DTC882: Q3 Planning Tips for Q4, Google Attribution Errors, and Graza’s Glass Launch

Good morning, 

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

‍📅 Start Q4 Planning Now!  
Why Q3 is the perfect time to run offer tests. 

⛏️ Fixing Bad Data
How bad attribution signals lead to wasted spend. 

🚨 Daily Tariff Update
Impact on holiday shopping.

‍👏 Graza’s Packaging Change
‍Addresses a common customer pain point.

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: TrollTunga Tråd, Rooster Money, and Casual Fridays. 👋

📈 How This Brand Grew Gross Income by 65.87%

This brand came to Pilothouse knowing that when your ecosystem is in sync, your growth takes off.

By aligning every channel toward a single goal, they didn’t just scale—they maximized profit. 👇

🚀 52.88% increase in ad spend → 65.87% increase in gross income
💰 85.62% increase in average profit margin

Here’s how:

✔ Profit-first scaling – While new customer acquisition remained a priority, Pilothouse optimized for profit margins first, unlocking more TOF spend on Meta.

✔ Focused prospecting – By doubling down on top-performing prospecting campaigns across Amazon and Google, profitability increased, allowing for new prospecting tests and faster MoM growth.

✔ Ecosystem alignment – With every channel working together, growth accelerated across the board.

Looking to point your ecosystem toward profitable growth?

‍Book your free call with the Partnerships team now.

✏️ Why Q3 is the New Q4

Talking about Q4 when the sun is still shining full blast? 

You bet!

If you wait until October to start thinking about Q4 planning, you’re already behind.

For nearly all DTC brands, Q3 is the dress rehearsal for Q4 and getting the right learnings this quarter can make or break your Q4.

Needless to say, the team over at Pilothouse is busy planning for Q4 and here are a few valuable tips from the team:

1️⃣ Creative Testing is Key

The top-performing Q4 ads are often born in Q3.

Now is the perfect time to create your creative testing engine, testing a range of content in evergreen to iterate on during Q4 promos.

The Pilothouse team recommends testing a combination of UGC and branded content in both static and video to really broaden your range before honing in on top styles.

By October, you should already know what your top angles & styles are and have winning assets ready to scale.

2️⃣ CPMs are typically lower now

Meta ad costs tend to rise in Q4, sometimes doubling or tripling during BFCM. 

During Q3, you can hit a higher number of users and capture a larger audience when testing new creative, offers and audiences. 

You can also gain learnings on copy hooks, creative and messaging while CPMs are more affordable, allowing you to scale with confidence into Q4. 

3️⃣ Run offer tests now

Q4 is when consumers are more in tune with looking for discounts and it’s essential to run offer tests ahead of Q4 to understand what offer will drive the strongest ROAS, while taking into consideration overall margins. 

By using Q3 to test early, you can try bundling, gift-with-purchase and tiered offers using $ and % off. 

This will allow you to gain learnings in the best offer for your brand along with customer price sensitivity and perceived value.

4️⃣ Warm your pixel and build retargeting

Q3 is the time to feed your pixel with valuable data on purchase audiences while filling your funnel by spending heavily into TOF traffic. 

Bonus tip: You can also build lookalike audiences off strong purchase audiences that are built up in Q3.

5️⃣ Email and SMS are critical year-round

Acquisition is critical for new customers, but email and SMS play an important role in the equation.

If you’re capturing emails and phone numbers in Q3, you can prime those audiences with value-added content, early access lists or loyalty perks. This helps to ensure users are already primed to convert through Q4.

So, think of these 5 P’s when it comes to Q4: Proper planning prevents poor performance.

And get a few planning calls on your team's calendars if you haven’t already. 💸

📦 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. 

August 17, 2025 update:

Will the U.S. and China Trade Truce Save the Holidays?

• Although the U.S. and China trade truce has been extended to November 10, most holiday inventory was ordered months in advance, given the six-month lead time for production and shipping.
  
• U.S. shoppers are expected to face higher prices and limited options this holiday season.
  
• Retailers have cut back on imports, including Christmas trees from China, leading to tighter supply.

🎧 Google’s 90% “New Customer” Illusion: How To See What Your Ads Are Really Doing 

In this AKNF episode, Dougie, Google Lead at Pilothouse, exposes one of the biggest attribution errors in digital marketing: Google’s cookie‑based misreporting that makes you believe you’re crushing new customer acquisition when you're actually…not.

In this episode, we dive into:

• Fixing Google’s New Customer Attribution: What grossly inflates “new customer” numbers and how to fix it.
  

“Google has about a 90 % rate on just about every customer being identified as net new, which we know to be false.”

• Feeding Better Data Into Google: Dougie explains how to set a conversion goal specifically for net-new buyers.
  

“We’re actually picking a conversion goal that is aligned to net new … that allows the algorithm to focus on that.”

• Tools To Enable Accurate Attribution: Elevar’s server-side integration helps distinguish between new and returning customers.
  

“Elevar allows us to get a bit more accuracy on who are truly net new versus returning.”

• Why Bad Data Creates a Downward Spiral: Bad attribution signals lead to poor optimization and wasted spend.
  

“Bad inputs lead to bad outputs … we have to feed in the right inputs so we get the right output: net-new acquisition.”

👉 Listen to the full episode with Dougie here.

[Screenshot via @getgraza / Instagram]

While Graza is known for its viral squeeze bottles, it has decided to make a packaging change to meet consumer preferences. 

Their bestselling Drizzle and Sizzle olive oils will now be available in glass bottles. 

This is in response to growing demand for more sustainable, plastic-free options. 

Can't view the image? Click here

📥 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?

• ☠️ Ad-venturous 15: 6 Meta Ad Mistakes that Kill Scaling 
• 😎 TWBERP 46: The Only Browse Abandon Email You’ll Ever Need
• 💗 Mira’s Femtech Playbook: Why Community Should Precede Paid 
• 🧠 AKNF 532: What Smart Amazon Brands Do Differently 
• ✏️ Ad-venturous 14: Q4 Prep Edition 
• 🔢 TWBERP 45: 7 Post-Click Metrics to Benchmark your Funnel

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.