Why Your CPAs Are Climbing
The Decline of Still Graphics
If your Meta Ads Manager has looked like a sea of red lately, you aren’t alone. The tried and true still graphics and polished studio shots that fuelled e-commerce growth for years are hitting a wall. Across the industry, brands see Click-Through Rates (CTRs) dipping, and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) climbing.
The modern reality is simple: In a social-first world, static creative is no longer the primary driver of growth. To scale today, brands must move away from "ads that look like ads" and lean into content that feels native to the platform.
Why Your Ads Are Stalling
Meta’s algorithm is a hungry machine, and it feeds on engagement. When a brand relies heavily on still shots, graphics or corporate-feeling video for too long, they hit Creative Fatigue.
The Symptom: Your Frequency goes up, but your CTR plummets. The audience has seen the image, recognised it as an ad, and developed blindness.
The Result: As engagement drops, Meta penalises the account with higher CPMs (Cost Per Mille/Thousand Impressions). You end up paying more for less attention.
The Solution: You need fresh, human-centric assets to keep the algorithm (and your customers) engaged. This isn't about "more content" it’s about more effective content that stops the scroll.
UGC vs. Performance-First Creative
While many brands have experimented with User Generated Content, there is a significant gap between a basic testimonial and an asset engineered for performance. High-performing creative isn't accidental; it’s built. By focusing on the metrics that move the needle, like the Thumb-Stop Ratio (the first 3 seconds) and the Hold Rate (how many people watch past the halfway mark) brands can turn social content into a strategic, data-driven advantage.
When creative feels natural and contextual, it builds immediate trust. A customer seeing a product used in a real-world environment by a real person bridges the gap between interest and purchase far faster than a high-end production ever could.
The Blueprint: A.C.C. and the Building Blocks Method
To maintain a healthy ad account, content should be viewed through a strategic framework. This ensures you aren't just making videos, but filling specific gaps in the customer journey:
Awareness Assets: High-energy hooks designed to capture the attention of cold audiences.
Consideration Content: Deep dives into features, "Us vs. Them" comparisons, and unboxing videos that answer the "Why should I buy?"
Conversion UGC: Hard-hitting social proof and testimonials designed to close the sale.
The secret to scaling with this framework is the Building Blocks approach. Rather than viewing a video as one static file, we treat it as a series of modular components. By swapping different Hooks with various Bodies (the educational middle) and CTAs (the closing offer), brands can generate endless unique ad variations from a single shoot. This modularity is what keeps the algorithm fed and the CPAs low.
The Path to Scaling
Success in the current landscape requires a shift in perspective. It’s no longer about finding the "one perfect ad," but about building a system that allows for constant iteration and human connection. By moving away from static graphics and adopting a modular, performance-led UGC strategy, brands can stop fighting the algorithm and start scaling with it.
At People Say, we specialise in this exact transition. We manage the heavy lifting, from identifying the right creators to developing the scripts and shot-lists using our Building Blocks method to ensure your brand always has the high-performing assets it needs to win.
Ready to stop the scroll and start converting? Speak to our data-driven UGC experts today.