Jure Knehtl

Founder/Growth CMO🚀 • Growth Advisor • 300M+ € Sales Generated in Europe • On a Mission to Scale Profitably

3x Founder | 2x CMO from 0 to 50M+ € in Europe | Now building my own eCommerce brand 🛠️

Hey, nice to meet you. I am Jure Knehtl (also called JK), driven by results, creativity, and being a distributor on the market.

In my career, I helped generate 300M+ € eCommerce revenue for my partners by developing a customized marketing mix to maximize the brandformance.

For the last 11+ years, I've been leveraging Meta ads, TikTok, Influencer marketing, scientific performance-oriented creatives, localization, and retention channels to help DTC brands grow.

Here are 3 of my biggest successes so far:
- Built the whole marketing department from scratch and reached an explosive growth of a bootstrapped eCommerce business from 0 to 50M € revenue in 4 years.
- Founded a Boutique DTC Performance agency WeScale, in 2020, that grew to 20+ team members and 5 Mio € revenue in 3 years.
- Hyper-Scaled a beauty brand from 0 to 100M € revenue in 3 years, profitability.
 
❤️ Growth, leadership & basketball.
🛠 Chasing the NEXT WIN.

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

If you have a question or just want to exchange ideas - send me a message - I look forward to our conversation!

Want to get in touch about the potential collaboration, mentorship or a speaking gig?
Email me: jure.knehtl.digital@gmail.com

Chief Executive Officer

At WeScale DTC performance marketing agency, I am in charge of building an ecosystem and strategy to empower the growth of fast-growing DTC brands.

We built multiple 8-figure brands in Europe with the help of scientific creatives, behavior-driven media buying & advanced acquisition strategies.

WeScale performance 🚀 numbers:
• +152 Mio € revenue generated across all our clients
• +41 Mio € ad spend across Meta, TikTok & Google
• Scaled a business from 7 Mio to 25 Mio €
• 1.1 Mio € Revenue in 72 hours
• 27,000 products sold in 1 day

Click the links below and check our value posts 👀

Want to get in touch?
Email me: jure.knehtl@wescale.agency

Last week, I spoke to +60 startup founders about Meta ads.

We dived into:
- What works and what doesn't in 2026
- Creative process and strategy that brings profitable results
- Effective scaling in 2026 (beyond Ads Manager)
- How to plan and execute a GTM strategy on a new market and/or product
- Optimization beyond the ad metrics
- Practical success cases

I haven't done a speech in a while, but it was great to be back and share my knowledge with the audience. It always energizes me to push the event further and never stop growing, improving, and learning.

The founders were curious, asking practical questions and explaining their situations and challenges, which led to a great discussion at the end with Q&A.

My knowledge was shared, but remember:

"Knowledge is power only if you use it."

Thank you for organizing this great event SBC - Slovenian Business Club & special thanks to David Žalec for the invite!

Everyone thinks they know Meta ads. 

But the game has changed. 
It’s no longer about fancy hacks or secret settings. 

It’s about understanding the platform’s core mechanics and how to leverage them for sustainable growth. 

In 2026, it’s all about creative testing, data-driven decisions, and a deep understanding of your customer.

Will AI replace media buyers… or simply level up the role? 🚀

Meta just (quietly) changed the future of media buying.

Manus AI agents are now starting to appear directly inside Ads Manager.

Not another feature.

Not another automation toggle.

Actual AI that can:
• analyze campaign performance
• build reports from prompts
• suggest audiences
• recommend optimizations

Instead of digging through dashboards, you’ll simply ask for insights.

And this is only step one.

Meta’s long-term vision is clear: fully automated advertising.
Imagine this workflow:

1️⃣ Upload product image
2️⃣ Set budget
3️⃣ Choose objective

Meta’s AI then generates the ads, chooses targeting, distributes budget, and optimizes performance.

The human role becomes setting direction and interpreting results.

But here’s the important part most people miss:

Automation is replacing execution — not strategy.

AI can already handle:
• campaign setup
• targeting
• budget allocation
• reporting

But it still struggles with questions like:
• What offer should we lead with?
• What angle resonates with this audience?
• What creative psychology drives conversion?
• How do we maximize LTV?

And those questions are where the real value lives.
The best media buyers in the next 3–5 years won’t be Ads Manager operators.
They’ll be growth strategists who understand:
• customer psychology
• creative strategy
• funnels and retention
• business economics

Because brands don’t actually want someone to run ads.

They want someone who can grow the business.

9/10 times, when we launch whitelisting (partnership) ads on an account, they outperform everything else.

Different niches. Different budgets. Same outcome.

We combine:
- Different following sizes
- Different personas
- Content formats
- Copy angles

Been working especially well for acquiring new customers.

Not a hack — just how trust scales in paid media.

Use that insight however you want.

True ad creative winner is not defined by: 
 
- CTR 
- Hook rate 
- Hold rate 
- ATC rate 
- CPM 
 
Although these secondary metrics matter as well. 
 
True ad creative winner is defined by VOLUME 🏆 
 
This means: 
1) how much budget can you invest behind the creative 
2) how broad it can go with targeting and 
3) the number of purchases it generates 
 
... while still hitting the successful KPI 🚀 
 
Remember that.

Why do most brands implement CONTENT CREATORS into their content creation process for paid ads 🤔 
 
- Native to the platform 
- Social proof 
- Performance 
- Local language 
- Speed of creation 
- Investment efficiency 
- Great for ads + landing pages 
- Opportunity for Whitelisting 
- Creative diversity 
 
One of the key areas that help me scale 10+ brands above 8 figures and what I work on with my coaching clients. 
 
But what makes the difference? 
 
Just hiring a couple of creators won't be enough... 
 
You have to: 
1) Do the research 
2) Ideation 
3) Create strong briefs 
4) Provide feedback and examples 
5) Share the performance and potential upgrades across creators 
6) Build long-term partnerships

Most fast-scaling DTC brands are crushing it with their creators' programs - Don't stop - think outside the box!

Stop criticizing your leaders 🛑

If you have never led yourself, or your leader has:
- <10 years of experience
- 0 leadership coaching
- They have been put in the situation because they were excellent with execution and produced results.

Instead of talking behind their backs and addressing the work environment with others ...

Give them direct feedback and support them 🙏

IMPORTANT (!) Feedback goes both ways. You need to share and listen and not take things personally. That's often the most challenging part for all.

THE TRUTH:
It is HARD to be a young and inexperience leader

I did it myself:
a) Leading 30 people in the marketing department when I was only 26
b) Leading 32 people inside my growth agency at the age of 29 

But the reality check:
Was I the best leader? NO
Did I always make the right decisions? Big NO
Did I have a great leader in the past from whom I could learn? NO
Did I have a great mentor? NO
Did I have leadership experience? NO

But I tried my BEST every single day.

And many great things happened because of it 🙏❤️

Thanks to all the people in the team, business partners, and leadership for putting me in that position so I could grow and become the version of JK I am today.

So shoutout to all the young inexperience leaders out there who are trying their best 🙏❤️

Keep going 💪

And for the rest, support them, work with them, and give them feedback so you all can thrive 🚀

Performance marketing has changed, so should you:

1) ROAS ➪ NC (New customer's) ROAS
2) MER ➪ % of profitability, GM per order
3) Blended CPO ➪ NC CPA
4) Media buying hacks ➪ Creative strategy
5) Product pages ➪ Landing pages
6) Evergreen sitewide sales ➪ Bundles and special offers
7) Revenue ➪ New vs. returning customer's performance
8) Product you can sell through Facebook ➪ Upgraded with retention opportunities and reaching new customers

Which evolution is a MUST? Let's find the winner 🏆

Your ads aren’t converting for one of these three reasons: 

1. Your offer is weak. 
2. Your creative is boring. 
3. Your (creative) targeting is off. 

It’s that simple. 

Stop blaming the algorithm and start focusing on what you can control.

Don’t just translate your ads. Localize them. 

This means using local models, local language, and local cultural references. 

It’s a small change that can make a big difference.

THE PROCESS

You can start with the localization of your statics and combine them with localized AI voiceovers - I recommend using ElevenLabs for this.

With this, you will get the first signals about the:
1) Offer
2) Funnel
3) Personas
4) Angles

The next step should be to find local creators via a tool like Influee, a local agency, or by finding them directly.

Ask them for 1-3 videos first, with multiple hooks based on your performance and the local competitor’s winning ads 

+ include photos in the round as well, so you can leverage it across:
- Ads
- Organic
- Emails
- Website 

To showcase local faces and build trust.

The final step is to partner with them and run partnerships through them, share the creative performance findings, and scale the partnership program.

That's how you WIN 🏆

Most brands try to lower CAC by tweaking bids and budgets.

But that’s rarely where the real leverage is.

In my experience scaling e-commerce brands, new customer ROAS is mostly structural.

There are 4 levers that actually move CAC — and most brands are only using one or two of them.

1️⃣ Partnership & whitelisting ads (at scale)

When you run ads through creators whose audience already buys at your price point, you skip the entire trust-building phase.

Lower friction = lower CAC.

Each creator also unlocks a new micro-audience Meta couldn’t reach through your brand page alone.

And you’re feeding the algorithm more signals.

>>> Action point: Run ppartnership ads with bigger creators on your local market that already have your potential audience.


2️⃣ Different creative formats

 Meta doesn’t just read text.

 It reads visual patterns.

If you only run one type of creative, you’re forcing all buyers through one narrow door.

Different formats attract different buyers:
- Listicles
- Founder storytelling
- Lifestyle content
- Product breakdowns
- Problem/solution creatives

Each format opens a new audience pool.

>>> Action point: Make sure to introduce 1-3 creative formats on the bi-weekly basis 


3️⃣ Different personas

 Same creative.

 Different message.

A dad, a gym guy, and a 45-year-old executive buy the same product for completely different reasons.

The angle of the ad determines who Meta shows it to.

>>> Action point: Go beyond messaging - use creators, voiceovers, and adopted landing pages to the personas


4️⃣ Upper funnel exposure

 Reach campaigns don’t drive purchases directly.

But they pre-warm the market.

When someone has seen your brand 3–5 times before the conversion ad appears, your CAC drops dramatically.

>>> Action point: Run 5-15% of the total budget on campaigns that exclude buyers, visitors and engagers


These force Meta to actually hunt for new customers.
(But don’t assume Meta follows this perfectly.)

The real mechanism behind all 4 levers:
They expand your total addressable audience.

More qualified prospects → cheaper new customer acquisition.

If you’re only running:
 • broad campaigns
 • one creative format
 • one angle

You’re leaving a lot of efficiency on the table.

Curious how other brands structure their acquisition:

Which of these levers has had the biggest impact on your CAC?

Watch out for that frequency 🛑🙊 
 
I just finished one account audit, and I wanted to share an interesting finding with you. 
 
On the discovery call client complained that none of the new creative tests 
 
Although I am really not a fan of testing in creative testing in Adavntage+ (lack of control), I looked into it. 
 
Here is what I found: 
💡 Missing existing customer budget cap 
💩 frequency 9 in 3 days + a LOT of negative comments connected to the frequency of ads 
 
*Note: they are an early startup that had a customer database of 3K customers 
​ 
My suggestions: 
(1) Test in ABO 
(2) Exclude existing buyers (always) 
(3) Analyze audience segments breakdown 
(4) Use Advantage+ for scaling

Want to conquer Europe? 

Stop thinking ‘global’ and start thinking ‘glocal.’ 

This means adapting your products, marketing, and customer experience to the specific needs and nuances of each local market. 

It’s not easy, but it’s the only way to win.

The Top 3 Mistakes Brands Make When Entering a New Market

1. Assuming one size fits all. 
2. Ignoring cultural differences. 
3. Underestimating the competition. 

Avoid these common pitfalls and you’ll be well on your way to international success.

Performance Creative Strategist | I Help DTC Brands spending $20k-$50k per month on Meta create Direct Response Ads

In 2019, I left a secure 7-year 9-5 job and started my journey clueless in dropshipping

I lost my hard-earned savings, so I had to ask my parents to pay my rent

All I had left was my laptop and a big dream, so I began to learn how to run ads on Meta

In 2020, a marketing agency gave me a chance to freelance on a client's ad account. That changed everything.

Now, I manage over $100k+ in ad spend per month for various DTC brands and consistently double their returns

If you're looking to elevate your brand’s ad performance and are spending over $20k-$100k+ on ads, 

Here’s how I can help:

1. Make better ad creatives that hook customers' attention and convert.
2. Simplify your ad setup so you can eliminate the guesswork on your own.
3. Double your return on ad spend in 90 days

Or, if you want more personal support:

DM me 'review' for a full creative ad breakdown and a free audit of your ad account.

Also, follow me on LinkedIn for actionable tips on how to grow your DTC brands.

Ladie Pabillar

Nobody expected a water brand to break the internet.

In March 2024, Liquid Death sent Julia Fox through New York City covered in corpse paint.

The canned water company partnered with e.l.f Cosmetics to create a coffin-shaped makeup set. It sold out in under an hour.

But here's what made it genius.

While every other brand was hoarding their weird ideas for Halloween, Liquid Death showed up in the dead of spring.

Completely alone. 
Nothing to compete with. 
No noise to fight through.

Just one utterly bizarre water brand doing something nobody saw coming.

It didn't make sense on paper. 

A water brand partnering with makeup? 

People were confused.

That was the point.

Liquid Death has always prioritized personality over product. 

It's not what you sell. It's how you sell it.

Because attention isn't about the biggest budget. It's about showing up where nobody else will.

They earned it by doing three things most brands are too afraid to try:

Paired with a brand nobody predicted. 
Launched at the wrong time on purpose.
Let personality lead and product follow.

Their campaigns still get noticed long after that makeup set sold out.

Here's the lesson for every brand running Meta ads right now: 

Your audience won't remember what you sold them. 

They'll remember how you made them feel.

Fitting in is expensive. 

Being unforgettable is a choice.

Growth & Performance Marketing | Writing about Meta ads & AI-powered creatives | Scaled 7+ consumer brands past $100K/mo

In 2009, Burger King created one of the most controversial social media campaigns.

They called it "Whopper Sacrifice."

The offer was brutally simple.

Delete 10 Facebook friends, get a FREE Whopper.

Within 10 days, 82,000 people sacrificed 233,000 friendships for a burger.

Here's what made the campaign brilliant:

Every deleted friend received a notification: "You've been sacrificed for a Whopper."

Facebook requested multiple times to remove this notification feature. 

Crispin Porter + Bogusky refused every request.

They knew the campaign had a built-in expiration date.

When Facebook finally shut it down citing privacy issues, the agency was ready. 

They posted: "Whopper Sacrifice has been Sacrificed."

Burger King had exposed an uncomfortable truth: people valued a $3 burger more than their Facebook friendships.

The shutdown became bigger news than the launch.

I see 3 lessons here:

1. Notifications were the most powerful distribution tool on social platforms
   
2. Facebook friendships weren't real relationships just casual connections inflated by numbers
   
3. Follow platform policy, but think creatively to pivot your approach

What other lessons do you see in this campaign?

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The Battle

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