Let's play a guessing game on ad strategy:

We have a 5 step ad account growth process, but guess which step is skipped most by DTC brands struggling to balance profitability and growth?

1. Financial clarity
2. Creative planning
3. Campaign management
4. Campaign optimization
5.…

I refuse to do Google ads. Amazon is not my cup of tea.

Honestly, I hate checking emails... much less doing them for marketing.

Do I think any of these channels are ineffective? Not at all.

Am I obviously biased toward Meta (and some TikTok) because of my agency's position?…

Do you know the story of Dorothy and the yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz?

The yellow brick road is a guide to get to Emerald City and find the great and powerful wizard who rules the Land of Oz (so Dorothy can get back home).

➝ Here's why I'm talking about a story from…

Have you ever played a basketball game at an arcade?

As a former college player (yes, you can Google it), I think about this game a lot in terms of ad and creative strategy.

Let me explain:

➝ You put in your quarters or tap your game card
➝ The shield drops down and…

When you help drive over $100M in revenue for ecommerce brands, you learn a few things about media buying.

Here are 5 truths I wish I would've learned earlier (that I know now):

1. Unknown business goals = busted ad strategy

You should know the long-term financial goal of the…

There's ONE North Star metric for true profitability.

First order contribution margin:

➝ Take revenue/AOV on first order
➝ Subtract cost of delivery [all variable costs]
➝ Subtract CAC [ad spend on first order]

This, not LTV, is the true metric of profitability.

If TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat are the icing, Meta is the cake for DTC businesses.

Here's what I mean:

➝ Diversification can be good (in some cases)
➝ Looking at new audiences can be good (in some cases)
➝ Following what's new and trendy can be good (in some cases)

But…

There's one creative mess-up putting a glass ceiling on your ad performance:

Different ≠ diverse.

In other words, slight deviations aren't brand new creatives.

How do you know if you're making this mistake?:

Before you touch an Ads Manager, you should be in Google Sheets.

Not knowing your gross margin, contribution margin, and cash balance is a recipe for disaster.

There's a never-ending battle between CAC and account growth:

How do you keep the growth curve linear?
How do you keep CAC steady or decrease it?

The only sustainable solution is cost controls x high creative volume.

Ask me how.

Your ad performance is down because you're not running enough creatives.

Yes, certain non-creative elements play a factor:

➝ Market timing
➝ The 'algorithm'
➝ Bugs and problems with Meta

At the end of the day though, you can only control one thing: creative.

Top-down forecasts:

❌ Black magic financials
❌ Based on lofty goals and fluff
❌ 'You want X, here's how to hit X' outlook

Bottom-up forecast:

✅ Financials from historical data
✅ Based on unit economics + real inputs
✅ 'You're doing X, we can realistically achieve Y'…

The world seems to light on fire each time Meta has a slip up.

Let's be real, February and March weren't Meta's best months.

Everyone in DTC was talking about it because everyone has such high standards of Meta as an ad platform. If the dialogue about the bugs and fires in Meta…

We've used the same ad account structure to drive $100M+ in revenue for 8-9 figure ecommerce brands.

Here's the structure we use, why we set it up this way, with no fluff or filler:

1. Begin with a sales campaign objective
2. Set up with Advantage+ shopping campaigns (ASC)
3.…

You can only order from one online brand for the rest of the year...

What is it and why?

Frequent creative refreshes:

- Meta says to do it 2x a month
- We say 4x a month/1x a week

Most DTC brands don't hit 2x, much less 4x. But if you want better performance, frequent refreshes are a key lever to pull.

We've built out a 5-step growth blueprint for ecommerce brands and profitable paid media strategy.

Here's the breakdown from 5+ years growing 8-9 figure businesses.

(Save this to checklist review your strategy)

Meta is like Batman — it's always looking for a signal

Here's what I mean:

There are literally billions of data points Meta is looking at when working with your ads, including your existing ad set. Working within cost controls sets a clear parameter for performance targets,…

If I were a DTC drink brand, here's how I'd grow to 8 figures in revenue using influencer seeding (based on insights from scaling 8-9 figure ecommerce brands):

Step 1: Targeting

Drink products are inherently easier to share/post about as a product. So I'd begin with outreach to…

Honestly, which ad do you think would perform best?

1. A low quality, front camera, talking head influencer video
2. A high quality, product focused highlight video
3. A static product shot from an iPhone

Tell me why 👇