We Ran Testimonials as TV Ads. It Was a Really Good Idea.

MNTN on Marketing

Your customers are your best marketers. You can run the coolest, most engaging brand campaign, but sometimes nothing hits harder than hearing a real person talk about how your product made their life easier.

That’s been our experience at MNTN, where we’ve been experimenting with testimonial ads on Connected TV. These ads let our customers do the talking — and the results have been impressive. But just like with our bigger brand campaigns, these ads aren’t designed to stand alone. Each plays a part in the funnel, and the real story is how they work together. 

We here at MNTN like to share insights from our CTV experiments and share them in case what we learn can help inform your own CTV strategy. And in this latest edition of our series I’ll be sharing a behind the scenes look at how we produced our testimonial ads via a combination of in-house and hired help (via our creative partners at QuickFrame), what kinds of performance the work led to, and how we’re thinking about balancing brand vs. testimonial creative moving forward. 

Part 1: Why We Looked at Testimonial Ads

When we started running testimonial creative, it wasn’t part of some big A/B test against our brand ads. The two campaigns were developed and launched independently, each with their own goals and audiences. 

The brand ads — often featuring our recognizable CCO Ryan Reynolds — were designed for brand marketing: build awareness, introduce MNTN to new audiences, and expand the top of the funnel. The testimonial ads, on the other hand, were crafted to highlight real customer stories, build trust with our audience, and show how our platform works in practice.

We’ve run both types of campaigns for a while now, independently. And then, out of pure curiosity, we recently decided to go back and see how these two approaches stack up. This wasn’t about setting up a formal test — it was an excavation of the data we already had so we can better understand the performance of these two creative strategies. To sum it all up, we were asking the question: what role does each type of CTV creative play in our overall strategy?

Spoiler alert: we’ve already seen testimonial ads perform especially well on Performance TV. So if you’ve been considering taking this approach with your TV strategy, we can say to you it’s probably worth your time. There’s just something about storytelling on the big screen that lands differently than what you can pull off in a quick-hit ad on another channel. 

And while our analysis didn’t reveal anything earth-shattering to those familiar with performance marketing, it did validate what we’d been seeing anecdotally: testimonial ads are pulling their weight. More importantly, it helped us better understand the unique value of each campaign type and confirm that investing in testimonials is a strategy worth continuing.

Part 2: Producing the Testimonial Ads

I mentioned the difference between the audiences and goals for our brand and testimonial ads — but what about the actual content? You may have already seen examples of our big brand campaigns in previous editions of this series. The testimonial ads, though, are different. They offer a unique look behind the curtain, through the words of actual MNTN customers, at how they activate compelling CTV campaigns without a huge amount of lift.

One recent example came from Sockwell, a premium sock brand that partnered with MNTN to bring their story to the TV screen for the first time. They were eager to share their story, and we were eager to tell it — here’s how that process played out:

• Our VP of Product Marketing, Matthew Collins, led the project, supported by our in-house videographer Ben (shout out to Ben). 
• Both had packed schedules, which can make the idea of producing an on-site testimonial video at Sockwell’s office a daunting task. But neither wanted to pass up on the opportunity to tell this success story — so what did they do? 
• They took a page from MNTN customers’ playbook and partnered with the creative experts at QuickFrame, MNTN’s own creative solution, who acted as the on-the-ground crew and handled the on-location production.

By tapping into the creative solutions made possible by QuickFrame, our team didn’t have to sacrifice the opportunity in service of their schedules. Neither of them ever had to travel to Sockwell’s offices — instead they worked with the QuickFrame creative team to ensure we captured everything we’d need for the campaign creative. Here’s how that worked:

• You wouldn’t know it by watching the video, but Matt conducted the interview virtually, asking Sockwell about their business and their experience with MNTN. 
• At the same time, the QuickFrame video pros were on-site, handling all the filming and production logistics. 
• This setup created the best of both worlds — Matt was able to keep the conversation authentic and natural, while the video pros ensured the production met the standards needed for CTV. 
• Once the footage was captured, it was handed back in-house to Ben, who cut it into the polished final ad that you can see below.

What stood out about this process was how little lift it required from our internal team. We didn’t need to fly people across the country or stage an elaborate production. With QuickFrame’s network of 5,000+ video professionals, we could match with a team near Sockwell’s offices, plug in virtually, and let them take care of the rest. “This experience was really positive for us and the QuickFrame video pros helped us scale,” Matt said to me as we discussed this project. “They helped us take the great work our internal team can do and multiply it.”

That’s the real insight for businesses considering testimonials on CTV: these ads don’t need to be overwhelming or resource-heavy to be effective. With the right partners, you can capture authentic customer stories and turn them into polished commercials without exhausting your internal resources.

Of course, the key to making this process work is preparation — as Matt emphasized: “If I were advising someone else who might be considering doing something like this, I would start with an articulation of what you want the final product to look like. The more you can define that, the more you enable the teams around you, including your makers, to be able to deliver on that vision.”

When it comes to any creative endeavor, especially developing video ad creative, taking the time to clearly communicate to collaborators what you want the final product to convey is so important. It sets you up to capture the essentials and leave room for unexpected moments of inspiration. That balance is what makes testimonials so powerful — structured enough to hit your goals, flexible enough to surface genuine customer stories.

Part 3: Results and What We Learned

Seeing how we balanced producing these ads despite already-busy workloads is one thing — but we also wanted to know how they actually performed compared to our brand campaigns.

As I mentioned earlier, this wasn’t a formal test we set up. These campaigns ran independently, with our testimonial campaign running alongside brand for about a year. Each had their own goals.

When we dug into the data, what we found lined up with what you might expect: the testimonial ads consistently outperformed brand ads in efficiency. Across platforms like Meta, LinkedIn, and MNTN Performance TV, testimonial ads drove conversions at a significantly lower cost. They also tended to generate higher conversion rates overall, proving just how powerful real customer stories can be. 

On Connected TV specifically, we saw the testimonial ads perform particularly well as compared to the brand ads:

That said, it’s important to recognize the context behind those numbers. Testimonial ads are aimed at higher-intent audiences who either already know about MNTN or are in market for a CTV advertising partner, while brand ads are doing the heavy lifting of introducing MNTN to entirely new prospects. In other words: it’s not a fair apples-to-apples comparison — and that’s the point.

Instead of looking for a “winner,” the real takeaway is how these two strategies complement each other:

• Brand campaigns cast a wide net, introducing MNTN to audiences who may not even know what Connected TV advertising is. Those ads fill the top of the funnel and build our retargeting pools.
• Testimonial/Case Study campaigns work a level deeper, turning those warm audiences into customers by validating the decision with real-world proof.

Together, they create a more complete strategy than either could on its own.

Going Forward

Digging into the data gave us a clearer picture of how these campaigns work together. The natural next question is: where do we go from here?

We plan to continue investing in both types of creative — producing bigger testimonial ads each quarter, while also building out lighter lift case studies that we can refresh more frequently. And on the brand side, we’ll continue running campaigns that grow awareness and bring new audiences into the sales funnel.

What can you take from all this? That it’s worth weighing your options to produce video ads of customers heaping praise on your brand and products. Even if the need comes at a time when there are competing priorities, finding solutions to still make it happen (like our use of QuickFrame) can unlock outcomes that make the juice worth the squeeze.

We’re also looking ahead at a few new opportunities, including more assets that align to our testimonial messaging. We might also start testing how testimonial creative performs when pushed to more high-level prospecting buckets. Or, going the opposite direction, and experimenting with hyper, vertical-specific targeting. (For example, serving our Sockwell testimonial to other apparel brands.)

Performance marketing is an ongoing process of learning, iterating, and leveling up. Each campaign adds another layer of insight, so no matter what we land on, we’ll keep putting those lessons back into our strategy — and sharing them here with you.

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Eric Hatzenbuhler is the Director of Performance Marketing at MNTN, where he oversees paid media, SEO, and email marketing efforts. Before joining MNTN, he worked at several advertising agencies managing paid media for clients ranging from SMBs to Fortune 500 companies across industries like B2B and CPG. As a proud, born-and-raised Minnesotan, Eric combines his drive to push boundaries and challenge the status quo with a passion for connecting with others and inspiring innovative solutions.