How to Reverse Engineer Your Competitor's Funnel

Author

Alex Garcia
October 23, 2024

In this issue you’re going to learn:

  • The tool I use to reverse engineer a brand’s top-selling products.

  • How I use that information to reverse engineer that products funnel.

Coooool. So.

Big thank you to Particl for partnering with us and letting us create media for a livin’.

Get your brand in front of 200,000+ marketers & founders.

It first starts with this tool that I use called Particl. You’ve probably seen it all over Twitter. And straight up it feels like some dark magic. But it’s 10/10 great.

So, let’s take Hexclad—$ 350M in revenue. Absolute giant. But also a dialed marketing machine.

First step is going into Particl.

Here I’m searching for their top selling products and it quickly shows me the top selling products and the amount of revenue that each product drives.

So, let’s take HexClad’s Hybrid Perfect Pots & Pans Set.

The next step is going to Facebook, searching their FB page, and going to their ad library.

Here I’m looking for a few things:

  • Every ad for HexClad’s Hybrid Perfect Pots & Pans Set

  • Every ad’s content type and format

  • Every ad’s copy and structure

Because I want to know what creative Hexclad is testing, how they’re positioning the product, and the influencers they work with.

So, looking at their FB ad library I know they’re running 100+ ads promoting the Hybrid Perfect Pots & Pans Set.

Next is categorizing the content formats, and we have:

  • Influencer/Celebrity Static Images

  • UGC

  • Product Static Images

  • Testimonial Static Images

  • Carousels

After categorizing the content formats, we want to break down how they’re positioning the hybrid set and the narratives behind each ad.

Narratives:

  • Only cookware you'll buy once and have for life.

  • Trusted by over 800,000 home cooks and celebrity chefs.

  • Hybrid cookware combines the best parts of stainless steel, cast iron, and nonstick into one genius pan.

  • Achieving chef-quality results at home is your new normal.

  • What type of cookware does (Insert famous chef) use at home?

After the narrative, I’m finding all the common denominators within the copy and looking at Hexclad’s ads - there’s two main points of supporting copy:

  1. Social Proof

  2. Benefits

The next step is breaking down the landing pages they’re directing traffic to.

Why?

We want to learn how they’re converting interest to action.

Looking at Hexclad, they’re directing to two different landing pages:

  1. Hybrid Landing Page / Listicle

  2. Hybrid Product Page / Landing Page

But the common denominator between both pages is the focus on education and social proof.

Why? Because it’s a $700 purchase.

So, there’s a large focus on educating the consumer to make them feel confident in their purchase.

That education focuses on:

  • The differentiation of the product

  • The patent technology

  • The reasons people love the product

Which cements:

  • Why it's better

  • How it's better

  • Why people like you love it

Then they reinforce this with three different layers of social proof:

  1. Publication Mentions

  2. UGC

  3. Customer Reviews

There’s also a few ways to go layers deeper down a products funnel:

  1. Add the product to the cart then abandon it and go through the abandon cart flow.

  2. Enter the email and sms opt-in and look at the series of emails you get sent over the next 48-72 hours.

But putting it all together…

The best reverse engineering process first starts with using the right data to identify the top-selling products and then working your way backward.

This is why my process always starts on Particl then I work my way down.

Usually, I’m doing this for the top 5 selling products for any brand then piecing together all the common denominators to then start testing different aspects.

Alright, I’m done with all the secrets.

Appreciate you reading,

Alex G