Alex Merutka

I build companies that move markets. Right now, that’s CRAFTSMAN+—a creative technology platform powering high-performance ads for the world’s biggest mobile brands.

We’re not just shipping more creatives—we’re rewriting how performance teams scale. Backed by partnerships with Meta, Google, and TikTok, we’ve engineered a platform that turns friction-heavy creative workflows into data-backed, scalable growth engines. It’s the reason we landed on Forbes 30 Under 30, Deloitte Fast 500 (#330), and Inc. 5000—and why top brands trust us to accelerate what actually moves the needle.

Before CRAFTSMAN+, I led user acquisition and programmatic at AppLovin—managing $2B+ in ad spend and helping scale the company from Seed to $29B IPO. I also founded Node Ventures, a startup studio backing breakout ideas with speed and unfair distribution.

Contributor to Bloomberg, Business Insider, and FoxNews. Member of YPO. Always building, always optimizing.

Founder

Director of Growth @ Node Media | Performance Marketing Expert | Scaling US-Based Brands from 1x to 10x

📌I currently manage growth for Hume Health Body Pod while overseeing $8M+ monthly ad spends, across US, CA, AUS, UK and other Key English Markets. 

📩 amishra@cubert.co 
📞 Book a call: https://calendly.com/talk-to-ani

Get my Meta Ads Toolkit for all the valuable resources: https://ani7ruddha.gumroad.com/l/ultimate-meta-ads-toolkit

Aniruddha Mishra

I've trained and upskilled 25+ Creatives Strategist. 💪 
Steal this framework on 
"How to Train Your Team to Create Winning Ad Creatives"
 
As a performance marketer, I get it. 
You know what works, 
but the creatives from your team aren't hitting the mark. 
 
So, how do you create an effective loop to find winning angles? 
 
Here’s the strategy that works: 
1️⃣ Define Creative Pillars 
2️⃣ Assess Awareness Stages 
3️⃣ Craft Targeted Hooks 
4️⃣ Track & Refine 
5️⃣ Clarify Roles 
 
🔄 Implement these steps and watch your team excel! 
 
*Giveaway is over*
Pls DM me if you commented before and 
didn't get the resource for some reason.

Director of Growth @ Hume Health | English Markets

2 months back, we were gifted with our first baby 🎉

And life has quietly (and loudly) changed.

1. My digital feed is now all about babies and all ads towards parenting products

2. Our schedule is crunched for sleep like crazy

3. Getting deja-vu from all mom and dad statements “You will only understand this, when you have your kid”. 

4. Every plan now comes with a silent disclaimer: “subject to baby mood.”

5. I’ve 10x more respect for all you ladies out there - for all you do. 

PS: Grateful to God and our family for all the love and support. ❤️

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🚨REDDIT is a goldmine for creative insights. And I have curated 30+ handpicked prompts for detailed analysis. 👇 

✅ These prompts are segmented into:
 • Audience psychology
 • Pain points & objections
 • Language & inside jokes
 • Competitor perception
 • Hooks, ads & content ideas
 • Emotional triggers

✅ Designed for:
 • Meta & TikTok creatives
 • DTC & app marketers
 • Creative strategists tired of “vibes-based” research

*giveaway over*
If you commented already and didn’t get my resource for any reason pls DM me “Reddit”

11 years ago, when I started my career,
I was honestly lost.

I was studying Chemical Engineering,
and felt a quiet fear every single day.

“What if I’m stuck doing this forever?”

I spent 3 years coding websites,
telling myself I was learning a skill.

Truth was, I was just tweaking templates
and pretending I had it figured out.

I knew I didn’t want to work
with big IT tech giants.

But I also had no clue
what I wanted instead.

That uncertainty was heavy.
Watching others seem confident,
while I kept guessing.

The only thing I was sure about
was wanting to work with startups.

Fast. Messy. Real work.

Eventually, digital marketing found me.
Not as a plan - just an opportunity.

A rare mix of creativity,
numbers, and real feedback.

Slowly, the fog began to clear.

Looking back, this stands out:

Clarity doesn’t always come
from knowing what you want.

Sometimes it comes from being honest
about what drains you.

PS: That’s a 14-years-younger me,
back in undergrad.
Confused. Insecure. Still trying.

Most brands in 2026
aren’t losing because of bad ads. ❌ 

They’re losing because
their learning loop is broken.

They find one winner.
Then try to force-scale it.

🫠 Same format.
🫠 Same angle.
🫠 Same hook.

The algorithm learns fast.
The audience gets bored faster.

Creative diversity isn’t about
making the algo happy.

It’s about answering
multiple questions at once:
- What format sells trust?
- What angle creates intent?
- What hook stops the scroll?
- What proof removes friction?

If every ad answers
the same question,

You’re not testing.
You’re just spending.

The fastest-scaling brands I see
run creatives like experiments.

Each batch is designed to learn
something new, not repeat a win.

That’s how you turn ads into
a compounding system.

Not one lucky creative.
But a portfolio that keeps paying.

In our Creative Strategy bootcamp
for 6 weeks we tap on each of these pillars. 
DM me if you want to get a link to the course. 

Curious how others are
structuring their learning loops 👇

Creative Diversity in 2026 

Life of a performance marketer: Meta launched a powerful feature (squencing)

Life of a performance marketer: I tested sequencing for 30 days - here's why it didn't work.

Wish we see more of #2.

They say “Paid ads in 2026 are dead.”
Yeah.

Of course you can handle all this by yourself:

- Attribution accuracy
- Tracking that actually works
- Clean event setup
- Signal quality
- Conversion rates
- Landing pages
- Funnel leaks
- Creative fatigue
- Scaling without breaking efficiency
- Revenue, not vanity metrics

Paid ads aren’t dead.
Amateur systems are.

What’s harder for a performance marketer?
Getting an apology from your partner
OR
Getting one from the Meta Ads team?

At least your partner eventually says:
 “Okay fine, I’m sorry… but you also did something.”

Meta Marketing "PROs" say:
 - Nothing changed on our end.
 - Performance fluctuations are expected.
 - Have you tried broad?

or even worse you are not trying our revolutionary "AI enhancement features"

*rant over*

When performance is down, how your team or agency reacts tells you everything about how invested they are.

Reactive teams wait for numbers to recover.
- They blame seasonality, platforms, or “the algo.”
- They pause or reduce spend, swap creatives randomly, and hope tomorrow looks better.

Proactive teams assume responsibility.
- They diagnose before defending.
- They pull breakdowns, isolate variables, and come to you with a plan not an excuse.

The difference shows up fast:

• Do they surface issues before you ask?
• Do they bring hypotheses, not just reports?
• Do they test with intent, not panic?
• Do they protect learnings even when results dip?

Anyone can manage an account when ROAS is green.

Real test is when you turn that red to green.

They say a performance marketers mood is directly correlated to the performance of their ads. 

How’s your mood now - yay or nay?

80% of paid marketers don’t understand this:
your creative didn’t fail, your market level changed.

When creative fatigues
Most teams respond by

refreshing creatives
- Same claims
- Same angles
- Same thinking

But markets don’t get tired
They get smarter

What worked last quarter
feels invisible today

The real question isn’t
“What new ad should we make?”

It’s
“What level is our market in now?”

Because each stage demands
a different message

Winning brands don’t get stuck because
They stay one level ahead
That’s how you win long term.

Repost if this was valuable.

The latest Meta ads drop has been disastrous. I am finding an interesting pattern. 👇 

Safari UTM capture dropped from ~66-70% to ~50% starting January 9th — a ~17 % point decline.

Root Cause Indicators
1. Safari ITP (Intelligent Tracking Prevention) is likely stripping UTMs on redirect chains or after 7+ days of no user interaction

2. Facebook/Meta Safari traffic hit hardest: -36% session drop with UTMs

3. AppLovin Safari traffic: -23% with proper UTMs

Anyone else noticing this?

This is one of the 100s of ads we produced in-house. Do you think it's a winner or loser? 

And why.

MS Clarity Shopify app developers are so lazy they didn't even care about removing "prod" from the app slug. smh!

I’ve spent years inside Meta’s ecosystem.
Pixels. CAPI. Events. Audiences. Signals.

Platforms see far more than users realize
and far less than marketers wish.

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