to increase reach and installations.

As an award-winning app, Beanstalk helps families grow their funds through round-ups and cash back, ad-hoc deposits or a monthly direct debit order. The app also makes it easy to invite relatives and friends to contribute in building a pot of money or send one-off gifts for special occasions.

A key factor for Beanstalk was to devise a strategic approach that was both economical and efficient. The aim was to achieve a balance between cost-effective marketing channels and the desired outcome of user growth, without compromising the quality and impact of the campaign.

Because of the long-term value of Beanstalk’s offer, it was also critical to unlock sustainable growth with a strong LTV:CAC ratio.

Strategy and Execution

Plan of action

Our initial strategy included Apple Search Ads, Google Ads, and branded TikTok Ads. The results indicated that we needed to expand the consideration phase by increasing touchpoints. But this would come at a higher overall cost per action.

In light of this challenge, we decided to find a different approach that would allow us to achieve both goals:

• Reaching growth targets
• Remaining within the LTV:CAC ratio

The first step involved extensive qualitative user interviews and research conducted by the Beanstalk team, combined with audience and channel research performed by Kurve. The key learnings revealed that unscripted and authentic user testimonials posted organically on TikTok were the most effective way to connect with new parents. Working with user-generated content significantly reduces costs by leveraging the creative capabilities of users while ensuring compelling content that resonates with the audience.

This led us to focus on sourcing TikTok Spark Ads to build a predictable process for testing and allocating resources to the best performing assets.

Execution

• Resource optimization starts with research, which is the best way to pre-select creators and predict success: we analysed their content to assess compatibility with the Beanstalk brand and found patterns of virality in terms of views, likes and shares.
• We analysed creators’ audiences to understand which Beanstalk features would capture the interest of specific groups. Making sure that the follower base also aligns with the product is key to address a relevant audience that converts.
• We analysed data sourced from TikTok’s Video Insights tool to create highly effective briefs based on the assets generating the highest conversion rates. Granting creative freedom while simultaneously providing data-driven suggestions for creating successful TikToks enabled us to quickly deploy and test different ideas while optimising results. 
• We negotiated with creators to find the right pricing for their assets while meeting Beanstalk’s KPIs.

Starting with a low budget, we set the goal of commissioning the highest possible number of videos in order to test different styles and types of content. As we kept monitoring performance, we noticed that there wasn’t a direct correlation between the top performing assets and their costs, so the budget per video was further reduced, which still allowed us to source a high number of diverse videos.

Results

These are the results we achieved between January and March 2023:

• Spark Ads sourced: more than 80
• CAC reduction: 66%
• New accounts MoM: x4

Measuring the impact of Spark Ads allowed us to identify a selected range of user generated videos that made it possible to amplify and scale within customer acquisition costs.

Beanstalk understood the importance of investing in strategic outreach to nurture relationships with the right creators and leverage authentic user testimonials. In a short period of time they built a community of engaged users without draining their resources. Limited budget doesn’t have to mean limited results.

Media