DTC851: Whatsapp Ad and AI Updates, Message Box Strategy, and Liquid I.V. Creative

Good morning,

Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:

👋 Meta’s Many WhatsApp Updates
Innovative AI and ad features are coming. 

⭐ Steal This Message Box Template!
Use this valuable tool for creative strategy.

📦 Daily Tariff Update
Trump sends out tariff letters. 

🧃 Why You Should Tailor Your Creative
Even when the product doesn’t change.

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Honeymoon Matcha, Levo Health, and XS Power Batteries. 👋

🌎 Meta Unleashes New WhatsApp Updates 

Exciting update! Meta advertisers can now expand their campaign reach by targeting WhatsApp users.

Here’s what's new:

1️⃣ Streamlined ad setup process: Businesses can select WhatsApp ads as an additional placement on Ads Manager or use Advantage+ to optimize budgets across placements and maximize performance.

Advertisers can also create ads for WhatsApp Status within the same campaign flow.

What this means: Targeting will be easier as Meta AI will help brands find the optimal audience.

2️⃣ Expanded access to business AIs: Meta teases AI support is coming to WhatsApp as well. 

With a Business AI, brands can use a chatbot to "make personalized product recommendations and facilitate sales on any business website."

The AI can then follow up with customers to answer any questions or provide updates right within the chat. 

Brands can sign up for updates here. 

What this means: Reduce workload on customer support teams by using AI during critical points in the user journey. 

3️⃣ New customer support possibilities: Brands using WhatsApp Business Platform will be able to respond to customers in multiple different ways, not just through text.

Brands can take calls from customers or call a customer if they expressed an interest in hearing from the business.

Meta teases voice messages or video calls will soon be available as well.

‍What this means: Reduce roadblocks when it comes to purchasing and strengthen customer relationships by catering to different communication preferences.

The takeaway?

Pilothouse shares that most likely performance and traffic inventory will vary regionally, since WhatsApp is more popular in places like Europe and South America compared to North America.

However, it will be interesting to see how placements on Meta compare to standard SMS messages that brands send via tools like Klaviyo and Attentive.

Pilothouse advises that it’s worth monitoring the placement breakdowns in Advantage+ reports to ensure performance aligns with the advertiser’s standards. 

‍👋 Looking for Meta management for your brand?Reach out here.

📦 Your Daily Tariff Check-In

Whether it’s a minor tweak or a major shift, we’ll keep you posted on the latest tariff changes—so you’re always in the know. 

July 4, 2025 update:

• Trump’s Tariff Pause Is About To Expire 
  
  • Countries are scrambling to meet Trump’s July 9th deadline or face steeper tariffs from the U.S. 
  • Last Friday, Trump started sending out letters to countries that have not reached a trade deal.
  • Trump shares that the new levies will range from "maybe 60 or 70% tariffs to 10 and 20% tariffs.” The president, however, didn’t specify which countries are likely to receive such letters.

🎧 Unlock the Strategy Behind Apple’s Most Iconic Campaign—And How to Use It in Your DTC Brand

In this episode of Ad-venturous, Aves unpacks one of the most overlooked but powerful tools in strategic messaging: the Message Box.

Used in political campaigns and now weaponized for DTC, the message box is a great tool for marketers. 

This exercise forces clarity in positioning across four strategic quadrants. 

Aves illustrates how Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign is a perfect case study and why every DTC brand should use this tool before producing content or ads.

👀 Steal the template here and make sure to follow Aves on LinkedIn for more ad insights!

In this episode, we dive into:

• How To Ask The Right Qs: The exact questions to ask when building your message box and what terms like “us on us” and “us on them” mean.
  “Communicating around a shared enemy is just always going to be more productive.”
  
• Who’s Your Opp? How to identify your real competition (it’s often not what you think!)
  
• Emotionally Driven Sales: How to use empathy, pity, and adversarial contrast to drive conversion.
  

👉 Listen to the full episode with Aves here.

👻 98% of your website traffic disappears. How do you get it back? Instant identifies and retargets up to 10x of the shoppers and feeds them into upgraded email, SMS, and abandonment flows. Book a demo and get 50% off your first month. *

🧃 One Product, Many Use Cases? Reflect That in Your Creative

If your product serves multiple types of customers or fits into different moments of life, you should be testing creative tailored to each one. Liquid I.V. does this well.

This creative is part of a four-ad variation set, all promoting the same product, but through different lifestyle lenses:

👉 “Live More” — For people who want energy that lasts all day.
👉 “Travel More” — For flyers who need hydration on the go.
👉 “Party More” — For nights out that don’t ruin the morning after.
👉 “Score More” — For the after-work athletes and weekend warriors.

Each one uses identical structure and headline format: [Verb] More → hooks into a lifestyle benefit, not just product specs.

🎯 Why it works:

• Each variation speaks to a specific use case and buyer persona
• You get more relevant clicks because people see themselves in the creative
• You can segment performance and optimize spend accordingly

If your product is versatile, don’t settle for one-size-fits-all creative.
Show every audience what “more” looks like for them.

📥 Got a B2B Biz? 

Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 150k brand leaders and founders this year. Talk to our team to learn more.

Have you heard our latest podcasts?

• 💡 TWBERP 40: Scale The Ecosystem, Scale The Brand 
• 💰 How RYSE Used Meta Ads To Raise $10M+ In Equity
• 🚀 AKNF 520: How Pilothouse Tests 30+ Creatives Weekly on Meta 
• ❓Ad-venturous 7: Answering Gen Z Questions I Have As A Gen Z 
• 😀 TWBERP 39: How To Keep Your Customers Long Term 
• 🚴 Bootstrapping Revel Bikes from Innovation to Acquisition

Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.

Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.