DTC1137: Google Language Targeting, TikTok Shop & Meta Static Ads

Good morning DTC readers! Happy Monday.

Starting the week with a very reasonable question:

If anyone finds the free ads, please share with the group.

Until then, we’ve got plenty on the paid kind today, including why statics are still scaling when video CPMs get expensive, a Facebook comments trick worth checking on your best ads, and a Google change coming in September.

Let’s get into it.

🛠 Google's letting AI pick what language your ads speak

Starting late September, your campaign-level language targeting disappears from Search and Performance Max.

Google's AI takes over instead, reading your ad copy, your landing page, and search signals to decide who understands what. If someone searches in a language your assets clearly match, you're prioritized.

If they search in more than one language, like English and Spanish, ads in either language become eligible. Check your assets before this goes live, and watch your traffic and search terms closely once it does.

📉 Your Meta CPA is climbing and Q4 is like five minutes away

This is the time of year brands are ramping up acquisition and building lists ahead of BFCM. Which makes it an especially bad time to be paying more per customer than you were six months ago.

Most of what I'm seeing online is brands responding by refreshing creative, adjusting bids, and testing new audiences. Yet, acquisition costs keep climbing anyway.

Clustie's argument is that you're solving the wrong problem. Lookalike audiences degraded after iOS 14 and most brands never adapted. First-party data is sitting in Shopify doing nothing while platform signals keep weakening. Throwing more budget at that doesn't fix it, it just costs more.

Their free CPA Playbook breaks down what's actually driving costs up and what to do about it before the holiday push starts.

Grab your copy here.

🧳 BÉIS to be acquired by Samsonite at a $210 million valuation

Shay Mitchell's popular luggage brand just sold for exactly how much it pulled in last year.

Samsonite purchased an 85% stake for $178.5 million in an all-cash deal. For Samsonite, it's the fastest way to land a younger, DTC-savvy audience without spending years building one.

Mitchell keeps the remaining 15% and her creative title. With over 1.4 million Instagram followers, the brand is best known for its Weekender bag and buzzy pop-ups.

🛍 TikTok Shop just out-spent Target online

TikTok Shop just beat out big-box retailers like Target, Costco, and Home Depot in online spending.

In July the platform pulled in roughly 2% of all US ecommerce spend, up from 1.2% a year ago.

Michael Gunther, SVP of Research & Market Intelligence at Consumer Edge, calls that jump in market share "massive." If TikTok Shop is still a side experiment in your Q4 budget, this is the number that says otherwise.

📉 Alex Cooper's drink brand shuts down in less than 2 years

Unwell Beverages, founded by Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper, plans on shutting down after selling its Halloween-themed beverages this fall.

The brand started in 2025 in partnership with Nestlé and still couldn't survive Target deciding not to restock it.

Celebrity founder, big valuation, none of it mattered once one retailer pulled back. If your retail strategy depends on one big-box account, that account owns your business.

💬 Your comments section just became your landing page

@DTCMidas flagged something worth stealing this week. Expand the comments under a Facebook static and the whole thing takes over the screen, headline, hero image, and comment stack scrolling as one continuous unit.

That's a full landing page assembled inside the ad itself, no click needed to see your social proof. It also means the comments you've been moderating for spam are now a real conversion asset, arguably the best social proof format Facebook has, since anyone can tap a commenter's profile and confirm a real person is behind it.

Go back through your top statics and see whether the comments underneath are doing that job or just sitting there.

⏱️ Only a few days left to shape the Q4 discount benchmark

If you haven't added your Q4 discount data yet, now's the window — 5 minutes, anonymous, and one respondent walks away with $1,000.

Add your data →

Note: Survey results may be used in DTC editorial and advertorial content. Personal info won’t be shared.

* One entrant will be randomly selected to win a $1,000 Amazon Gift Card. No purchase necessary to enter. Survey must be completed by Sunday, August 23rd, 2026 to be eligible. This giveaway is open to legal residents of the United States and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 years or older. Void where prohibited.

💡 Grid Creatives That Scale And Drive Strong Results

There’s a lot of buzz around video content and CGC but a simple static ad can still scale pretty aggressively on Meta.

Statics are great for instantly communicating a message or value prop without requiring a user to watch anything for longer than 3 seconds.

Attention spans are short, so a basic static grid can work wonders when video fatigue is real and video CPMs are high.

Here are a few tips from Pilothouse on building grids that perform:

1️⃣ Try high contrast

Feeds are full of polished content users scroll past. Scrappy UGC images and bold, bright copy break the pattern and stop the scroll.

Minimalist brands get the same effect using black text on a white background.

2️⃣ Single USPs only

Pick one USP or common customer objection and stick with it. Don’t try to explain your whole brand in one image.

For example, Devon & Lang highlighted "all-day comfort" in large bold font in this static ad.

If a user can't understand exactly what you are selling in a second, they likely won’t stop.

3️⃣ Test as a GIF

Try converting your static images into a GIF to add movement. Cycle through different product shots. Swapping USPs across panels breaks the grid’s single message.

If you have multiple items that are back in stock, using a GIF is a great way to showcase all SKUs without making the design look too cluttered.

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