Manscaped built a $300M category on performance ads, then flipped to brand.
The groin-trimmer brand spent about 70% of its budget on the lower funnel, built demand before Target, and now puts nearly 70% into brand, up to a first Super Bowl ad in 2026.
BLOOM10X did not work with Manscaped. This breakdown uses public sources only, linked below.
- 2016Paul Tran launches Manscaped in San Diego
- Nov 2021$1B SPAC deal announced
- Aug 2022SPAC called off; still independent
- Early 2023First beard trimmer, beyond the groin
- Jul 2025“Send Face Pics Instead”
- Feb 2026First Super Bowl ad, “Hair Ballad”
Performance got it to scale. Brand is the next step.
The pyramid, flipped
First year: VIP vs regular price
Five plays behind the growth.
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Name a category nobody would talk about
Manscaped launched in 2016 to pioneer “below-the-belt care”. It ran media, sold out within two weeks and reordered, then kept rebuilding the same trimmer from customer feedback (Paul Tran, Shopify, Jan 2026). The homepage now leads with its sixth generation. The humor came from the subject: the CMO calls it a tone “we had to develop almost as a requirement to talk about balls” (Marketing Dive, Oct 2025).
Copy this: if your category is awkward, make the awkwardness the hook. Test three tones in static ads before you film. Static ads guide →
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Break through on performance ads
For years the core of spend was lower funnel, “the best way to break through” against older brands, the CMO says (Marketing Dive). Then it hit a cap: “There’s always a point at which it just stops scaling efficiently” (AdExchanger, Nov 2025).
Copy this: track blended cost per new customer each month. When it climbs while spend is flat, you have found your cap. CAC calculator →
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Build demand before the shelf
“When we launched into Target, we were spending close to $60 million on marketing and awareness,” Tran writes, so sell-through was not left to chance (Shopify, Jan 2026). It now sells at Walmart, Target, CVS and Best Buy (Marketing Dive).
Copy this: pitch retail with your own sales data by region, then keep ads running where the stores are.
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Carry the joke into new categories
To sell face trimmers, “Send Face Pics Instead” used a study saying men are 9 times likelier to get a reply with a face photo. The hero video drew about 60M organic views in weeks (AdExchanger). In February 2026 its first Super Bowl ad, “Hair Ballad”, with singing clumps of shaved hair, introduced the line “Mancare Your Everywhere” (Superbowl-ads.com).
Copy this: when you launch a second category, tie its first ad back to what people already know you for. Creative →
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Turn every buyer into a member
The product page preselects a VIP price that starts a blade subscription. Its rewards program pays points on receipts from Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy and Target, so retail buyers end up in Manscaped’s own list (manscaped.com, Nov 2026).
Copy this: if you sell in stores, offer points or a gift for a receipt upload to win back the customer data. Retention →
The VIP buy box, annotated.
The Performance Package page preselects a VIP price that starts a quarterly blade subscription. Tap a number to see each part.
- 1VIP is picked for youThe VIP card is preselected; the regular price sits below it.
- 2Framed as status“VIP Member Price”, not “subscribe and save”.
- 3The big number“VIPs save 42%”: $159.99 against a struck $277.92, the items’ combined price.
- 4Risk answered early“30-Day Money Back Guarantee” in orange, above the button.
- 5Buy more, save moreA quantity stepper inside the VIP card.
- 6One button per optionEach price card has its own “Add to cart”.
- 7Terms in plain sightVIP “billed at $35.40 + tax every 3 months” for fresh blades plus a product of your choice. Cancel anytime.
- 8The anchor$179.99 regular price, $20 more for no subscription.
Our wireframe of the same box
- 1A kit, not a trimmerTwo devices and three groin-care products in one SKU.
- 2Gifts with pricesBoxers “$34.99 value” and The Shed 2.0 “$39.99 value”.
- 3A small commitmentPicking a boxer size makes the shopper choose before paying.
- 4Subscription as the defaultThe VIP card is selected on load.
- 5What VIP costs laterBlades and one product every quarter.
- 6One actionAdd to cart, then the cart.
- 7The exitOne-time buyers pay $20 more.
Our wireframe of manscaped.com/products/the-performance-package-gen6 on Nov 10, 2026. Not a copy of their page.
Our math on the buy box
Copy this on your product page
- Bundle the device with the consumables it uses, as one SKU. Raise AOV
- Preselect the subscription price and show the one-time price under it. Conversion
- Print the renewal price and interval inside the selected option.
- Give gifts a stated value, or don’t count them in the offer.
- Work out what a subscriber is worth before you discount the kit. LTV calculator
16 live ads, one gifting message.
The Ad Library showed 16 active US ads on the MANSCAPED page, all titled “Gifts That Get Used, Not Regifted”, started Nov 2 and Nov 7, 2026. Pick a tab.
“Gifts That Get Used, Not Regifted”
All 16 share the headline; the top three also share one caption: “This year, give something that won’t end up in the back of a drawer.” Free shipping over $49.
The statics carry the jokes: “Hairball maker”, “Save on the shave”, “If his back feels like a sweater”. The top three show the product, not a person.
“Shop. Earn. Shave.”
Three tiers: Guest List at 5 points per $1, A-List after $100 a year at 8, VIP subscribers at 10. 1,000 points = $10.
Retail receipts from Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy and Target earn points too, and so do follows on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube.
“Just dropped”
The newest Lawn Mower leads the homepage, the same trimmer line it launched with in 2016, now in its sixth generation.
The top bar pushes bundles: “Bundle and save 20% on eligible devices.”
Counts from the Meta Ad Library tool, active US ads, Nov 10, 2026. Click an image to enlarge.
How a Manscaped gift ad is built.
- 1The brand pageAll 16 active ads run from MANSCAPED’s page.
- 2A buyer who isn’t the userThe caption talks to the gift giver: “give something that won’t end up in the back of a drawer.”
- 3The joke is the hook“Hairball maker”, “If his back feels like a sweater”, each on a product shot.
- 4One headline, many imagesThe same line on every ad, so only the image is tested.
- 5Low-friction offerFree shipping over $49, no discount code.
Our wireframe, built from MANSCAPED ads 2043900959652701, 1382260187112879 and 1646850513763013 in the Meta Ad Library, seen Nov 10, 2026. Not a copy of the ads.
The two brand bets.
“When we launched into Target, we were spending close to $60 million on marketing and awareness.”
“There’s always a point at which it just stops scaling efficiently. Then it starts to become more expensive to grow.”
Read it with three caveats.
- The numbers are the founder’s. $300M, 15M customers and the $60M are stated by Paul Tran; Manscaped is private and files no accounts.
- Brand spend needs patience. The CMO says brand results take about six months to read. A $3M brand can’t wait that long on most of its budget.
- The tone has limits. A past holiday spot was turned down by TV networks (Marketing Dive). Edgy works best where ad review is lighter.
- What we’d change: test more than one headline. All 16 live ads share one, so the account only learns which image works, not which message.
Seven moves for a $1M–$10M brand.
- Make the awkward part of your category the hook in your first ads. Static ads guide
- Watch blended cost per new customer for the point where performance caps. CAC calculator
- Move budget to brand in steps and give each step a fixed read date. Meta ads
- Bundle devices with their refills and preselect the subscription. Conversion
- Reward retail receipts to bring store buyers into your email list. Retention
- Rotate headlines as well as images so tests teach you about the message. Ad fatigue guide
- Plan creative volume for a new category launch. Creative volume calculator
Where every number comes from.
- Paul Tran, “Manscaped Revenue: Paul Tran’s Founder Story,” Shopify blog, Jan 20, 2026. shopify.com
- Allison Schiff, “Here’s How Manscaped Groomed Its Brand For Long-Term Growth,” AdExchanger, Nov 26, 2025. adexchanger.com
- Peter Adams, “How Manscaped’s CMO tackles Super Bowl-sized brand ambitions,” Marketing Dive, Oct 20, 2025. marketingdive.com
- “Bright Lights Acquisition and Manscaped Scrap SPAC Merger,” BeautyMatter, Aug 26, 2022 (revenue figure as reported by TheStreet). beautymatter.com
- Manscaped, Performance Package Ultra Gen 6 page, Members Only Rewards page and homepage, viewed Nov 10, 2026. manscaped.com
- Meta Ad Library, active US ads for MANSCAPED, viewed Nov 10, 2026. facebook.com/ads/library
- “Manscaped Super Bowl LX 2026 Ad: ‘Hair Ballad’,” Superbowl-ads.com, Feb 2026. superbowl-ads.com
- Manscaped, official YouTube channel (@Manscaped), “Hair Ballad” (Feb 3, 2026) and “Post Pic Clarity” (Aug 13, 2025). youtube.com/@Manscaped
