/ Cold traffic
Man on the street ads for brands that buy cold traffic
Ask any agency for the account, not the showreel. Here is ours, on the proof page, unedited and published with permission.
One format, three names
Man on the street, street interview and vox pop all describe the same thing: a real person, stopped in a real public place, asked a genuine question they haven't heard before and answering it on the spot. "Man on the street" is the American newsroom term. "Vox pop" is the British broadcast term. "Street interview" is the version built specifically for paid social. Whichever term your team uses, the mechanism is identical, and so is what you should be judging an agency on.
For a brand buying cold traffic, that mechanism matters more than the label. Cold traffic has never heard of you. It hasn't decided whether to trust you, and it's holding a thumb over the skip button. A stranger's unscripted reaction gives that traffic a reason to keep watching that a script cannot fake.
Twelve filmed, seven switched off, five made about $164,000
Pulse of Potential, a wellness brand, booked one hour of filming in Manchester. Twelve ads came out of that hour. Once they went live, seven were switched off. They didn't earn their spend and the client cut them, which is what a healthy test is supposed to do.
The remaining five carried €53,112.46 of spend, about $57,000, at a 2.84 ROAS, and produced about $164,000 in revenue in the first 30 days. Published with permission from Maria, the numbers sit in the full Pulse of Potential case, unedited from Meta.
The point isn't that twelve became five. The point is that one hour of filming produced enough variants to find five winners and cut seven losers fast, before the account had spent heavily on any of them. That's what a batch is for.
A stranger's reaction versus a creator's script
A paid creator, however good, is performing. They've been briefed, they know the brand, they've probably said something close to this line before for another client. That's not a criticism of creators, it's just a different job: a creator sells a point of view, polished and repeatable.
A man on the street ad sells the opposite: a person who has never seen the product before, reacting in real time. There's no performance to read past, because there's nothing rehearsed to perform. For cold traffic deciding in under three seconds whether to keep watching, that difference is the entire pitch. It's also why the format needs volume rather than a single hero cut. One reaction is an anecdote. A batch of variants across different people, questions and hooks is a test.
Three questions to ask any agency before you book
Show me the ad account, not the showreel.
A showreel shows you the ads. It doesn't show you spend, ROAS or CPA. Ask for a real account screenshot with the client's permission attached, the way we've shown ours.
How many finished ads come from one filming day?
A single hour or day of production should give you a batch to test, not one video. Ask for the number of concepts and hooks included, not just a total ad count.
Do I get the raw footage?
If an agency won't hand over raw footage on any package, ask why. It's your shoot day and your brand on camera. It should be your footage to reuse.
If you want the wider version of this checklist, read how to hire a UGC ad agency, alongside viral street interview ad examples. If you want the format explained end to end, start with street interview ads.
/ Questions
Questions
- Is a man on the street ad the same as a street interview ad?
- Yes. Man on the street, street interview and vox pop all describe real people, stopped in a real public place, answering a genuine unscripted question on camera. The names come from different industries, television, radio, social, but the format underneath is the same.
- Why do brands buying cold traffic use this format?
- Cold traffic hasn't decided anything about you yet. A stranger's unscripted reaction is more persuasive to another stranger than a script or a paid creator reading lines, and it earns the first three seconds that cold traffic is otherwise ready to skip.
- Will every ad we film work?
- No, and treat any agency that promises otherwise with suspicion. On Pulse of Potential, seven of twelve ads filmed in one hour were switched off. Plan for a batch of variants to test, not a single hero ad you're betting the budget on.
- What raw footage do we get?
- Scale includes the raw footage from your shoot. Premier includes the full raw library and B roll. Test is delivered as finished ads without raw footage.
- What's the first step?
- A 30 minute call with Ryan about your current creative, your cold traffic funnel and the right scope to test with.
Test a batch, not one hero video
A 30 minute call with Ryan about your current creative, your cold traffic funnel and the right scope.
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