Jake Abrams

I help 7-9 figure DTC brands with revenue & CAC | I write The Process, a newsletter about modern growth marketing | Sold 100K+ personal cooling devices

Consumer Marketing & Growth Leader.  

Brands I've worked with:

Caraway
Jones Road Beauty
Skylight
Canopy
Insurify
Naked Wines
Rugiet
Sundays For Dogs
Momofuku
Sunday Lawn Care

100+ others

Book a discovery call in the featured section below 👇

Founder

The lean DTC growth marketing partner that I wish existed when I was an in-house marketing lead. 

At Odyssey, we help 7 & 8-figure DTC brands increase revenue & ROAS by finding the right combination of:

- Messaging
- Audience targeting
- Media channel allocation
- Creative

https://www.growodyssey.com/

Comfrt Clothing, Frost Buddy, and Underbrush are all using the same strategy to consistently go viral on TikTok while building massive creative pipeline.

Some marketers call it "nichemaxxing." I've created a 19-page playbook to help you deploy the exact same strategy for your brand.

Here's what's inside the Brand Nichemaxxing playbook:

- 4-tier content matrix from AI to hero content
- PDA framework for building micropersonas
- Full tech stack: Higgsfield, Genviral, Octo, Snowball, Discord, etc...
- Creator outreach templates that actually get replies
- Cost structures for every creator tier
- Winner selection framework for scaling organic to paid

The idea is simple: own the interest graph first, then amplify with paid.

Most brands do it backwards. They spend on ads before they understand what resonates.

This playbook walks you through 6 phases: niche definition, account setup, content architecture, creator recruitment, production rhythm, and measurement.

Get the 19-page playbook for free. No email gate. Just take it and use it.

1. Follow me
2. Like this post
3. Comment "playbook" and I'll send you the link.

Nichemaxxing across paid & organic social for 8-9 figure consumer brands | Writing about AI & advertising | Sold 100k+ personal cooling devices

This AI agent analyzed 12,500+ customer reviews and support tickets for an 8-figure DTC brand, created its own documentation for overcoming objections across hundreds of SKUS, then just started doing it...directly on the PDP.

Using AI like this can mean the difference between a 2.8% CVR and a 1.7% CVR. 

Essentially an agent that lives on your site, is trained on your catalog and every meaningful customer touchpoint, that can answer every question in 20 seconds or less.

These agents can handle conversion killers like:

Product fit: "Will this luggage fit in Delta's overhead bin?"
Comparisons: "Hard shell vs soft-shell for business travel?"
Technical specs: "Does it have 360° spinning wheels?"

I'm giving away the an 8-minute Loom video showing use cases for this type of agent, plus a guide to setting this up on your Shopify site in 15 minutes.

To get the video and guide:

1. Connect with & follow me
2. Comment "agent" below
3. I'll DM you the link

#DialogPartner

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The smartest people at Meta will tell you to build ads around motivators, not just micropersonas. 

I like this shift to motivators, because it forces you to start the creative process from a better spot.

Personas make you think about demographics. You end up with a bulleted list about a fictional human named Sarah who likes yoga and shops at Whole Foods. Nothing about that tells you what makes Sarah pull our her credit card and spend $150. 

Motivators do, though. 

When I do creative strategy now, I start by mapping out the actual motivators behind someone would buy or be interested in a brand. 

So for Sarah, maybe it's "I need an outfit that works for the December holiday party."

Then for each motivator, you map one core benefit that delivers the solution. That way, you build the creative around that feeling, not around "Sarah."

Then I do it for another motivator. And another....

By the time you've worked through 4-5 of them, you've got a full portfolio of creative assets, each built around a different reason to buy. Different themes, different visuals, different emotional angles. All for the same product.

That's the part people miss, I think. You're not trying to reach different types of people. You're trying to speak to different reasons to take action. A single product can have five completely different ads that all make total sense.

I feel like that's how you scale creative without running out of ideas or making yourself crazy with format multiplication.

Turn 35 today. Sheesh.

Here are 35 takeaways I have from the last 6 years as a "non-business" person building a business with 30+ people:

1. Expect daily disappointment
2. It's ok to be demanding if that's the clear standard
3. The ideas in your head are smart
4. Respect the audience's attention
5. Show undeniable proof
6. Work with challengers
7. Build systems for 50x output
8. Stay on the forefront of technology
9. Extreme bias for action
10. Creative generalists win now
11. Get over fear of speaking to your phone
12. AI + bad taste = epic fail
13. Rip structures, use original thoughts
14. Incentives drive everything
15. Pretty much everyone is winging it
16. Overcome initial content creation friction
17. Grow your own accounts first
18. Authenticity on Zoom is a superpower
19. Daily follow-ups with blockers, Mr Beast style
20. Work should feel like video game
21. Non-business people build differently
22. Ideas die without proper execution
23. Attention is the most sacred currency
24. Charge more than feels comfortable
25. Comfortable teams ship mediocre work
26. Systems unlock exponential output
27. Tech resistors always lose
28. Speed + direction = unfair advantage
29. Generalists are more important than specialists
30. Loom videos beat meetings
31. Tools don't fix shitty taste
32. You can only get so far ripping other's ideas
33. It's ok to start ugly
34. Practice what you preach, or else you're a fraud
35. Build leverage before you need it

---

Feel free to follow along as I document the path to building a $10M+ agency in 2026 by helping 50+ brands manifest the next era of paid social.

https://lnkd.in/epcpxd4V

I built a 250-video visual script library application in a day with Replit, Airtable, and Gemini. 

So I recorded an 8-minute Loom video outlining the entire process. 

I'm not an engineer. I did run marketing for a coding bootcamp, and maybe that experience helped me overcome the fear of "being technical."

Here's what I cover in the Loom video:

- Why my Airtable database was useless until I made this
- How I used Replit to put a visual frontend over raw data
- The hover-to-play feature that made this actually usable 
- How it auto-analyzes any TikTok or Dropbox link in ~60 seconds
- The prompt I use to extract hooks, transcripts, and full scripts
- How we use it to rewrite winning ads for new brands
- The N8N nightmare I replaced with this

I've been in marketing since 2013 and run a creative agency working with 50+ brands. This is the internal tool I wish I had years ago. 

Want the full 8-minute Loom walkthrough?

Follow or connect with me
Like this post
Comment "Build" 

And I'll send it over.

---

Repost for priority access.

I know an AI agent that sat on a DTC brand's PDP for 2 weeks, captured every question from shoppers, then showed the brand exactly why visitors weren't converting.

Using AI like this can mean the difference between a 2.8% CVR and a 1.7% CVR.

Essentially, this is an agent that lives on your product pages, answers questions in real time, and logs every conversation as a data point. After 2 weeks, you have a clear picture of what's blocking purchases within an easy-to-understand dashboard. 

These agents can handle conversion killers like:

- Compatibility: "Is this compatible with my device?"
- Confusion: "What's the difference between X and Y?"
- Fit: "Will this actually work for me?"

85% of this feedback normally dies in chat logs. But agents like this can turn that data into an actionable CRO roadmap.

I'm giving away a step-by-step Notion document that explains exactly how to set up this system on your PDP’s… 

So you have AI handling conversations, running an analysis on why people didn't buy, and delivering that to you in a dashboard with visualizations.

Works for any Shopify brand doing $1M+. Free to install, takes ~15 minutes.

To get the Notion doc:

1. Connect with and follow me
2. Comment "insights" below
3. I'll DM you the link

#DialogPartner

One of our creators just hit 50k views on a single TikTok.

She has 6,500 followers. She's paid ~$500/month for ~25 posted TikToks plus bonuses based on views her content drives.

This creator is an actual customer. She had a real transformation with this product. The proof is undeniable in the video she posted, and that's why it worked.

You can't script something like this. You can't hire a generic UGC creator to fake it. You can't recreate it in Higgsfield.

She's in our Discord community, where we're sharing tips for going viral and building a community around helping people earn by sharing their authentic stories.

It's all real. No generic content or fake testimonials.

This is the nichemaxxing strategy for 2026.

Massive communities of real people within a specific niche who you coach to go viral on TikTok. Everybody wins.

You have to be doing this as a brand in 2026.

The creative bottleneck doesn’t exist in 2026.

Learn:

Claude
Octo
Wispr Flow
Snowball

Combine with:

Exceptional creative taste
Operational psycho-ness
Next-level communication skills

Might sound harsh, but you gotta figure it out or you'll get left behind.

It takes you way too long to write scripts, and it's not your fault. 

It's because you keep having to re-feed the context to your creative strategy copilot every single time, and that's extremely annoying to do. 

Instead, run use this 3-part architecture that I custom built out for my agency:

First, work backwards from a format you already know worked. Have Gemini analyze the entire video. 

Second, you pull that context into Claude, which already has project files about everything you need to know about the brand you're writing for.

Third, your Claude needs a set of overarching skills that sit within your Claude organization that tell it how to write like your agency or you. 

When you do this, the output is actually good. It's not a shitty first draft. 

Because Claude already has the direction...what made the original format work, how to write like the brand, and how to be good at creative strategy. 

That's the architecture.

I recorded a quick video walking through exactly how I set this up. Watch it if you're tired of re-explaining your Claude how to write like your brand or write like a real creative strategist.

Here's the embarrassing truth that a lot of "AI is replacing everything" bros haven't talked about honestly...

Making good AI video content at scale is actually kinda hard.

Getting prompts right is a skill. It takes time to develop. You have 8-12 seconds per scene. Iteration is slow. A lot of the output you get early on is going to be unusable and you're going to waste a lot of time. 

Compare that to certain types of content that are just genuinely faster to shoot on your phone.

For example: I've been making 7 talking head "yap" videos per week for my own TikTok that I've grown to 27k+ followers. I just pick up my phone and speak for 60-90 seconds. And then it's done.

Why would I spend the time to clone myself and try to recreate something with AI tools that will always feel slightly off, when it doesn't save me any time or cost? Plus people will hate me for AI-ing myself. 

How about if you're Comfrt Clothing, and your top performing TikTok affiliate videos are just Gen Z-ers in their bedrooms taking selfie videos? They just show off their hoodie, show off a few features, and add a caption. That's a 15-minute shoot on an iPhone.

There is no AI workflow that beats that for speed, cost, and authenticity.

So before you burn 20 hours crafting an AI workflow for videos that are easier to just shoot with your phone... ask yourself if it's actually worth it.

A Matthew McConaughey & Timothée Chalamet interview recently went viral, in which McConaughey said that the moral plea against AI is not strong enough and will lose out to the economic incentives.

No lies told there. 

But here's what might actually slow it down:

Everybody hates "AI passed off as real" content.

No major brand I know would unleash an army of AI influencers right now who are pretending to be real. That nuance is everything. The brand risk is enormous.

Maybe that changes in 10-15 years when Gen Z and Gen Alpha are the primary consumers and the cultural relationship with AI-generated content has shifted.

Impossible to actually know.

But in the next year? 

AI takes over certain categories, but humans retain control of most categories.

Because authenticity and emotional connection is still what builds brands. 

Faking it has massive consequences.

DTC brands, I would STOP making $300 UGC videos and immediately firing them into your ad account.

This used to be a logical strategy. But in 2026, you're missing the bigger opportunity.

I've worked with 100+ consumer brands, and so many are spending 100% of their time "creating content for paid", and 0% of their time deploying it organically first.

If your ad account is full of unspent creatives, do this instead:

- Scrape your customer reviews for content ideas using Motion (Creative Analytics) or Claude
- Scrape organic TikTok for winning angles using Snowball
- Talk to your ad account data using Octo
- Identify good creators with Meta creator marketplace
- Set up a Discord to manage and motivate them

Then:
- Get creators on performance deals where they post to their own accounts
- Build your own network of slideshow & faceless accounts
- Deploy every creative test organically first
- Prioritize putting paid spend behind content that earned organic views

Test this for 30-60 days.

You'll see massive improvements in creative volume & winning creatives while reducing wasted ad testing spend. Plus you'll build a massive halo that lifts your entire business. 

Let that drive which content deserves your paid budget.

You're stuck at $250k/month in Meta spend because you don't understand exactly what's happening inside the system you're feeding money into. 

Let me break down the 4-model architecture running your ads:

ANDROMEDA
This is the retrieval engine that scans tens of millions of ads to find candidates for each impression.

GEM
This is the ranking superbrain that takes Andromeda's pool and decides which ad wins the impression.

LATTICE
This is the consolidation layer that connects multiple ranking models and shares learnings across Feed, Reels, and objectives.

SEQUENCE LEARNING
This helps model user behavior over time. Not just one impression, the full sequence of actions before and after.

How they work together:
→ Andromeda retrieves 
→ GEM + Lattice rank 
→ Sequence learning personalizes.

What this means if you spend $250k+ / month as an 8-9 figure brands:

- Creative diversity is how you deliver ad candidates
- More variants = more signals = better matching
- The AI handles distribution, you handle inputs

You need operational willingness to hit quality + quantity + differentiation b/c that's what the entire system runs on.

I built my first real vibe coding app with Airtable, Replit, and Gemini. 

Process was:
- I built out this big Airtable databse
- Gemini analyzes any video and put the analysis in Airtable
- I created a front end for this using Replit

You can hover over the videos, and they auto play. You can open them up, and get the script. .You can even copy a prompt that you can preload into Claude
to do a rewrite of that video for your specific brand.

The prompt auto checks the project files in Claude that tell it how to write like that brand, and then it does a rewrite and gives you all this extra helpful context.

This was a massive game changer for my process of:

- Working backwards from a format
- Adapting it for the brands that I'm working with
- Applying my creative taste to edit the content in a human way afterward

"Content creators are toast, AI is going to replace all of you."

Here's why I believe this take is fundamentally wrong...

I run an AI-native creative agency. I use AI every single day. And I genuinely believe AI is one of the most important shifts happening in our industry.

AI will infiltrate certain categories and never touch others.

Any animation that is not Pixar-level, top 5%...is probably gone. Why pay $5,000 when you can prompt and tweak something that is relatively comparable?

Same with word walls, cinematic story ads, static creative, memes, and product renders.

But then there's content where the entire f*****g point is that it's real.

Pull up Comfrt Clothing on Kalodata. They're doing $10M+ per month on TikTok Shop. Look at their top 10 revenue-driving videos. None of them are AI. Almost all are real micro and mid-level influencers.

Because the content that works on TikTok is "I am a real person who bought this thing and here's what I think."

The second that's AI, the whole thing falls apart. 

At the end of the day, authenticity has always been the driver of building the best brands.

That didn't change just because it got cheaper to fake it.

Brands that have hired ex-Odyssey team members:

Gruns
Hexclad
AG1
Trip

I don't believe there is a better place to learn modern creative strategy, as long as you're hellbent on joining the top 1% of humans at this skill. 

We're hiring again for a critical position to help us deliver on our goal to elevate 8 & 9-figure consumer brands into the top 1% of their category for creative diversification & distribution. 

Apply here: https://lnkd.in/eYex6PPW

To apply: send a Loom video showing proof of two things:

1. A TikTok Shop you've managed...walk us through the results & what you did personally to grow it.

2. A Discord creator community you've managed...show us the server, your activity, and how you kept it engaged and growing.

"Do you get brands from posting on TikTok?"

I don't even know what to say back, cause I don't think of things that way. 

All I think about is:

- The thoughts in your head about marketing are actually smart
- If you pair them with the right hook, people will pay attention
- Just keep putting that out there, into the world
- They will find the right people
- When they're ready, they will just reach out
- I have a better chance than someone they never saw in their feed

That's literally it.

Let's say you need to build 10+ affiliate programs from scratch.

The goal: onboard 30+ micro-influencers per brand within 15 days.

Here's the setup:

Target: creators with 5k-50k followers already posting in each brand's niche (not random people)

Half the brands sell on TikTok Shop. Half don't due to business model constraints.

Compensation structures vary by creator:
• Commission-only + free product
• Retainers for high volume (30 posts/month) + view bonuses
• Retainers + sales commissions

Requirements:
• Full content buyout for ad rights across all platforms
• Dead simple process for sparking and partnership ads
• Ability to manage multiple programs simultaneously

Nice to haves:
• Payment management
• Dynamic creator payments based on CPM model

What's the 10/10 tech stack for this for < $2,500 / month?

Is it:
• Just Upfluence
• Just Aspire
• Just SARAL - The Influencer OS
• Refunnel + a CRM like Streak 
• Social Snowball ☃️ + a CRM like Streak 
• Superfiliate + a CRM like Streak 
• Some other combination
• Something else entirely

You need operational efficiency here. 

What have you used at true scale that actually works?

Upfluence

Aspire

SARAL - The Influencer OS

Refunnel

Streak

Social Snowball ☃️

Superfiliate

Jack Dorsey fired 40% of Block staff "because of AI."

Here's exactly what to do next if you're afraid of being next...

18 random thoughts from growing my TikTok from zero to 26k+ followers in a few months.  

- I kinda think you're a fraud if you make content for a living but are unable to grow your own social accounts
- Every thought-out LinkedIn post is a script for TikTok
- Unscripted TikToks become more LinkedIn Content
- Just fire off that "hot take"

- Audio quality matters more than camera quality
- Just buy the RØDE mic, it's awesome
- Making your own videos is best way to become a better CS
- Every CS should try to grow a TikTok, even it's a faceless account

- The hook is everything
- The hook should be oddly specific: use keywords and numbers
- TikTok "categorizes" you, and it becomes easiest to get views in that category
- The random thought in your head is good enough for TikTok, as long as you have a specific hook

- It's easier to get views on TikTok than LI w/o resorting to "lead magnets"
- It's possible to work out and make 3 TikToks during my kid's naptime
- People will watch and comment even if it's just a talking head video
- Your audience is on TikTok b/c everybody is on TikTok

- TikTok drives real business opportunities
- I had 3 leads comes through last week who discovered us on TikTok

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

TikTok and Meta ads for DTC Brands | Creative Strategist | UGC Producer|Founder of Tok-Vibes.com

Hi, I’m Oli!  a creative strategist who helps DTC brands turn scrolls into sales. I blend storytelling and data to build ads that not only grab attention but also drive growth. Here’s what I do best: I dig deep into your ad data and customer psychology to find out what truly makes your audience click. Then I craft fresh ad concepts (often leveraging UGC and AI content) grounded in those insights. The result = Campaigns that lower your CAC, boost ROAS, and scale your revenue sustainably. Over the past 5+ years, I’ve helped startups and global brands alike smash through growth plateaus:🔹 Scaled Loop Earplugs to exceed a $18M Q4 sales goal by 33%. (Yes, we overshot the target by a mile!)🔹 Drove 3.5X ROAS on $150K ad spend for a DTC accessory brand by reinventing their creative strategy (20% above benchmark performance)🔹 Cut CPA by 18% for a skincare client and found new customer angles that led 5 out of 50 test ads to drive 70% of their online revenue.I’m a founder, too... I launched an accessory brand with an innovative first product that I designed myself. I partner with you, founder-to-founder, treating your business like my own. If something isn’t working, I’ll tell you. If I spot an untapped opportunity, I’ll seize it. My approach in a nutshell: Test, learn, iterate. 📊 I run structured ad tests (thanks to my nerdy side that loves numbers) and then double down on the creatives that perform. No fluff, no ego.. just actionable insights and winning ads. And because I started as a content creator myself, I excel at producing ads that feel real and relatable (not like those stiff “agency” ads). On a personal note, I’m a bit of a nomad and nerd: I’ve lived on 3 continents, speak English &amp; French, and once grew a fitness Instagram to 15k followers just by talking about protein pancakes. 🥞 (Turns out, authentic content really does attract an audience...a lesson I carry into my ad strategies!). When I’m not optimizing campaigns, you can find me in a Reformer Pilates class and having lunch on a terrace with a friend.Ready to scale your DTC brand with ads that convert? Let’s chat. 😊 Send me a DM or book a call through my profile link, and let’s spark your next phase of growth.

Oli Cimet

We started cussing in our ads.
Performance went through the roof.

Here's why.

Client sells to blue collar guys. Construction workers, mechanics, tradesmen.

These dudes don't say "I'm quite dissatisfied with my current solution."

They say "this shit doesn't work."

So we stopped writing ads that sounded like a marketing team wrote them.

We wrote ads that sounded like their customers talk.
"Retire this shit."
"Rate: excellent. Because we're not f*cking around."

The client was nervous. "Can we really say that?"
I said let's test it.


Clean version: 1.6x ROAS.
Raw version: 3.2x ROAS.

Double the performance. Same product. Same offer. Just different words.


Your customer should watch your ad and think "this is for me" before they even see the product.
That only happens when the tone matches.
Match the mouth. Not the brand guidelines.

QuickFrame Creator: Meta Platform Expert

QuickFrame Creator: TikTok Platform Expert

Certified Personal Trainer & Nutrition & Postnatal Coach

Visual communication -  Front End 

Back-End Web Developer

Fashion Styling and Editorial Certification

Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce

Meta & TikTok ads for DTC Beauty & Health brands | Performance Creative Strategist | Ecom | Startups to Fortune 500s

Tok-Vibes is a small creative strategy team that crafts ad campaigns rooted in psychology and boosts performance. 

I'm an expert in growing DTC businesses, but outside of work I've:

Lived on three different continents, built a holistic health brand, and became a Pilates reformer lover.

Creative Strategy Studio for 7-8 Figure DTC Brands | Performance Creative for Meta & TikTok | Creator of the Tok-Vibes Method™

McDonald's CEO called his own burger a "product" on camera.
Your customer can tell when you do the same thing in your ads.

Every time your ad says "our solution is this revolutionary ingredient" instead of just "This stuff ATE my morning routine. I'm not going back"

Every time your creator holds the product like a prop instead of something they actually use.

Every time your script sounds like a template instead of a person...

Your customer feels it. And they scroll.

The brands winning are the ones that feel the most real.

Not "our proprietary formula supports gut health."
More like "I stopped bloating in a week and I'm genuinely mad I didn't try this sooner."

One sounds like a brand. The other sounds like a person.

Your customer buys from people. Not logos.

Start talking about it like someone who actually uses it.

No alternative text description for this image

$310K in revenue.
$112K in ad spend.
Still not profitable.
And that was the plan.
Most founders see a revenue number and assume profit.

A skincare brand hit $310K/mo.

 From the outside, it looks like a massive win.

The reality: $112K in ad spend. Plus COGS, transaction fees, vendors, admin. The math barely breaks even.
On purpose.
Because the founders made a strategic decision: acquire as many subscription customers as possible at break-even before competitors catch up.

Short-term profit? Zero.

Long-term value? Thousands of recurring subscribers who pay every month without another dollar of ad spend.

This is a real strategy. But it's not the right strategy for everyone.

If your margins are thin, you can't afford to scale at break-even.

If you don't have subscription revenue, there's no "long game" to play.
If your product doesn't retain customers, you're just buying expensive one-time purchases.

Before you "scale aggressively," answer this:

What's the 6-month value of every customer you're acquiring?
If you don't know that number, you're not scaling.
You're gambling.
Know your CLTV before you crank your budget. That's the difference between aggressive growth and aggressive waste.

You know that ad you pulled from Ad Library? Your customer saw it 3 weeks ago. From them.

A client came to me doing $120K/mo.

Solid product. Solid team. Ads were "working."

But growth was flat. Same revenue for 4 months straight.

I pulled their ad account. Then I pulled their top competitor's Ad Library.
Nearly identical.

Same hooks. 
Same script structure.
Same angles. 

Your customer already saw that ad. From them.

Same audience. Same feed. Same message. Different brand.

So when your ad shows up, it doesn't feel new. 
It feels like a rerun.

And people scroll past reruns.

We scrapped everything.

Went into Reddit threads, Amazon reviews, Reviews, Youtube,Tiktok

Found 4 pain points their competitor wasn't even talking about.

Built new concepts around those.

First month: 3 out of 4 outperformed anything they'd run in the last 6 months.

Because we said something different to an audience that was tired of hearing the same thing.

Your Ad Library isn't your strategy.
Your customer's unspoken problems are.

"F*** Meta Ads. I'm done."
I hear you.
But your competitors aren't done.
They're still in your customer's feed. 
Still testing. Still showing up.
And the customer you spent months warming up? 
They're about to buy from someone else.
Meta didn't break. It stopped rewarding lazy creative.
Same ad. Same format. Same angle for 6 months? 
The algorithm is bored. 
Your audience is bored.
The brands scaling right now are testing new angles weekly. 
Mixing formats. Making ads that feel like content.
Before you quit, ask yourself:
When's the last time you made something your customer would actually want to watch?
Don't quit the platform. 
Fix the creative.
The founders leaving right now are making it cheaper for the ones who stay.

"Struggling with [problem]? Meet [product]."
You've seen this ad. So has everyone else. 400 times this week.
74% of new web content is now AI-generated. Every brand is using the same tools to write the same copy with the same hook-USP-CTA formula.
The internet is drowning in ads that sound like ads.
And your customer can smell it instantly.
They don't read your USP. They don't click your CTA. They scroll past anything that feels like a template.
What stops them?
Something that sounds like a person, not a brand.
Not "Are you tired of acne?"
More like "My dermatologist was shocked when..."
One is an ad. The other is a mirror.
Your customer stops for mirrors. Not billboards.
The dead internet killed copy that sounds like copy.
The brands still winning? They sound human.

The brands spending $400K+/mo that keep scaling are the ones that treat creative like a production system

At $400K+/mo in ad spend, your #1 bottleneck isn't budget. It's creative.

The algorithm is hungry. You're feeding it the same 4 ads it already optimized for. It's chewing through your audience faster than you can refresh the content.
Then you blame "audience fatigue" or "platform changes."
It's not fatigue!!!!!

It's starvation. 

You starved the algorithm of new creative.

Here's the ratio that works at scale:
For every $100K/mo in spend, you need 8-12 new creatives per week.
Not random concepts. Strategic variations built from what's already working.
Break down your winners:

What hook stopped the scroll?
What visual held attention?
What angle drove the click?

Now rebuild each element with slight twists. 
same body different format 
Same hook but in a static
new creator
Same angle, new format....

The brands spending $400K+/mo that keep scaling are the ones that treat creative like a production system. 

Not a brainstorm session every other Tuesday.

Volume isn't the opposite of quality. It's how you FIND quality.

Day in the life of a creative strategist growing Tok-Vibes.
5:30am
Lemon water. supplements. 10 minutes of not thinking about ads. This is non-negotiable.
5:40am
Open every client's ad account. Check what happened. What scaled? What died? What's in learning phase? I flag anything that moved more than 15% in either direction.
6:00am
I log WHY.
I write down what I think happened. "CPA down 12% on women 35-44." "Body holds but CTA is weak..." "Founder vulnerability sells. The story earns enough trust.. Keep the founder as a recurring character across future ads..."

This log is the most valuable document in my business. Over time, patterns emerge that no dashboard shows you.

9:00am
Daily alignment with my strategist team. We call this the morning brainstorm.
Everyone shares what they're seeing across their accounts. What's winning. What's dying. What angles are popping off in one niche that we should test in another.
One strategist notices a before/after hook crushing it for a skincare client. Another one's seeing the same format flop for supplements. We talk about why. We riff on what to try instead.

This is where the best ideas come from. Not one brain. Multiple strategists cross-pollinating insights across brands every single morning.

9:30am
Brief writing block. This is deep work. No Slack. No calls.

Every brief has a strategic reason behind it. 

Each brief includes hooks, headline, script, on-screen text, CTA, shot list, and editor notes. 

editors shouldn't have to guess anything.

11:30am
Gym. I leave the laptop. My brain needs to not look at a screen for 2 hours. Some of my best ideas happen when I'm working out.

1:30pm
I scroll TikTok while drinking coffee... I scroll the burner accounts I created for each client.
I'm watching what the algorithm serves their audience. What sounds are trending. 
This looks like "she's just scrolling." It's the most valuable research I do all week.

2:30pm
Collaboration block. This is when I review edits from editors, send feedback, approve finals, and hop on quick calls with clients if needed.

3:00pm
Competitor and trend research. I check Atria for what's running in each client's space. I check ads.tiktok.com for top performers by category. I screenshot anything interesting and drop it into the team workspace.
This is where next week's briefs start forming.


5:00pm
Laptop closes. Done.


Not every day looks exactly like this. Some days are messier. Some clients need more. Some weeks are heavier on briefs, others on strategy calls.
But the structure stays the same:
Data first. Team alignment second. Briefs third. Research always. Log everything.

That's how we deliver briefs each week without ever guessing what to make next.

And that's what running a creative strategy studio actually looks like.
It's not glamorous. It's disciplined. And discipline is what scales brands.

My highest-performing ad last month was built from 3 dead ads.

Here's the method:

Ad 1 died at 1.4x ROAS. But the hook had a 42% thumb-stop rate..
Ad 2 died at 1.2x ROAS. But the body story held people for 18 seconds. Great retention.
Ad 3 died at 0.9x ROAS. But the CTA had a 4.1% click-through. Way above average.

Each ad failed as a whole. But each had one part that worked.

So I stitched them together.

Hook from Ad 1 + Story from Ad 2 + CTA from Ad 3.

Result: 3.4x ROAS. Scaled to 5fig ad spend quick.

I call this the Frankenstein method.

Most brands look at ads as pass/fail. Winner or loser.

I look at ads as parts. Hook. Story. Proof. CTA.

A "failed" ad with a great hook isn't a failure. 

It's a hook you haven't paired with the right body yet.
Stop killing ads. Start harvesting them.

I heard a barista tell a customer yesterday:
"Sorry, we're out of oat milk. We've been out all week because I keep forgetting to tell my manager we need more."
The customer left.
That barista just showed me every founder's scaling problem in one sentence.
You know there's a problem.
You know how to fix it.
But you haven't systematized the fix.
In DTC terms:

You know your best ad is dying (the oat milk is running out)
You know you need new concepts (you need to reorder)
But you haven't built the system to flag it and act on it

Most brands don't fail because they don't know what to do.
They fail because they don't build the system that makes sure it gets done.

Every Meta Ads tutorial teaches you to sell the problem.
That works for some industries. but it can kill your brand.

Nobody has a "pain point" about t-shirts for example.
Nobody googles "my current hoodie is ruining my life."

Fashion isn't a solution. It's an identity.

For these products, you need to stop testing pain points. Start testing identities.

Not "premium cotton, relaxed fit."

More like "this outfit ATE and I need everyone to know."

The fashion brands scaling past $100K/mo right now aren't pitching their clothes.

They're making you want to be the person wearing them.
That's the ad.

If you're stuck and wondering why the ads aren't adsing 

it's because some frameworks weren't built for you.

some needs its own playbook.

Stop testing "Women 25-45."
Start testing "Women who bought competitor X in the last 30 days."

Here's what happened when I tightened targeting for a skincare client:
Broad test: $180 CPA, 1.4x ROAS
Competitor purchaser test: $35 CPA, 3.1x ROAS
Why?
People who JUST bought a solution are still in "seeking" mode.
Either they're not satisfied yet, or they're comparison shopping, or they want to stack products.
They're warm. They have budget. They're in-market right now.
Your best customer isn't "interested in skincare."
It's "bought skincare in the last 60 days and is still searching."

I heard a story the other day about a founder who almost died.
Heart attack at 34. Woke up in the ICU thinking about all the things he never built.
A year later, he launched a business doing the thing he'd been "planning to do eventually."
Hit $500K revenue in year one.
Here's what he said changed:
"I stopped waiting for perfect. Perfect was killing me slower than the heart attack."
Before: spent 3 years researching, planning, perfecting the idea.
After: launched in 6 weeks with a landing page and a prayer.
The business he built in 6 weeks outperformed the one he'd spent 3 years planning.
Turns out the biggest risk isn't launching too early.
It's never launching at all.

The "aspirational" ad strategy is dying.
Your customer doesn't want to see a dream.
They want to see themselves.

For years, the playbook was: show the perfect version of life. Make the customer want that. Sell the product as the bridge.

It's not working like it used to.

A skincare brand switched from aspirational content to educational, conversational content.

Instead of flawless models with perfect skin, they featured real people talking openly about their skin struggles.

Comments went from "nice ad" to actual conversations.

People tagged friends who had the same skin issues.

Shares doubled.

CPMs dropped because the algorithm rewards engagement.

Aspirational ads get watched. Conversational ads get shared.

And shared > watched. 

Every time.


Your customer doesn't need to be sold a dream. 

They need to feel understood.
Make ads that start conversations.
Not commercials.
The algorithm rewards the brands people actually talk about.

You hired more people to move faster.
You just gave more people access to your mess.

There's a winning ad in your pipeline right now that won't go live this week.
Not because it's bad.

Because it's stuck between Notion, Slack, Asana, and a Google Drive folder nobody can find.

Brief in one tool. Feedback in another. Assets in a third. Approval in a fourth.

Every handoff is a delay. Every delay is a day you're not testing.

And every day you're not testing is a day your competitor is.

You don't have a talent problem. You have a system problem.

The fastest creative teams don't have the best people.

They have one system where everything lives.

Briefs. Scripts. Feedback. Assets. Status. All in one place.

Centralized = fast.
Fast = more tests.
More tests = more winners.
More winners = more revenue.

Before you hire another strategist, ask yourself:
Can everyone on your team find what they need in under 30 seconds?
If not...
 that's your bottleneck.

 Not your people.

Your best ad died after 12 days.
It wasn't a bad ad.
You just don't have a system to replace it.
At $500K+/mo, creative fatigue isn't an occasional problem.
It's a daily reality.
The algorithm burns through creative faster at scale because you're reaching more people faster. 

An ad that lasts 30 days at $5K/mo might last 10 days at $500K/mo.

If your response to fatigue is "we need to brainstorm new ideas"....you're already behind
By the time you brainstorm, brief, produce, and launch, you've lost 2-3 weeks of declining performance.

You should always have 2 weeks of creative in the pipeline AHEAD of what's running.

While this week's ads are live, next week's are in editing, and the week after is in scripting.

Log every creative in one place.

 Track what's working, what's fatiguing, what's dead. 

Not in your head. In a system your whole team can see.

When a winner starts declining, the replacement is already queued.
That's not creative genius. It's a production calendar.
The brands that scale past $500K/mo don't have better ideas.
They have better pipelines.

The clients who want the most creative concepts are usually the ones who need the fewest.
Client came to me: "We need 50 per week."
I asked: "How many winners do you have right now?"
Them: "One. But it's dying."
Me: "Then you don't need 50 concepts. You need 20 iterations of your one winner."
Most brands treat creative like quantity game.
More concepts = more chances to win.
Wrong.
Your winning ad contains every signal you need. Milk it.
I'd rather have 1 proven concept with 10 strategic variations than 50 random concepts hoping something sticks.
When you find gold, don't go looking for silver.

Flight attendant told me during boarding:
"I check the same 6 things before every flight. Same order. Every time. Been doing it 20 years."
I asked: "What if you skip one?"
She looked at me like I was insane. "I don't. That's the point."
That's the difference between amateurs and pros.
Amateurs rely on motivation.
Pros rely on systems.
My pre-launch checklist for every ad concept:

Hook passes 3-second test?
Script passes customer language test?
CTA is friction-aware?
Brief includes shot list?
Editor has reference ads?
Tracking is live?

Same order. Every time.
I don't FEEL like checking. I just check.
That's why my win rate is 40% and not 5%.
Systems beat motivation every single time.

Your customer is scrolling "spring glow up" content right now.
Your ads still look like January.

Here's the problem with most creative teams:
They don't write briefs inspired from their customer's feed.

They haven't opened TikTok as a CONSUMER in weeks. 
They don't know what formats are getting pushed.
 They don't know what their audience is actually watching at 10pm on a Tuesday.
And then they wonder why the ads feel off...

Your customer's feed changes every season. Every month. Sometimes every week.

Right now it's spring break prep. Glow ups. Reset routines. Fresh starts energy.

If your ads aren't matching that, they feel stale. 
Not because the product changed. 
Because the MOMENT changed and your creative didn't.

 and it's not complicated. It just takes discipline.

1. Create a fresh Instagram account just for your brand.
Follow your brand + Follow 10-15 creators in the niche. 
Then just scroll.

Within 48 hours, the algorithm starts serving you exactly what your customer sees every day.

That's not your feed. That's THEIR feed.

The content the algorithm pushes to that account is literally a map of what your audience is consuming right now. 

The formats. The sounds. The hooks. The vibe. All of it.

If your creative team isn't doing this, they're guessing.

2. Check TikTok Creative Center weekly.
ads.tiktok.com shows you what's actually performing. Not what you THINK is trending, what's driving real engagement and spend.
Top ads by category. Trending hashtags. Winning formats.
This isn't optional research. This is the brief.

3. Use Atria
What are the brands in your space running RIGHT NOW? Not last quarter. This week.
What formats are they testing? 

This takes 30 minutes a week. And it gives you more strategic insight than a 2-hour brainstorm session ever will.

Your customer's feed is the most honest creative brief you'll ever get.
It tells you what they watch.
What they save.
What they share.
What makes them stop scrolling.
If your team isn't consuming what your audience consumes, they're making ads blind.
And if they ARE doing this and your ads still feel stale?
You need a better team.

Open article: TikTok for Business | Marketing & Advertising on TikTok by ads.tiktok.com

TikTok for Business | Marketing & Advertising on TikTok

Someone at a conference asked: "What's the ONE marketing skill that actually increased your income?"

The answers were all over the place. SEO. Copywriting. Paid ads. Analytics.

Here's what nobody said: creative strategy.

Most DTC founders think their growth problem is a media buying problem. 

Or a funnel problem. Or a "we need more content" problem.

It's almost never that.

It's that nobody on the team knows what to make and why.

You can have the best media buyer in the world. 

If the ads they're running say the wrong thing to the wrong person with the wrong angle..it doesn't matter. 

You'll scale spend and watch CPA climb.

Creative strategy is the skill that sits underneath everything else. 

It's the reason one ad does 4x ROAS and the next one flops with the same audience, same budget, same product.

It answers questions most teams skip entirely:

Who exactly are we talking to in this ad? 
What do they believe right now? 
What would make them stop scrolling?
 What emotion are we triggering? 
What objection are we handling before they even think of it?

Every brand I work with that's stuck at a revenue ceiling..the bottleneck is almost always here.

Not budget. Not platform. Not creative volume.
It's that nobody is doing the strategic thinking before the brief gets written.
The founders who figure this out scale faster with less spend. 

The ones who don't keep cycling through agencies wondering why nothing works.

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