DTC1038: Creative Before Offer Testing, Jon Bond’s Agency Tips

Good morning,

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

1️⃣ Why you need to test hooks and creative angles before offer testing
2️⃣ The biggest mistake agencies make and how to supercharge growth

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: OUAI, Fast Track Power Sports, and Ben’s Pretzels. 👋

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• Affiliate sales tripled in under a year
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JLab replaced a fragmented, manual workflow with a repeatable partnership engine that scales across Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart. ⚡

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‍💡 Test These Creative Angles Before Offer Testing

The Meta scaling formula used to be as simple as having a strong offer and then expanding out with multiple creative assets.

In 2026, that order is flipped: creative is first, and offer is second.

In some cases, a weak message with a strong discount can underperform against a strong message with no discount at all.

The Pilothouse Meta team has three tips on what they leverage with high-performing brands:

1️⃣ Test hooks and angles before testing offers

Before you discount, bundle, or add urgency, you need to know what message actually resonates by launching creative tests with no offer change.

Test these angles:

• Problem focused
• Outcome focused
• Identity focused
• Comparison focused

Keep variables tight by using the same audience, campaign structure, bid strategy and the same landing page.

Measure performance across the angles, taking into account pre- and post-click metrics.

Because at the end of the day, if a hook doesn’t perform without an offer, it won’t magically work with a discount. It’ll likely just attract lower quality buyers.

2️⃣ Use creative to qualify intent

Creative shouldn’t attract everyone.

It should attract the right people by calling out specific use cases with hooks like ‘for people who struggle with…’ and ‘if you’ve tried X and it didn’t work…’

Address awareness level directly:

Use problem-aware creative for cold audiences.

Use solution-aware creative for mid-funnel.

Qualified clicks convert better and train the algorithm faster, which will help slow fatigue and scale better.

If your ad could apply to anyone, it will resonate with fewer people, so it’s important to be clear and concise with targeting a specific persona.

3️⃣ Introduce offers only when needed to convert

Ideally, offers should be used as closers only, not openers.

Start prospecting with value driven creative by leaning into benefits, social proof, and USPs.

Watch where the drop-off occurs with prospecting traffic:

A high CTR but low CVR likely means an objection issue.

Strong engagement but weak click metrics likely mean a trust gap.

Deploy offers strategically: Retargeting audiences only, ideally focusing on checkout abandoners.

❗ Reminder to brands: An offer doesn’t need to be a steep discount. It can be free shipping, gifts, or guarantees.

The takeaway?

Ultimately, creative earns attention and offers convert that attention.

When you reverse that order, you burn budget attracting low-quality buyers who are less likely to repeat purchase.

So, focus on strong messaging before offers to succeed in 2026.

Want this kind of thinking and testing applied to your account? Reach out.

‍How Jon Bond Built a $90M Agency with 27% Margins

In this episode of Agency Confidential, we sit down with Jon Bond who has been in the agency game since the 1980s.

He co-built Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners into one of the most talked-about independent agencies in the U.S., hitting $90M revenue and 27% margins, and over $1B in billings.

In this convo, Jon breaks down what actually drives agency growth when you’re past the scrappy phase and trying to scale without turning into a “we do everything” shop.

What we get into:

• Why clients don’t hire you for everything you can do, they hire you for your specialty
• How they moved from low single-digit profit to 27% margins
• Culture as an actual growth lever: why “acceptance” made the agency sticky and hard to replicate
• Word of mouth at scale: the difference between “what you want people to say” and “what makes people talk”
• Building marketing assets that regenerate versus renting attention

▶️ Watch on YouTube | 🎧 Listen on Spotify

‍📊 You can lower CPA by 19% and bump your CTR 53%. How? Brands like Our Place, Instant Hydration, and RevitaLash use minisocial to partner with the creators that make it happen. See how! *

ChatGPT’s ad business. In just 6 weeks the platform has hit $100M in annualized revenue. Self serve advertiser access launches in April. Read more →

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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.