The doctrine
Performance marketing, published.
Operator-grade doctrine on DTC growth, creative systems, and the way we run paid acquisition every day.
Creative StrategyAdvertorials vs Landing Pages: What Cold DTC Traffic Actually Needs
Every cold-traffic account eventually asks the same question: send the click to a pre-sell article or straight to the page? The honest answer is arithmetic, not identity. Here is the awareness logic, the category rules, and the pair math we use to route traffic.
2026-07-19
AI CreativeThe AI Ad Creative Workflow: How DTC Teams Ship 50 Ads a Week
AI collapsed the cost of producing an ad variant. It did nothing to the cost of knowing which variant to produce. The pipeline we run from angle brief to shipped ad: prompt libraries, image and video models, human QA gates, and the discipline that keeps volume from becoming noise.
2026-07-19
DTC OperationsFrom Amazon to DTC: The Expansion Playbook for Brands That Own a Category
The pitch says keep Amazon's fifteen percent. The operator math says your first DTC order usually costs more than Amazon ever charged, and the win arrives on order two. Here is the expansion sequence we run: brand search capture first, parity pricing, retention from order one.
2026-07-19
Industry PlaybooksBeauty and Hair Care Ad Angles That Scale (and the Ones That Fatigue)
Beauty is the most creative-hungry category we buy media in. The angles that scale are never the bottle-and-benefits ads: they are mechanism stories, texture proof, routines, and professional authority. Here are the six families that keep working, the compliance line, and the refresh cadence that beats fatigue.
2026-07-19
Unit EconomicsCash on Delivery Ecommerce in Europe: The Economics Nobody Writes Down
Cash on delivery is still how much of Central and Southeastern Europe buys online, and every refused parcel bills you for shipping twice while paying you nothing. We run COD brands and pay these courier invoices monthly. Here is the honest math, and the playbook that protects the margin.
2026-07-19
Unit EconomicsThe DTC Metrics Glossary: Every Number That Runs a Store, Defined
Two dozen numbers run every DTC store we touch: CAC, ROAS, MER, POAS, contribution margin, hook rate, and the rest. Each one defined the way operators actually use it, formula included, plus the five we pull first in any account audit.
2026-07-19
Launch StrategyThe First 90 Days of a DTC Launch: A Week-by-Week Media Plan
Most DTC launches die in the gap between optimism and arithmetic. Here is the 90-day media plan we run instead: breakeven math and kill criteria before a euro moves, a structured creative test, one consolidation, gated scaling, and an honest verdict at day 90.
2026-07-19
Google AdsGoogle Ads vs Meta Ads for DTC: The Budget Split That Makes Sense
Google will always show you the prettier ROAS. That is capture math, not better performance. Here is how the two channels divide the work for a DTC brand, the budget split we run at each stage, and how to read both accounts without double-counting a single order.
2026-07-19
Unit EconomicsHow Much Should a DTC Brand Spend on Ads? A Working Budget Framework
Every founder asks the budget question with a number in mind. The honest answer is a chain: contribution margin sets breakeven CPA, your margin target sets ROAS, and volume at that efficiency sets spend. Here is the framework, the worked example, and the calculator that runs it.
2026-07-19
AI SearchHow to Get Your Brand Recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini
Buyers ask ChatGPT what to buy and the assistant names three brands. No ad budget puts you in that answer. Here is the playbook that does: map the prompts your buyers use, win the sources assistants read, make your site quotable, and track it monthly like a channel.
2026-07-19
Email & RetentionThe 8 Klaviyo Flows Every DTC Store Needs (In Build Order)
Eight flows, one build order. Welcome, abandoned checkout, cart and browse, post-purchase, winback, back-in-stock, sunset, review request: the triggers, timing, and email counts we deploy on every Klaviyo account, plus the mistake we keep finding in each one.
2026-07-19
Meta AdsMeta Ads Account Structure for DTC in 2026: Fewer Campaigns, More Creative
Most Meta accounts we open are still structured like it is 2021: thirty campaigns splitting signal none of them can afford. Here is the consolidated structure we run instead: one scaler, one testing lane, cost caps from breakeven CPA, and creative doing the targeting.
2026-07-19
CROThe Product Page CRO Checklist: 21 Checks Before You Scale Spend
Every media plan eventually meets the same wall: the page. Before you scale spend onto a product page, run these 21 checks across the fold, the proof, the offer, and mobile speed. In the accounts we audit, the failures cluster in the same places every time.
2026-07-19
Industry PlaybooksSupplement Ads That Pass Review: The Meta and Google Compliance Playbook
Supplement ads fail review for predictable reasons: disease claims, personal call-outs, transformation imagery. Here are the three rejection classes, the claim framing that passes on both platforms, a pass/fail rewrite table, and the account health playbook we run when a rejection lands anyway.
2026-07-19
Launch StrategyTikTok Shop Momentum Into a Real DTC Brand: The Shopify Play
TikTok Shop gave you distribution most brands never touch. It also kept the customer list. Here is the play we run to convert viral momentum into an owned channel: Shopify alongside the Shop, proven creator content rebuilt as Meta ads, and email capture from order one.
2026-07-19
AI SearchWhat Are AEO and GEO? AI Search Optimization for Ecommerce, Explained
Buyers now ask ChatGPT which product to buy, and Google answers questions before showing links. AEO, GEO, and AIO are the three layers that decide whether your brand appears in those answers. Here is what each layer means, what actually drives citations, and the playbook we run.
2026-07-19
Unit EconomicsBreakeven ROAS: The Real Ecommerce Math Your Dashboard Hides
Most stores compute breakeven ROAS from dashboard revenue and call it a day. Then VAT, payment fees, and refused COD parcels eat the margin the spreadsheet promised. Here is the formula that survives contact with a real P&L, and the free calculator that runs it.
2026-07-18
Creative StrategyThe Creative Machine: How DTC Brands Scale Creative to Dominate Meta
The brands scaling hardest on Meta are not winning on targeting. They win on two engines: a unique mechanism that unlocks dozens of angles, and a creative machine that turns one good idea into the volume the platform now rewards.
2026-06-30
