Gooooooood morning.
New York, weâre coming for you!! Our next DTC Dines event is happening in the Big Apple on September 15th. đ
Our past dinners have all been waitlisted, and NYC is shaping up to be no different. No agendas, no pitches, just brand founders and growth leaders trading war stories over dinner.
If youâre operating a brand in the NYC area, apply to join us.
đ Meta audience maxed out? This operator moved to YouTube, AppLovin, and TikTok Shop
@IstvanicMarin watched a client's Meta account run out of room: reach dropping, frequency climbing, creative burning out in days.
Testing inside Meta wasn't fixing it, so he moved budget elsewhere. YouTube for blended conversions despite ugly in-platform ROAS, AppLovin for an older, mobile-heavy audience using the same creative, TikTok Shop where margins allowed the discounting.
His takeaway is sometimes the best move a media buyer makes is sending you to a different channel.
Pilothouse has more new channel ideas below you can test. đ
đĄ Your Q4 CPMs are about to spike. Get your testing in early.
Every DTC brand is chasing the same holiday shopper on Meta and Google this quarter, and that pushes CPMs up on both platforms right when you need them cheap.
Pilothouse suggests testing an emerging channel outside the big two before that happens.
The team recommends testing new channels early, typically starting mid to late August to get initial signals back before the peak of Q4. This gives enough time to gather initial audience and creative data to scale into for November. If youâre considering testing a new channel outside of Meta and Google, these are a few to consider:
1ď¸âŁ Pinterest: Users are already planning purchases related to home decor, fashion, beauty, and holiday gifting. About 70% of the audience is female, skewing Gen Z and millennial, with a strong pull from high-income moms.
2ď¸âŁ AppLovin: Users are gaming during downtime, commuting, and unwinding after work. Most units are unskippable and full screen, so long-form video gets real attention. The user base runs close to 50/50, skewing slightly female, average age 36. Good fit for home goods, apparel, accessories, and skincare.
3ď¸âŁ Snapchat: Users buy on impulse, worth testing for skincare, fast fashion, and accessories. About 55% of users are female, skewing young.
Testing alternative ad channels in August and September gives you the baseline data and pixel volume you need before Q4. Â
Pick one or two platforms that match your customer. Put 5 to 10% of spend behind the test, enough to read a real signal before Q4 dollars get committed.
đ§ $65M Exit, Zero Employees: How Olauto Automates Everything Except Customer Service
Tyler Handley sold Inkbox to BIC for $65 million. His new company, Olauto, sells a $33 car air freshener and is already profitable with zero employees, relying on contractors and AI to keep the business running.
The one thing he refuses to automate? When a customer emails, a human answers every time.
While some businesses are replacing customer service teams with bots, HumanTouch promises that every reply is written or approved by a real person.
His friend Michael Maleszyk, who built the HumanTouch software, believes human interaction is vital to raising brand loyalty and customer lifetime value.
They explain how the EUâs AI Act marks a major shift in AI transparency and the risks businesses face when relying too heavily on fully automated interactions. Â
To hear more about Tylerâs story and how HumanTouch fits into his brand, you can:
âśď¸ Watch here | đ§ Listen on Spotify
đ§ Platform-by-Platform Guide to Paid Social Ads
What performs on Meta wonât necessarily work on TikTok. What converts on Pinterest might flop on Snapchat.
In this episode of Ad-venturous, Aves breaks down the major paid social platforms and how advertisers should think about each one, from audience demographics to ad specs to creative strategy.
Youâll learn how Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, and AppLovin actually differ when it comes to advertising performance, and why adapting your creative to the platform is one of the most important factors in scaling paid social today.
âśď¸ Watch here | đ§ Listen on Spotify
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