David Olusegun

Hi 👋🏿

I’m David. I’m driven by faith and committed to purpose. My work is simple: build and invest in consumer brands that make lives better and leave a positive legacy.

For over a decade, I’ve worked across CPG, entertainment, and media with global players.

I'm also privileged to advise founders and corporations on building products that truly serve people and I speak on faith, entrepreneurship and brand leadership with a focus on real-world impact and integrity.

Honoured to be recognised by Powerful Media, Music Week, KPMG Entrepreneur of the Year, HSBC x Black Business Week Top Entrepreneur and the UK’s Top 100 African Business Leaders, but the mission stays the same: help brands serve people, do good with excellence and integrity and honour God.

Reach My Team👇🏾

📧 Speaking & Commercial: adam@howtobeiconic.co
📧 Press Enquiries: press@howtobeiconic.co

Co-Founder & Co-CEO

CCV is a venture builder that partners with purpose-driven creators to launch global CPG brands. We are a creative-led team with strong end-to-end commercial expertise that provides the complete infrastructure to launch, build and scale these pioneering brands.

Our goal is to give our clients the opportunity to build something bigger than their personal brand, receive ownership rather than just another endorsement deal and leverage their following into a long-term future through building impactful businesses.

Our operating model is to work together with the creator as a co-founding team and enable them with the right infrastructure, tools, support, and capital. We love working with creators to change the world, one brand at a time. We believe it’s time we build businesses that shift the power paradigm to the hands of the creators. It’s what gets us up in the morning, it’s in our DNA and we are irretrievably obsessed with collective success by working with CCV you’ll be working with vested partners committed to global success!

This is your reminder that Jesus loves you.
 
Not someday. Not when you’re perfect. Not when you surrender your life to Him.

He always has, and He always will.

“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” — Romans 5:8

No throne is higher. No name is greater. No power is stronger.

Jesus is King forever.

“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” ~ Philippians 2:10–11

The name of Jesus is more than a name; it’s salvation, it’s power, it’s life.

At the name of Jesus, chains break, sickness flees, and hope rises. There is no other name that saves like His.

Call on Him and find life, peace, and victory.

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” – Acts 4:12

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but God will never walk away from you. 

Even in the moments when things feel quiet, confusing, or heavy, His presence has never left your side. 

When I was mourning my brother, there were moments I thought God was distant.

But remember what Jesus said in John 16:33 — “In this world you will have trouble.” Even in the middle of that pain, God carried me through that phase.

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” — Hebrews 13:5

Building and Investing in Purpose-Driven Consumer Brands | Angel Investor | Keynote Speaker

I wrote my own obituary yesterday, and it made my skin crawl. 

"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." - Psalm 90:12

I wrote it, not because I'm morbid and not because I'm planning to go anywhere. 

But because I needed to see what my life would look like if I died today, and what I want it to look like when I actually do.

Reading it made me feel sick. But it was honest.

Then I wrote the obituary I want. 
The one that reflects who I'm becoming, not who I've been. 
The one that makes my time on earth matter.

Today, you're going to do the same.

Your obituary is the ultimate business plan. It's the clearest possible statement of what actually matters. 

It's impossible to read without confronting the gap between who you are and who you could be.

When you truly accept that you're going to die, not someday, but definitely, you start making different decisions. 

Urgent decisions. Meaningful decisions.
You stop waiting for permission and start taking action.

Let me show you two obituaries. 

Both for the same person. Both are completely accurate. Both written by someone who knew them intimately themselves.

Click here to find it in the full issue of this week's newsletter: https://lnkd.in/edWMUN65

“African Designers are Greedy”
 
 I saw a viral video a few weeks ago where a lady called out the industry, claiming that designers living on the continent have no business charging $10,000 and above.

But here’s the reality: We are witnessing the birth of the African Luxury Renaissance. 

For too long, the world (and even our own) expected African craftsmanship to be cheap because it was "local." 

We celebrated European houses charging $50k for couture while expecting African artisans to work for peanuts.

The idea that African excellence should be "affordable" by default is a mindset we need to outgrow. 

African fashion is an investment in art, heritage, and a thriving economy. 

Swipe through to see the real numbers behind the African fashion industry and why the "greedy" narrative just doesn't hold up statistically.

Is African Fashion Too Expensive?

A husband-and-wife team's brand just got acquired by Henkel for $693M 

➡️ The brand: Not Your Mother's Haircare 
➡️ The founders: Rocky and Bethany Pagliarulo
➡️ The journey: 2010 launch → 2019 PE investment → 2025 exit at $693M
➡️ The revenue: $210M (growing 40% annually)

They spotted a gap most legacy brands ignored: Young women wanted products that felt cool and modern, but still affordable.

Not clinical. Not luxury. Not boring.

So they built directly into that white space.

They leaned early into categories like dry shampoo, long before it became mainstream, and packaged it with bold branding that stood out on crowded shelves like Walmart and Target.

While legacy players were busy protecting their premium lines, Not Your Mother's Haircare quietly became the brand that younger consumers actually reached for.

Now here’s what makes this fascinating: the acquisition price was never disclosed. 

Barclays estimated $927M at 4.4x revenue. Industry sources said that was wrong.

Check my newsletter to see how I reverse-engineered the actual deal value.

Because buried in the math is a masterclass in how to build a mass-market consumer brand that trades at premium multiples whilst selling at Walmart for $5.99.

Link: https://lnkd.in/ezXf-D42

4 out of the 5 fastest-growing economies in the world right now are in Africa.

Yet Africa receives less than 3% of global private equity flow.

Why the disconnect?

Most global capital is still deployed based on 20th-century perceptions of volatility. 

But look closer at the "Value Drivers" behind these numbers:

✅ Resource Monetisation: Guinea isn't just growing; it's unlocking the Simandou iron ore deposit—the world's largest untapped high-grade reserve.

✅ Infrastructure Catalysts: In Uganda, growth is anchored by the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), creating a massive regional multiplier effect.

✅ The "Base Effect" Rebound: While countries like South Sudan and Sudan are recovering from deep contractions, the speed of their return signals a resilient underlying economic pulse.

The Africa Risk Premium is often more about a lack of data and local expertise than it is about actual default probability.

The real alpha in the next decade won't be found in saturated Western markets. It will be found in the delta between perceived risk and actual expansion.

The engine of global growth has moved.

Follow me on X to see more African business and investment insights: https://lnkd.in/emaBdY_4

You need to hear this...Comfort Will Steal Your Greatness!!

At 5 AM, I was scrolling through my phone (bad habit, I know) when I came across a post by Victor Osimhen.

It started with four words that made my chest tight: "Nobody should know my name."

Then he told his story. 

Here's a man who grew up next to the biggest landfill in Africa. 

Who searched through toxic waste to find mismatched football boots. 

Who sold water bottles in Lagos traffic to help his family eat. 

Who slept in churches because his roof was caving in.

And he said nobody should know his name.

But I know his name. You know his name. Millions know his name because he refused to let his circumstances define his ceiling.

"But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first." - Matthew 19:30

Click on this link to read of how Victor Osimhen came from the bottom to the top: https://lnkd.in/ecTuFfHa

The Business Idea You Dismissed as "Too Simple" Is Making Someone else Millions
 
"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." - 1 Corinthians 1:27

Three years ago, my friend had an idea.

"What if I just helped people clean their Airbnbs between guests? Like, that's it. Show up, clean, restock, leave."

I told him it was too simple. Too basic. 

"Anyone can clean. Where's the innovation? Where's the disruption? Where's the intellectual property?"

He shrugged and started anyway.

Last month, James sold his Airbnb cleaning business for £2.3 million.

You've been brainwashed into thinking business ideas need to be complicated to be valuable. 

That they need to involve AI, blockchain, or some revolutionary technology nobody's thought of yet.

So you dismiss the simple ideas.

Click on the link in my comments to read the full newsletter where I show you some "too simple" businesses that are making their owners wealthy.

Most celebrity brands fail within 18 months. Here's why.

Last week Masibu Manima and I hosted an event for talent managers on how celebrities and influencers should be structuring their brand deals, and how to build a celeb-led CPG brand with a long-term view, not just a quick launch.

We broke down what I call the 18-month cliff, the point where most celeb brands quietly die because the infrastructure, team, and deal structure weren't built to last.

I shared a framework on how to avoid it. How to build a brand that actually survives beyond the hype cycle.

If you want a link to the presentation, drop "CLIFF" in the comments. Must be following for me to send.

Someone HAS to tell you this: Aiming Small Is Keeping You Small.

Last month, I had coffee with two entrepreneurs. 

Both wanted to start businesses. Both had similar skills and resources.

➡️ Entrepreneur A: "I want to build a small consultancy. Maybe make £100K annually. Keep it realistic, you know?"

➡️ Entrepreneur B: "I want to dominate the UK market and expand globally. I'm thinking £10M revenue within five years."

Guess who attracted top talent? 
Guess who got investment meetings? 
Guess who the media wanted to interview?

Entrepreneur B. Every time.

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us..." - Ephesians 3:20

The Three Reasons People Choose Small Goals
❌ Reason 1: Fear of Embarrassment
"What if I say I want £10M and only make £1M? People will think I failed."
But £1M is still 10x more than the person who aimed for £100K and hit it perfectly.


❌ Reason 2: Imposter Syndrome
"Who am I to think I can build something massive?"
But who is anyone? Every massive success story started with someone who had no business succeeding at that level.


❌ Reason 3: Lack of Faith
"I don't really believe it's possible."
Then it isn't. Your goals are predictions of your future. If you can't believe it, you can't achieve it.

You think aiming small is safer. It's not. It's more dangerous.

Impossible goals are often easier to achieve than realistic ones.

Read the latest issue of my newsletter to learn the logic behind impossible goals and get the Impossible Goal Framework for yourself. 

Link: https://lnkd.in/ewUyVrNa

African beauty and personal care is currently a $10B+ market, and it is growing at an annual rate of 8%.

For a long time, there was a disconnect.

The market was dominated by global conglomerates that exported products designed for European winters or North American humidity.

Leaving African consumers to "make do" with formulations that didn't account for:
➡️ Melanin-rich skin and its specific relationship with hyperpigmentation and sun protection.
➡️ High-porosity, textured hair that requires intense moisture, not just "cleaning."
➡️ Sub-Saharan climates where dust, heat, and humidity demand entirely different chemistry.

The tide has officially shifted.

We are seeing the rise of A-Beauty: a new generation of African-built brands that aren't just "selling" to Africans, they are solving for them. 

These founders are merging ancestral wisdom with modern clinical science to create a new gold standard:

✅ Tailored Formulations: Brands like Uncover are fusing K-Beauty technology with African botanicals (like baobab and rooibos) to target acne and hyperpigmentation in tropical climates.

✅ Ingredient Sovereignty: We’ve moved past just exporting raw shea butter and marula oil. Brands like Suki Suki Naturals and 54 Thrones are processing these "miracle ingredients" on-soil, keeping the value and the efficacy within the continent.

✅ Inclusive Innovation: Products like "invisible" sunscreens that leave zero white cast on dark skin and scalp-care systems for braided hair are no longer "niche" requests. They are the market drivers.

The whitespace is enormous. The founders are here. The data is undeniable. 

I’m currently writing a whitepaper on this space. 
If you’d like me to send it once it’s out, let me know in the comments.

Why Nestlé just signed the biggest partnership in KitKat Chocolatory’s history. 

If you haven’t seen the news: KitKat is now the Official Chocolate Bar of Formula 1. 

To celebrate, Nestlé is launching a world-first: A chocolate KitKat shaped like an F1 racing car, alongside a new "marbled" Chunky Caramel bar.

At first glance, it’s a fun co-branding exercise for the 2026 season. 

But if you look closer at the UK market, it’s a masterclass in Regulatory Arbitrage. 

The Backdrop: On January 5, 2026, the UK officially banned HFSS (High Fat, Salt, Sugar) ads online and before 9 PM on TV. 

For most CPG brands, this is a crisis. For Nestlé, it is a tactical shift.

1️⃣ The Sponsorship Loophole: By becoming the Official Chocolate Bar of Formula 1, KitKat bypasses the digital ad ban. You can’t "boost" a post of a chocolate bar, but you can put a logo on a car viewed by 800 million people. If you can’t buy the ad slot, you buy the sport.

2️⃣ The Halo Strategy: Notice the rise of Yorkie Crème Desserts? They are HFSS-compliant. This means they can be advertised all day long. They keep the "Yorkie" brand relevant and visible, creating a "Halo Effect" that drives sales for the entire (non-compliant) chocolate range.

The Lesson for 2026: In a world of increasing regulation, the Chief Marketing Officer needs to think like a Chief Legal Officer.

Marketing is no longer just about "who has the best creative." It’s about who understands the rules well enough to play around them.

The FMCG playbook has changed: 
❌ Product Marketing 
✅ Lifestyle Association
✅ Brand Haloing.

Nike and adidas Lost 3% of Global Market Share to "Niche" Specialists (On, HOKA) In Just 5 Years.

Why is Nike struggling while SHEIN and Hermès are winning? 

It’s called the Barbell Economy. 

The "Bell Curve" of the 20th century has snapped in half.

The data is clear:
 ✅ Utility wins on Algorithm: If it’s a commodity, I want it at the floor price, delivered yesterday.
 ✅ Luxury wins on Friction: If it’s a dream, I want the heritage, the scarcity, and the "hard-to-get" factor.

The brands currently "collapsing" are the ones stuck in the centre, the ones that rely on a middle-class disposable income that is being squeezed out of existence.

Average is now the most expensive strategy you can have.

The Collapse of The Middle Brand

Last week, I had the privilege of attending a dinner hosted by the Black British Initiative with Darren Miller and Lord Dr Michael Hastings CBE, and the conversation left a real mark on me.

Hearing more about what they're building with MBA 30 alongside SOAS University of London was truly inspiring. But it also brought a hard truth into sharp focus.

The majority of Black founders in the UK hit a revenue ceiling of just £25k per year. Let that sink in.

Coutts published a study showing that if Black founders had the same access to capital, networks, and opportunities as everyone else, they would contribute an additional £75 billion to the UK economy.

This isn't just a statistic. This is a call to action.

We need to come together. We need to work more intentionally to support one another, building up our community, strengthening our businesses, and creating the conditions for Black founders to not just survive, but thrive.

The potential is there. The talent is there. What's missing is the infrastructure of support, access, and belief.

Let's change that.

#BlackFounders #BlackBritishInitiative #MBA30 #SOAS #UKBusiness #Entrepreneurship #CommunityBuilding #EconomicEmpowerment

The $769M Popcorn Deal: How The Hershey Company Quietly Made One of the Smartest Acquisitions of 2025.

So whilst everyone was obsessing over Mars buying Kellanova for $36 billion and Nestlé snapping up Vital Proteins, The Hershey Company quietly closed a deal that might be the actual sleeper hit of 2025.

➡️ The acquisition: LesserEvil Brand Snack Co. (organic popcorn brand)

➡️ The price: $769 million cash upfront + up to $200 million earnout

➡️ The headline multiple: 3.2x revenue (or 4.0x, if earn-out hits)

For context: This is the 27th largest consumer M&A deal of 2025 according to Iris data.

Hershey bought a $242 million revenue organic snack brand at 3.2x sales in a market where “better-for-you” brands were trading at 5-8x revenue just two years ago.

Hershey structured the deal so brilliantly that they’re only assigning a 25% probability to paying the full earnout—meaning they got premium downside protection whilst giving sellers upside optionality.

Check out my newsletter to see what the SEC filings actually reveal—and why LesserEvil Brand Snack Co. might be the most underrated acquisition of the year.

Link: https://lnkd.in/eaG8zNuq

The Beauty Industry’s Global Growth Is Slowing Down Really Fast But Not the Way You Think.

We’ve moved from the post-pandemic 8% growth spikes to a more sober 4% through 2030. 

But if you look closer, people aren't spending less on their appearance; they are just spending differently.

The shift? 

The Mainstreaming of Aesthetic Treatments.

Non-surgical procedures like Botox, dermal fillers and laser treatments are now becoming a core part of modern beauty routines.

Here is why the $441B beauty market is shifting its weight:

✅ The Trade Down to Trade Up Strategy: Consumers are becoming value-first, not just price-conscious. People are swapping their $80 luxury face creams for $15 drugstore staples. 
Why? To save that "found money" for a $600 skin booster or Polynucleotide treatment.

✅ The Instagram Face (overfilled, frozen, identical) is officially dead. In 2026, the trend is High-Fidelity Aesthetics.
• The Goal: Undetectability.
• The Tech: Bio-stimulators and exosomes that tell your cells to work harder, rather than just filling a gap with volume. 

✅ Aesthetic clinics aren't just for the 45+ demographic anymore. Gen Z and Millennials are entering the market earlier, but with a different mindset: Prevention. They view skin health as a long-term asset to be managed, not a problem to be fixed once it breaks.

As the hype of celebrity brands and viral TikTok products fades, the winners will be the brands offering proven efficacy.

How David Beckham and a DNA Testing Company Just Disrupted the Entire Wellness Industry

David Beckham and a Hong Kong health-tech company quietly built something that went from zero to $100 million in annualized recurring revenue in 11 months.

Not 11 quarters. Not 11 years. Eleven months.

➡️ The product: IM8 a red octagonal container with 92 ingredients in one powder that replaces your entire supplement cabinet.

➡️ The company: Prenetics, a publicly-traded health sciences company (NASDAQ: PRE) that pivoted from COVID testing to consumer wellness.

➡️ The result: One of the fastest-growing consumer health brands in history, now sold in 30+ countries, with Aryna Sabalenka (world #1 tennis player) as an investor-partner after becoming a fan of the product.

In February 2026, Prenetics sold its remaining non-IM8 assets (including a $70 million stake in Insighta Limited to Tencent) to go all-in on IM8 with $171 million in liquidity and zero debt.

A company that was doing COVID testing 18 months ago just raised more cash than most supplement brands will see in their lifetime and they’re using it to come after AG1, Ritual, and every other premium supplement brand.

Check out my newsletter to see what’s actually happening here because buried in this story is the blueprint for how to launch a premium consumable brand in 2026, and why the supplement industry is about to have its “Netflix vs. Blockbuster” moment.

Link in comments⬇️

What an evening. This week I had the privilege of attending a private Nigerian Diaspora reception at the Institute of Directors (IoD)  hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ahead of President Tinubu's historic state visit to the UK, the first by a Nigerian president in 37 years.

It was an honour to be in the room with the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Amb. Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, alongside diaspora business leaders, diplomats, and community builders shaping the UK-Nigeria corridor.

The Nigerian diaspora isn't just a community. It's a distribution channel. A talent pipeline. A cultural bridge. And increasingly, an economic engine that both Nigeria and the UK must take seriously.

President Tinubu's 4D Doctrine: Demography, Development, Diaspora, and Democracy, puts this front and centre. 

The opportunity for those of us building at this intersection has never been greater.

Grateful for the evening. Energised for what's ahead.

#NigerianDiaspora #UKNigeria #StateVisit #Consumer #Investment #AiyeGrowthVentures

Managing Partner @ Brick | Ads & Creative for 100+ DTC brands - $300m+ in sales | I write content about paid ads, performance creative & e-commerce

We scale 7 to 9-figure DTC brands using a creative-first, full-funnel approach that blends paid ads, landing pages, and performance-driven creative.

Brick isn’t a bloated agency juggling 50 clients. 

We’re a boutique team of senior strategists, creatives, and media buyers working closely with a small group of brands we genuinely believe in.

Everything we do is grounded in research, strategy, and execution. No juniors, no handoffs, no fluff.

We’ve driven over $400M in trackable revenue for some of the fastest-growing DTC brands. Our work has been featured in Entrepreneur, Social Media Examiner, and other leading publications. More importantly, 92% of the brands we work with hit all-time revenue highs in under 90 days.

If you're spending on ads but not seeing consistent growth, we can help. 

We focus on fixing the bottlenecks that are holding your brand back—whether it's creative fatigue, poor landing page performance, or inefficient account structure.

Message me “GROWTH” or check the link in my featured section to see how we work.

Toby W.

Scaling Meta ads is WAY HARDER when your account is a mess.

If your campaigns aren’t structured properly, you’re wasting money every single day.

I built a Meta Ad Account Framework that fixes this.

Like this post + Comment ‘Meta’ and I’ll send it over.

{We must be connected}

I'm Toby, the data-nerd, dog-loving, Ex-apple, combat sports enthusiast, and foodie CEO of Brick Social. 

We help 8-figure DTC brands scale with paid ads. I'm passionate about Facebook Ads, DTC Growth, Google Advertising, Performance Creative, and Conversion Rate Optimisation. 

When I'm not helping clients grow, you can find me volunteering at my local dog shelter, exploring new cities, or tasting amazing food at new restaurants.

𝐃𝐓𝐂/𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫? 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡.

I get it. You've been burned by other agencies, flooded with cold emails, and worried about poor communication or outsourcing to inexperienced talent. I'm here to change that. 

I take a holistic approach to growth by providing the attention and expertise you need to drive results. 

No overpromising, no underdelivering – just real growth.

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡:

Patch Plants, Bougie Bakes, SHITI Coolers, Brooklyn Brew Shop, Moto 360, Kodak Smart Home, Paddywax Candles, PetFusion and many other awesome brands.

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐈’𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐨𝐟:

-Generated $300,000,000+profitable revenue for clients
-Dozens of 5⭐️ reviews from our partners on Clutch.co
-Featured in industry publications talking about e-commerce growth 
-Client retention 1+Years 

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭.

As your go-to marketing professional, I’ll write here weekly about growth tips in e-commerce, paid ads, CRO, direct response creative, copywriting, and funnels. I'll also sprinkle in some personal stories that closely examine my internal world, adventures, and experiences. So hit the 🔔 to never miss a post! 

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐄 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐄𝐎 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬:

-To achieve sustainable growth while building unshakeable foundations that last 

-To work with a partner who does all the heavy lifting so you won’t have to 

-To have a team of experts on your side that supports you through thigh & thin and has a ZERO BS and sugarcoating policy-

 I'm your guy.

If you’re interested to learn more:

👉🏻Dm me on Linkedin
👉🏻email me at: toby@bricksocial.co.uk
👉🏻apply to work with me here:  https://bricksocial.typeform.com/to/rnERXIke

Or simply follow my LinkedIn profile. 

Let's forge a strong connection and help your brand grow!

I help eCom brands scale past $25M/yr with Ads + Retention. $450M+ in revenue | Moto, Leica, Kodak, Drake + 200+ more.

Scaling META to $1M+ per month requires precision, not guesswork.

After deploying 9-figures in ad spend, I’ve built a Meta Scaling Blueprint

It covers:

📌 How to scale without spiking CPAs
📌 The best budget adjustment method
📌 Key metrics to track

Want it? 
 
Like this post & Drop ‘Scale’ & I’ll send it over.

Toby Waller

We’re on the hunt for a world-class Senior Meta Media Buyer to join our team at Brick.

You’ll be working with some of the most recognised and fastest-growing DTC brands in the world, managing millions in ad spend and helping scale brands through creative-first paid media.

This role is not for beginners.

We’re looking for someone who:

• Has deep Meta Ads expertise
• Is comfortable managing large budgets and complex accounts
• Thrives in fast-paced, high-performance environments
• Can translate data into clear strategic decisions
• Understands that creative & post-click is the biggest lever in performance

You’ll be working closely with our strategy, creative and growth teams to push accounts forward every single day.

If you’ve scaled serious ad spend, love solving complex performance problems, and want to work with ambitious DTC brands, we’d love to hear from you.

Comment “Buyer” or DM me and I’ll share more details.

Creative is now the PRIMARY targeting mechanism on all major ad platforms.
This isn’t a hot take… It’s reality ⇓

→ Meta’s ASC (Advantage+ Shopping)
→ Google’s Performance Max
→ TikTok’s Smart+ campaigns

All three use your creative as the targeting signal, not your manual audience selections.

The algorithm reads:

• Who engages
• Who watches
• Who clicks
• Who converts

And then finds more people like that.

Which means…

If your creative lacks depth, range, and persona clarity...
your targeting lacks depth, range, and persona clarity.

This is why we built our internal Creative Variety Matrix at Brick.

The graphic below is a simplified, front-end version of the much deeper backend system we use with partners.

Most brands think scaling means:

“Find a winning ad → increase budget.”

That worked in 2018.
It does not work in 2026.

Today, scaling requires structured creative expansion.

The 3 Dimensions We Scale Across

1️⃣ Content Type
Image
Carousel
Short-form video
Long-form video

2️⃣ Polish Level
Native / “Ugly” / UGC
Chameleon (blends into feed)
Branded / high production

3️⃣ Persona
This is the multiplier most brands ignore.
Instead of making 10 ads for “everyone,”
We build creative clusters around distinct buyer profiles.

Each persona gets:
Content type ×
Polish level ×
Angle.

Now you’re not launching random variations.

You’re building a creative ecosystem.

Why this matters:

• Meta rewards diversity in delivery
• Fatigue slows dramatically
• CPAs stabilise at scale
• ASC & PMax get stronger targeting signals
• Budget increases stop breaking performance

Most accounts plateau because they try to scale spend without scaling signal.

And modern platforms reward signal depth.

Creative variety, when structured properly, becomes a competitive advantage - not just a testing tactic.

Most brands kill ads too early.

Not because they don’t work…

But because they don’t understand why they work.

I broke down 3 static ads from Hume Health that refused to die. 

Hume Health

Different angles.
Different psychographics.
Same product.

Here’s the bigger lesson:

Winning creative isn’t about making “better ads.”

It’s about building a system.

• One ad that sells to past pain
• One ad that sells to ego + identity
• One ad that dominates a niche community

3 emotional entry points.
1 product.
Full market coverage.

Most brands rely on one angle and call it testing.

The brands that scale past $25M/year build psychographic coverage.

If you want your ads to last, stop asking:
“Is this creative good?”

Start asking:

“Who is this for - emotionally?”

Steal the framework inside the carousel 👇

Hume

This $4B company doesn’t run complicated ads.

They run simple ones.

And that’s exactly why they work.

Most brands try to win with:

• More features
• More claims
• More design
• More “polish”

hims & hers does the opposite.

They lead with:

👉 A shared frustration
👉 A seasonal anxiety
👉 A reframe of the status quo

No aggressive before/afters.

No over-explaining.

No feature overload.

Just emotional truth + smart positioning.

A few things worth stealing:

1️⃣ Start with the feeling, not the fix.
If your audience has heard the phrase before (“Your blood work looks fine”), you’ve already won attention.

2️⃣ Let typography do the heavy lifting.
Strikethroughs. Corrections. Visual tension.
The design itself tells the transformation story.

3️⃣ Compete against the default, not a competitor.
“5x more than routine bloodwork” is stronger than naming a brand.
Position against the status quo.

The biggest mistake I see eCom brands make?

Trying to prove they’re better.

Instead, show people what they’re missing.

If you’re running static ads right now, ask yourself:

Are we leading with emotion?

Or are we leading with features?

Big difference.

Hers

We started working with this health brand at the beginning of 2026.

Here’s the YoY comparison:

• Revenue: $4.53M (+61%)
• AOV: $125.40 (+14%)
• Conversion rate: +34%
• Sessions: +7%

No new channels.
No viral product.
No “one big unlock.”

Just better execution across the fundamentals.

Operators fall into the trap of thinking scale comes from one big idea.

In reality, it’s small, often ignored optimisations stacked together that compound.

Here’s what actually moved the needle for this brand 👇

1️⃣ Fixing fundamentals before scaling spend

Before increasing budget, we:

– Deep audited creative (angle gaps, objection blind spots, avatar depth)
– Restructured the ad account for cleaner testing + faster feedback loops
– Audited the site for clarity, proof, and friction
– Implemented stronger attribution (Triple Whale, KnoCommerce)
– Built a proper creative analysis workflow

Most brands try to scale with brute force.

Scale happens when you obsess over the fundamentals.

2️⃣ In health, trust > production quality

Overproduced ads underperform in health.

Raw founder content.
Educational iPhone breakdowns.
UGC that feels real.
They convert better.

Why?

Health purchases are trust-driven.

But authenticity only works when:

– Creators sound like themselves
– Claims are clear
– Objections are addressed directly

Clarity > aesthetics.

Especially in health.

3️⃣ Offer engineering lifted AOV

Scaling past $2M/month required structured offer testing:

• Bundles built around use-case
• Subscribe & save optimisation
• Threshold incentives
• Value-add bonuses instead of discounts

$100 + added value

Beats

$80 with margin erosion.

4️⃣ We optimised for contribution, not ROAS

Serious scale comes from knowing:

• CAC thresholds
• Contribution margin
• Payback window
• LTV:CAC

Once you understand those, you stop guessing.

You know when you can push.

You know when you need to pull.

5️⃣ Scale is compounding

Better creative depth.
Better offers.
Better structure.
Better data clarity.

Individually small.

Collectively massive.

There was no “magic tactic.”

Just disciplined stacking of the right levers.

Not sexy.

Extremely effective.

---

If you’re running a health brand and want a second set of eyes on your setup, I’m happy to take a look.

No pitch.
No obligation.

Just an honest audit of where the leverage probably sits.

In 2025, we scaled a fashion brand from $150k to $1.2m/month.

The bottleneck wasn’t creative volume.
It wasn’t CRO.

It was creative depth.

When we audit fashion brands spending £50k–£500k/month, we see the same pattern:

• Same formats
• Same messaging
• Same angles
• Different colours

That’s not testing.
That’s rotation.

The top-performing brands we work with are obsessed with creative diversity.

Not more ads.

More angles.
More formats.
More avatars.

So I pulled together 100+ high-performing fashion ad concepts - the exact types driving scale right now.

If you want the swipe file:

Like this post + comment “Fashion” below, and I’ll send it over.

Most brands kill their best ads too early.
In reality, your best creative has 10x more life in it than you think.
Here’s how you extract it:

For video ads:

• Test new hooks (change the text overlay or reshoot the first 3 seconds)
• Swap in different opening lines while keeping the rest identical
• Use the same script with different creators
• Change the B-roll (especially powerful with AI voiceover ads)
• Adjust pacing (speed up or slow down key moments)
• Cut down to the core message or extend with additional proof
• Swap in different testimonials

For static ads:

• Winning visual + new headlines
• Winning headline + new visuals
• Animate winning statics

For native-style ads:

Use AI tools to swap the main subject across different demographics while keeping the rest of the ad identical.

The key rule:
Change one variable at a time.

This is how you squeeze far more performance from every creative winner.

Most brands see an ad work and immediately move on to building something new from scratch.

The sophisticated approach treats creative iteration like a controlled experiment.

And that’s where the real scale comes from.

We have 2 final slots available for brands to join us for Q2.

If you're looking to scale paid acquisition with a more structured creative testing system:

I'll leave a link in the comments 👇

Your customers already told you how to scale.

You're just not listening.

Most brands install a post-purchase survey…

…ask “how did you hear about us?”

 …and call it a day.

That’s leaving money on the table.

Post-purchase surveys aren’t for attribution.

They’re for leverage.

When structured properly, they unlock:

• Better ad hooks (real language buyers use)
• Stronger offers (what actually tipped them)
• Higher LTV (why they come back)
• Clearer positioning (why you vs competitors)
• New product ideas (what they want next)
• Margin protection (discount sensitivity insights)

The key is asking questions that ladder into strategy.

Every high-value survey falls into one of 6 buckets:

1️⃣ Attribution (but smarter - time to convert, influence layering)
2️⃣ Motivation (what problem were they solving?)
3️⃣ Objection (what nearly stopped them?)
4️⃣ Retention (what would make them reorder?)
5️⃣ Competitive (what alternatives did they consider?)
6️⃣ Expansion (what else do they want from you?)

The moment after purchase is the highest-truth point in your funnel.

Intent is fresh.

Emotion is active.

The real reason is still conscious.

Most brands guess at creative angles.

The best brands read what buyers already told them - and reflect it back in ads.

Meta will get noisier.

First-party insight compounds.

If you want the full framework (200+ question examples broken down by use case), comment “SURVEY”, and I’ll send it over.

Something I've noticed while auditing ad accounts recently.

There are two types...

The ones that are scaling, and the ones that are busy.

The busy ones all look the same.

150 ads a month. Full Slack channels. Weekly production calls. An organised shared drive. A learnings doc that hasn't actually changed how anything gets built.

And the account hasn't moved in three months.

The problem isn't output. It's that most of what gets produced isn't testing anything. 

It's content. And content and creative testing are not the same thing.

A real test has a question before it goes into production. 

One variable isolated. 
A hypothesis. 
A clear definition of what a result actually means.

What most brands have is a brief that says "let's try a UGC version" and a learning doc full of opinions.

The fix isn't producing more. It's asking better questions before you brief anything.

What don't we know about this audience? 
What's the gap between our best performer and everything else, and what does it actually tell us?

Build the creative to answer that. 

Ship it. Read it properly. Let it change the next brief.

That's it. That's the whole system.

The brands I've seen scale fastest on Meta aren't the ones with the highest creative output. 

They're the ones who know exactly what they're trying to learn each week - and build around that.

Volume is a crutch.

What got you to $10M won't get you to $50M.

And most brands don't figure that out until growth has been flat for 2 yrs.

When we audit and consult with brands around $10M that have plateaued, the pattern is almost always the same. 

The founding playbook: early brand awareness, a strong launch offer, a tight subscription base... did exactly what it was supposed to do. 

It got them here.

But somewhere along the way, the strategy stopped evolving. The team kept executing the same plays because they worked before. 

The acquisition engine never got rebuilt for the next stage. And the subscription base that was masking the problem slowly stopped being enough.

The uncomfortable truth is that most plateaued brands aren't suffering from bad execution. 

They're suffering from comfort.

Nobody wants to question the thing that built the business. But there's a difference between what's driving growth and what you're just used to doing.

The audit question we always start with:

If you stripped out your existing subscriber/repeat buyer revenue, would your new customer acquisition actually sustain this business?

Most brands don't like the answer.

If you're at 8-9 figures and growth has been flat, the problem probably isn't your ads. 

It's that the strategy underneath them hasn't been pressure-tested in years.

If that sounds familiar, we do a limited number of audits each month. 

Link in my profile.

End of week wins 👇
Our Head of Google, David Shelton, just dropped performance updates from two recently onboarded CPG brands...

Both came to us in similar positions:

Under-structured accounts.

Low efficiency.

Untapped intent.

Brand 1 -(starting almost from scratch on Google)

First month after rebuilding properly:

• +173% increase in click volume + traffic

• +15% lift in AOV

• +48% increase in ROAS

• Meaningful incremental revenue built immediately

Not from increasing spend.

From fixing structure, feed optimisation and tightening intent capture.

-----

Brand 2 -(had been running Google but struggling with ROAS)

Without increasing spend:

• +28% ROAS

• +21% purchases + revenue

• +13% new customers

• +16% AOV

• -20% CPC

Again - efficiency driven.


------

On the retention side, Brad Neil (our Head of Email) wrapped the week by completely re-architecting a partner’s Klaviyo setup.

We:

• Rebuilt high-impact flows from the ground up

• Tightened segmentation based on real buyer behaviour

• Refined offer positioning inside campaigns

• Cleaned deliverability and send logic

Result:

Significant incremental revenue lift - without increasing send volume or discount dependency.

That’s the part most brands miss.

Scaling isn’t about “more”.

It’s about better architecture and synergy across paid + retention.

Proud of the team.

If your Google account is plateauing or your email channel feels like it’s just ticking along, there’s usually a structural unlock sitting there.

We started working with this CPG brand at the beginning of 2026

And I'm posting this because it shows how scale actually happens.

$4.37M in roughly 54 days (up 60%)

No single “unlock”.

Most brands think scale comes from one big idea.

In reality, it's small, often ignored optimisations stacked together that compound.

Here are some of the biggest I see consistently 👇🏼

1. Testing and scaling in the same place

A brand finds a winner, increases budget… and performance falls apart.

Why?

Because testing budget + scaling budget creates chaos.

You can’t tell if results dropped due to fatigue, bad tests, or a learning reset.

Fix:

Separate testing from scaling entirely.

Tests prove themselves fast. Winners graduate to efficiency-focused campaigns.

2. Overproduced creative kills performance

The most common mistake: ads that look too polished.

Founder iPhone videos and raw UGC consistently outperform studio-quality content.

Why?

Because authenticity beats production value.

UGC only works if creators sound like themselves. 

Give them an angle, not a script.

And don’t underestimate text overlays:

Clear, bold claims beat subtle lifestyle visuals every time.

Clarity > aesthetics.

3. Your offer is stale

If you’re running the same offer you launched with, you’re leaking revenue.

Brands scaling past $3M/month constantly test:

 • Bundles to lift AOV
 • BOGO structures
 • Threshold offers
 • Time-limited bonuses

Adding perceived value beats cutting price.

$100 + $40 bonus > $80 discount (and your margin stays healthier).

4. The metrics most brands ignore

ROAS is a vanity metric.

Serious scaling happens when you have clarity on:

• LTV:CAC ratios
• CAC Thresholds
• Contribution margin
 
If you don’t know these, you’re optimising blind.

Once you do, decisions get simple:

You know when you can push, and when you need to pull back.

You allocate capital where unit economics justify it.

5. Scale comes from compounding, not breakthroughs

Brands that scale don’t chase silver bullets.

They stack small wins:

 • Better structure
 • Better creative systems
 • Smarter offers

Individually small. Collectively massive.

Bottom line:

Scaling isn’t about one magic tactic.

It’s about tightening the 10–15 levers that quietly determine performance.

Not sexy. 

Extremely effective.

This furniture brand has been one of the hardest accounts we've scaled.
It’s tested us in ways no other client has.
Here's the 30 days👇 (after finally cracking it)

Total revenue: $601,371 (+18% MoM)
CVR: 2.2% (+8%)
✅All above our pre-determined KPI's

But getting here required us to throw out our entire playbook and rebuild from scratch.

Here's what nearly stopped us - and what eventually worked 👇

1️⃣ The purchase cycle demanded a different kind of patience

Furniture converts in weeks, not days.

The frameworks that work at lower ticket sizes assume faster feedback. 

Here, by the time the data matured, we'd already made decisions based on incomplete signals.

Fix: extended attribution windows, weekly cohort reviews instead of daily reads, and trusting the process longer than felt comfortable.

2️⃣ Such a High AOV forced us to rethink everything

Not just creative. Not just targeting.

Everything - from the ad creative to the landing page experience to how we thought about retention and repeat purchase.

The bar for every touchpoint is higher. The margin for mediocrity is zero.

3️⃣ The creative that works elsewhere failed completely

Raw UGC. Talking heads. "Real people" testimonials.
All of it underperformed.

Furniture is an identity purchase. People aren't buying a sofa. They're buying a version of their home.

Once we shifted to aspirational lifestyle creative - room-in-context, design-led, emotionally driven - performance changed.

4️⃣ The offer structure was wrong for the category

Discounting an $1000+ piece of furniture. It signals quality problems, not value.

We pulled back on blanket discounts entirely. Replaced with: financing messaging, white-glove delivery framing, and room-bundle incentives.

Perceived value went up. Conversion rate followed.

5️⃣ We had to accept a longer payback window

This brand's LTV:CAC doesn't resolve in 30 days. It resolves in 6 months.
Once we reframed the economics - and got client alignment on that - we stopped making short-term decisions that were sabotaging long-term scale.

We now know this brand can hit $1M/month. 

We know exactly which levers to pull to get there.

The work that got us to this point wasn't glamorous. It was dismantling what we thought we knew and rebuilding it for a category that doesn't forgive shortcuts.

That's the real unlock, not a tactic. 

Not a creative hack. Just the willingness to start from first principles and do the work properly.

Running a high AOV brand on Meta and hitting a ceiling?

Happy to take a look at what's actually blocking you

Drop me a DM.

“Our main issue now is delivering on the growth you guys are generating.
 I don’t know what you’re doing… but f* it’s working.”

That was a message from a client last week.

We started working together 12 months ago.

Since then:

• $33M+ in gross sales
• +26% YoY growth
• CVR% up 10% 
• AOV up 10%

But the reality is…

There wasn’t a single “silver bullet”.

No viral ad.

No one optimisation that changed everything.

Just dozens of optimisations compounding over time.

Things like:

• Restructuring the ad account to scale spend more efficiently
• Building a much deeper creative testing pipeline
• Using customer reviews and research to inform new ad angles
• Improving landing page conversion paths
• Tight feedback loops between media buying, creative and retention teams
• Expanding the creative variety in the account
• Doubling down on what customers actually respond to

None of these changes are particularly sexy on their own.

But stack them together for 12 months…

…and the results compound.

That’s how most brands actually scale.

Not with one breakthrough.

But with consistent, methodical improvements across the entire growth engine.

----

We’ve got one client slot left for March.

If you’re doing $2+ a year and looking to scale paid acquisition properly

Feel free to drop me a message - we'll see if we're a fit!

A client hit $20M last quarter - up 337%.
The driver wasn't creative.
We rebuilt their strategy around 8 things most brands ignore ⤵

Here are 8 underrated areas we obsessed over that helped achieve this scale:

1. Advertorials:

Stopped only sending cold traffic straight to PDPs.

Built pre-sale pages with storytelling and social proof first.

Flow: Meta Ad → Advertorial → PDP.

CPC and CPA dropped significantly. Works especially well for higher AOV products that need education before the buy.

2. Whitelisting every creator:

Run ads through creator handles pointing to your landing pages.

CPCs on Meta dropped consistently vs brand handles.

One shoot day = 15 touchpoints across the funnel.

3. PDPs optimised for paid traffic

Most brands waste 40% of above-the-fold space.

Moved hook, CTA, and value prop to the top. 

Answer the 5 questions every shopper has in the first scroll:

> What it is
> How it benefits them
> Why you
> How it compares
> Shipping/returns

4. Internal content creator:

Faster than agencies. More reliable than freelancers.

Real-time content tied to launches and customer feedback. 

More brands should hire for this role.

We helped them leverage their internal creator more effectively

5. Review collection system:

Built a process to catalog and syndicate reviews everywhere.

More reviews = more efficient CAC.

Mined them for angles too - the top 5 most-mentioned benefits became the next batch of ads and landing page copy.

6. New customer offer structure:

Built irresistible first-order offers that make it stupid-easy to try the product.

Your goal is a test-drive. 

Make the first order a no-brainer.

7. Volume creative testing cadence:

Creative still matters - but volume and variety testing is what separates brands that find winners from brands that wonder why nothing scales.

Less than 10% of ads scale, so the math is simple: test more, find more winners.

Stopped overthinking production. 

Sometimes the best ads are shot in under a minute.

8. AI agents for grunt work:

Set up agents to handle research, competitive intelligence, and pattern recognition.

Scans Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube comments for trends. Tracks competitor ads. 

Pulls themes from reviews and support tickets.

The team moves faster when AI handles the bottleneck tasks.

None of this is glamorous. 

All of it compounds.

What's one unsexy area you keep deprioritising that would probably move your numbers?

A $35 CAC on a $70 AOV can be either terrible… or great.

Here’s how to tell in 30 seconds.

With one CPG brand we worked with:

• First order AOV: $67
• 90-day LTV: $120
• Gross margin: 50%

That’s $60 in gross profit within 90 days.

If you demand first-order profitability, your CAC ceiling sits in the mid-$30s.

But if you’re comfortable with a 60–90 day payback window?

Your CAC ceiling jumps to $50–55.

Same brand.
Same product.
Completely different scaling potential.

The difference isn’t “better ads.”

It’s understanding your cohort table.

Your cohort data tells you:

• How aggressive you can be
• How fast you can scale
• Whether your CAC is actually “bad” or just misunderstood

Too many brands set CAC targets based on anxiety instead of math.

Pull your cohort table this week.

Look at 30, 60, and 90-day contribution.

Then set your CAC ceiling based on data, not gut

New Brick by Brick Newsletter is live.
This week, I'm breaking down why most creative programmes are producing a lot - and learning almost nothing.

There are two types of ad accounts I see when I audit.

The ones that are scaling, and the ones that are busy.

The busy ones all look the same. 75 ads a month. Full Slack channels. 

A learnings doc that hasn't actually changed how anything gets built.

And the account hasn't moved in three months.

This week I cover:
> Why volume is a crutch, not a strategy
> What an actual creative test looks like vs what most brands are running
> Why the best programmes need fewer briefs, not more
> The output that actually matters (hint: it's not the ads)

Link below 👇

View newsletter: Brick-by-Brick Newsletter

Welcome back to the Brick by Brick Newsletter… ...where 7-8 figure brands learn how to scale efficiently. If you're serious about growth and feel like

Open article: More ads won't save you by Toby Waller • 4 min read

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