Sarah Levinger

Tether Insights

Founder

Alt Marketing School

Top 100 Trailblazers for 2023

SarahLevinger.co

Paid Creative Consultant, Consumer Behavior Analyst

KnoCommerce

Fractional Director of Growth Marketing

Storetasker

Top 20 Ecommerce Experts to Follow in 2023

Ad World Conference

Future of Advertising Track Speaker

Forbes

Read the article ➡️ https://bit.ly/3HW2BHu

Forbes Featured Performance Creative Agency

Halftone Graphics

Media Buyer, Creative Strategist

Agency Owner, Marketing & Business Consultant

After watching my agency clients struggle to connect deeply with their customers, I went on a 10 year long search to figure out what really makes buyers tick.

What I found was kind of shocking…

My gut feeling was right - it’s not always about how creative your ads are, how irresistible your offers seem, or even the strategy you've spent months perfecting.

Nope, the secret to truly connecting with those elusive customers and unlocking the potential to generate millions is...well, a bit deeper than that.

When you understand the real reasons behind customer behaviors, you're not just shooting arrows in the dark hoping to hit the target. You’re crafting messages that resonate, strategies that work, and connections that last. 

And that’s where the magic happens, where browsing turns into buying, and casual customers become loyal fans.

I’m here to guide you through this journey, translating complex consumer behavior into actionable, growth-driving strategies. 

It’s time you unlocked the full potential of your brand…using psychology.

Director of Growth Marketing

I’ve read over 250 books on consumer psychology. Most are useless 😅 But these 6 will turn you into a top 1% marketer:

1️⃣ Marketing to Mindstates – Will Leach
The most “plug-and-play” psychology book for marketers. Shows you how goals, emotions, and cognitive biases combine into “mindstates” — and how to write ads, offers, and CTAs that meet people in that exact state.

2️⃣ Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
Not a “marketing” book, but it explains why your customers say one thing on surveys and do the opposite in real life. System 1 vs System 2 = creative vs CRO in book form.

3️⃣ Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely
Turns abstract biases into real experiments: decoy pricing, “free,” anchors, weird buying behavior. You’ll start seeing test ideas on every PDP you visit.

4️⃣ How Brands Grow – Byron Sharp
The uncomfortable one. Kills a lot of “perfect avatar” myths and forces you to think in penetration, distinctiveness, and memory structures instead of vibe-based targeting.

5️⃣ The Choice Factory – Richard Shotton
Short, punchy chapters. 25 biases, each with a practical application. Easiest one to go from “that’s interesting” → “I just changed this ad because of it.”

6️⃣ Alchemy – Rory Sutherland
This is where you learn to stop being a spreadsheet gremlin and start making creative leaps again. It’s pure “logic is overrated, perception is everything” energy.

I help DTC brands generate better ROI with psychology-based creative. 🧠 Talks about: consumer psychology, behavior science, paid ads. Founder @ Tether Insights

“Research your customer everyday.”
Ok…how? 🤔

“Get to know your customer better.”
Ok…𝘩𝘰𝘸? 🤨

“Know your customers better than they know themselves.”
Ok…HOW?! 😩

I can’t stand this advice on Twitter.

It sounds smart, but you can’t do anything with it. You can’t put “know them better than they know themselves” in a Notion doc and have it grow a brand for you.

Here’s what “knowing your customer” actually looks like in practice 👇

1. Read 10–20 customer reviews a day. Copy/paste the best phrases into a doc. Don’t “summarize”, steal their exact wording.

2. Listen to 1 sales or support call. Write down every time they say “I was worried that…” or “What I really want is…”.

3. Run 1 tiny poll a week. One question. One hypothesis. “What almost stopped you from buying?” is better than a 30-question survey nobody finishes.

4. Screenshot ads + comments in your niche. Your customers are already telling other brands what they love, hate, and don’t believe. Use it.

5. Tag what you find. Fears, desires, identity, situations, objections. Turn all those random insights into buckets you can actually build ads from.

(Basically, setup a boring little system you can repeat until their words are more familiar to you than your own copy.)

That’s “knowing your customer.”

THAT’S NOT THE END THOUGH!!!

After you LISTEN…here’s what to do 👇

1. Capture, don’t paraphrase.
Drop their exact sentences into a doc or spreadsheet.

One row = one quote. No cleaning it up. No “marketing-ifying” it.

2. Tag the emotion.
Next to each quote, add a simple label:
	•	afraid / frustrated / overwhelmed
	•	hopeful / relieved / proud
Just naming the feeling you see, don’t try and interpret it just yet.

3. Tag the situation.
WHEN does this show up?
	•	At checkout
	•	After a bad agency experience
	•	Late at night doom-scrolling
Context = targeting later so write it down.

4. Tag the identity.
Who are they trying to be?
	•	Good parent
	•	Smart operator
	•	Calm, in-control person
This is where your best hooks will come from.

5. Turn quotes into “Because → So → So that” lines.

For each big insight, write it in the following format:

Because they [feel X] in [situation Y], they want [outcome Z] so that they can [identity win].

(𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘐 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘴, 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦: https://lnkd.in/gfSFnuTP)

Now you don’t just have “voice of customer” data floating around everywhere. You have testable ad angles:
	•	The fear angle
	•	The identity angle
	•	The relief angle
	•	The “everyone else is doing it wrong” angle

Listening is only step one. Labeling, structuring, and testing what you hear.

Tagging is step two. Labeling, tracking, and clearly understanding. 

That’s how “know your customer” turns into “this is an ad we can scale.”💰

A client came in last week with a stagnant ad account and a burnt-out creative team.

I got them on my new creative strategy system that only builds from real-time customer insights and within just a few days, 50% of their spend had shifted to ads built with the new OS! The team also told me they, "love checking the emotional dashboard" we created since it shows emotional trends, not just behavioral ones, which gives me all the warm fuzzies. 🥰

Clean your customer data. It will uncover where your ads will actually win.

Germans are 31% more likely to save money.
They retire with 39% more wealth.
They smoke less, exercise more, and are generally healthier than comparable countries (like the US).

According to economist M. Keith Chen this isn't because they're more disciplined, earn more, or because they're culturally more advanced...

It's because their language makes them think about the future...all the time. 😅

In Chen’s 2013 study (“The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior”), he found that languages that don’t clearly mark the future (like German, Mandarin, Finnish) make people believe and behave as if the future is happening 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸.

Ex: if you speak German and wanted to remark about the weather, you'd say: “It 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 tomorrow.”

If you speak English, you'd say: “It 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 rain tomorrow.”

That tiny structural difference in grammar is incredibly powerful. So much in fact, that it can predict:

✅ Whether you spend or save
✅ Whether you exercise
✅ How much you exercise
✅ How much you eat
✅ How far ahead in life you plan
✅ Even national GDP savings rates

If you change the way people talk about the future, you change the way the brain behaves.

👉 Here’s why this should matter to marketers:

Because of the way the English language works, if you're marketing to an English speaker, you can accidentally cause people to psychologically distance themselves from you just by 𝘩𝘰𝘸 you say things. Every time you say “feel better today,” “see results today,” “get improvements today”…you’re pushing the action you want them to take into the future.

𝘕𝘖𝘛𝘌: 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦. 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴: 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 (“𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭”), 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘦𝘵.

The brain interprets it as: start feeling better 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳, not now.

📌 To fix this, bring the future closer so the brain understands what's at stake if no action is taken:

𝟭. 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 “𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂” 𝘃𝘀 “𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂” 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝘀.
“Your future self 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 you” → “Your future self 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 you.”
Identity activates now, not later.

𝟮. 𝗥𝗲𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲.
“You’ll learn how…” → “Learn how…”
“You’ll discover why…” → “Discover why…”
Stop selling the future; collapse the timeline.

𝟯. 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝗻-𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲.
“You’ll feel more confident when you do X.” → “Confidence kicks in the moment you start.”
If the benefit feels immediate, the brain treats it like a reward, not homework.

TLDR: If grammar can change national savings rates, it can absolutely change your conversion rate. Fix the words → shift the behavior.

Listen, we need to talk...😬

Your creative now has to pass two filters inside Meta’s system, not just one. Ads first get scanned through the:

 1️⃣ “Does this look like something people naturally engage with?” filter

Meta’s models now compare your ad to the patterns of organic content people stop for. If the creative doesn’t behave like the content the feed is trained to reward, reach gets throttled before the auction even matters.

AND THEN it gets pushed through:

 2️⃣ “How does this stack up against everything else in the auction?” filter

This is where most brands think the game begins, but if your ad hasn’t cleared that first creative-fit filter, it shows up to the auction already behind. (That’s why so many teams felt like they were pushing a boulder uphill in 2025...)

DTC is going to have to learn how to make micro-stories the way organic creators do, because that’s the creative style Meta’s prediction systems are currently rewarding. 

Anyone still running 2018-era UGC templates and wondering why their CPMs are melting is ngmi….

🎁 Don’t know who needs this, but here’s a prompt that will generate ad concepts based on 2 psychology principles: endowment effect and commitment consistency principle:

🎯 Objective
Create ad concepts using the Endowment Effect + Commitment–Consistency to push warm buyers over the line.
Make people feel like the outcome is already theirs, and that the next click is just finishing what they started.

⸻

🧠 Psychology Behind It

Endowment Effect
We value things more once they feel like ours—even temporarily. “Reserved for you,” free trials, and personalized previews work because the brain upgrades an item from “a product” to “my product.”

Commitment–Consistency
After a small “yes” (quiz answers, starting a trial, adding to cart), people feel pressure to act in line with that decision. It’s easier to follow through than feel flaky.

Together
Endowment = emotional ownership (“this is already mine”).
Commitment–Consistency = behavioral follow-through (“people like me finish what we start”).
Saying no now feels weirder than saying yes.

⸻

🛠️ Build Rules
	•	Create instant ownership: “your plan,” “your reserved seat,” pre-filled dashboard, saved cart, “we already set this up for you.”
	•	Surface prior commitments: remind them what they clicked, answered, or said they wanted.
	•	Tie it to identity: the next step is what organized / protective / ambitious people do.
	•	Make quitting feel off: wasted effort, staying stuck, leaving an upgrade half-finished.
	•	Position your brand as the obvious continuation—not a new decision.

⸻

✍️ Concept Template

Each ad concept should include:
	1.	Big Idea / Premise
How they’re already mentally “owning” the outcome + the commitment they’ve already made that naturally leads to your offer.
	2.	Narrative Angle / Hook
Visual or line that shows:
	•	this is already theirs (reserved screen, almost-complete checklist, “your results”), and
	•	the nudge to stay consistent.
	3.	Mechanisms in Play
	•	Endowment Effect → feels like theirs.
	•	Commitment–Consistency → following through feels like being true to themselves.
	4.	Best Formats
	•	“Reserved for [First Name]” UI mockups
	•	Pre-built dashboards or plans
	•	Quiz result pages (“Based on your answers…”)
	•	Checklists with one box unchecked
	•	Cart/booking reminders referencing what they already chose

⸻

✅ Output Instructions

Generate 3 ad concepts that:
	•	Make the product/result feel already owned.
	•	Call back to a belief, step, or micro-yes they gave earlier.
	•	Frame backing out as wasteful or off-brand for them.
	•	Present your offer as the natural final step.

Tone: confident, identity-driven, and nudgy—built to turn fence-sitters into “of course I’m in.”

2025: the year of AI.
2026: the year of compounded content.

No alternative text description for this image

Someone I greatly respect told me recently that the best business have a marketer for a CEO, an accountant for a COO, and a therapist as your CTO.

Finding the “why” might have been the single worst thing we could have ever told marketers to do.

Do not tell me that “organic posts don’t sell.” DO NOT COME AT ME WITH THAT NONSENSE because I just spent 3 hours going down a giant reddit rabbit hole about something called an "occlupanid" after seeing ONE POST from and organic creator…and found a whole community collecting, sharing, and BUYING those weird plastic things that come on bread bags. 🤣🤯😵‍💫

I am here for this content.
That is all.

Logical thinking is taught pervasively throughout all levels of education (from pre-schools to advanced PhDs) precisely because it is not the default brain setting for humans and therefore takes years of study to master even at a basic level.

Remember this, the next time your “no-brainer” offer flops.

There’s 3 levels to UGC scripting:

🚀LEVEL 1: Chat-written scripts
🚀LEVEL 2: Chat+human written scripts
🚀LEVEL 3: find wicked good posts from organic content, transcribe them using Gemini, building story arcs frameworks from them 

For example, I saw this “Edu-rage” piece of content that uses Serial Escalation (a comedy trope) and Rising Action to a Climax (a traditional story arc) to keep the viewer hooked.

To develop an ad/clip using this structure we use this formula:

1. Select a Topic: Choose a set of 5-8 common items/facts that people might argue over (e.g., brand names vs. generic names, common mispronunciations, product slang).

2. Record Reactions: Film a creator reacting genuinely, encouraging them to be expressive, loud, or overly frustrated by "incorrect" but common answers.

3. Structure the Flow: Arrange the questions so the host starts strong, makes a minor error, recovers, and then hits the most frustrating or debatable question at the end for the final dramatic reaction.

4. Insert Disruption: At least once, have the host stop the quiz to rant or talk about a related, funny non-sequitur.

(And if you want more tips like this…don’t follow me because the algorithm won’t show you my posts anymore thanks to FYP algorithms. Like/share so it knows you like this stuff. 😅)

10,000 e-commerce stores participated in an industry-wide BFCM study this year. 🤯

Out of those 10,000 stores:

→ 39,693 SMS messages were analyzed
→ 114,972 emails were captured
→ And 500 popups were dissected

…down to the pixel. 

I’ve been studying this report for a minute and can confirm: this year was weirdly different than any other BFCM we’ve seen. 😨

Wanna see the full report? Download it here: https://lnkd.in/gz-bC4gn
#AD

Open article: The Black Friday 2025 Mega Report: Inside the Data by recart.com

The Black Friday 2025 Mega Report: Inside the Data

Building Ads with Barry

Struggling to create high-converting ads that scale? Ad account begging for fresh creative, but don’t know where to start? Confused and misguided by tons of info on making good ads? People hate ads. In my live course, I’ll share the exact system I use to create ads people don’t hate. Join me and 100+ marketers to learn how.

Founder & Chief Ad Nerd

Hott Growth

Helping launch new businesses and grow established brands through modern advertising practices, relevant creative, and frictionless landing pages and CRO.

I'm available for projects, consulting, advising, or on a monthly retainer as a fractional CMO/VP, Growth.

Growth & Performance Marketing Consultant

Adcrate

Advisor

Rotten

Head of Growth

Harry's, Inc.

Performance Creative Strategy and Ad Consultant

The Perfect Jean

Growth Marketing Consultant

BeeRoll

Lone River Beverage Company

Consultant - Paid Social

Acquired by Diageo March 2021

Launched Lone River Ranch Water Hard Seltzer ads on Facebook, applying a DTC approach to CPG advertising.

Jump 450 Media

Clients: EA Sports, Nuts.com, MoneyLion, Spartan Race, Freedom Grooming

Growth Lead & Acquisition Manager

Thesis

Clients: Lumin, Hubble, Cerebral, Athletic Greens, Mirror, Mockingbird, Nuts.com, Urbanstems, Keeps, Feather, Olive & June, Wandering Bear, Glamsquad
● Guided high-level strategy for clients and executional excellence for the Growth team, representing over $6 million per month in paid social and search
● Led cross-functional creation and iteration of ad creative and landing page design to increase conversions by aligning internal CRO, media, and creative teams with external creators, client leadership, and platform partners.
● Forecasted team revenue and minimized expenses to maintain profitability and increase EBITDA
● Initiated and standardized processes for client and employee onboarding, retention, and ongoing improvement

VP, Growth

Clients: Lumin, Misen, Hawthorne, Baboon To The Moon, Glamsquad, Skylar, Clorox
● Strategize, implement, and optimize aggressive conversion-focused ad campaigns and creative for DTC startup clients
● Pioneer cross-functional policies, processes, and best practices across client services, CRO, and creative teams
● Establish high-trust, transparent partnerships with new clients to facilitate long term successful growth

Director of Growth

I've been buying and overseeing ads on Facebook since 2008. I have personally implemented, optimized, and managed monthly spends in the range of $1-5 million and cumulatively I have managed and overseen more than $600 million on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn for brands like AT&T, Toyota, Microsoft, Kraft, LG, Spotify, Hyatt, and many more. I'm comfortable with all objectives and buying types on these platforms, with expertise in branding as well as direct response.

In the last few years, I've been focused on helping grow DTC/startup brands like Hubble, Keeps, Nuts.com, Urbanstems, MoneyLion, Lumin, Cerebral, Wandering Bear Coffee, Flock Chicken Chips, Mirror, Athletic Greens, Spartan, and more.

In early 2020, I helped launch Lone River Ranch Water, and we were acquired by Diageo in 2021.

All three companies I worked for in 2021 were acquired: Lone River, Thesis, and Jump450.

Barry Hott

Do not trust screenshots anymore!

Nano Banana Pro can edit them with ease can be used to deceive.

Growing businesses with ugly ads, streamlined execution, and deep consumer empathy.

There's never been a worse time to say “that’s not my job” or “we’ve always done things this way.”

There's never been a better time to be a scrappy problem solver.

AI is multiplying the impact of people who take ownership, experiment quickly, build systems, and stay curious.

The people rising are the ones who run toward problems, learn without ego, and use AI to amplify their output and their team’s.

The people falling are the ones clinging to job descriptions, perfectionism, old hierarchy, memorized expertise, or protecting their ego.

The winners are scrappy problem solvers.

The losers are anyone still waiting to be told what to do.

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