Challenges:
- While Bob Ross Inc. already had a large fan base and audience to target due to the popularity of Bob Ross, they had never run social ads before partnering with Bad Rhino.
- Bob Ross Inc. gained revenue only from organic search, royalties, etc., so the performance of social ads were unknown.
- Their internal marketing team lacked the time, resources, and knowledge to build a consistent content strategy and execute digital ads.
- Some believe that Bob Ross Inc. “stole” the Bob Ross name, so there were accounts on that shared negative comments about Bob Ross Inc.
Strategy:
- Build a consistent social presence throughout the year
- Grow the community through consistent content and social ads
- Split test ads and run campaigns to both a cold audience and a growing custom audience
- 24/7 brand monitoring & customer service for reputation management
Example Social Ads for Bob Ross Products:
Analysis:
Over the course of the 2025 calendar year, the Bad Rhino team ran numerous social ads for Bob Ross that drove sales on the Bob Ross Inc. website. The campaigns utilized warm (current social followers and previous website visitors) and cold (people who have shown interest in painting or Bob Ross) audiences to drive purchases and generate measurable revenue. The campaigns resulted in over 1,300 tracked purchases, an 8.49 average return on ad spend, and over $154,000 in revenue.
What’s most important to realize is that revenue doesn’t magically generate overnight through ads. It takes consistency in both your organic and paid strategies, testing various creatives and audiences, continuous brand monitoring, and more.
Before running these social ads for Bob Ross, we spent months building their community even further, increasing impressions and engagements, and learning what the social community responds to most.
