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.

Struggling to scale Meta Ads?

If your ad account isn’t built for scale, efficiency breaks with spend.

After helping 250+ DTC brands scale profitably, we’ve documented the exact Meta Ads framework we use internally.

I’m giving it away for free.

Inside the guide, you’ll learn:

✅ How to structure Meta campaigns for predictable scale
✅ A repeatable creative testing system to find winners faster
✅ Where most ad accounts leak performance as spend increases
✅ How to scale while protecting ROAS & CPA

If you want your Meta account set up to scale, this is for you.

To get a copy:

• Connect with me
• Like this post
• Comment “META”

I’ll send it straight to your inbox.

Toby Waller

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

Most fashion brands don’t have a media buying problem.
 
They have a creative volume problem.

9/10 brands we audit aren’t testing anywhere near enough variety to let Meta do its job.

If your current approach looks like this:

 • Re-running the same carousel until it dies
 • 1–2 “hero” concepts per collection
 • Creative testing based on gut feel, not structure

You’re capping scale - even if performance looks fine.

I’ve pulled together 100+ high-converting ad creatives used by top-performing fashion brands to unlock scale through volume + variety.

Want access?

Like + comment “Fashion” and DM me - I'll reply with the deck.

Most beauty & wellness brands fail to scale because they:

🚫 Keep using the same ad angles
🚫 Don’t test enough different creative formats
🚫 Don't have a robust ideation process for new ideas

This swipe file fixes all of that...

100+ high-performing ad examples you need to test now for your beauty brand.

Want it? 

1: Like this post 
2. Comment ‘Beauty’
3. DM Me & I'll reply with the swipe file

Creative volume isn't your problem.

Most brands think they need 100 new ads per month.

What they actually need: 7-10 truly distinct creative angles.

We've catalogued 102 frameworks across every product category. 

The pattern is clear:

Winning accounts don't focus solely on volume.

They systematically test genuinely different approaches:

✅ Founder-led storytelling (not just "here's our story")
✅ Process/making-of content that builds product credibility
✅ Comparative positioning that reframes the category
✅ Lifestyle integration that shows the transformation
✅ UGC that addresses specific objections
✅ Interactive formats that stop the scroll

The difference between a $50K/month account and a $500K/month account isn't creative output.

It's creative diversity.

DM me if you want me and my team to dive into a deep audit across your creative and paid ads...

We'll show you where you're leaving growth on the table and how to break through your next revenue ceiling.

Creative Variety

We’re hiring a world-class Creative Strategist 🚀

This isn’t a junior role.

This role comes with real responsibility.

You’ll own creative ideation, testing, and iteration for some of the most recognisable DTC brands in the world - working directly with founders and senior operators to unlock scale.

We’re looking for the best of the best:

• Research-led, data-driven, and ruthless about what actually works
• Thinks in angles, insights, and systems - not random tests
• Wants to be deeply involved in brand growth, not hidden in delivery
• Hungry to level up inside a team that actively invests in your development

If you live and breathe performance creative, and want real ownership, this will be a fit.

Drop me a message, and I'll share the next steps 

{We must be connected}

We're scaling brands spending $100k+ per day on Meta.

The common thread?

Relentless optimisation of the boring, structural pieces that most teams overlook - the ones that compound into real scale.

Here are 5 we see time and time again:

1. Elite understanding of your economics

What we usually inherit:
 → Arbitrary CAC or ROAS targets
 → Blended metrics masking true new customer performance
 → Scale constrained by misunderstood payback and cash flow dynamics

What needs to be implemented:
 → True new customer CAC + contribution margin modelling
 → Payback period targets aligned to cash flow and inventory cycles
 → Scale decisions driven by unit economics - not surface-level ROAS

2. Rebuilding shallow creative portfolios

What we usually inherit:
 → Over-reliance on one format (usually UGC/testimonials)
 → Similar messaging dressed up as “new ads”
 → No creative built intentionally for placements

What we implement:
 → A balanced creative mix (UGC, product, educational, lifestyle, hi-res)
 → Hooks and angles mapped to buyer awareness stages
 → Placement-specific creative (Feed ≠ Stories ≠ Reels)

3. Be obsessive about learning from your customers

What we usually inherit:
 → Assumption that the current product range is “good enough”
 → Creative and offers forced to carry product gaps
 → No structured customer feedback loop into product strategy

What needs to be implemented:
 → Systematic customer insight mining (reviews, comments, support, surveys)
 → Clear feedback loops into product improvements and new SKUs
 → Product and offer expansion based on proven demand signals

4. Align ads to intent-specific landing experiences

What we usually inherit:
 → Everything sent to a generic PDP
 → Messaging disconnect between ad and page
 → One-size-fits-all post-click experience

What we implement:
 → Angle-matched landing pages
 → Problem-solution pages for pain-led ads
 → Comparison pages for competitor-aware traffic

5. AOV and offer architecture

What we usually inherit:
 → No structured upsell or cross-sell system
 → Discounts as the only lever

What we implement:
 → Bundles built from real purchase behaviour
 → In-cart and post-purchase upsell systems
 → Subscription and continuity offers where it makes sense

The uncomfortable truth:

Most brands don’t stall because their media buying isn't being micro-managed.

They stall because their unit economics, product strategy, creative system, and offer architecture aren’t built to support scale.

You can patch tactics for a while.

But eventually, structure becomes the ceiling.

If growth feels capped… It’s usually hiding in one of these.

Hiring: Senior Creative Strategist

We're looking for someone who can own creative strategy for our 7-9 figure DTC brands.

You need to be:

✅ A savage with direct response creative strategy who proactively hunts for pockets of opportunity.

✅ Insanely granular with analysis - figuring out exactly why things work and why they don't.

✅ 10/10 attention to detail. Nothing slips through the net.

✅ A good eye for design principles and basic design skills.

✅ Someone who grinds and wants to help our clients dominate.

You'll own creative ideation, testing, and iteration for brands doing 8-figure months.

Real responsibility. Real influence on outcomes.

Fair warning: This isn't just a 9-5. 

This is ownership, accountability, and relentless focus on results.

If you're systems-oriented, research-driven, and ready to prove you're one of the best creative strategists in the game - message me.

$20M in 90 days.
From ~$170K to ~$210K per day.

LinkedIn's character limit won't let me write everything we actually did for this brand...

So here's the bullet list version for ya'll:

→ Analyzed 18 months of support tickets, had leadership call 50+ customers, audited every creative. Found they'd been speaking to their smallest, noisiest audience while ignoring the segment doing most of the buying. 
Enthusiasts cared about specs. Most buyers just wanted something that worked. Complete messaging repositioning across every touchpoint.

→ Separated testing and scaling environments. Dedicated testing campaigns with 15-20% of budget to prove creative before it touched scaling budgets. Winners graduated to scaling campaigns optimized for scale, not learning.

→ Killed competing campaigns creating auction overlap. Consolidated to a few core campaigns with clear objectives. Account simplification unlocked efficiency improvements before we touched creative.

→ Shifted from polished brand content to raw founder UGC. iPhone videos with authentic storytelling outperformed $5K studio productions. 35% higher engagement, 28% lower CPA.

→ Leant into angular diversity, not volume for volume sake. When one angle fatigued, others kept performing because they reached different audiences.

→ Expanded to Canada, UK, Australia with localized creative and offer testing. Added 30% to total spend at maintained efficiency.

→ Tested offer structure over lazy discounting. BOGO frameworks, product bundles that increased AOV 23%, threshold offers. A $100 product with $20 of bonus items converts better than the same product at $80 while protecting margin.

→ Rebuilt landing pages as advertorials. Improved site speed (mobile 13→66, desktop 32→96) and implemented progressive disclosure for objection handling. Lifted CVR 18%.

→ Implemented systematic creative rotation. Monitored frequency caps, CTR degradation, and hook rate decay. Refreshed at the angle level, not the ad level.

→ Built feedback loops between creative performance and product messaging. What worked in ads informed email, SMS, and site copy. What converted on landing pages informed new creative angles.

→ Got global CVR to 2.8% (previous peak was 1.9%). The compounding effect of better traffic quality, aligned messaging, faster site speed, and smarter offer structure.

The result: $20M in 90 days. 
37% YoY growth.
Healthy unit economics.

We didn't chase breakthroughs. We stacked optimizations.

Better structure + authentic creative + smarter offers + post-click experience = better efficiency = more scale.

Most brands try to scale before they've built the foundation. 

They add budget to broken systems and wonder why performance degrades.

Research isn't sexy. Account audits aren't glamorous. 

But they're the difference between growth that scales and growth that stalls.

Our goal isn't a 100-client agency.

Far from it. 

It's to be the most effective partner for a small group of elite brands.

That's it.

I'm watching my team execute at a level I didn't think was possible. 

Media buyers, creative strategists, email team - all moving in lockstep.

Besides the metrics. Here's what really tells me we're onto something:

- Clients introducing us to their network unprompted 
- Clients asking if we need testimonials (not the other way around) 
- DMs from partners saying they've never seen returns like this

All three happened this week. 

From brands we only started with in Q4/Q1.

The compound effect when you align the right people around the right clients is absurd.

You found a winner. Congrats. 

Now what?

It wasn’t luck.
It was a signal.

Most brands miss this.

They scale creative without understanding why it worked.

They recycle winners instead of reverse-engineering them.

Here’s the 4-step system we use to scale Meta ad accounts from $50k to $500k/month:

✅ Review the top 20 ads
✅ Run a message + visual analysis
✅ Extract scroll-stopping hooks, angles & motifs
✅ Brief 5–10 net-new concepts to test

It’s simple. It’s scalable. And it compounds over time.

We recently used this exact process to help an apparel brand unlock their biggest month ever.

Reverse Engineer

Every week, I audit accounts spending $100K > $1m/month+ on Meta.

They’re “testing aggressively.”

But here’s what that actually means in practice:

→ 5 UGC creators saying the same hook in different kitchens
→ 3 versions of the founder story with new B-roll
→ 4 testimonial cuts with the same message
→ 6 statics with one value prop in different colours

18 ads launched.
3 concepts tested.

This is the illusion of testing - tons of output, zero hypothesis diversity.

Takeaway: More ads don’t equal more insights. 
Without angle diversity, you’re just repeating yourself louder.

Your best creative has 10X more juice left in it than you think. 

Here's how to extract it:

Video ads:

New hooks (change text overlay or reshoot opening 3 seconds)
Swap in different leads while keeping the rest identical
Same script, different creators
Change b-roll (especially powerful for AI VO ads)
Speed up/slow down pacing
Cut to core message or extend with more proof
Test different testimonials

Static ads:
Winning visual + new headlines
Winning headline + new visuals

For native-style ads: 
Use AI tools to swap the person/main subject across demographics

The key: 
Change one variable at a time.

This is how you get more from each creative winner.

Most brands see a winner and spend a week building something new from scratch.

The sophisticated approach treats iteration like a controlled experiment.

$20.1M in sales & 39% YoY growth. 
A huge part of that came from our Google Ads strategy. 
Here's the full breakdown ⤵

The foundational mistake most brands make:

They jump to tactics without understanding what they're optimizing for.

We spent weeks in research before acting:

✅ Multi-year search trends to map demand curves 
✅ Profitability mapping across every SKU 
✅ Competitor analysis on creative diversity and offers 
✅ Landing page audit to identify where traffic was dying

This research revealed the core problem:

Google's PMax algorithm was optimizing for volume, not profit.

Their consolidated campaigns funnelled 60%+ of budget into low-AOV purchases (£25-£40) while starving high-margin hero products (£150-£250).

Classic algorithm behaviour.

More conversions = better performance in Google's eyes.

Even if those conversions are killing your margins.

Here's what we did:

1. Product Segmentation by Profit Architecture

Split PMax into three distinct campaigns:
✅ High-AOV hero products (£150-£250) 
✅ High-margin seasonal bestsellers (40%+ margins) 
✅ Volume drivers (for retargeting and list building)

Each with separate budgets, creatives, and bidding.

Result: 45% lower CPA on high-AOV products.

2. The Full Seasonal Cycle (Not Just "Scale During Peak")

Most brands turn budgets up in November and call it seasonality strategy.

We ran a three-phase cycle:

Phase 1 - Pre-Season Momentum (October) Early-bird campaigns 30 days before peak demand. Locked in conversions before competition heated up.

Phase 2 - Aggressive Peak Scaling (Nov-Dec) Increased budgets 92% while holding 4X ROAS. This is the critical bit - most brands either under-scale (leave money on table) or over-scale (kill profitability).

Phase 3 - Post-Season Retargeting (Jan) Extended revenue cycle by converting browsers who didn't buy during peak. Captured an additional 15-20% of peak revenue.

3. PMax Creative Rotation

Test 3-4 new variants every 10-14 days 
Scale winners across all campaigns within 48 hours 
Kill underperformers after 7 days

4. Landing Page Segmentation by Intent

Generic product pages = generic conversion rates.

We built dedicated pages for: 
✅ Seasonal traffic (messaging tailored to "right now" demand) 
✅ High-AOV browsers (heavy social proof, urgency, risk reversal) 
✅ Returning visitors (bundle offers, loyalty messaging)

The bottom line:

Most brands have a scaling problem because they have a precision problem.

Google Ads will happily spend your budget.

It won't spend wisely unless you force constraints that align algorithm behavior with profit goals.

Segmentation isn't a tactic. It's a forcing function.

I've seen brands with 100+ active ads struggle to break $500K/month. And brands with 50 scale past $5M. 
The difference?

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

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? 

They're running 8-12 distinct angles simultaneously. Each angle might have 2-3 executions, but the strategic diversity is in the angles, not the volume.

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 the same winning ad.

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

This supplement brand was stuck selling to gym bros. 

We helped them hit $595k/month by talking to real people.

In early 2025, they came to us with solid traction in a niche audience, think high-protein macros, muscle recovery, bodybuilding lingo.

But our research showed something very different:

Their real growth potential wasn’t in gyms.

It was in busy, health-conscious women who wanted convenience, nutrition, and taste.

So we did what most agencies don’t:

We stopped guessing... and started listening.

🧠 Step 1: Deep Consumer Research (Not Just Surveys)

We went beyond surface-level insights:

✅ Poured through past survey data
✅ Analyzed 1000s of customer support tickets
✅ Reviewed post-purchase survey feedback via KnoCommerce
✅ Had the founders call customers to uncover why they really bought
✅ Cross-referenced with Google search data to understand intent

Insight: 60%+ of their customer base wasn’t fitness-focused... they were professionals, busy parents, women 30–50 who just wanted a quick, tasty, healthy option.

🧭 Step 2: Repositioning the Product Around Real-World Value

We rewrote the narrative from “macros & muscle recovery” to:

“Delicious, healthy breakfast in under 30 seconds”
“A filling, guilt-free way to start your day”
“Keeps cravings down. Keeps energy up.”

We rebuilt creative to match:

UGC + Reels from real customers, not influencers

Copy that focused on feelings (satiety, ease, flavor)

Lifestyle ads: women eating on-the-go, at work, with kids

The same product.

But it finally spoke to the people actually buying it.

🚀 Step 3: Creative x Media Buying Synergy

Most brands create ads in a vacuum.

We built a feedback loop between creative and media buying.

Here’s how:

Creative briefs were built using top-performing hooks and past winners

Weekly reviews to identify trends

Modular creative approach: Swappable hooks, offers, CTAs

Result?

35% higher engagement and 28% lower CPA with Reels vs. static.

📊 Step 4: Strategic Scaling, Not Spray & Pray

We scaled winners slowly: +20-30% budget every 2–3 days

Doubled down on ASC+ and segmented campaigns by persona

Recycled & refreshed past winners for retargeting

Built persona-specific landing pages aligned with the new messaging

We didn’t just “spend more.”

We created a scalable system.

🧪 Step 5: CRO & Offer Testing That Moved the Needle

Built new landing pages per persona (conversion uplift: +18%)

Simplified navigation + branding for first-time buyers

Introduced tiered discounts to increase AOV

Added post-purchase surveys to fuel future creative

Raised site speed scores from 13 → 66 (mobile)

💥 Results:
282% increase in monthly revenue YoY
$595k revenue 
34% increase in subscriptions
22% drop in CPA

If your brand has plateaued or you're only speaking to one version of your customer, you're leaving scale on the table.

Everyone’s seen IM8 broken down by now.

But most people are still missing what actually made it work.

After spending time properly dissecting their execution, it’s clear that a lot of the real leverage points are either misunderstood or completely glossed over.

What they built isn’t impressive because of the headline numbers.

It’s impressive because of how deliberately the system was designed.

A few things in particular are worth studying:

1. Their “Creator Army” is a production system, not an influencer play

IM8 didn’t rely on a handful of big names and hope for virality.

They built a distributed creator operation:

• 50–200+ micro-creators
• Hundreds to thousands of assets per month
• Centralised briefs + creative direction
• Licensing top performers for paid
• Small-budget testing at scale
• Scaling only what proves performance

Creators aren’t a channel.

They’re a manufacturing layer for paid media.

This is why they can sustain 3,000+ active creative variations without losing focus on one core offer.

Most brands bottleneck on creative.

IM8 engineered the bottleneck out of the system.

2. Offer depth, not product breadth

IM8 didn’t scale by launching more SKUs.

They did the opposite:

One core product.
No flavours.
One primary bundle.

Then they tested thousands of angles against the same offer.

Depth of offer > width of catalogue.

This is why they can run thousands of ads without fragmenting learnings or operational focus.

Most brands expand product lines to chase growth.

IM8 expanded message density around a single economic engine.

3. Funnel congruence is what unlocked 80% subscription conversion

Their subscription rate isn’t one clever trick.

It’s alignment across the entire funnel:

Defaults to subscription.
Pricing favours subscription.
Messaging frames transformation, not purchase.
Social proof validates the subscription choice.
Bonuses + guarantees remove risk.

Every element reinforces the same decision.

Most brands optimise pages in isolation.

IM8 optimised the system.

4. Their stubborn obsession with LTV is what makes everything else work

Subscription isn’t an add-on.

It is the business model.

That changes everything:

How aggressive they can be on CAC.
How much they can test.
How fast they can scale.

They’re not optimising for short-term ROAS.

They’re optimising for long-term economics.

That’s what gives them strategic freedom.

The bigger lesson:

IM8 didn’t win by being more aggressive.

They won by being more deliberate.

They removed complexity.

They built infrastructure for creative scale.

They aligned the entire funnel around lifetime value.

They let the algorithm handle targeting and focused humans on messaging.

Most brands are still trying to scale ads.

IM8 scaled a system.

That’s the difference.

Think your account is hitting a ceiling?

Here's how to tell if creative is actually the bottleneck👇🏼

Most brands blame Meta's algorithm, iOS, or audience saturation when performance plateaus.

But 90% of the time, the problem is creative infrastructure.

Here's a simple diagnostic you can run in 10 minutes:

Check #1: Pull your creative library

Count how many unique concepts you've tested in the last 90 days.

Not variations. Not hook swaps. Actual distinct concepts.

Compare to your monthly spend:

$10-30k/month → you need 7-10 concepts
$30-60k/month → you need 15-20 concepts
$60-100k/month → you need 20-30 concepts

If your number is 50% below these benchmarks, creative volume is your constraint.

Check #2: Look at your top 5 performing ads

How long have they been running?

If your best performers are 30+ days old and you don't have fresh winners graduating to replace them, you're one fatigue cycle away from a performance crash.

Healthy accounts have new winners graduating weekly. Stagnant accounts ride 2-3 ads until they die, then scramble.

Check #3: Calculate your hit rate

Total concepts tested ÷ concepts that scaled profitably = hit rate

If your hit rate is above 40%, you're not testing aggressively enough. 

You're playing it safe with concepts too similar to what's already working.

If your hit rate is below 15%, your creative strategy is broken. 

You're guessing, not testing hypotheses.

Sweet spot: 20-30% hit rate with high testing volume.

Check #4: Review your account structure

Are you testing new creative in the same campaigns where you're scaling winners?

If yes, you can't diagnose what's working. 

When performance drops, you don't know if:

Your winner fatigued
New tests are dragging down averages
Budget increases triggered learning phases
Testing and scaling need separate environments.

Check #5: Audit your production cadence

When was the last time you launched new creative?

If it's been more than 7 days, you don't have a production system, you have an ad hoc scramble.

Sustainable scale requires predictable creative flow. 

Weekly launches minimum at $30k+ spend.

What your answers mean:

If you failed 3+ of these checks, creative infrastructure is your bottleneck.

The fix isn't complicated, but it requires investment: 

→ Separate testing from scaling campaigns 
→ Build a weekly creative calendar 
→ Hire or contract production capacity that matches your spend 
→ Set clear kill criteria so bad creative dies fast 
→ Accept that 70-80% of tests will fail

The pattern I see constantly:

Brands scale spend from $15k to $60k without scaling creative production.

They wonder why they hit a ceiling at <$100k in spend.

It's not the market. It's that their creative engine can't support the volume their budget requires.

You can't deploy $2,000/day efficiently with 4 active creatives. The math doesn't work.

Run this diagnostic on your account right now.

If creative volume is your constraint, you know exactly what to fix.

Creative is your targeting mechanism. 

Audience selection has become largely irrelevant. 

Meta's ASC, Google's Performance Max, and TikTok's Smart+ all use creative assets as the primary signal for audience discovery. 

Manual targeting parameters have minimal impact on delivery. Most brands haven't rebuilt their production systems to match this shift. 

They're still optimizing for a model that no longer exists. 

The previous paradigm: 
Precision targeting, limited hero assets, long development cycles, targeting-led optimization. 

The current reality: 
Broad targeting, systematic testing infrastructure, rapid iteration, creative-led optimization. 

This creates a specific operational challenge: 

Brands need systems capable of 8-10 testable concepts weekly while maintaining strategic coherence. 

Our implementation framework: 

1. Strategic testing allocation - Structure your testing program to identify patterns, not just winners. 

Run creative against intentionally diverse audience segments within your broad targeting to understand which creative angles drive efficiency in which contexts. 

This reveals creative-audience fit patterns that inform production priorities. 

2. Systematic variation - Build a tagging taxonomy that tracks creative variables independently (hook type, problem framing, social proof format, CTA style). 

This lets you isolate which specific elements drive performance, not just which complete ads work. 

Most brands test whole ads and learn nothing transferable. 

3. Internal capability development - Train media buyers on basic design tools.

Use AI for headline variation at scale (20+ versions from each winning angle). 

This removes production bottlenecks from the testing pipeline. 

4. Offshore execution leverage - Deploy offshore talent for variation work, performance tagging, and competitive analysis. 

Reserve internal capacity for strategic decisions and creative direction. 

Results from a recent implementation: Beauty brand constrained by production capacity. 

30-day outcome: creative output increased from 20 to 60 monthly assets. 

The structural advantage belongs to mid-market brands ($25M-$250M annual). 

They can execute creative decisions without enterprise approval friction. 

The platforms have fundamentally changed the leverage points for paid acquisition. 

Brands that rebuild their creative systems accordingly will compound advantages over time.

Helping DTC Brands Scale 5+ New Ad Creatives Every Week // $150M+ In Trackable eCom Sales // DM me CREATIVE and let’s chat

DTC Brands: Click the button in my featured section below 👇

Evan Carroll

The creative strategist has become the most important role in DTC eCommerce.
 
Here are 3 things high-level creative strategists do in 2026:
 
1. They make data-driven decisions
 
The best creative strategists know where to find winning angles, and build systems that connect creative variables to performance outcomes.
 
→ They mine customer reviews for recurring language and pain points.
→ They study what's performing organically in their niche.
→ They analyze competitor ads to identify whitespace.
→ They pull insights from post-purchase surveys, support tickets, and community feedback.
 
Then they translate all of it into briefs with clear hypotheses - not guesses based on what looks good.
 
2. They make meaningful iterations on winning ads
 
Most brands make meaningless iterations.
 
In 2026, Andromeda groups visually similar ads together and limits their reach.
 
The best creative strategists isolate why an ad is winning:
 
→ The hook
→ The angle
→ The format
→ The creators performance
 
and they build new executions around that specific element.
 
Same insight, different delivery. That's how one winner becomes ten.
 
3. They take measured creative risks
 
Safe creative scales linearly - breakthrough creative scales exponentially.
 
The best creative strategists allocate a percentage of output specifically for testing concepts that may not be conventionally safe.
 
Formats they haven't tried, angles that seem counterintuitive, styles outside their comfort zone.
 
Every risk will have a hypothesis behind it, informed by what's working organically in their niche or adjacent categories.
 
Most big swings will miss - but one hit can outperform months of safe iterations.
 
A great creative strategist can 2x your business.
 
A weak one will have you stuck in the same place wondering why nothing is working.

DTC Growth Expert // $700M+ In Trackable DTC Sales // Scaling 7-9 Figure DTC Brands

6 Months ago, we 5X'd our creative output with AI
 
And we’re giving away the entire framework for FREE today.
 
We've been using AI Creative Strategists to produce new winning Facebook ads in a fraction of the time.
 
This has increased the output of our Creative Strategists by 5X.
 
The craziest part?
 
86% of our winning ads over the last 6 months have been produced with the help of these AI bots.
 
I've just recorded an 18-minute step-by-step training showing exactly how to build your own AI Creative Strategist from scratch.
 
I walk through:
 
✅ How to create the AI Creative Strategist bot
✅ How to train the bot in direct response copywriting
✅ How to train the bot on your brand voice and info
✅ The exact prompts we use to ideate new winning angles
✅ How we turn AI-generated ideas into winning ads
✅ The tool we use to make this all possible
✅ Real examples of the bot in action
 
We make 2000+ unique ad creatives every month using this AI system.
 
Which allows us to produce new winning ads in a fraction of the time.
 
To get access, all you need to do is:
 
• Connect with me
• Comment 'AI' below
 
And I'll send the 18-minute training straight over
 
PS. As a bonus, I'll include the exact prompt we use to train the bot in direct response AND the prompt library we use daily to find new winning ads faster.

---

Feel free to repost if you find it valuable to help someone in your network with their Facebook ads ♻️

Your greatest creative resource is not influencers or UGC creators.

It's your real, paying customers.
 
The problem? Getting content from them is a nightmare:
 
→ They're not creators
→ They don't know what to say
→ And they have no real incentive to help.
 
That's why we built a system to fix this.
 
It's our Customer Generated Content SOP - the exact process we use to source high-converting testimonial content from real customers.
 
Here's what's inside:
 
→ The offer structure that actually gets customers to respond
→ A high-converting email template you can steal
→ How to collect and organize footage at scale
→ The 9 questions we ask every customer to create mashup-ready content
→ How to turn raw footage into testimonial ads that convert
 
This content outperforms creator UGC almost every time - because it's real.
 
And you can have the full SOP for free.
 
To get access:
 
• Connect with me
• Like this post and comment 'SOP' below
 
And I'll send it straight over.
 
Ps. I've included the exact 9 questions we ask customers as a bonus - these are key to making the footage usable in mashups ♻️

There are no silver bullets in DTC eCommerce.
 
Only lead bullets - and most founders don't want to hear that.
 
When results dip, the temptation is always to look for the magic fix:
 
→ A new ad platform
→ A new agency
→ A new creative strategy
 
Something clever to sidestep the problem.
 
But silver bullets rarely solve your problems.
 
They may mask them for some time, but they won’t fix them for the long run.
 
In eCommerce, your growth will always lie in using lead bullets.
 
→ Better creative, tested on solid foundations
→ Tighter unit economics
→ Stronger offers
→ More volume, more iterations, more reps
 
The brands that struggle are the ones constantly chasing silver bullets.
 
They jump from agency to agency. Platform to platform. Strategy to strategy.
 
Always looking for the one thing that changes everything.
 
Brands that win pick up the lead bullets and get to work.
 
They go through the problem, not around it.

Most DTC brands slack off on Q1 creative.
 
They take everything that was working in Q4, strip away the offer, and keep it running.
 
But when the ads fatigue?
 
They're left with creative that doesn’t work anymore and no system to diagnose what's actually broken.
 
So they panic. Launch random concepts. Burn cash hoping something sticks.
 
We see this pattern every single year.
 
That’s why I’ve spent the last 3 years building an internal system we use to fix this exact problem.
 
It's our Q1 Creative Optimizations Cheatsheet.
 
Here's what's inside:
 
→ The exact creative benchmarks your ads need to hit in Q1
→ A diagnostic framework for 12 different metric scenarios
→ Step-by-step actions to take when ads underperform
→ Real-world iteration examples from our top accounts
→ How to turn winning Q4 creative into Q1 performers
 
High Hook Rate but tanking CVR? There's a fix.
 
Strong CTR but no conversions? There's a fix.
 
Every underperforming ad scenario has a specific solution.
 
This is how we help brands avoid the Q1 creative slump while competitors scramble.
 
And you can have it for free.
 
To get access:
 
1. Connect with me
2. Like this post and comment 'Q1' below
 
And I'll send the cheatsheet straight over.
 
PS. Q1 moves fast - get your creative dialed in now before February hits ♻️

A brand came to us spending $350k/month on Meta.
 
But we found something they didn't want to hear…
 
The founder was happy.

Their media buyer was happy.

Everyone thought they were crushing it.
 
Then we ran the numbers.
 
When we factored in their actual unit economics - COGS, transaction fees, shipping costs, pick and pack fees, return rate - we found something alarming.
 
They weren't profitable.
 
At all.
 
Every dollar they spent scaling was losing money.
 
Their "winning" 2.1 ROAS campaign needed to be at 2.6 ROAS just to break even on day one.
 
For them, this was earth shattering news - for us, it was just another Tuesday.
 
We get audit brands in this same situation at least 2-3 times per quarter.
 
After our audit, it’s always the same diagnosis: they’re scaling to bankruptcy.
 
Here’s where they went wrong:
 
They're making decisions based on platform ROAS without understanding their true unit economics.
 
Day-1 ROAS tells you nothing about actual profitability.
 
You need to know:

→ What's your gross profit per order after all costs?
→ What's your true breakeven CPA?
→ What does profit look like at 30, 90, and 180 days?
 
Because here's what we see constantly:
 
Some brands think they're profitable at 2.0 ROAS when they're actually bleeding cash.
 
Others sit at 3.5 ROAS thinking they're maxed out, when they could profitably scale all the way down to 2.2 ROAS and unlock massive growth.
 
The difference between these scenarios is often six figures in missed profit or wasted spend.
 
This is exactly why we built our Gross Profit Forecaster.
 
Before we onboard any client at Linear, we run their numbers through this tool to calculate:
 
→ True breakeven CPA and ROAS
→ Gross margin per order after all costs
→ Profit projections over time
→ Multiple scaling scenarios
 
This single tool has helped us identify profit leaks for 250+ brands.
 
And it might be the most important spreadsheet we have at the agency.
 
If you want to calculate your actual breakeven numbers and stop guessing:
 
• Connect with me
• Comment 'PROFIT' below
 
I'll send you the exact forecaster we use internally.

Most 7-8 figure brands operate on broken creative testing frameworks:
 
→ They rush production to hit volume targets
→ They don't have solid benchmarks for testing
→ They kill winning ads based on "early signals"
 
The result?
 
The account stalls with no new winners for months, leaving thousands on the table.
 
This is fixable with a robust creative testing framework.
 
Here's the exact system we're implementing:
 
𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝗟𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵:
 
→ ABO testing campaign
→ Broad targeting
→ 1 angle per ad set, 3-4 different iterations & formats
 
𝗗𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 (𝟱-𝟳 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗺):
 
→ Let ads spend 2-3x CAC before evaluation
→ Winners = below target CPA
→ Scale winners by 20-40% every 48 hours
→ Keep winners running in testing campaign
 
𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 (𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽):
 
This is where the real work happens.
 
You need to understand WHY each ad won or lost to inform your next round.
 
Analyze every variable:
 
→ Creator performance
→ Angle effectiveness
→ Winning formats
→ Hook strength
→ Pacing and length
 
Form a hypothesis. Test it. Extract learnings.
 
Use those learnings as your North Star moving forward.
 
Rinse and repeat.
 
The best brands obsess over the feedback loop.
 
When you systematically extract insights from every test, you build a data-driven creative engine that compounds with every iteration.

Your best Q4 ad had a 70% Hook Rate.
 
So you stripped the offer and kept it running into Q1.
 
Now it's bleeding money and you don't know why.
 
The creative didn't get worse. The context changed.
 
Q4 offers mask weak spots in your ads - Q1 exposes them.
 
And most brands have no system to diagnose what's actually broken.
 
Every metric combination points to a specific problem:
 
→ High Hook + Low CVR = Your hook grabs attention but has nothing to do with your product

→ Low Hook + High CVR = Strong ad buried under a weak opening

→ High CTR + Low CVR = Post-click experience is killing conversions

→ High Watch Time + Low CTR = No compelling reason to click
 
Once you understand these relationships, iteration becomes simple.
 
I have a Q1 Creative Cheatsheet breaking down every possible scenario with the exact fix for each.
 
Connect with me and comment 'Q1' below - I'll send it over.

People > Products > Profits
 
In that order. Always.
 
Most founders get this backwards.
 
They chase profits first. Products second. People last.
 
Then wonder why nothing works.
 
Here's why the order matters:
 
When you take care of your people first, they build great products.
 
Great products generate profits.
 
It's a simple chain - but it only works in one direction.
 
Reverse the order and everything breaks.
 
I've seen this play out dozens of times.
 
Founders who obsess over margins before investing in their team always end up in the same place.
 
Founders that grow build teams that build products that print money.
 
It's not complicated. But it requires discipline.
 
Because when cash gets tight, the temptation is always to flip the order.
 
Take care of the people.
 
The products will follow.
 
The profits will come.
 
In that order.

Most brands are sitting on a goldmine of UGC.

They just have no clue how to extract it.
 
In 2026 - people’s BS radars are stronger than ever.

That’s why nothing beats a testimonial form an actual buyers who already loves what you sell.

The problem is getting content from them feels impossible:

They're not creators.

They don't know what to film.

And a 10% discount isn't enough to get them off the couch.

Here's how we fix that:
 
→ Lead with a compelling offer
→ Email your top customers directly
→ Give them specific questions to answer
→ Have them upload to a shared folder

When you ask the right questions, you can mix and match clips to create testimonial mashups that feel authentic - because they are.

This content scales better than creator UGC because it's real social proof from real people.

We have an SOP that breaks down the entire process from offer to finished ad.

If you want a copy, connect with me and comment 'SOP' below - I'll send it over.

Here’s what no one tells you about AI UGC:

It works, but not always…
 
We spent a lot of time in Q4 of last year testing and running AI UGC
 
Here’s what we learned:
 
𝗔𝗜 𝗨𝗚𝗖 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻:

→ You need high volume for testing
→ The product demo is straightforward
→ Your team has the skillset to pull it off
 
𝗔𝗜 𝗨𝗚𝗖 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻:

→ Trust is the primary conversion barrier
→ The audience can spot inauthenticity
→ You're trying to build genuine connection
 
The whole point of UGC is simple:

humans trust other humans based on real experience.
 
When you remove the human element, you risk feeling hollow, disconnected, like you're cutting corners.
 
And audiences can feel that instantly.
 
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱:
 
When you stop treating AI UGC as a replacement, and start treating it as an enhancement - everything changes.
 
We saw the biggest wins when we combined AI elements with real creator content in post-production:
 
→ Real creator footage for authenticity
→ AI hook iterations for better performance
→ AI voiceovers for iteration speed
→ AI B-roll to supplement product demos
 
The hybrid approach gave us the best of both worlds: authentic connection with production efficiency.

I had to unlearn everything school taught me to succeed in business.
 
I'm a perfectionist.
 
I carried this mindset with me from high school all the way through my masters degree in chemical engineering.
 
Being a perfectionist served me well for over 15 years.
 
Until suddenly it didn't.
 
When I started my agency, I realized the world of business doesn't reward perfection.
 
It rewards speed.
 
In marketing, good & fast beats perfect & slow every single time.
 
Here's why:
 
When you wait for perfection, you're not just losing time - you're losing data.
 
Every day you spend perfecting is a day you could be learning what actually works.
 
Your competitor isn't waiting for the perfect ad.
 
They're launching 20 concepts this week and learning what works.
 
Your competitor isn't spending 3 weeks to perfect their landing page.
 
They're shipping it today and optimizing based on data tomorrow.
 
Your competitor isn't spending another month refining the perfect offer.
 
They're testing three versions right now and scaling the winner.
 
The best marketers don't make perfect launches.
 
They make incremental progress and compound their learnings over time.
 
This is how you win in marketing:
 
Launch. Iterate. Perfect.
 
Not the other way around.
 
I spent weeks trying to be perfect before I launched anything.
 
Now I launch fast and let the market make it perfect.
 
Perfectionism feels like diligence.
 
But in marketing, it's just expensive procrastination.
 
Progress beats perfection every time.

Your next 90 days as a 7-8 figure DTC brand: (to maximize revenue & profitability in Q1)
 
𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟭-𝟮: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁
 
Pull every ad that scaled during Q4 and dissect why it worked.
 
Not just the surface-level metrics.
 
The actual angle, hook, messaging, and emotional trigger that drove conversions.
 
This becomes the foundation for everything else.
 
𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟯-𝟰: 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁
 
Take each winning concept and create multiple variations.
 
→ New hooks
→ Different creators
→ Fresh visual styles
→ Less aggressive offer
→Same core angle.
 
𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟱-𝟴: 𝗔𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻
 
Q4 messaging was urgency, gifting, and deals.
 
Q1 messaging goes in-depth on solving real problems, and why your product is the answer.
 
Develop entirely new concepts built around these triggers while our iterations keep the account stable.
 
𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟵-𝟭𝟮: 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽
 
By March, you’ll have a full pipeline of tested concepts ready to scale into Q2.
 
No scrambling. No starting from zero. Just compounding momentum.
 
Most brands make the same mistake every January.
 
They strip the offer from their Q4 winners and ride them until they burn out.
 
Then they panic when February hits and nothing is working.
 
By March, they're starting from scratch with zero momentum.
 
This roadmap is how you prevent that.

There’s 1 trait that separates top performing DTC operators from average ones:
 
The best operators don't optimize for metrics.
 
They optimize for questions.
 
Here's what I mean:
 
Most DTC operators ask second-order questions:

→ "Why did ROAS drop this week?"
→ "Which ad should we scale?"
→ "How do we lower CPA?"
 
Elite operators ask first-order questions:

→ "What inputs create the conditions for sustained performance?"
→ "Which invisible systems govern our outcomes?"
→ "What can we remove to make this work better?"
 
One assumes the system is fixed.
 
The other assumes the system is the variable.
 
The truth no one wants to hear:
 
Great creative can't save poor unit economics.
 
Perfect landing pages can't fix a product no one wants.
 
Flawless ad account structure means nothing if you're measuring the wrong things.
 
Business isn't a series of tactics.
 
It's a design problem.
 
And the brands that win in 2026 aren't the ones with better ads.
 
They're the ones who understand that scale isn't about doing more.
 
It's about building systems that compound.
 
Systems that produce consistent creative feedback loops.
 
Systems that generate reliable data.
 
Systems that turn learning into leverage.
 
While everyone else chases performance, the best operators build the conditions that make performance inevitable.

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