The Content Matrix To Answer How Much Content You Really Need

There’s one question that we often get asked a lot as an e-commerce advertising agency: how much content do I really need? As a strategist, it’s a question that I’ve been obsessed with for some time now. Here’s the short answer: there’s never going to be a one-size-fits-all solution as how much content you create will depend on your industry and audience niche. However, if you’re interested in practical guardrails that you can consider to plan your content more efficiently for the long haul, please read on. 

For the past 6 months, we have reviewed our content production systems across our diverse e-commerce client base and categorised them into 5 different ad spend tiers, with ad spends starting from $5K to $500K a month. Finally, we have developed a Content Matrix that helps us determine how much content you need exactly for optimal results. Let’s break it down…

Overview of recommended minimum raw content needed

Note: The ‘Content Channel Ad Spend’ refers to Facebook advertising spend, while the total ad spend includes non-content-heavy channels like Google advertising.

The importance of keeping content fresh

Before we discuss the Content Matrix, it’s important to note that ad fatigue is a real problem that needs to be overcome through a volume of content and consistency. This is a problem caused by inattentional blindness. So let’s say you just relaunch the same creative over and over again, people will reach a point where the more often they see an ad, the less likely they are actually going to pay attention to it.

This can signal to Facebook that your ad is not relevant and useful, resulting in a low-quality ranking, which means your ad may not even be shown to your audience anymore.

All these factors explain why presenting fresh angles on a problem, giving a new take on product benefits, and experimenting with novel ways of showing your product tend to get better traction. 

Breaking down the variables

1. Determine the amount of ad spend you are targeting

Firstly, the amount of ad spend you’re targeting is the basis for our tiers of minimum content required. The general trend we observed was that the number of content pieces per month proportionally increases according to ad spend. With the Content Matrix, it’s simple to plan how much content you need as you scale and increase your ad spends. The fundamental assumption here is that a scaling plan requires you to expand your sales funnels or product collections, hence you are going to need more content planned, shot, and edited per month than what you were used to before.

2. Number of funnels/product collections = number of shoots per year

Creating content or planning what content to shoot for your next ad on a daily basis isn’t productive. Instead, take a bird’s eye view of the high-converting sales funnels in your e-comm store and plan your shoots based on them.

For ecomm stores that are spending less than $20K a month on Facebook ads, we recommend just focusing on your highest converting sales funnel. This helps you plan your content around just the best-selling product in your store before you iterate and diversify to other products or ad formats. 

You’d also want to ensure that you’re iterating based on winners, and working off your highest converting sales funnel first would guarantee a higher and faster chance of finding success with your content, without you having to invest too much. 

3. Number of final content pieces per month/per funnel = minimum 10

The final content pieces refer to the edited content pieces produced from your shoots. To get the most out of your e-commerce shoots, set up your team to be able to do photography and videography within the same day. We estimate our shoot outputs based on a 1-day production timeline for both photography and videography.

At this stage, it’s more important to focus on getting a high volume of content for your products so that it will give you enough runway to iterate, than being very conceptual with your content shoots.

Our data also showed that based on this production timeline, each shoot should be able to give you a minimum of 10 edited content pieces per month, per funnel. Just increase this amount proportionally the more funnels or product collections you want to expand to.

In summary, here’s what the formula looks like:
1 x High-converting funnel = 1 shoot per year = 10 edited pieces of content/month
2 x High-converting funnels = 2 shoots per year = 20 edited pieces of content/month

4. Number of creator posts per month > number of funnels/collections

Content creator type of ads, also known as UGC ads, is a format that we’re increasingly seeing more of and should also be added into the mix. We covered why using social proof is important in this article, so be sure to save this in your list.

The rule of thumb is, you should always have a minimum of 2 to 4 creators for every funnel or product collection. To achieve the best results, you need to be testing creators to find out which one resonates more with your audience first, before doubling down on a longer-term partnership.

5. Customise your content scope for higher-budget ad spends

The Content Matrix ensures that you are scaling content horizontally and vertically while maximising efficiencies in your planning process. For brands that have expanded to a Tier 4 ($50K to $100K) or Tier 5 ($100K to $440K) ad spend, this is the perfect timing to be more customised with your content options, as you’ll have the capacity to experiment with other content solutions beyond the existing winning formats. For instance, these could be setting up whitelisting on TikTok or even exploring brand-oriented content for top-of-funnel awareness.

Final takeaway

The Content Matrix is a tangible and methodical approach to planning for your content requirements. It is anchored in your content ad spend, so that you have a realistic sense of how much content you need to create, based on the business stage you’re at. Of course, there will always be variations in practice, as every industry or product has a different sales cycle or season, but it is helpful to rely on a consistent approach when you’re planning on maximising efficiencies for scale.

Got a question? Follow us on social @contentmogul and share your thoughts.