Jake Abrams

I help 7-9 figure DTC brands with revenue & CAC | I write The Process, a newsletter about modern growth marketing | Sold 100K+ personal cooling devices

Consumer Marketing & Growth Leader.  

Brands I've worked with:

Caraway
Jones Road Beauty
Skylight
Canopy
Insurify
Naked Wines
Rugiet
Sundays For Dogs
Momofuku
Sunday Lawn Care

100+ others

Book a discovery call in the featured section below 👇

Founder

The lean DTC growth marketing partner that I wish existed when I was an in-house marketing lead. 

At Odyssey, we help 7 & 8-figure DTC brands increase revenue & ROAS by finding the right combination of:

- Messaging
- Audience targeting
- Media channel allocation
- Creative

https://www.growodyssey.com/

I built a 40-slide deck about the winners & losers of paid social in 2026. 

🏆 THE NEXT ERA OF PAID SOCIAL: 40 Slides Outlining How To Actually Win At TikTok, Meta, And Creative Diversity In 2026. 

I believe it invalidates 75% of what most marketers are doing right now.

4 shifts happened:

1. Infinite good ideas
⤷ AI can scrape customer reviews, analyze signals, and generate insights in seconds. The number of good ideas you can come up with is now infinite.

2. Unlimited Distribution
⤷ There's no limit to the amount of content that can be posted. Every new video is an opportunity to generate net value for your business.

3. Aligned Incentives
⤷ Creator compensation finally matches value created. TikTok Shop ties pay to sales. CPM and view-based models tie pay to reach. Performance-based compensation is now functional & accepted. 

4. The Feed Is Everything
 ⤷ People don't go to websites for education anymore. They spend 6+ hours a day on social media. Consideration, nurture, and education all happen in the feed now.

In a world of unlimited at-bats, the brands that exercise operational willingness to hit the quality bar at volume, win. 

What this looks like:
- An aggressively intentional use of creative diversity 
- 4-tier content model from Elevated through AI-generated
- Network of 20+ owned and affiliated social accounts
- All publishing daily
- All feeding the algorithm
- All generating halo

All competing for a chance to become your best performing paid ads for zero upfront media cost. 

This 40-slide deck is every 8-9 figure brand's roadmap to reaching more accounts on Meta & TikTok and actually growing profitably. 

Want the deck?
→ Like this post 
→ Comment "SLIDES" and I'll send it over (must be following)

---

EDIT: you can just grab the deck here: https://lnkd.in/eTxSxauP

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Creative-led growth for 8-9 figure consumer brands | Writing about AI & advertising | Sold 100k+ personal cooling devices

I found a travel brand driving 15M+ views / month across 11 TikTok accounts. 

One account has 683 followers, with multiple videos over 170k views.  

Most marketers have no idea how this strategy works. Their effectiveness is decaying rapidly. They are quickly becoming dinosaurs. Don't be like them.

This travel brand has a full-on content ecosystem: the brand account, multiple employee accounts, affiliated accounts, and more.

All publishing daily. All feeding the algorithm. All generating halo. All competing for a chance to become their best performing paid ads for zero media cost. 

The old model: 
→ Budget determined creative volume 
→ Ads launched straight into paid testing 
→ Creatives competed for spend 
→ Losers generated zero value 
→ Insights came from paid data only

The new model: 
→ Every video gets posted organically first 
→ The algorithm tests everything for free 
→ Every post generates signal and net value 
→ Winners earn their way into paid 
→ Your best-performing ads are pre-validated

Do you understand that the bottleneck does not exist anymore?

It's no longer "what should we say this month?"

It's "how do we say everything, everywhere, all the f*****g time?"

What I found when I dug into this brand: 
→ 11 separate TikTok accounts, all active 
→ 1000+ videos published per month across the network 
→ Hundreds of videos with 100K+ views
→ Micro-accounts outperforming accounts 100x their size 
→ Minimal correlation between followers and views 

I recorded a full Loom breaking down: 
→ How this brand structures their multi-account strategy 
→ The content formats getting 100k+ views from tiny accounts 
→ Why this works with TikTok's algorithm 
→ How to replicate this for your brand for organic and paid

Want the full breakdown?
→ Comment "TikTok" 
→ Like this post

And I'll send it over (must be following so I can DM)

This AI agent watched 291 viral skincare TikToks and broke down the winning hooks, visual themes, and messaging.

If you're running a skincare brand in 2026, this is a cheat code to winning ads. 

Every idea does not need to be original. You can just find what's already working on organic TikTok and remake it for your brand.

That's a big part of the strategy I've used for years across 250+ brands. 

This database does the hard part for you. The agent analyzed:

- Hooks that stop the scroll
- Visual styles that perform
- Messaging that converts

And the analysis isn't generic. It's specific enough that you could take 30 of these videos, adapt them, and have a month of content ready to test.

I'm giving away the full database & analysis of these 291 videos.

To get the full Airtable database: 

1. Connect with & follow me
2. Comment "DATABASE" below 
3. I'll DM you the link to access it

---

I originally built this flow myself using N8N, Apify, Gemini, and Airtable. It works great, but it took some time to set up.

If you're not into stitching together automation tools, you should check out Snowball: it does this way easier out of the box.

https://lnkd.in/eGCw2k35

I know a growth marketer driving 3.6M views / month on TikTok.

To me, this is the #1 arbitrage opportunity in paid social in 2026. 

I almost didn't want to write this, but most people won't take action anyway. 

Here's essentially how it works:

50 TikTok accounts
3 posts per day / account
4,500 posts per month
800 average views per post
3,600,000 average views per month

The algorithm is meritocratic now. Best content wins. 

Also...
we have infinite access to intelligence now. 
which means there are infinite good ideas. 

So if you're good at AI, the advantage isn't in having good insights & ideas. 

The advantage is your distribution. 

An Attention Engine should be part of every brand's creative strategy in 2026.

Comment "ATTENTION" and I'll send you my 40-slide deck that explains exactly what I'm talking about.

In 1 slide, this is what format diversity looks like...

How to think about it:

Creative diversity is made up of 2 things:

1. Micropersona diversity 
 Who are you talking to?

2. Format diversity 
How are saying it?

Process to use:
- Go uncomfortably deep on your micro personas
- Start testing with easiest formats (statics, faceless)
- Once those land, activate winning messaging across the full spectrum (native, scripted, cinematic, elevated)

This helps you:
- Scale your ad account
- Reach new audiences
- Reduce wasted spend & creative production costs
- Turn 1 win into 100 wins

That's the systematic approach. 

One insight. Many micro personas. Every format.

I know a freelance CS who 100x'd their creative output using AI.

He's shipping 25+ unique concepts every week. 
He's writing briefs in minutes that used to take hours. 
He's making a lot of money.

How he does it: 

"I use AI to find viral TikTok's in my category, and run a system that generates infinite variations while preserving what made the original content successful."

Here's the exact process he uses:

1. Find a viral organic TikTok in your category using Snowball

Not ads. He's looking for organic content that's already proven to resonate. Snowball makes it easy to find this and extract the key elements. 

2. Bring that format into Octo

Octo has vision into your ad account. It already knows what's working and what's not for your brand.

So he uploads the reference video and provides his micro personas.

Example: If he's working on a health supplement for dogs. One of his micro personas might be "Old Dog Mom." She has a senior dog that's starting to have health issues like joint pain or less energy. She's worried.

3. Tell Octo to write the script for that persona

Let's say the TikTok he found was a staged moment video. So it's a person behind camera talking to person on camera, educating them about this supplement that's great for older dogs. 

Octo writes the script in that format, for that persona, informed by what's already working in the ad account.

4. Rewrite for different micro personas

Once the script is dialed for Old Dog Mom, he has Octo rewrite it for:
→ New Rescue Dad
→ Active Dog Mom
→ Skeptical Switcher

So he gets more ads from that one original format that already worked. 

5. Format multiplication

Now he takes that same insight and multiplies it across formats:

The staged moment becomes:

→ Podcast clip (same banter, different setting) 
→ Street interview (same objection/solution dynamic) 
→ Word wall (just the key lines, way easier to produce)

Infinite executions if you have your format system dialed in. 

6. Use Wispr Flow the entire time

He doesn't type anything. He just talks to Octo through Wispr. 

---

Here's what this really means for creative strategists in 2026:

The primary skill set is essentially this:

Creative Taste
- You have to find the references and know what to do with them.

Operational Speed
- You have to be a psycho about moving fast. Because if you want to, you can.

Communication Skills
- Other people get involved: creators shooting the content, clients approving the ideas. You have to sell the vision and protect it through execution.

---

You can operate 100X faster with this flow.
And you can make a lot of money.

i just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly....

going from $0M to $15M in DTC is basically just:

1. you start with a product that actually solves a real problem. 

2. you make sure the product(s) provides ongoing value so that you grow LTV instead of always chasing new customers.

3. you nail your foundational messaging before you make a single piece of content. build a story that spreads. 

4. you ensure your audience can easily understand the problem deeply enough to explain it to someone else. that's how ideas move through networks instead of dying on the feed.

5. you use tools like Snowball and Adology.AI to watch the top 1% of content in your niche and extract content ideas. 

6. you rip the structures of high performing creators, in your niche or not, and bring in your own powerful brand message. 

7. you create voice-of-brand content yourself. make strangers want to buy from you. 

8. you pick up your phone, start making TikTok's, and you can have 20k followers in like 2-3 months and be your own TikTok affiliate. 

9. you voice record your thoughts with Wispr Flow and have Claude turn them into scripts for videos (organic or paid)

10. you layer in reaction hook + product videos. you or someone at the company on camera for 5 seconds, then show the product for 10 seconds. 

11. you build a "hybrid" content tier: AI-assisted edits + real footage.

12. you run elevated shoots quarterly or monthly. this is your best-looking stuff, but it still needs to feel native, not like a TV commercial.

13. you build a controlled creator layer...your 5-15 core creators you tap repeatedly.

14. you build a facilitated creator layer underneath that. this is your influencer program down to TikTok Shop affiliates.

15. you align incentives with performance. small retainer + CPM tiers and/or commission on sales. if they only win when you win, quality goes up.

16. you manage all of it inside a Discord. 

17. you cultivate a community of real customers, not actors. 

18. you tap into the stay-at-home mom economy. there are thousands of them who'd love to make an extra $500- $1.5k / month making slideshows and word wall videos for brands they actually like.

19. you give them the tools, the playbook, and the incentive structure...then get out of their way.

20. you use tools like Motion (Creative Analytics)and Octo once you're running ads to turn each win into 20 new wins.

TLDR:
Story
Ops
Community
Aligned incentives
Flywheel

That's the whole machine.

22 thoughts about the next era of paid social in 2026 🎥

2026 is the best year in history to be a creative generalist.

You now have a superhuman suit for the entire creative process.

And most people aren't:
- Smart enough
- Motivated enough
- Disciplined enough

To actually use it. 

So there's this massive gap forming between the people who figure this out and everyone else.

This year belongs to the people who can see the big picture and make it happen fast.

The 4 Tier Content Matrix

In a world with unlimited at-bats, every brand should make these 4 types of content in 2026 ↓

1. Hero Content: 
High-production brand moments. Quarterly campaigns. Elevated UGC. Done with in-house team and a small roster of cinematic creators. This is your traditional stuff for brand or DR that looks nice. 

2. Controlled Creator Content: 
You have a managed roster of creators. You feed them the angles, the talking points, often the scripts. You get high quality, predictable output. But there's management overhead so it doesn't scale infinitely.

3. Facilitated Creator Content: 
This is your Discord channel, your seeding program. Community-driven and hands-off. Creators own their angles and language. Quality varies, but it's very authentic. Pay commissions or pay per million views.

4. AI / Hybrid Content: 
Slideshows, faceless videos, text-on-screen. No creators required. Infinitely scalable. Fills the feed, generates signal, and occasionally produces surprise winners for organic and paid. 

What am I missing?

There’s an uncomfortable gap forming between the top 1% of creative operators and everyone else.

Because you now have a superhuman suit for the entire creative process. And most people aren’t smart, motivated, or disciplined enough to actually use it. 

Within e-commerce and marketplaces, specifically, this shift is happening incredibly fast. 

Photoroom just released their State of GenAI in Marketplaces 2026 report, based on interviews with 10 AI experts and a survey of 2,000 consumers. 

Some findings I found interesting: 

→ 55% of consumers say poorly executed AI-generated images actually decrease trust
→ 75% of workers say AI improves their speed or quality
→ Wolt reclaimed 100+ human hours per day after automating image QA
→ 64% of organizations are still in experimentation phase of AI adoption

If you want to go deeper on this and become part of the top 1% of creative operators, you should join Photoroom’s State of GenAI in Marketplaces live event this Wednesday (1/28).

You’ll get to learn from the people who are actually building the AI infrastructure behind visual content at scale.

⚫ jeff strauss - Head of Imaging, Photoroom (ex-Wolt) 
⚫ Sonia Biddle - Chief Product Officer, Depop 
⚫ Anne-Claire BASCHET - Chief Data/AI Officer, Mirakl 
⚫ Laura McGinnis - Partner, Balderton

You can register (for free) with my link: https://luma.com/8wgjjupp

If you're a:
→ Marketplace operator
→ Creative strategist 
→ E-commerce operator 
→ Brand marketer 
→ CMO

Really anyone who works with product visuals at scale, you should show up to this.

The session is on Wednesday, January 28th at 12:00 PM ET / 9:00 AM PT.

Even if you can't attend live, still worth registering for the recording.

See you there: https://luma.com/8wgjjupp

#PhotoroomPartner

Test your creative without spending $1 in your Meta ad account.

CONTEXT:

Good ideas are free now. 

AI can scrape customer reviews, TikTok, Reddit, any signal that exists.
With the right systems, a talented human with good taste can transform these ideas into native content 10x faster that before. 

NEW INSIGHT:

So the constraint isn't "what should we say test month?"
The question is: "how do we test everything, everywhere, all the time?"

Followers don't matter anymore. The algo shows your content to whoever it thinks will care. Good content finds its audience. Bad content dies. That's it.

So this is a game of executional quality & volume. 

ACTION TO TAKE:

Build the network for unlimited at-bats:

Brand Voice Accounts:
- "Josh at [brand]"
- "Maria at [brand]"
- "Marketing team at [brand]"

Verticalized Accounts:
- "Zach Travel Stories"
- "Alex Nomad Life"
- "Caleb Travel Finds"

Faceless Accounts:
- "Insane Travel Stories"
- "Your Travel Inspo"
- "Travel Deals Central"

All posting daily. All testing messaging. All letting the algorithm tell you what works.

By the time you put $1 into paid, you already have the answers. Plus a massive halo that lifts the performance of all your ads. 

The algorithm is the first test.

The best creative teams operate on 7-day cycle.

→ What got deployed 7 days ago? 
→ What's actually getting spend? 
→ What's working?
→ What's not? 
→ What are we changing for the next 7 days?

When you compound that weekly process over a long period of time, that's where the magic happens. 

But so many weekly creative strategy meetings devolve into this weird habit of staring at the same group of highest spending ads and wondering what to do about it. 

I like Motion (Creative Analytics)'s new Week over Week trends reporting because it makes the ideal weekly workflow much easier for creative teams: 

→ Automatic 7-day vs previous period comparison 
→ Spend, ROAS, and softer metrics 
→ AI that you can ask about what changed and what to do next

Creative reporting should map to this 7-day cycle.

Matthew McConaughey was right about private LLM's. Broad AI is out. Narrow AI is in. 

For performance marketing, 90% of the AI tools I've tried have been useless. Because all they do is make it faster to generate a higher volume of mediocre output. Nobody needs that.

Octo has been my best experience so far with a Performance Marketing LLM, in which the product is connected to the ad account and actually understands the ad account like a senior-level performance marketer.

3 opening slides from our 25-person team offsite in Austin this past week. 

Last year, I totally failed as a leader to provide daily purpose. 

As I was thinking through our collective "why" for this year, had a thought...

For some reason, the world's most valuable skill is creating things for the internet that gain attention from the right people. 

If you join the top 1% (or even the top 20%) of people at this skill, you get:

- Freedom & flexibility
- Money & opportunity
- Leverage & access
- Creative fulfillment

I know this is true, because it's exactly what's happened to me these last 3 years of finally creating content. 

So in 2026, Odyssey will be the best place to work for anyone hellbent on joining the top 1% of humans for the most important skill in the world. 

Oh, and we're hiring for:
- Full-time content creators
- Growth marketers
- Creative strategists

You don't understand that the bottleneck doesn't exist anymore. 

One account posting daily = 30 pieces of content per month.

An ecosystem of 20 accounts posting 3x per day = 1,800 pieces of content.

All feeding the algorithm. All generating halo. All competing for a chance to become your next best-performing paid ad for zero media cost. 

The old model treated organic as a single channel you "managed."

The new model treats organic as a testing ground you flood with volume, then promote the winners into paid.

Your brand account alone will never generate enough at-bats. You need the ecosystem, and you need operational willingness to hit a quality bar at volume.

Matthew McConaughey was right about private LLMs.

You could also call them "vertical-specific LLMs" or "professional class LLMs". 

These are going to dominate in 2026.. I'm already seeing it happen outside of marketing. Harvey is doing it for legal.

Broad AI is getting replaced by narrow, expert AI.

I'm not a technical AI expert. But here's what makes sense to me:

If something is giving you an answer in 5 seconds, it probably helps for it to have a narrower, more specialized view of the information it's pulling from. Only the validated, expert-level stuff. Not an unlimited ocean of everything.

For performance marketing, 90% of the AI tools I've tried have been useless. Because all they do is make it faster to generate a higher volume of mediocre output. Nobody needs that.

What performance marketers actually need:

- AI trained on ads that actually won, and why they won
- AI with vision into their ad account data
- Agents that analyze performance like an expert media buyer
- Micropersonas specific to the brand they're writing for
- Voice and messaging guidelines baked in

So when you ask "how do I improve this supplements ad?" The answer is actually valuable.

This is what AI looks like in 2026 for performance marketers. 

---

P.S. Octo has been my best experience so far with a Performance Marketing LLM. I'm gonna drop a link to it in the comments.

Octo

Do you understand there is zero bottleneck to good content ideas anymore?

Ask AI for ideas based on real ad account performance with Octo
Scrape TikTok and automatically watch with Snowball
Utilize god-view signal collection of Reddit and Instagram with Adology.AI
Analyze hundreds of customer reviews with an agent in Claude

Do all of it without ever typing a word by using Wispr Flow

Multiply every single good idea with format multiplication. 

I honestly get so frustrated when people struggle to come up with a high volume of good ideas based on real insights, because it's so easy to do now. 

If you're a brand in this world with unlimited good content ideas, you need to think about 2 things:

Diversification
Distribution

The brands that win in 2026 will master both, deploying a high volume of intentional creative to generate halo, signal, net value, and trackable revenue.

TikTok and Meta ads for DTC Brands | Creative Strategist | UGC Producer|Founder of Tok-Vibes.com

Hi, I’m Oli!  a creative strategist who helps DTC brands turn scrolls into sales. I blend storytelling and data to build ads that not only grab attention but also drive growth. Here’s what I do best: I dig deep into your ad data and customer psychology to find out what truly makes your audience click. Then I craft fresh ad concepts (often leveraging UGC and AI content) grounded in those insights. The result = Campaigns that lower your CAC, boost ROAS, and scale your revenue sustainably. Over the past 5+ years, I’ve helped startups and global brands alike smash through growth plateaus:🔹 Scaled Loop Earplugs to exceed a $18M Q4 sales goal by 33%. (Yes, we overshot the target by a mile!)🔹 Drove 3.5X ROAS on $150K ad spend for a DTC accessory brand by reinventing their creative strategy (20% above benchmark performance)🔹 Cut CPA by 18% for a skincare client and found new customer angles that led 5 out of 50 test ads to drive 70% of their online revenue.I’m a founder, too... I launched an accessory brand with an innovative first product that I designed myself. I partner with you, founder-to-founder, treating your business like my own. If something isn’t working, I’ll tell you. If I spot an untapped opportunity, I’ll seize it. My approach in a nutshell: Test, learn, iterate. 📊 I run structured ad tests (thanks to my nerdy side that loves numbers) and then double down on the creatives that perform. No fluff, no ego.. just actionable insights and winning ads. And because I started as a content creator myself, I excel at producing ads that feel real and relatable (not like those stiff “agency” ads). On a personal note, I’m a bit of a nomad and nerd: I’ve lived on 3 continents, speak English &amp; French, and once grew a fitness Instagram to 15k followers just by talking about protein pancakes. 🥞 (Turns out, authentic content really does attract an audience...a lesson I carry into my ad strategies!). When I’m not optimizing campaigns, you can find me in a Reformer Pilates class and having lunch on a terrace with a friend.Ready to scale your DTC brand with ads that convert? Let’s chat. 😊 Send me a DM or book a call through my profile link, and let’s spark your next phase of growth.

Oli Cimet

Just had a client cancel because I used AI.

No joke.

New brand outside the US.
Was excited. We aligned on scope.

 I did a deep dive into their product + audience, like I always do.

Then I sent them a doc with early concepts + angles. 
Raw directions to align on strategy.
Spent 3 hours on that strategy work.

Client replies:
“Wait... was this made with AI?”

Yeah. It was. 
I use AI but I tweak, I sharpen, I test..
 But yes, I use AI in my process. Always.

 Reassured him this wasn't "lazy AI spam" 
This was research-backed strategy + ideas I’ve seen work before.

Still said he was “gutted” that it wasn’t 100% written by a human and cancelled the contract. 

🤷

Listen 

You shouldn't care how the idea came to life.
You should care whether it PERFORMS.

I've had ads scale past 6fig using this exact strategy workflow. multiple times.

AI isn't the enemy. Mediocre thinking is.

There’s a huge difference between:

“I let AI do the work for me”
vs
“I use AI to go deeper, faster and then I still do the work.”

If you’re hiring creators, strategists, marketers and banning AI just know:

You’re not being more “pure.”
You’re just slowing down the people who could win you your next best ad.

Do you want your team to use AI, or are you weird about it too? 
Be honest.

DTC Creative Strategist & Growth Partner Scaling 7-8 Figure Brands with Data-Driven UGC + AI Creative for FB & TikTok Ads | Founder of Tok-Vibes | Entrepreneur for Life

How to scale ads in 2026?

 Use this creative stack:

No scripts. No guessing. Just this:

Pick 1 persona

Pick 1 problem they obsess over

Write 3 angles that hit that pain/desire

Pair each with different creative formats (POV, demo, testimonial)

You don’t need 50 ad variations.
You need 3 angles that actually matter to your customer.
That’s how you scale with less.

It’s wild how some people get when they hear someone used AI.

Not “I disagree.”
But full-on triggered.

They don’t just dislike the tools. They resent *you* for using them.

They talk like AI is the thing destroying the planet. As if using it automatically means you support everything wrong in the world.

No space for nuance. Just heat.

Most people using AI aren’t sitting back while robots do the work.
They’re still thinking. Still strategizing. Still delivering.
They're just doing it faster. Cleaner. With sharper insight.


Not because AI is bad. But because they’re afraid someone else will use it better than they can work without it.

There’s a reason major tech CEOs are saying that the biggest threat to your job isn’t AI it’s the person who learns how to wield it.

You can hate the tools. 
You can unplug. 
You can double down on “hand-crafted” everything.

But don't act surprised when someone outpaces you. 

Someone who uses the same skills as you just multiplied.

You don’t have to like it. But you do have to accept it’s here.

And it’s not going away.

The question now is simple:

Will you build your edge with it?

Or waste your time trying to gatekeep the people who already have?

🚀 My 2026 Creative Stack (So Far)

Every few weeks I try to audit the tools I use the most
because AI is moving faster than most teams can test.

Right now, this is my go-to stack for creative strategy & ad production:

🧠 ChatGPT (duhh!) for research, persona ideation, and rapid testing
🔎 Poppy.ai – for deep research and strategic insight
🗣️ Eleven Labs – for AI voiceovers (almost scary good now)
📽️ Heygen & Arcads – for fast AI avatars + lip sync
✍️ Claude – for copy
🖼️ NanoBanana – for image gen + prompt-based static ad concepts
📊 Atria– for swipe inspiration & moodboarding
🎥VEO3/FLOW/Kling for b-roll generation


These tools help me move faster, prototype smarter, and test wider.
But I know I’m probably late to a few.

👉 What tools are you using right now that I should be paying attention to?

Not just AI but anything helping you move faster or think clearer.

(Especially curious about what people are using for trend mining, brief validation, or market research.)

Let’s build a better 2026 stack together. 💻⚡️

Happy New Yearrrrr

QuickFrame Creator: Meta Platform Expert

QuickFrame Creator: TikTok Platform Expert

Certified Personal Trainer & Nutrition & Postnatal Coach

Visual communication -  Front End 

Back-End Web Developer

Fashion Styling and Editorial Certification

Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce

Meta & TikTok ads for DTC Beauty & Health brands | Performance Creative Strategist | Ecom | Startups to Fortune 500s

Tok-Vibes is a small creative strategy team that crafts ad campaigns rooted in psychology and boosts performance. 

I'm an expert in growing DTC businesses, but outside of work I've:

Lived on three different continents, built a holistic health brand, and became a Pilates reformer lover.

Most founders think they have a content problem.

You don’t.

You have a clarity problem.

Talked to a brand spending $150K/month.
They’re pumping 40+ videos a week.
Zero winners.

Not one ad scaled.

The problem?

→ No one’s actually doing deep research
→ Strategy is vibes
→ Team's executing without clear direction
→ Their only “winner” was a static from 4 weeks ago

It’s not a production issue.
It’s a thinking issue.

I told them to stop the spam.
We dropped it down to 10 sniper-level briefs a week — high intent, fully mapped to angles that actually matter to their audience.

Most of you are trying to scale quantity.
But quantity without direction just burns money.

In 2026, the only ads that work are the ones that:

Speak to real pain

Are built on data

Are tested like scientists

And made for the platform

Stop copying frameworks.
Stop listening to every “creative strategist” with a Canva template.
Slow down. Get sharper.

Clarity > volume. Always.

Once you hit $50–100k/month in your DTC brand, it gets loud real fast.

Not from growth... from problems.

Ads stop working

You’re cycling through UGC too fast

You're stuck making creative decisions based on vibes instead of data

I’ve worked with multiple brands right at that inflection point. 

And here’s what I’ve seen work every time:

Install a creative testing system that maps angles → formats → outcomes

Create ads for different stages of awareness, not just a shiny front hook

Treat statics like angle tests, not just filler

Build modular creative libraries (you’ll thank yourself later)

Most brands at this level don’t need more media buying hacks.

They need clearer messaging and smarter content systems.

If you’re at this stage, what’s been breaking for you?

He scaled to $1.5M... and now wants to quit. Here’s why...

Recently spoke to a founder who hit $1.5M in 18 months.
Bootstrapped. No outside help.
Now he’s completely fried... and thinking of walking away.

Why?
Because everything in the business still runs through him.

→ He’s still the one coming up with angles.
→ He’s still the one editing ads.
→ He’s still the one deciding what to launch.
→ And now that growth has slowed... he's out of ideas.

He doesn’t need more team calls or SOPs.

He needs leverage

💡 That’s where a creative strategist changes everything.

Not by building systems or managing teams.
But by doing the one thing that actually moves revenue:

→ Giving clarity on what message needs to be said, to whom, and how.

That’s how you go from being a founder who’s “doing ads”…
to a founder who finally has room to run the business.

Stopped writing hooks. Started stealing them.

Best-performing ad angle I’ve tested in 6 weeks.

Here’s what happened:

I was working with a fragrance brand.
Instead of brainstorming hooks with ChatGPT (or overthinking it in a doc), I just read their reviews.

Not marketing copy.
Not competitor scripts.
Just... actual things people say when they love the product.

I found this gem:

👉 “I smell like a CEO now.”

We tested it. It crushed. Lowest CPA in 6 weeks.
No ad rewrite. No 30-minute brainstorm.

Just a sticky line straight from the customer’s mouth.

Now I do this for every client:

– Read their reviews
– Read competitor reviews
– Cluster the copy
– Extract hooks and benefits
– Build angles from real words real humans use

Because the truth is:
Your next winning angle is already written.
You just haven’t gone looking for it yet.

If your ad or your landing page makes me think too much?

I scroll. I bounce. I click out.

Not because I’m dumb!!! because I’m busy.

You’ve got 2.02 seconds.

If your message has a high cognitive load (aka: it takes effort to “get it”) you lose me.

That’s why the smartest marketers write like they’re talking to a 7th grader.

Stop trying to sound clever. Start making sense.

If I have to think? I scroll.

Every. Single. Time.

Founders, read this if you're trying to scale in 2026.

A few highlights from this week’s ecom news:

Amazon is bleeding influencer talent (they're underpaying creators)

TikTok is dominating DTC sales, especially impulse buys

Meta’s pushing deeper into product tagging & AI tools

Facebook Marketplace ads are evolving fast

AI-generated UGC is getting indistinguishable from real creators

What this actually means if you're a founder:

UGC costs are going up. Good creators know their value now. If you’re not building a system for performance-based testing (AI + UGC + hooks), you’ll burn cash fast.

Impulse is everything. TikTok isn’t for branding — it’s for “scroll → stop → click.” If your creative doesn’t hit a pain point in 1.2 seconds, you’re invisible.

Meta is still king... if you play smart. But that means creative built for systems not just volume.

 Angles that go deep. Testing across age splits. Copy-first.

I work with brands scaling in this climate and the ones winning aren't the loudest. 

They're just better at understanding the customer and speaking directly to them.

Are you building creative for today’s platforms or still stuck in 2021?

Saw someone turn their mom’s hoarding problem into a $4k/month side hustle.

Not because they had a genius product.
But because they nailed the angle.

It wasn’t "junk removal."
It was emotional decluttering.

That’s the power of positioning.

It’s what I do every day for brands:
take a basic product → find the real problem it solves → craft messaging that cuts.

You’re not selling a product.
You’re selling a narrative your customer already believes.

Get that right, and you’ll print.

You don’t need more content, you need more control.


Most teams are just “creating ads” not designing systems that let them scale predictably.

Don’t just brainstorm random concepts.

Use a repeatable messaging system:

✅ Angle (strategy)

✅ Hook (attention)

✅ Creative format (expression)

✅ Persona (target)

✅ Pain/desire/motivation (psychology)


Great creative doesn’t just start with a cool visual it starts with a clear plan.

If you want to grow fast stop talking about what you sell.

Instead, own the problem. Own the hole your customer is in.

Think about it like this:
No one wakes up wanting your product.
They wake up trying to solve a problem.

So your job?
Repeat that problem over and over until you’re the only name they associate with fixing it.

You don’t sell “carpet cleaner” you sell “the solution to 15-year-old pee stains.”
You don’t sell “a budgeting app” you sell “never worry about money again.”
You don’t sell “ads” you help people stop burning $10K/month with no returns.

Whoever owns the hole, wins.

👉 What hole does your product own?

Most brands think they have a creative strategy.

But if I ask them to pull 5 ads from their account right now...

🛑 They all speak to the same person
🛑 They all hit the same awareness level
🛑 They all push the product the same way

That’s *not* a strategy. That’s copy/paste.

Let me break it down for you real quick and you can **test this on your own brand** in 2 minutes:

🔥 **Level 0: You’re only running statics or UGC
You’re not testing formats. You’re testing vibes. That’s why your ads fatigue in 3 days.

🔥 **Level 1: You changed formats but not the message**
Cool. You’ve got a green screen and a meme now. But every ad still says the same sh*t. Congrats, you added “creative diversity”.

🔥 **Level 2: You’re only targeting product-aware people**
If your ad says “Here’s why our product is better...” guess what? That person already *knows* the problem.


🔥 **Level 3: No one’s buying from desire**
Are you writing ads that tap into real psychology? Or are you just listing features and calling it a day?
Because “8 hours battery life” doesn’t compete with “never miss your kid’s call again.”

🔥 **Level 4: You think everyone buys for the same reason**
You’re selling one offer to one person in 40 variations.
Different personas = different angles = different creative. 
That’s how real brands scale.

🔥 **Level 5: You built a system that fuels all of this**
Your content engine hits every part of the funnel, every persona, every motivator and your team can actually deliver it. 
That’s when paid and organic *both* pop off.

👉 If you’re a founder pull up your ad account right now.
Ask yourself:

→ Do these ads speak to different stages of the journey?
→ Are we tapping into real desires, not just benefits?
→ Are we hitting different *types* of buyers?
→ Or are we just posting UGC and hoping for the best?

Want to scale in 2026? Get your strategy past Level 2.

😘

The old way of making ad creative is dead.
If you're still thinking like it’s 2022, you're bleeding money.

Let’s talk about what’s actually working in paid right now:

1. You’re making ads for humans. But AI decides what they see.

You write a hook and hope people click.
But Meta doesn’t care. 

It’s pulling signals from Reddit threads, YouTube tutorials, Amazon reviews, and training its algorithm to match what real people are already saying and searching.

If your ads don’t reflect that, they don’t scale.

2. Funnels are dead. Messages win.

Nobody follows your TOF > MOF > BOF funnel anymore.
They see an ad, Google you, come back 3 weeks later. Or they binge your ads in one night.

If your content only makes sense “in funnel order,” it’s not converting.

Every ad needs to hit. Standalone.
Make the message punch even if it’s the only ad they ever see.

3. Your problem isn’t scary enough.

Better product? Nobody cares.
Cheaper? Cool. You still lose.

Make the pain worse.
Expose what’s actually broken in their life if they don’t buy.
That’s what gets clicks. That’s what sells.

Don’t talk about your “solution” until you’ve built the monster.

4. Your positioning is too soft.

If I don’t know who it’s for in 2 seconds, I’m out.

Good positioning sounds like:
→ Skincare for hormonal acne
→ Watches for guys who destroy everything
→ Planners for ADHD business owners

Nobody wants “premium quality.” They want “this is for me.”

5. Your creative has no energy.

2026 is all about energy. Opinions. POV.
Not polished UGC. Not founder videos that sound like a podcast.

Be raw. Be direct. Show real moments. Make people FEEL something.

If your video doesn't grab in the first 3 seconds, it’s dead.

Paid ads right now are 80% creative, 20% media buying.
If you’re still only testing formats or hooks, you’re behind.

Start testing:
→ Real problems
→ Real beliefs
→ Real pain
→ Real people

That’s what scales now.

What are you testing lately?

How long does it really take to "make it"?

Saw a post where entrepreneurs who hit $10M+ were asked how long it took.

Most said:
→ 7-10 years
→ Multiple failed businesses
→ Years of eating sh*t before things clicked

Not 6 months.
Not your first course launch.
Not your first “big idea.”

That part matters because a lot of people are out here thinking they're behind when really... they're just early.

No one posts the 4 years they made $0.
No one brags about the failed Shopify store.
No one tweets about the 80-hour weeks before the team existed.

But it’s all part of the path.


Detach from timelines.
Solve the next problem in front of you.

🚨 A watch ad just did something wild:

No influencer.
No studio shoot.
No hypey CTA.

Just a voiceover + B-roll.

Here’s the setup:

“15,000 watches are about to be destroyed because the logo is off-center by 0.2mm. They work perfectly. So we’re selling them at 50% off before they hit the dumpster.”

Sounds stupid, right?

That’s why it works.


✅ Loss aversion: “You’re saving something from the trash.”
✅ Curiosity trigger: “They’re flawless... but being scrapped?”
✅ Human POV: “I convinced management to let us sell them.”
✅ Real urgency: Not a timer. A policy.
✅ Show, don’t tell: Drop tests. Mud. Water. Still works.

Lesson:
You don’t need a fancy story.
You need one, told well.

This ad’s been running for 9 months straight and scaled to 6 fig...

Here is what *actually* makes it work.

It’s not the visuals.
(It’s just a girl cutting fruit.)

It’s not the polish.
(She’s in a kitchen, talking to camera.)

It’s the psychology.

What makes this a killer ad?

1. Built-in credibility (without flexing)

“My sister is an environmental scientist...”

We immediately trust her *without* her needing to list credentials.

This is *borrowed expertise* one of the most persuasive techniques in DTC.


2. Specific, sensory language

> *“She looked at me like I was bathing in battery acid.”*

It’s not just shampoo = bad.
It’s *visceral.*
It paints a mental image.
You *feel* the guilt, the ignorance, the shift.


3. Anchored in **real-life tension**
She’s skeptical.
She uses $30 shampoo.
She doesn’t want to change.
But she’s *nudged* by someone she trusts.

This is what makes the resolution feel earned — not forced.

**4. Introduces the product *after* the problem feels personal**

She only mentions the product after the emotional tension is maxed out.

This creates *pull*, not push.
You’re not being sold... you’re just watching a personal transformation unfold.

**5. Closes with social proof + logic**

> “Now my hair feels better... it’s cheaper… and my sister approved it.”

✓ Product benefit (hair)
✓ Financial benefit (cheaper)
✓ Emotional benefit (peace of mind)
✓ Environmental benefit (plastic-free)

All layered in under 60 seconds.

---

This is what happens when you blend:

✔️ A great hook
✔️ Clear tension
✔️ Conversational writing
✔️ Psychological triggers
✔️ Zero “salesy” energy

study **why** they work not just *what* they say.

Let me know if you want more teardown posts like this.


### CTA suggestion:

💡 Drop a comment if you want the full swipe of this ad — happy to share.

---

Let me know if you want this formatted for a carousel or want a few headline variants too.

Everyone talks about media buying as the unlock from $50k → $100k/month.

But most of the time? It’s creative + messaging that’s leaking revenue.

If your ad:

Gets a good hook rate

Has a decent CTR

And still isn’t converting...

The problem isn’t targeting.
It’s what you're saying and how you’re saying it.

That’s where creative strategy comes in.

You don’t need to make 100 more videos.
You need to make the right ones mapped to the right angles, based on the right voice-of-customer data.

If you're in that $50–100k range, get obsessed with messaging.

 It's the highest ROI move you'll make.

You don’t need a ‘new’ ad.

Everyone's out here trying to make the next viral ad like:

“Let’s reinvent the script. New hook. New angle. New concept.”

Just do what’s already working... but better.

The format doesn’t need to be new.
The message just needs to hit harder.
The voice needs to feel real.
And the target audience needs to go, “yo that’s me.”

Original is overrated. Effective wins.

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