Brick

A Paid Ad & Creative agency helping DTC brands scale using Paid Ads, Creative & CRO behind $400m in revenue for your favourite DTC brands.

We're data nerds who live and breathe e-commerce growth, and our only goal is to help you grow in the most efficient and robust way possible.

Some of our brand partners include:

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

We typically work with e-commerce businesses who want:

✔ A partner who takes a holistic approach to growth marketing and does all the heavy lifting so you don't have to
✔ To achieve sustainable growth whilst building unshakeable foundations that last
✔ A team of experts that support you through thick & thin and tell you exactly how it is. No sugar-coated BS or pulling the wool over your eyes

To see if your business is eligible, schedule a quick call using the link below:

https://bricksocial.typeform.com/to/xKBNuhvf

Some things we’re proud of:

→ $400,000,000+ profitable ad revenue generated for our partners
→ Dozens of 5⭐️ reviews from our partners on Clutch.co
→ Featured in industry publications talking about e-commerce growth 
→ Client retention 1.8+ years

If you want to learn more about how we do this, you can either:

→ GO HERE: https://www.growwithbrick.com/

→ EMAIL HERE: toby@bricksocial.co.uk

→ APPLY HERE: https://bricksocial.typeform.com/to/xKBNuhvf

Co-Founder @ Brick | Meta & Google Ads For Ecommerce Brands

Apple

Connecting businesses and entrepreneurs with the tools they need to thrive. Introducing Apple solutions, technology, and services and strategically deploying Apple equipment across a range of businesses. Engaging with businesses to build successful, long lasting relationships.

Sales & Marketing

Mimecast

Working closely with marketing, channel and different sales teams to develop new business. The role also entailed working at events and being involved in partner sales environments, speaking directly with end customers and articulating the benefits of the Mimecast platform.

Marketing Development Specialist

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.

My creative team told me NOT to share this…

But here we are.

I just dropped our complete AI-powered creative multiplication system that we use to turn ONE winning ad into 20+ platform-specific variations.

This is the exact 6-step framework we use with our 8-figure clients - complete with every prompt, tool, and workflow we use internally at Brick.

Most brands are stuck in the "creative treadmill"... constantly producing new ads from scratch while their best performers collect dust.

This system changes that. Forever.

For the next 48 hours, it's yours.

Like this post + Comment "AI" and I'll send it over.

(We MUST be connected)

Toby Waller

Boutique growth team for ambitious eCom brands | Paid Ads & Creative | $450M+ revenue driven for brands like Leica, Moto, Drake, Shiti Coolers & 200+ more.

Most brands burn money on promo campaigns because they:

🚫 Launch ads too late
🚫 Use the wrong creative strategy
🚫 Scale budgets inefficiently

This Meta Ads Playbook fixes all of that

So you can run promos that actually drive revenue, not just clicks.

Drop ‘PLAYBOOK’ and I’ll DM it over.

Over 150 Meta accounts audited this year. 

The same 4 structural problems in 90% of them 👇🏼

These aren't tactical errors. 

They're strategic blindspots that cap your spend capacity and waste budget on inefficiency.

Let's dive in 👇🏼

1. You're micro-managing the algorithm:

20 interest stacks. Placement exclusions. 1% lookalikes segmented by behavior.

You think you're optimizing. You're strangling learning.

Meta's algorithm finds cheap conversions better than your targeting guesses. 

But it needs volume and breadth to learn.

What works: Broad targeting + all placements as default. Only add constraints when there's a creative or compliance reason - not because you "feel" an audience is better.

2. Testing and scaling live in the same campaign

When new ads compete with proven winners for budget:

Tests get buried under $200 spend and killed too early

Scaling budget bleeds into unproven creative

You can't tell what's working

The fix: Separate testing from scaling. Different campaigns, different goals.

Testing campaign: Small budgets, high rotation, disposable 
Scaling campaign: Proven winners only, stable budget allocation

Don't mix exploration with exploitation.

3. You don't know who you're actually reaching

If existing customers, engaged visitors, and cold traffic all live in the same audience, you'll never know:

How much budget hits true prospects vs repeat buyers

Whether your ROAS is real or inflated by people who were buying anyway

The fix: Define audience segments clearly:

Existing = past purchasers
Engaged = site visitors, engagers
New = everyone else

4. Your creative is format-locked

All video or all static accounts leave Meta blind.

Different placements respond to different formats. If you're only testing one, you're capping reach and driving up CPMs.

Repurpose your best performers across formats. That winning video hook? Test it as a static. Your top static? Turn it into a 15-second video.

Bottom line:
Scaling Meta in 2025 isn't about hacks or secret tactics.

It's about:
> Letting the algorithm learn (stop micromanaging)
> Clear campaign architecture (testing vs scaling)
> Defined audience strategy (know who you're reaching)
> Creative diversity (format mix, not format monopoly)

Most accounts are capped by structure, not by spend capacity.

If you want a full audit of your Meta account, campaign structure, audience strategy, creative portfolio, and scaling roadmap...

reply with AUDIT and I'll send over details.

Why do some brands scale past 7-figure months while others flatline at 6? 
Similar product. Same starting point.
✅ Different creative strategy.

We’ve helped 200+ 7 and 8-figure brands smash through plateaus using our data-first creative strategy.

And for the first time, I’m giving you the process we use to analyse ad creative that has been responsible for over $400m in revenue.

This free guide breaks down:

✅ How to create ads that actually resonate with your target audience

✅ The key metrics that drive creative decisions (and how to track them)

✅ How to use data to consistently improve and scale your ad creative

✅ The step-by-step strategy that has helped e-commerce brands triple their revenue

Want a copy? 

👉 Connect with me 
👉 Like this post 
👉 Comment "CREATIVE" and I’ll DM it to you

I've seen brands with 100+ ads live struggle to break $500K monthly.

And brands with 50 ads scale past $5M.

The difference? 

One is making more ads. The other is testing more angles.

Going into 2026, Creative strategy isn't about volume. 

It's about angular diversity.

Here's what that means:

Most brands think they need "more creative." So they brief their team: 
"Make 10 new ads this month."

What they get back: 10 variations of the same concept. Different hooks, different B-roll, maybe different talent. But fundamentally the same psychological approach.

That's not 10 ads. That's one angle with 10 executions.

An angle is the core strategic premise. The "why should I care" that everything else hangs on.

"This product solves [specific pain point]" = one angle 

"This product delivers [aspirational outcome]" = different angle 

"This product works differently than [expected solution]" = different angle 

"You're already doing [behavior], this makes it better" = different angle 

"Everyone else is wrong about [belief]" = different angle

Each angle appeals to different psychology, performs in different audiences, and fatigues independently.

What I see working at scale:

The brands spending $500K+ monthly have 8-12 distinct angles in rotation simultaneously. 

Each angle might have 2-3 executions, but the strategic diversity is in the angles, not the ads.

They're not asking "Can we make more content?" 

They're asking "What angles haven't we tested?"

Pain point vs aspiration. Social proof vs founder story. Education vs entertainment. Problem-unaware vs solution-aware.

When one angle fatigues, the others keep performing because they're reaching fundamentally different audience psychology.

The brands stuck at $200K are making their 47th iteration of their winning ad.

The brands at $3M are testing their 9th completely different strategic approach.

Your creative production bottleneck isn't volume. It's your angle diversity.

You don't need 50 ads a month. You need 5 genuinely different angles, each executed 2-3 ways.

Stop counting ads. Start counting angles.

Everyone’s chasing UGC… 

But static ads still print the money.

The best-performing ads right now don’t move.

They’re clean, effective static ads - built on clarity, contrast, and credibility.

While everyone’s chasing UGC and “motion-first” creative, these brands are scaling with simplicity.

Here are 6 static ads worth studying and why they convert 👇

1️⃣ DEUX Donut Holes

🧠 Principle: Newness + appetite

“3x sold out. Now in chocolate.”

Scarcity + novelty + irresistible close-up.

💡 Takeaway: Use visual appetite cues before your copy does the work.

2️⃣ Hush

🧠 Principle: Product confidence

“Our coldest pillow yet.” Short. Direct. Calm.

No hype, just a confident product-led promise.

💡 Takeaway: Premium brands don’t need noise - they need authority.

3️⃣ Conzuri

🧠 Principle: Transformation without shame

“+2.4 inch height boost.”

Empowering, measurable, human. Handwritten notes make it feel honest.

💡 Takeaway: Sell confidence, not correction.

4️⃣ Misfits

🧠 Principle: Borrowed belief

“The best vegan protein bars in thirty years of searching.”

The review is the headline. Nothing sells like a real human endorsement.

💡 Takeaway: Turn your best testimonial into your next hook.

5️⃣ Bamboo Ave

🧠 Principle: Scarcity + simplicity

“They’re back. But not for long.”

Conversational urgency > corporate FOMO.

💡 Takeaway: Short scarcity lines feel more trustworthy than countdown timers.

6️⃣ Grüns

🧠 Principle: Contrast + humor

Side-by-side storytelling (pain vs relief) with raw, relatable emotion.

You understand the transformation in one glance.

💡 Takeaway: Show emotional before/after moments - not just product benefits.

Why static ads still work:

✅ They communicate one big promise in 3 seconds
✅ They show proof visually, not verbally
✅ They build belief, not just attention

Clarity > clever.
Message > motion.
Emotion > production.

LinkedIn

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #cro, #ecommerce, #googleads, #copywriting, and #facebookadvertising

Static Ads

Ivy Villezas

This brand joined us 6 months ago.

Today? They just broke $4M/month 🤯

Here's the exact playbook we used 👇

In May 2025, this established apparel brand came to us with a problem.

Strong product. Loyal community. But their growth had stagnated.

They knew there was untapped potential... their existing team just didn't know how to break through.

6 months later, we're scaling profitably with momentum.

📈 The Results: 

→ Monthly revenue: $4.3M and continuing to grow
→ +85% month-over-month growth 
→ Blended ROAS: 4x+ 
→ AOV: +12% 
→ 2.5x increase in creative testing volume

🔍 Step 1: Deep Research First

Before touching the ad account:

Customer review and CS ticket mining to extract objections, pain points, and use cases

Post-purchase survey analysis

Competitor review scrapes

Meta & Google creative audits

PDP + heatmap analysis to ID CRO gaps

🚀 Step 2: Media Buying Structure

Meta: 
→ Minor ad account restructure 
→ Clear Test / Scale framework 
→ Tighter exclusions to manage prospecting frequency 
→ UTM tracking implementation 
→ Influencer whitelisting rollout

Google: 
→ Expanded PMax with new asset groups 
→ Generic Search campaign based on real queries 
→ Cleaned branded search campaigns 
→ Retargeting display focused on objections

YouTube: 
→ Targeted in-market, competitor & keyword-based intent audiences

🎨 Step 3: 

Creative Strategy 
→ Weekly creative testing cadence 
→ UGC, statics, testimonials, BTS & founder content 
→ Built avatars + mapped angles to awareness stages 
→ Fed winning data back into briefs weekly 
→ Thumbnail testing from top statics 
→ Unified messaging across channels

🏦 Step 4: 

LPs & Offers 
→ Tested % off vs $ off vs non-discounted bundles 
→ Introduced in-cart + post-purchase upsells 
→ Improved mobile & desktop speed 
→ Built avatar-specific landers vs generic PDPs

💡 Key Takeaways:

→ Scaling isn't just about spending more. It's about knowing what levers to pull and spending smarter. 

→ No creative iteration = creative system failure. Build feedback loops. 

→ Avatar-specific landers > generic PDPs 

→ Alignment between media buying, creative, retention and CRO is essential

Want similar results?

We'll build a free 70+ page audit that shows: 

→ What's causing your brand to stagnate 
→ Where your next $1M/month is hiding 
→ How to fix it across ads, creative & landing pages

👇 Drop "GROWTH" or DM me.

Brands don’t crash after BFCM because demand for their product dies.

They crash because they don’t plan for what comes after the weekend.

December has a rhythm that most teams completely miss

And that’s why their numbers fall off a cliff while others keep climbing.

I put together a quick carousel breaking down the real sequence we see inside accounts every year...

The dip, the mistakes, the pivots, and the plays that actually keep you profitable through December.

Carousel below 👇

BFCM

It’s never the sexy stuff that drives scale.

It’s the unsexy operational fixes that unlock the biggest efficiency gains.

Here are the unsexy optimisations driving the fastest scale for our brands right now 👇

1️⃣ Testing + scaling in the same campaign = chaos

When winners and tests fight for budget, you get:
 • False fatigue
 • Learning resets
 • No attribution clarity

Split them.
Testing = rotation + fast kills.
Scaling = stability + proven assets.
 
This single change unlocks more scale than most creative breakthroughs.

2️⃣ Authenticity > production value

Overproduced ads are losing to iPhone content daily.

Raw founder stories, lo-fi demos & native UGC consistently win.

And stop scripting creators to death - you’re paying for their authenticity.

Bonus: bold text overlays improve clarity AND help the algo understand your offer.

3️⃣ Your offer is limiting scale

Running the same offer for 6+ months? 

You're leaving money on the table.

 Top performers test:
 • BOGO
 • Bundles
 • Threshold incentives
 • Bonus value > discounts

 Small offer shifts often beat new creative entirely.

4️⃣ Operators win by watching the right metrics

Break-even ROAS should be non-negotiable.

Don’t let campaigns sit below it for 48 hours.

Look for timing patterns (best days/hours) and shift budgets accordingly.

And use placement breakdowns to decide which formats to make more of.

5️⃣ Scale comes from stacking small wins - not one magic tactic:

 +12% from better structure
 +15% from clearer hooks
 +10% from offer tests
 –18% wasted spend from exclusions

One optimisation is nothing.

Ten optimisations = compounding scale.

Bottom line:

The brands scaling into 2026 aren’t chasing quick wins - they’re tightening structure, simplifying creative, testing offers, and analysing performance daily.

Hitting $2M/month isn’t the hard part.
Breaking past it is.
And almost every brand fails for the exact same reason.

We recently took a brand from $2.1M → $3.3M/month (+57%), and it didn’t happen by “working harder” or “launching more ads.”

It happened because we removed the bottlenecks that were choking scale.
Here’s the breakdown:

1. Creative wasn’t the issue. Creative variety was.

They were launching hundreds of ads… all built around the same 2–3 concepts.

High output. Low intent. Zero range.

We installed a data-backed creative engine that forced variety:

 • Deep performance + competitor analysis
 • Weekly structured ideation
 • Full-spectrum creative testing (raw, polished, education-first, outcome-first, problem-agitate, lifestyle, all of it)

Winners stopped being luck. They became predictable.

2. Their account structure couldn’t support scale.

Testing + scaling mixed together. No clean learnings. No signal.

Frequency issues. Attribution chaos.

We rebuilt it around a simple flow:

Test → Graduate → Scale
Clean insights → faster decisions → consistent results.

3. Post-click was killing efficiency.

Great ads were sending everyone to the same PDP.

No angle alignment. No objection handling. No awareness matching.

We rebuilt landing pages around:

 • Specific personas
 • Specific pain points
 • Specific ad angles

Conversion rate lifted. CAC dropped. LTV improved.

The lesson:

What gets you to $2M/month won’t get you to $3M/month.

Scaling at this level isn’t about more spend or more ads.

It’s about systems that eliminate bottlenecks and compound small wins.

If you’re pushing harder without seeing movement, the issue usually isn’t effort.

It’s the system you’re pushing into.

Came across 3 eCom landing pages that I felt compelled to redesign:

→ Atlas

Added a navigation bar separator

The hero image blended in with the nav bar beforehand.

To me, it’s too connected. The elements need to be distinct.

So, we made them distinct.

Tidied up the upper-mid action of the site.

Moved their headline up.

Lightened the background to make the text pop.

Added a new line of copy to affirm Atlas’s mission:
To build incredible dog gear.

Added in benefit badges
“Handmade in Colorado”
“Buy it for life guarantee”

Can’t hurt & gives customers more reason to stay & click through.

New CTA button

Your site visitors won’t know what to do next without a CTA.

So we added in an on-brand button to keep visitors moving along.

Essential & goes beyond design.

It’s functionality.

→ anese

Cleaned up the navigation bar

The upper section of the site looked messy.

Too much going on.

So we cleaned up the top bar & made it look uniform.

Less buttons = less decision fatigue for customers.

Downscaled the hero image

Was too big before.

Took up too much space which took away from the site.

So we shrunk the image + added in their “8,000 reviews” social proof.

Revised the copy

We enlarged some of the previous copywriting.

We added in new text to tease anese’s come up story.

Much cleaner.

Added a highly visible CTA button + a “featured in” section.

The CTA button makes it easier to move the prospect towards buying.

The “featured in” section boosts anese’s status.

Both elements encourage sales & were missing entirely before.

→ Fast Growing Trees

Decluttered the navigation bar.

Too many buttons.

Too many options.

This confuses site visitors.

So we streamlined the bar to a general menu button, logo, and cart.

Added a reel showcasing multiple tree pictures

Visitors are on this page to shop for… trees.

So we added more pictures & upped the visuals.

Included more purchase options.

We made it clear that you can buy through Klarna with interest-free payments.

Or purchase 100% upfront.

No-nonsense when it comes to pricing & numbers.

Benefit badges

The purpose of these is to ease the reader & collect more sales.

They’re worries that customers have before buying.

So we tackle them upfront (shipping time, warranties etc).

Clear buyer’s journey

We introduced a size button.

We added a quantity option.

All tied together with an add to cart CTA.

Each element works in unison.

Landing Pages

November was absolutely insane.

Pretty much every brand we work with just hit lifetime record months.

Highest volume and efficiency they've ever achieved.

I'm watching my team execute at a level I didn't think was possible. The media buyers, the creative strategists, the account leads – everyone firing on all cylinders.

This is what happens when you get the right people rowing in the same direction 🔥

This apparel brand's best month ever was $3.2M.
Last 30 days? $6.5M.
Here's what changed in 8 months of working together.

When they came to us, they were stuck in the $2M-$3M range.

Decent business. But they'd hit a ceiling.

They had blinders on. 
US-only. 
Limited creative angles. 
Generic landing pages. 
No influencer partnerships. 
Same offer since launch.

They weren't doing anything wrong. They just weren't pulling enough levers.

Classic symptom: running a decent operation that's nowhere near optimized.

Here's what we fixed:

1. Launched whitelisted ads
They'd never run whitelisted content before. We partnered with creators in their niche and ran ads directly from their profiles immediately. 

The trust transfer was immediate. Lower CPAs, higher engagement, and access to audiences that were fatigued by the brand's own account.

2. Optimized their site (where 90% of traffic was going)

They were driving traffic to generic product pages with zero optimization for cold traffic.

We rebuilt the landing experience: faster load times, clearer value props, social proof above the fold, and offer-specific landing pages that matched ad messaging.

Site conversion rate jumped nicely.

3. Unlocked creative variety with our Creative Variety Matrix

They were leaning into 1-2 types of creative on repeat. 

Polished product shots and basic UGC.

We mapped their entire creative library and identified 12+ untested angles sitting in blind spots.

Within 60 days, we had founder content, problem-aware ads, comparison angles, and testimonial mashups all working simultaneously.

More variety = more scale.

4. Expanded into international markets

They were 100% US-focused while sitting on margins that could handle international shipping.

We tested Canada, UK, and Australia in prospecting campaigns.

Meta's inventory was cheaper in these markets. Same creative. Same offers. Different CPMs.

5. Authenticity beat production value

They were overproducing everything. Professional shoots. Scripted UGC. Polished brand content.

All of it getting crushed by raw iPhone footage.

We shifted to: authentic founder content, real customer testimonials, and benefit-first messaging with bold text overlays.

6. Tested offers like a media buying variable

They'd been running the same 20% off since launch.

We tested BOGO structures, threshold offers, and bundles that increased perceived value without destroying margins.

One bundle offer lifted AOV while keeping customers happier than a straight discount ever did.

This isn't an exhaustive list.... just some of the key levers we pulled over 8 months.

The results:
→ $6.1M in revenue last 30 days 
→ Daily revenue now consistently $200K+ 

This wasn't a creative breakthrough or a hack you don't have access to.

It was fixing the foundation and stacking optimizations month after month.

The unsexy stuff that actually compounds.

Our brands' spending $500K+ monthly don't refresh creatives. 

Here's what they do instead.

Everyone's obsessed with creative refresh schedules. 

"Rotate new ads every 2 weeks." "Refresh before fatigue hits." "Keep it fresh."

Wrong problem.

Here's what I see at scale:

The brands that scale don't refresh creatives. They maintain creative diversity from day one.

The difference matters more than most people realize.

Refresh thinking says: Run your winners until they fatigue, then replace them. 

You're constantly chasing performance with new creative, trying to recapture what worked.

Diversity thinking says: Run 15-20 distinct concepts simultaneously. Some will work this week. Others will work next month. 

Different creatives fatigue at different rates in different audiences. You're never dependent on any single winner.

What this actually looks like:

Your creative briefs aren't "make another version of the winner." They're "give me 5 completely different psychological approaches to the same outcome."

You have ads performing at 1.5X ROAS that you keep running because they're reaching different audiences at scale, while other brands would have killed them for "underperforming."

You're testing constantly, but you're not in panic mode when something drops off. Because you have coverage.

The brands that approach us talking about "creative fatigue" are running 4-6 ads. The brands that don't mention it are running 20+.

It's not a production problem. It's a strategy problem.

Most brands batch-produce creative once a month because they're thinking in refresh cycles. 

They should be producing 3-5 new concepts weekly because they're thinking in portfolio diversity.

When you have true diversity, individual creative performance becomes less critical. Your account doesn't swing wildly when one ad dies. You're not scrambling for a replacement winner.

You're just running a diversified system that smooths out the inevitable performance variance.

The question isn't "when should we refresh?"

It's "why aren't we diverse enough that it doesn't matter?"

After 6 months, we took this brand from ~$90K to ~$185K+ per day.

And it had nothing to do with better ads.

Here's the framework that unlocked $5.5M in monthly revenue:

✅ Research Before Spend

We analyzed 18 months of support tickets, had leadership call 50+ customers, and audited every creative that had ever run.

What we found: They'd been speaking to their smallest, noisiest audience while ignoring the segment doing the bulk of the buying.

Their messaging was dialed in for enthusiasts who cared about specs and features. 

But their actual growth was coming from people who just wanted something that worked without the learning curve.

The audience they'd been ignoring was 3x larger, converted better, and had significantly higher LTV. But every ad, every landing page, every product description was written for the wrong person.

Once we repositioned around what their best customers actually cared about, the entire funnel opened up.

✅ Separate Testing From Scaling

Here's where most brands break: they try to test and scale in the same place.

When you mix testing budget with scaling budget, you create chaos. 

Performance drops, and you can't tell if it's because your winner fatigued, your new tests are dragging down the average, or the budget increase triggered a learning phase.

But there was a deeper issue: their account was a mess. 47 active campaigns, overlapping audiences, campaigns with conflicting goals competing against each other for the same user.

We separated testing environments from scaling environments. New creative proved itself or died quickly in dedicated testing budgets. Winners graduated to scaling campaigns optimized for efficiency, not learning.

The simplification unlocked more efficient spend before we changed a single creative.

Top performers scaled from initial tests to meaningful daily spend without the performance degradation that kills most growth attempts.

✅ Authenticity Over Production

Raw founder content on iPhone outperformed polished brand content every time.

Short-form video generated 35% higher engagement and 28% lower CPA than statics.

✅ Geographic Expansion

By testing Canada, UK, and Australia, we increased total spend by 30% while maintaining efficiency. 

✅ Offer Testing Over Discounting

Instead of "20% off," we tested: 
→ BOGO structures 
→ Bundles that boosted AOV 
→ Threshold offers

A $100 product with $20 of bonus items feels better than the same product at $80. But your margin stays healthier.

✅ Post-click That Compounds

Desktop speed: 32 → 96
Mobile speed: 13 → 66
Advertorial landing pages converted 18% better
Global CVR hit 2.8%

The Result: $5.5M in 30 days.

We didn't chase breakthroughs. We stacked optimizations.

Better structure, authentic creative, smarter offers = better efficiency = more scale.

Research isn't sexy. 

But it's the difference between growth that scales and growth that stalls.

I've audited 150+ Meta Ad accounts this year.

These 5 critical structural issues appeared in almost EVERY account:

1. 𝗡𝗼 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘀

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲: 
→ Changes being made to campaigns already driving revenue 
→ Multiple large changes implemented simultaneously 
→ No isolation of variables to determine what's actually working

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: 
→ 80/20 split between scaling and testing campaigns 
→ Clear promotion criteria for moving creatives from testing to scaling 
→ Scheduled testing cycles that don't disrupt scaling campaigns

2. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘁𝘆

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲: 
→ Over-reliance on one creative format (usually testimonial/UGC) 
→ Similar messaging angles across all creatives 
→ No testing of different creative formats by placement

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: 
→ Balance of creative formats (UGC, lifestyle, educational, product-focused) 
→ Different hooks and angles mapped to audience segments 
→ Placement-specific creative (Stories vs. Feed vs. Reels)

3. 𝗔𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲: 
→ Unanswered questions in comments 
→ Negative sentiment not being addressed 
→ Missing valuable feedback that could inform future creative

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: 
→ Comment monitoring and response protocol 
→ Comment sentiment analysis to inform creative strategy 
→ Leveraging positive comments as social proof

4. 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀:

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲: 
→ Traffic sent directly to PDPs
→ No alignment between ad messaging and landing experience 
→ One-size-fits-all landing pages regardless of ad angle

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: 
→ Custom landing pages aligned with specific ad angles 
→ Problem/solution pages for problem-focused ads 
→ Comparison pages for competitor-focused ads

5. 𝗡𝗼𝗻-𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗔𝗢𝗩 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆:

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲: 
→ No upsell/cross-sell system in place 
→ No offer testing beyond occasional discounts

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: 
→ Strategic bundle creation based on purchase patterns 
→ Post-purchase upsell flows 
→ Subscription offers with appropriate incentives

The uncomfortable truth:

Most brands will never scale beyond 6 figure im monthly spend because they focus on tactics (bidding, new platforms, audiences) rather than fixing these fundamental structural issues.

Are you making any of these mistakes?

3 growth levers separate brands doing $2M from brands doing $20M. 

Here's what the winners obsess over:

1. Offer Architecture

Your offer is your multiplier. A great product with a weak offer converts at 2%.

The same product with an irresistible offer converts at 5%.

What works:

>Starter bundles - "Try all 3 scents for $39" (vs. $19 each)
>Threshold offers - "Spend $75, get free product X" (increases AOV 40-60%)
>Risk reversal - "90-day guarantee + free returns" (kills the main objection)

Don't just discount. Make the value undeniable.

2. Conversion Rate Optimization

Most brands are leaving 2-3x revenue on the table from traffic they already have.

Install Microsoft Clarity today (free heatmap tool). 

You'll immediately spot where people get confused and bail.

Then run this test: Have someone unfamiliar with your brand complete a task while thinking out loud. "Find and buy women's blue leggings."

Watch where they hesitate. That's your friction.

The 3 pages killing your conversions:

Homepage - Answer these in 5 seconds: 
→ What makes you different? 
→ Why choose you over competitors? 
→ Why someone needs this now?

Navigation - Keep it simple: 
→ 5-7 main categories MAX 
→ Highest priority left, lowest right 
→ No jargon or clever names

Product pages - Kill objections before they ask: 
→ Clear specs (size, materials, quantity, weight) 
→ 5+ photo types (studio, lifestyle, UGC, close-ups, comparison) 
→ Visible returns/shipping/guarantees above the fold

3. Product Iteration

The brands hitting 8 figures don't launch and forget.

They obsessively collect feedback, then ship version 2.0, 3.0, 4.0.

Your customer feedback loop:

→ Post-purchase surveys (what almost stopped you from buying?)
→ Review mining (what do 1-star and 5-star reviews say?)
→ Support ticket analysis (what questions come up repeatedly?)
→ Interview your customers (yes - on the phone) 

Then iterate. Better packaging. Improved sizing. New colorways. Upgraded materials, etc...

Customers reward brands that listen with repeat purchases and word-of-mouth.

The pattern: 

Brands stuck at $2-5M fix one thing. 
Brands scaling to 8 figures fix all three.

Start with CRO, dial in your offer, then iterate your products based on what's working.

P.S. - If you want a fresh set of eyes on your entire acquisition ecosystem, DM me. We love finding bottlenecks 💪🏼

Here's a pattern I see constantly:

Brand finds a winning ad → Scales the budget → Performance flops

The problem? 

They're trying to test and scale in the same place.

This is just one of the structural bottlenecks that quietly kills scale.

In this week's newsletter, I'm sharing 5 tactical optimizations that most brands miss:

→ Why your account structure is limiting your scale 
→ Why authentic content beats production value every time 
→ The offer testing framework brands use to break $3M monthly 
→ The 4-5 metrics that actually matter (and the dozens that don't) 
→ How small wins compound into massive scale

These aren't the flashy strategies everyone talks about.

They're the unsexy, operational improvements that compound into 40-60% performance lifts over 90 days.

View newsletter: Brick-by-Brick Newsletter

Welcome back to The Brick-by-Brick Newsletter - where 7-8 figure brands learn how to scale efficiently. Before we dive into today's edition, a quick a

Open article: Unsexy optimizations that unlock 40%+ growth by Toby Waller • 6 min read

Unsexy optimizations that unlock 40%+ growth

Most brands think December is about extending their BFCM sale.
Wrong.
Here's what happens on December 1st that changes everything:

Consumer psychology shifts completely.

Black Friday → People buying for themselves 
December → People buying for others

Your creative strategy needs to reflect this, or you're leaving money on the table.

Stop selling products. Start selling the pride of giving a great gift.

Don't just say "this is the best product." 

Reframe it: How does giving this make them look thoughtful? 

What emotion does unwrapping create?

People want to feel proud when they hand over a gift. Tap into that.

The Gift Guide Play

Showcase multiple SKUs organized by recipient:

"For the coffee obsessed"
"For the skincare fanatic"
"For the person who has everything"

These ads perform exceptionally well through mid-December (or your last shipping day - typically Dec 15-20).

Two Critical Moves After Your Shipping Deadline:

Be brutally transparent about cutoffs. An angry customer who didn't get their gift before Christmas costs you more than a lost sale.

Switch to gift cards immediately after. There's still a segment of last-minute shoppers with budget and zero ideas. Solve their problem.

But the brands that understand this shift? 

They maintain profitability while everyone else goes dark.

December isn't about sustaining Black Friday numbers. I

t's about strategic positioning when the market cools down.

Most brands flopped BFCM in 2024. 

The winners did 3 things differently:

1. They tested in October, scaled in November

BFCM isn't for testing. 

Top brands locked in their winning creative and offer structures 6 weeks early, then went all-in on what converted.

While competitors scrambled with new concepts during peak CPMs, the winners were printing money on validated playbooks.

2. They engineered offers for retention, not just conversion

Bundles weren't about moving inventory - they were about creating customers who reorder. One brand built a "starter system" that paired their hero product with complementary SKUs.

The goal wasn't just higher AOV. It was higher LTV through product adoption.

3. They front-loaded revenue before the chaos

VIP early access 72 hours before BFCM captured revenue with clean attribution before Friday's pixel carnage.

Thursday night isn't early anymore. Wednesday is.

The 2025 shift:

Stop optimizing for GMV during BFCM. 

Optimize for contribution margin per customer acquired.

Your Black Friday offer should be your Trojan horse for Q1 retention, not a race to the bottom on CPA.

Nick Shackelford

BRĒZ

Partner - Head of Retention and Subscription

Structured

Co-Founder - CRO

Commerce Roundtable

I lead the content development and speaker procurement process that allows for the highest quality conversations to be had in an e-commerce centered live event space. From in-person to digital, the focus on content will always remain the most valuable thing we can provide.

Partner - Content and Education Lead

Konstant Kreative

Top 1% of performance focused ad designers and editors from around the world.

Lucyd Media

Partner

GeekOut Events

Geek Out Education is all the elements of events we love combined into one. 
Our only rules, No ego and don't be a jerk.

We speak with each attendee, we hand select the teachers and we work hard to create environments that produce conversation, debate, and ultimately future business growth. We are paid media experts across multiple channels, multiple industries, and

Triple Whale 🐳

Marketing Advisor

Motion (Creative Analytics)

Angel

PostPilot

MarketerHire

Drinkbrez.com Structured.agency Konstantkreative.com Wearelucyd.com

Proven Track Record of Scaling Social Focused Campaigns consistently past 8-figures through Programmatic buying, Influencers, E-mail and Adwords. 

Learning and growing businesses in this ever changing age of customer acquisition.

Knowing that I had more to offer, I applied that same drive to work with established brands as well as brands looking to make that pro jump. 

Let's Connect at 

nick@structured.agency

Did anyone in NY get a chance to see our can? 

Shoot me a few photos if so!

Drinkbrez.com Structured.agency Konstantkreative.com

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San Diego, a few weeks back. I’m hosting a fireside with Gary Vee.

I do the grown-up operator thing. Prepare a doc, talk track, & run of show. Send it to his team. Boxes checked. Timers set. We’re tight.

Morning of, Gary walks in. I hand him the docs. He smiles, “I’m not going to look at it. I’m just going to do my thing.”

I give him the quick brief of who’s in the room, where they’re at, what’s heavy right now. Five minutes later it’s the full Gary show. At one point I just step off stage and let him cook. People loved it. Voted best talk of the week.

Lesson #1: You don’t interview a hurricane. You point where the water should go and get out of their way.

He tells us he has a hard out. Then he pushes past it. Then he takes a swarm of questions. More hands shoot up and, boom, “I’m out,” and he’s gone. Perfect timing.

Lesson #2: Gary on stage is Gary off stage. Same on camera, same off. Consistency = credibility.

Appreciate you, @garyvee. Absolute legend

If you're just starting out in ecom right now / or doing it solo... I’m not gonna lie to you,  it's not easy and it’s gotten harder in a lot of areas.

Yeah the complicated tactics are one thing, but the main thing is you have no relationships, no partnerships, no mentors giving you feedback.

You're just listening to everybody chatting sh-t on the internet.
 
Where do you even go? 
Who do you follow? 
What do you listen to?

Who's going to spend time with you without charging you money you don't have?

Yeah, there are tools now - to find mentors and stuff while you hit people up on different channels. But getting somebody invested enough in you takes money and time from that person.

People will overcomplicate this because at the beginning, you actually have nothing.

Just simplify it as easily as possible before you start listening and consuming all this type of content

Or you're just going to fall into analysis paralysis and have a lot of conflicting information flooding into your workday.

That's where you're going to get stuck.

If you want to continue burning cash testing Meta Ads then be my guest

For this 4th Quarter you should just stick to what is working now:

This playbook is for the big dawgs👇🏼

Scaling Structure

Being Brand Side AND Agency 
Here's How I Recommend going about getting what you want from the agency.... (too a degree)

Same story every time.

If your agency is doing 3+ of these 5 red flags, it's time to have a conversation: 

1. Weekly Reporting Theater

They make you wait for a weekly call to get updates. You can't access data ongoing.

Worse - they use the same cookie-cutter template for every brand regardless of what stage you're at or what you're trying to accomplish.

If the report isn't bespoke to what YOU'RE trying to do right now, they're not paying attention.

2. One-Hour Franken-Meetings

They combine creative strategy conversations and business updates in the same 60-minute call.

This is disrespectful.

Strategy sessions need inspiration and space to think. Updates need focus and clarity.

Grouping them together means neither gets the attention it deserves.

3. Yearly Contracts With No Outs

They lock you into 12 months with no quarterly opt-outs.

Three months is enough time to do real damage (in a good way). If they're not delivering in 90 days, why would the next 9 months be different?

Shit changes. Clients change. Teams change.

4. The Bait and Switch

The person who closed you never touches your account again.

You DON'T want the closer working on your account at all.

You want them to identify what your business needs, match you with specialists, then get out of the way.

But if they disappear completely and you never hear from leadership? Red flag.

5. No Clear Owner

You're dealing with 5 different people and none of them own your success.

Someone needs to own your account end-to-end. Not just execute tasks, but actually give a shit about whether you win.

If nobody's accountable, nobody cares.

Brands spend $10K-50K/month with agencies that check these boxes.

Stop paying for theater. Start demanding results.

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