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.

Scaling Meta ads is WAY HARDER when your account is a mess.

If your campaigns aren’t structured properly, you’re wasting money every single day.

I built a Meta Ad Account Framework that fixes this.

Like this post + Comment ‘Meta’ and I’ll send it over.

{We must be connected}

Toby Waller

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

Most brands have at least 1 of these 3 creative bottlenecks that stop them from scaling their meta ads:

1️⃣ Not knowing what to test next
2️⃣ Not knowing how to test it
3️⃣ Not knowing how to turn test results into new winning creatives

I put together The Ultimate Creative Guide to fix all 3.

This guide breaks down the entire creative testing process - from generating data-backed ideas to structuring tests effectively and analyzing results to create high-performing ads.

By the end, you’ll have a proven framework for consistently producing top-tier ad creatives that drive conversions.

Want the guide?

1. Like this post
2. Comment ‘CREATIVE’ and I’ll DM it.

{Must be connected}.

Scaling META to $1M+ per month requires precision, not guesswork.

After deploying 9-figures in ad spend, I’ve built a Meta Scaling Blueprint

It covers:

📌 How to scale without spiking CPAs
📌 The best budget adjustment method
📌 Key metrics to track

Want it? 
 
Like this post & Drop ‘Scale’ & I’ll send it over.

You don't have a creative problem.
You have a strategic angle problem.

Most brands hit a wall at <$100k/month in Meta spend, not because they've run out of ideas, but because their creative isn't mapped to the buyer journey.

Every piece of creative needs a job. 

And that job changes depending on where the buyer is.

Cold audiences need pattern interrupts. Warm audiences need proof. Hot audiences need urgency. 

Run the wrong angle at the wrong stage, and you're burning budget wondering why your "winning" creative stopped working.

That's why we mapped out the 7 angles we use across every account we scale.
Swipe through this carousel - it breaks down:

→ The 7 angles that actually move buyers at each funnel stage 
→ Which angle to deploy where (and why it matters) 
→ Real examples you can adapt and test this week

I'm Toby, the data-nerd, dog-loving, Ex-apple, combat sports enthusiast, and foodie CEO of Brick Social. 

We help 8-figure DTC brands scale with paid ads. I'm passionate about Facebook Ads, DTC Growth, Google Advertising, Performance Creative, and Conversion Rate Optimisation. 

When I'm not helping clients grow, you can find me volunteering at my local dog shelter, exploring new cities, or tasting amazing food at new restaurants.

𝐃𝐓𝐂/𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫? 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡.

I get it. You've been burned by other agencies, flooded with cold emails, and worried about poor communication or outsourcing to inexperienced talent. I'm here to change that. 

I take a holistic approach to growth by providing the attention and expertise you need to drive results. 

No overpromising, no underdelivering – just real growth.

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡:

Patch Plants, Bougie Bakes, SHITI Coolers, Brooklyn Brew Shop, Moto 360, Kodak Smart Home, Paddywax Candles, PetFusion and many other awesome brands.

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐈’𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐨𝐟:

-Generated $300,000,000+profitable revenue for clients
-Dozens of 5⭐️ reviews from our partners on Clutch.co
-Featured in industry publications talking about e-commerce growth 
-Client retention 1+Years 

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭.

As your go-to marketing professional, I’ll write here weekly about growth tips in e-commerce, paid ads, CRO, direct response creative, copywriting, and funnels. I'll also sprinkle in some personal stories that closely examine my internal world, adventures, and experiences. So hit the 🔔 to never miss a post! 

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐄 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐄𝐎 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬:

-To achieve sustainable growth while building unshakeable foundations that last 

-To work with a partner who does all the heavy lifting so you won’t have to 

-To have a team of experts on your side that supports you through thigh & thin and has a ZERO BS and sugarcoating policy-

 I'm your guy.

If you’re interested to learn more:

👉🏻Dm me on Linkedin
👉🏻email me at: toby@bricksocial.co.uk
👉🏻apply to work with me here:  https://bricksocial.typeform.com/to/rnERXIke

Or simply follow my LinkedIn profile. 

Let's forge a strong connection and help your brand grow!

Angles

We’re on the hunt for a world-class Senior Meta Media Buyer to join our team at Brick.

You’ll be working with some of the most recognised and fastest-growing DTC brands in the world, managing millions in ad spend and helping scale brands through creative-first paid media.

This role is not for beginners.

We’re looking for someone who:

• Has deep Meta Ads expertise
• Is comfortable managing large budgets and complex accounts
• Thrives in fast-paced, high-performance environments
• Can translate data into clear strategic decisions
• Understands that creative & post-click is the biggest lever in performance

You’ll be working closely with our strategy, creative and growth teams to push accounts forward every single day.

If you’ve scaled serious ad spend, love solving complex performance problems, and want to work with ambitious DTC brands, we’d love to hear from you.

Comment “Buyer” or DM me and I’ll share more details.

Creative is now the PRIMARY targeting mechanism on all major ad platforms.
This isn’t a hot take… It’s reality ⇓

→ Meta’s ASC (Advantage+ Shopping)
→ Google’s Performance Max
→ TikTok’s Smart+ campaigns

All three use your creative as the targeting signal, not your manual audience selections.

The algorithm reads:

• Who engages
• Who watches
• Who clicks
• Who converts

And then finds more people like that.

Which means…

If your creative lacks depth, range, and persona clarity...
your targeting lacks depth, range, and persona clarity.

This is why we built our internal Creative Variety Matrix at Brick.

The graphic below is a simplified, front-end version of the much deeper backend system we use with partners.

Most brands think scaling means:

“Find a winning ad → increase budget.”

That worked in 2018.
It does not work in 2026.

Today, scaling requires structured creative expansion.

The 3 Dimensions We Scale Across

1️⃣ Content Type
Image
Carousel
Short-form video
Long-form video

2️⃣ Polish Level
Native / “Ugly” / UGC
Chameleon (blends into feed)
Branded / high production

3️⃣ Persona
This is the multiplier most brands ignore.
Instead of making 10 ads for “everyone,”
We build creative clusters around distinct buyer profiles.

Each persona gets:
Content type ×
Polish level ×
Angle.

Now you’re not launching random variations.

You’re building a creative ecosystem.

Why this matters:

• Meta rewards diversity in delivery
• Fatigue slows dramatically
• CPAs stabilise at scale
• ASC & PMax get stronger targeting signals
• Budget increases stop breaking performance

Most accounts plateau because they try to scale spend without scaling signal.

And modern platforms reward signal depth.

Creative variety, when structured properly, becomes a competitive advantage - not just a testing tactic.

Most brands kill ads too early.

Not because they don’t work…

But because they don’t understand why they work.

I broke down 3 static ads from Hume Health that refused to die. 

Hume Health

Different angles.
Different psychographics.
Same product.

Here’s the bigger lesson:

Winning creative isn’t about making “better ads.”

It’s about building a system.

• One ad that sells to past pain
• One ad that sells to ego + identity
• One ad that dominates a niche community

3 emotional entry points.
1 product.
Full market coverage.

Most brands rely on one angle and call it testing.

The brands that scale past $25M/year build psychographic coverage.

If you want your ads to last, stop asking:
“Is this creative good?”

Start asking:

“Who is this for - emotionally?”

Steal the framework inside the carousel 👇

Hume

This $4B company doesn’t run complicated ads.

They run simple ones.

And that’s exactly why they work.

Most brands try to win with:

• More features
• More claims
• More design
• More “polish”

hims & hers does the opposite.

They lead with:

👉 A shared frustration
👉 A seasonal anxiety
👉 A reframe of the status quo

No aggressive before/afters.

No over-explaining.

No feature overload.

Just emotional truth + smart positioning.

A few things worth stealing:

1️⃣ Start with the feeling, not the fix.
If your audience has heard the phrase before (“Your blood work looks fine”), you’ve already won attention.

2️⃣ Let typography do the heavy lifting.
Strikethroughs. Corrections. Visual tension.
The design itself tells the transformation story.

3️⃣ Compete against the default, not a competitor.
“5x more than routine bloodwork” is stronger than naming a brand.
Position against the status quo.

The biggest mistake I see eCom brands make?

Trying to prove they’re better.

Instead, show people what they’re missing.

If you’re running static ads right now, ask yourself:

Are we leading with emotion?

Or are we leading with features?

Big difference.

Hers

We started working with this health brand at the beginning of 2026.

Here’s the YoY comparison:

• Revenue: $4.53M (+61%)
• AOV: $125.40 (+14%)
• Conversion rate: +34%
• Sessions: +7%

No new channels.
No viral product.
No “one big unlock.”

Just better execution across the fundamentals.

Operators fall into the trap of thinking scale comes from one big idea.

In reality, it’s small, often ignored optimisations stacked together that compound.

Here’s what actually moved the needle for this brand 👇

1️⃣ Fixing fundamentals before scaling spend

Before increasing budget, we:

– Deep audited creative (angle gaps, objection blind spots, avatar depth)
– Restructured the ad account for cleaner testing + faster feedback loops
– Audited the site for clarity, proof, and friction
– Implemented stronger attribution (Triple Whale, KnoCommerce)
– Built a proper creative analysis workflow

Most brands try to scale with brute force.

Scale happens when you obsess over the fundamentals.

2️⃣ In health, trust > production quality

Overproduced ads underperform in health.

Raw founder content.
Educational iPhone breakdowns.
UGC that feels real.
They convert better.

Why?

Health purchases are trust-driven.

But authenticity only works when:

– Creators sound like themselves
– Claims are clear
– Objections are addressed directly

Clarity > aesthetics.

Especially in health.

3️⃣ Offer engineering lifted AOV

Scaling past $2M/month required structured offer testing:

• Bundles built around use-case
• Subscribe & save optimisation
• Threshold incentives
• Value-add bonuses instead of discounts

$100 + added value

Beats

$80 with margin erosion.

4️⃣ We optimised for contribution, not ROAS

Serious scale comes from knowing:

• CAC thresholds
• Contribution margin
• Payback window
• LTV:CAC

Once you understand those, you stop guessing.

You know when you can push.

You know when you need to pull.

5️⃣ Scale is compounding

Better creative depth.
Better offers.
Better structure.
Better data clarity.

Individually small.

Collectively massive.

There was no “magic tactic.”

Just disciplined stacking of the right levers.

Not sexy.

Extremely effective.

---

If you’re running a health brand and want a second set of eyes on your setup, I’m happy to take a look.

No pitch.
No obligation.

Just an honest audit of where the leverage probably sits.

In 2025, we scaled a fashion brand from $150k to $1.2m/month.

The bottleneck wasn’t creative volume.
It wasn’t CRO.

It was creative depth.

When we audit fashion brands spending £50k–£500k/month, we see the same pattern:

• Same formats
• Same messaging
• Same angles
• Different colours

That’s not testing.
That’s rotation.

The top-performing brands we work with are obsessed with creative diversity.

Not more ads.

More angles.
More formats.
More avatars.

So I pulled together 100+ high-performing fashion ad concepts - the exact types driving scale right now.

If you want the swipe file:

Like this post + comment “Fashion” below, and I’ll send it over.

Most brands kill their best ads too early.
In reality, your best creative has 10x more life in it than you think.
Here’s how you extract it:

For video ads:

• Test new hooks (change the text overlay or reshoot the first 3 seconds)
• Swap in different opening lines while keeping the rest identical
• Use the same script with different creators
• Change the B-roll (especially powerful with AI voiceover ads)
• Adjust pacing (speed up or slow down key moments)
• Cut down to the core message or extend with additional proof
• Swap in different testimonials

For static ads:

• Winning visual + new headlines
• Winning headline + new visuals
• Animate winning statics

For native-style ads:

Use AI tools to swap the main subject across different demographics while keeping the rest of the ad identical.

The key rule:
Change one variable at a time.

This is how you squeeze far more performance from every creative winner.

Most brands see an ad work and immediately move on to building something new from scratch.

The sophisticated approach treats creative iteration like a controlled experiment.

And that’s where the real scale comes from.

We have 2 final slots available for brands to join us for Q2.

If you're looking to scale paid acquisition with a more structured creative testing system:

I'll leave a link in the comments 👇

Your customers already told you how to scale.

You're just not listening.

Most brands install a post-purchase survey…

…ask “how did you hear about us?”

 …and call it a day.

That’s leaving money on the table.

Post-purchase surveys aren’t for attribution.

They’re for leverage.

When structured properly, they unlock:

• Better ad hooks (real language buyers use)
• Stronger offers (what actually tipped them)
• Higher LTV (why they come back)
• Clearer positioning (why you vs competitors)
• New product ideas (what they want next)
• Margin protection (discount sensitivity insights)

The key is asking questions that ladder into strategy.

Every high-value survey falls into one of 6 buckets:

1️⃣ Attribution (but smarter - time to convert, influence layering)
2️⃣ Motivation (what problem were they solving?)
3️⃣ Objection (what nearly stopped them?)
4️⃣ Retention (what would make them reorder?)
5️⃣ Competitive (what alternatives did they consider?)
6️⃣ Expansion (what else do they want from you?)

The moment after purchase is the highest-truth point in your funnel.

Intent is fresh.

Emotion is active.

The real reason is still conscious.

Most brands guess at creative angles.

The best brands read what buyers already told them - and reflect it back in ads.

Meta will get noisier.

First-party insight compounds.

If you want the full framework (200+ question examples broken down by use case), comment “SURVEY”, and I’ll send it over.

What got you to $10M won't get you to $50M.

And most brands don't figure that out until growth has been flat for 2 yrs.

When we audit and consult with brands around $10M that have plateaued, the pattern is almost always the same. 

The founding playbook: early brand awareness, a strong launch offer, a tight subscription base... did exactly what it was supposed to do. 

It got them here.

But somewhere along the way, the strategy stopped evolving. The team kept executing the same plays because they worked before. 

The acquisition engine never got rebuilt for the next stage. And the subscription base that was masking the problem slowly stopped being enough.

The uncomfortable truth is that most plateaued brands aren't suffering from bad execution. 

They're suffering from comfort.

Nobody wants to question the thing that built the business. But there's a difference between what's driving growth and what you're just used to doing.

The audit question we always start with:

If you stripped out your existing subscriber/repeat buyer revenue, would your new customer acquisition actually sustain this business?

Most brands don't like the answer.

If you're at 8-9 figures and growth has been flat, the problem probably isn't your ads. 

It's that the strategy underneath them hasn't been pressure-tested in years.

If that sounds familiar, we do a limited number of audits each month. 

Link in my profile.

Something I've noticed while auditing ad accounts recently.

There are two types...

The ones that are scaling, and the ones that are busy.

The busy ones all look the same.

150 ads a month. Full Slack channels. Weekly production calls. An organised shared drive. A learnings doc that hasn't actually changed how anything gets built.

And the account hasn't moved in three months.

The problem isn't output. It's that most of what gets produced isn't testing anything. 

It's content. And content and creative testing are not the same thing.

A real test has a question before it goes into production. 

One variable isolated. 
A hypothesis. 
A clear definition of what a result actually means.

What most brands have is a brief that says "let's try a UGC version" and a learning doc full of opinions.

The fix isn't producing more. It's asking better questions before you brief anything.

What don't we know about this audience? 
What's the gap between our best performer and everything else, and what does it actually tell us?

Build the creative to answer that. 

Ship it. Read it properly. Let it change the next brief.

That's it. That's the whole system.

The brands I've seen scale fastest on Meta aren't the ones with the highest creative output. 

They're the ones who know exactly what they're trying to learn each week - and build around that.

Volume is a crutch.

Brands brag about creative testing…

…but avoid the one test that actually unlocks scale:

Price.

Most brands obsess over:
Creative angles
Audience targeting
Campaign structure

And never touch the most powerful variable in the system: pricing.

Why this matters.

Let’s say you’re selling a supplement at $79.

Current state:
Price: $79
COGS: $18
Conversion rate: 2.8%
CAC: $52

Media contribution: $79 − $18 − $52 = $9 per order

You’re profitable, but capped.

At around $150K per month in spend, CAC starts to break and scale stalls.

Now test $89.

Price: $89
COGS: $18
Conversion rate: 2.4%
CAC: $60

Media contribution: $89 − $18 − $60 = $11 per order

That’s a 22% increase in contribution per order.

Same product.
Same traffic.
More room to scale.

Higher media contribution lets you:
Bid more aggressively
Tolerate higher CPMs
Target broader audiences

Now push it to $99.

Price: $99
COGS: $18
Conversion rate: 1.9%
CAC: $68

Media contribution: $99 − $18 − $68 = $13 per order

At $150K per month in spend:
$79 price → ~$26K total contribution
$99 price → ~$29K total contribution

Fewer orders.
More profit.

Most brands never test this because they’re scared.

They’d rather tweak creative endlessly than touch the variable that actually decides how far they can scale.

End of week wins 👇
Our Head of Google, David Shelton, just dropped performance updates from two recently onboarded CPG brands...

Both came to us in similar positions:

Under-structured accounts.

Low efficiency.

Untapped intent.

Brand 1 -(starting almost from scratch on Google)

First month after rebuilding properly:

• +173% increase in click volume + traffic

• +15% lift in AOV

• +48% increase in ROAS

• Meaningful incremental revenue built immediately

Not from increasing spend.

From fixing structure, feed optimisation and tightening intent capture.

-----

Brand 2 -(had been running Google but struggling with ROAS)

Without increasing spend:

• +28% ROAS

• +21% purchases + revenue

• +13% new customers

• +16% AOV

• -20% CPC

Again - efficiency driven.


------

On the retention side, Brad Neil (our Head of Email) wrapped the week by completely re-architecting a partner’s Klaviyo setup.

We:

• Rebuilt high-impact flows from the ground up

• Tightened segmentation based on real buyer behaviour

• Refined offer positioning inside campaigns

• Cleaned deliverability and send logic

Result:

Significant incremental revenue lift - without increasing send volume or discount dependency.

That’s the part most brands miss.

Scaling isn’t about “more”.

It’s about better architecture and synergy across paid + retention.

Proud of the team.

If your Google account is plateauing or your email channel feels like it’s just ticking along, there’s usually a structural unlock sitting there.

We started working with this CPG brand at the beginning of 2026

And I'm posting this because it shows how scale actually happens.

$4.37M in roughly 54 days (up 60%)

No single “unlock”.

Most brands think scale comes from one big idea.

In reality, it's small, often ignored optimisations stacked together that compound.

Here are some of the biggest I see consistently 👇🏼

1. Testing and scaling in the same place

A brand finds a winner, increases budget… and performance falls apart.

Why?

Because testing budget + scaling budget creates chaos.

You can’t tell if results dropped due to fatigue, bad tests, or a learning reset.

Fix:

Separate testing from scaling entirely.

Tests prove themselves fast. Winners graduate to efficiency-focused campaigns.

2. Overproduced creative kills performance

The most common mistake: ads that look too polished.

Founder iPhone videos and raw UGC consistently outperform studio-quality content.

Why?

Because authenticity beats production value.

UGC only works if creators sound like themselves. 

Give them an angle, not a script.

And don’t underestimate text overlays:

Clear, bold claims beat subtle lifestyle visuals every time.

Clarity > aesthetics.

3. Your offer is stale

If you’re running the same offer you launched with, you’re leaking revenue.

Brands scaling past $3M/month constantly test:

 • Bundles to lift AOV
 • BOGO structures
 • Threshold offers
 • Time-limited bonuses

Adding perceived value beats cutting price.

$100 + $40 bonus > $80 discount (and your margin stays healthier).

4. The metrics most brands ignore

ROAS is a vanity metric.

Serious scaling happens when you have clarity on:

• LTV:CAC ratios
• CAC Thresholds
• Contribution margin
 
If you don’t know these, you’re optimising blind.

Once you do, decisions get simple:

You know when you can push, and when you need to pull back.

You allocate capital where unit economics justify it.

5. Scale comes from compounding, not breakthroughs

Brands that scale don’t chase silver bullets.

They stack small wins:

 • Better structure
 • Better creative systems
 • Smarter offers

Individually small. Collectively massive.

Bottom line:

Scaling isn’t about one magic tactic.

It’s about tightening the 10–15 levers that quietly determine performance.

Not sexy. 

Extremely effective.

This furniture brand has been one of the hardest accounts we've scaled.
It’s tested us in ways no other client has.
Here's the 30 days👇 (after finally cracking it)

Total revenue: $601,371 (+18% MoM)
CVR: 2.2% (+8%)
✅All above our pre-determined KPI's

But getting here required us to throw out our entire playbook and rebuild from scratch.

Here's what nearly stopped us - and what eventually worked 👇

1️⃣ The purchase cycle demanded a different kind of patience

Furniture converts in weeks, not days.

The frameworks that work at lower ticket sizes assume faster feedback. 

Here, by the time the data matured, we'd already made decisions based on incomplete signals.

Fix: extended attribution windows, weekly cohort reviews instead of daily reads, and trusting the process longer than felt comfortable.

2️⃣ Such a High AOV forced us to rethink everything

Not just creative. Not just targeting.

Everything - from the ad creative to the landing page experience to how we thought about retention and repeat purchase.

The bar for every touchpoint is higher. The margin for mediocrity is zero.

3️⃣ The creative that works elsewhere failed completely

Raw UGC. Talking heads. "Real people" testimonials.
All of it underperformed.

Furniture is an identity purchase. People aren't buying a sofa. They're buying a version of their home.

Once we shifted to aspirational lifestyle creative - room-in-context, design-led, emotionally driven - performance changed.

4️⃣ The offer structure was wrong for the category

Discounting an $1000+ piece of furniture. It signals quality problems, not value.

We pulled back on blanket discounts entirely. Replaced with: financing messaging, white-glove delivery framing, and room-bundle incentives.

Perceived value went up. Conversion rate followed.

5️⃣ We had to accept a longer payback window

This brand's LTV:CAC doesn't resolve in 30 days. It resolves in 6 months.
Once we reframed the economics - and got client alignment on that - we stopped making short-term decisions that were sabotaging long-term scale.

We now know this brand can hit $1M/month. 

We know exactly which levers to pull to get there.

The work that got us to this point wasn't glamorous. It was dismantling what we thought we knew and rebuilding it for a category that doesn't forgive shortcuts.

That's the real unlock, not a tactic. 

Not a creative hack. Just the willingness to start from first principles and do the work properly.

Running a high AOV brand on Meta and hitting a ceiling?

Happy to take a look at what's actually blocking you

Drop me a DM.

I just wrapped up an audit for a beauty brand spending $100K/month on ads and made a concerning discovery...

Their static ads were performing terribly:

Unique CTR: 1.31%
CPM: $10.11
CPA: $178

The culprit?

Product-obsessed creatives that look like every other beauty ad.

Same glossy product shots.

Same perfect models.

Same "revolutionary formula" claims.

Here's the problem with product-focused ads on Meta and Google: 

they scream "THIS IS AN AD" and users scroll right past them.

After analyzing 200+ top-performing beauty ads, we found that the best-converting creatives don't just showcase products, they tap into specific customer motivations.

Our Creative Matrix Worksheet revealed 7 concepts they're completely missing:

Testimonial Ads (real people sharing authentic results)
Lifestyle Ads (showing the product in everyday contexts)
Problem → Solution Ads (addressing specific pain points)
Comparison Ads (clear differentiation from competitors)
Ugly Ads (organic-looking content that doesn't feel polished)
Authority Ads (leveraging press mentions and accolades)
Before & After Ads (visual proof that creates desire)

The beauty brands scaling profitably on Meta and Google right now are the ones testing across ALL these concepts, not just product shots.

Most beauty brands we audit are only using 1-2 of these concepts in their ad arsenal.

No wonder CPAs are through the roof.

We're confident we can turn their ad account around with these adjustments + our Brick-by-Brick Framework to systematically test each concept.

When brands follow our framework, they typically see CTRs double and CPAs cut by 30-50% within 45 days.

The lesson? Stop making ads that look like ads.

If your CTRs are below 2% on Meta, you're paying a massive "boring tax" on your ad spend.

Running $50K+/month on beauty ads but struggling with rising CPAs?

Let's chat.

“Our main issue now is delivering on the growth you guys are generating.
 I don’t know what you’re doing… but f* it’s working.”

That was a message from a client last week.

We started working together 12 months ago.

Since then:

• $33M+ in gross sales
• +26% YoY growth
• CVR% up 10% 
• AOV up 10%

But the reality is…

There wasn’t a single “silver bullet”.

No viral ad.

No one optimisation that changed everything.

Just dozens of optimisations compounding over time.

Things like:

• Restructuring the ad account to scale spend more efficiently
• Building a much deeper creative testing pipeline
• Using customer reviews and research to inform new ad angles
• Improving landing page conversion paths
• Tight feedback loops between media buying, creative and retention teams
• Expanding the creative variety in the account
• Doubling down on what customers actually respond to

None of these changes are particularly sexy on their own.

But stack them together for 12 months…

…and the results compound.

That’s how most brands actually scale.

Not with one breakthrough.

But with consistent, methodical improvements across the entire growth engine.

----

We’ve got one client slot left for March.

If you’re doing $2+ a year and looking to scale paid acquisition properly

Feel free to drop me a message - we'll see if we're a fit!

Former Green Beret & Airborne Ranger now CEO of Rising Wealth Club & CFO/COO of GrowthLine Capital

After 22 years in the alternative asset management industry, I founded Jedburgh Advisors as a hedge fund that is focused on providing attractive risk-adjusted returns. We are a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business with a goal to have at least 50% of the employees as U.S. Military veterans. We currently have three funds on our platform: Fund 1 (algo & AI driven fund), Fund 2 (volatility relative value) and Fund 3 (disruptive innovation). We are always looking for new Portfolio Managers to join us.  If you are a talented PM or analyst and want to launch a fund on our platform, please contact us. We are operationally efficient, so small launches are welcome.

David Walker

Nice. The world is moving very rapidly...move with it.

Former Green Beret & Airborne Ranger. CIO, COO, CFO, investor, and author.

Chief Investment Officer & Member of the Executive Committee at Syz Group ¦ 260,000+ followers

View Charles-Henry Monchau, CFA, CMT, CAIA’s profile

A Bloomberg Terminal costs $24,000 a year.
Someone just recreated one using Perplexity Computer for $200 a month...
Could it be a real threat to Bloomberg? 

Bloomberg’s moat has never been the data.
Data is becoming a commodity.
The real moat is the interface:
 • Thousands of keyboard shortcuts
 • Proprietary screens
 • Years of muscle memory burned into finance professionals

The switching cost wasn’t price.
It was retraining.

AI agents collapse that moat.
If an agent can replicate the interface and pull equivalent data from public and licensed sources, the lock-in disappears.

What’s left?
Two things:
1) The chat network — a social product
2) Real-time market feeds — a licensing negotiation
Neither is a technological moat.

The lesson isn’t about Bloomberg.
It’s about every product whose advantage depends on users memorizing complexity.
AI doesn’t learn your system.
It replaces it.

Source: Subodh WarekarSubodh Warekar

20% of the world's oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz.  Now is the time to prevent that from being in jeopardy.

Everyone asks: “Can’t oil just go another way if Hormuz closes?”
@jack pradelli on X did the math

The Strait of Hormuz moves 18.6 million barrels of oil per day.

Now the alternatives:
→ Suez Canal: 4.6M b/d
→ Bab al‑Mandab Strait: 3.1M b/d
→ East–West Pipeline: limited capacity
→ Jask Oil Terminal: still unfinished

Even if you combine Suez + Bab al-Mandab:
7.7M b/d

That’s only 41% of Hormuz capacity.

The other 59%? There is no backup route.

Pipelines help, but they can’t scale fast enough to replace maritime flows. They’re built for specific routes, not global emergency rerouting.

And every “alternative” has its own risk:
• Suez and Bab al-Mandab are chokepoints too
• Pipelines are fixed infrastructure
• Overland routes add cost and geopolitical dependency
• Red Sea routes carry their own security risks

So if Hormuz is disrupted, the system doesn’t reroute smoothly.

It cascades through bottlenecks.

Diversification matters.

But diversification isn’t resilience if the combined alternatives can’t replace the original artery...

Themes are great, but better to pick individual opportunities.

Founder, The Global Investment Letter | 30+ Years Managing Global Equity Portfolios | Navigating Trend Changes in Global Markets

The Investment Theme of Every Decade: What History Says About What Comes Next

 From European stocks to American megacaps, every market cycle crowns a new leader, until the next one takes its place.

Every decade tells a different investment story. The chart above, sourced from MSIM, Bloomberg, FactSet, and Haver, illustrates how global leadership in markets has shifted dramatically from one era to the next.

In the 1950s, European equities led as postwar reconstruction fuelled growth. The 1960s brought the “Nifty Fifty,” a handful of high-quality U.S. growth stocks that investors believed could justify any valuation. The 1970s rewarded commodities and emerging markets as inflation surged and the dollar weakened. The 1980s crowned Japan, whose stock market seemed unstoppable until its spectacular collapse. The 1990s saw the rise of American technology. The 2000s returned to emerging markets and raw materials. And the 2010s and 20s have belonged to U.S. “mega caps.”

Each of these episodes shared a common process: conviction turned to concentration, and concentration eventually led to vulnerability. By the time investors became fully committed to one theme, the conditions that had driven its success were already eroding.

Today, markets once again appear clustered around a dominant narrative—the supremacy of U.S. technology giants. The FAANG (Magnificent 7) cohort and their peers have delivered exceptional results due to the transformative promise of artificial intelligence. Yet history reminds us that no leadership lasts forever. Whether through valuation excess, policy shifts, or structural change, markets inevitably rotate to new sources of return.

Investor sentiment, too, follows a familiar pattern. When optimism becomes universal, diversification feels unnecessary. That was true of Japanese equities in 1989, of tech stocks in 1999, and of commodities in 2007. In each case, investors mistook a structural trend for a perpetual one.

The lesson is not that today’s leaders are doomed to fail, but that market dominance tends to sow the seeds of its own undoing.

 The baton may once again pass to regions or sectors currently out of favour. A world of fiscal expansion, tariffs, geopolitical fragmentation, and resource competition could revive the case for tangible assets and select emerging markets. Investors should recall that the greatest opportunities rarely lie where everyone is already looking.

Each Tuesday, I share observations on the investment landscape, framing the risks, behaviours, and events via email. It’s free and designed to provide readers with valuable perspectives and information.

 We share deeper analysis and actionable investment ideas in our premium service, the Global Investment Letter. Sign up for the free weekly commentary and access sample issues of the premium service here: https://lnkd.in/g2mBz8fJ

Another DeepSeek moment for Tech and US equities???
China Pulse: "We are very close to the launch of the latest Chinese AI model, DeepSeek-V4. There is much speculation and some unconfirmed leaks about the efficiency of the upcoming model compared to the American models ChatGPT and Cloud. According to the leaks, the cost of input via DeepSeek's API will be $0.27 per million tokens. If this is true, it will be more than 50 times cheaper than its competitors, whose models cost $15 per million tokens.
Of course, the cost varies due to the different operating mechanisms of the models.
It is not only the tech community that is eagerly awaiting the release of the new model, but also the markets. The emergence of a model that offers competitive efficiency at such low prices will put significant pressure on American AI companies.
The model is scheduled to launch this month, and there are speculations that it will be released in the coming days, coinciding with the start of the Chinese New Year".

Source: China pulse 🇨🇳
@Eng_china5

Remember what CL futures did when Russia invaded Ukraine.

BlackRock Global Chief Investment Strategist

Oil futures in steep backwardation through this week - near term prices well above longer dated contracts (chart) - a signal that markets see supply disruption as temporary.

And those with the means will move to another country.  Look at European history - Centers of Capitalism move when a country falls into collapse.

Precious Metals Analyst📈 | Featured: investing.com, FXStreet | Join 1,000+ weekly readers at the Gold Edge Report

Politicians promise solutions, but the math says America is running on borrowed time.

When Ray Dalio talks about debt, he does not frame it as opinion. He frames it as pattern recognition. After studying centuries of market history, he is describing what tends to happen when nations reach this stage, not guessing what might happen next.

-Debt has surged past 38 trillion dollars and continues climbing
-New borrowing is being used to pay interest on existing borrowing
-This is the late stage pattern seen repeatedly in historical reserve currencies
-Interest payments in the United States are now exceeding what is spent on national defence.

The loss of purchasing power is not theoretical, it is already happening quietly through currency debasement.

History shows these cycles rarely end with a clean reset. They are resolved through some combination of inflation, currency weakness, and a restructuring of the financial order. The shift feels gradual while it is happening, but the long term impact is anything but.

History suggests these shifts happen slowly, then suddenly. Are you positioning for that possibility or assuming this time is different?

Contagion?  Remember the old saying, "If you lived through one financial crisis, you've lived through one financial crisis."  They are all different:  dot.com, GFC, Covid, etc.

From the Financial Times:

"Shares of the biggest private investment managers on Wall Street tumbled on Thursday after Blue Owl permanently restricted investors from exiting a debt fund for retail investors, sending shivers through the industry."

#markets #privatecredit #blueowl #investing #investors

🤖 Top 10 most visited AI websites in the world (December 2025)

1.🇺🇸 chatgpt. com (US) – 5,212,821,273 visits
2.🇺🇸 gemini. google. com (US) – 679,929,570 visits
3.🇺🇸 openai. com (US) – 573,485,401 visits
4.🇨🇳 deepseek. com (CN) – 305,810,342 visits
5.🇨🇳 chat.deepseek. com (CN) – 233,026,658 visits
6.🇺🇸 perplexity. ai (US) – 221,992,170 visits
7.🇺🇸 claude. ai (US) – 178,315,660 visits
8.🇩🇪 deepl. com (DE) – 158,248,746 visits
9.🇺🇸 character. ai (US) – 153,196,102 visits
10.🇺🇸 copilot. microsoft. com (US) – 96,587,855 visits

Source: Tech Informer (December 2025)

Source: Cata Paul 🃏‍‍‍
@CataPaul2

I think the graph should be on a logarithmic scale.

Independent Macro Strategist | Financial Markets Commentator | • Historical • Macro Trends • Metals • Energy • Equities • Bonds • Real Estate • Crypto • Systemic Risk | Author of “Beyond The Headlines”

🟠 ₿ITCOIN: THE MEGAPHONE OF MAYHEM 📣

There may only be a whimper coming out of the Bitcoin raging bull quarter right now… but what’s shrieking out loud and clear through THE MEGAPHONE OF MAYHEM is simple:
💥 Bitcoin could crash to $28K in 2026.

🩸 BLOOD ON THE TRACKS?
The chart shows Bitcoin’s megaphone technical pattern that emerged in 2017. To me, it perfectly matches the brouhaha from Bitcoin bulls, with their promises of:
💰 Getting rich quick
🧍‍♂️ Becoming financially independent
⛓️‍💥 Operating outside the system

🔺 Upper Trend Line—“Line of Death”
Connects Bitcoin’s 4-year halving cycle peaks:
📈 2017: $19K
📈 2021: $69K
📈 2025: $126K

🔻 Lower Trend Line—“Line of Life”
Connects Bitcoin’s 4-year halving cycle troughs:
📉 2018: $3K
📉 2022: $15K
📉 2026: $28K (Projected)

🌀 TANGLED UP IN BLUE
Back in January 2025, when Bitcoin was trading at $98K, I sounded a warning:
🚨 The lessons of history say Bitcoin could crash to $30K by 2026.
🤷‍♂️ Many said I “didn’t understand crypto.”
 
💡 The truth? Crypto is surprisingly simple:
✅ High correlation to leveraged tech stocks
✅ Repeating 4-year halving cycles
✅ Blindingly obvious technical patterns

🌊 SURE IS GONNA BE ROUGH
Bitcoin rose from $98K in Jan 2025 to $126K by Oct 2025… then recently fell to $60K. Now? Bitcoin appears to be mid-bear market, primed for a total 78% drop from $126K to $28K.

🌃 IN THE SPOTLIGHT SO CLEAR
Bitcoin’s deteriorating performance is concerning:
🐂 2018-21: +2,200% gains
🐂 2022-25: +740% gains (66% lower compared to 2018-21)

🧠 A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW
The next bull cycle (2026-29) may only see 250% gains ($28K to $98K). Bitcoin could fail to take out its 2025 high of $126K, locking itself into a long-term secular bear market downtrend.

🔜 REVOLUTION IN THE AIR?
1️⃣ A major secular capital rotation took place in 2025 from risk-on to risk-off assets (S&P 500-to-gold ratio breaking below critical 10-year average).
2️⃣ Since 2012, ‘Risk-on’ Bitcoin has a 94% correlation to the 3X Leveraged NASDAQ.
🤔 If Bitcoin thrived in a risk-on secular bull market since 2009, why wouldn’t it suffer in a risk-on secular bear market?
 
🪓 ONE DAY THE AXE WILL FALL
Legendary investor Michael Burry warns:
🕳️ At $50K Bitcoin, miners would go bankrupt, selling reserves, and tokenised metals futures would collapse into a black hole with no buyers.

💧 RAIN FALLING ON YOUR SHOES…..
Crypto faces a dark future, especially if my prediction of a severe U.S. recession in 2026-28 holds true. Bitcoin has NEVER experienced a major downturn when risk-on assets usually get crushed.

🎶 FINAL THOUGHT
The megaphone noise of Bitcoin is still reverberating—but take a leaf out of Michael Burry’s book: put on your headphones, crank up some Dylan, and let the music drown out the siren calls!

📩 FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION
👉 https://lnkd.in/eS9HPvh2

💬 FYI—Richard Keskküla, Charles Najjar, Michiel ₿runet de Roche₿rune, Marco Crotta, Ravi Sidhu, Nasib Fathi, Jake Barber, Jamie Coutts CMT, CFTe

Another quote that might soon come into play, "Sell it all, today!"

"The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history." It is probably because "When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance." — Chuck Prince, former Citigroup CEO (2007) ( highlights the tendency to ignore risks and repeat dangerous behaviors during a boom and assume that investors know when to cash out!).

Not saying “always buy the dips”, but wanted to share this chart from Ed Yardeni.  The y-axis, appropriately, is logarithmic so that ratio moves look the same at each level.  
Note: in my career there have been more than 13 bear markets and two drawdowns of 50%, a level most investors can’t handle.  What’s interesting to me is that what these drops have most in common is levels of extreme overvaluation preceding them.  What punctures the balloon changes over time, and may not be the headline-grabbing geopolitical events of the day.

This chart clearly spooked markets, but how much of it is actually new?

What has NOT CHANGED:
➡️ We knew companies with balance sheet strength were going to spend and spend to defend position in a fast-evolving, winner-takes-all/most race;
➡️ We knew this spend was going to eat into free cash flow before it generates revenue, as model labs are expected to stay cash negative for years;
➡️ And we knew we were never going to know the payoff quickly.

What has CHANGED:
➡️ Sentiment flipped from buildout hope to adoption fear, from productivity return to disruption risk; 
➡️ Focus consequently turned to terminal value debates with some broad brushing assumptions, from earnings which have not materially deteriorated, let’s see tomorrow’s nvidia report changes that. 

But even against a backdrop that feels more fear than hope right now, this chart of rising compute demand unambiguously supports semiconductors, hardware and energy suppliers. Importantly it shows conviction in ai is rising, not falling.

taplio

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