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Good morning. Quick one before we get started đ
DTC Dines is coming back to Vancouver on October 29! One table, 30 seats, brand founders and operators talking shop over dinner. No decks, no stage, nothing to prepare. Dinner and drinks are on us.
If you're running or operating a brand around Vancouver, apply for a seat. We keep it small on purpose, so the list is curated.
Now, onto today's issue.
đą TikTok ads can now follow shoppers into 400,000 other apps
TikTok is opening its TikTok Ad Network to U.S. advertisers, letting brands extend existing campaigns beyond TikTok into nearly 400,000 third-party apps.
You can manage those placements inside TikTok Ads Manager, with brand safety and placement controls built in.
TikTok also says GMV Max will start factoring affiliate commissions, coupons, and referral fees into TikTok Shop optimization.
If you test the expanded network, watch where the spend lands and whether those placements hold up on purchases and customer quality.
𤍠Your Q4 growth problem may have nothing to do with budget
Aged & Ore wanted to scale ad spend profitably heading into Q4. Pilothouse dug into the account and found a lever to unlock more scale with a wider mix of creative, more persona-driven messaging, and better-defined audience segments.
They rebuilt the creative and persona strategy before scaling spend.
The result was 39% Q4 net sales growth on a 27% increase in spend, plus a 27.5% efficiency improvement over the first six months. Read the full case study here.
Black Friday is close. If your plan relies on putting more money behind the current account, bring it to the Pilothouse team. Theyâll help identify whatâs holding growth back and where the next opportunity may be.
đď¸ Shopify carts can now follow Shop users across devices
Shopify can now recognize Shop users while they browse a merchantâs store, so carts can follow shoppers between devices and between the Shop app and storefront.
The Buy with Shop Pay button can also show the shopperâs most recently used card, while browsing activity can carry into Shop for viewed-product and abandoned-cart reminders.
Shopify says this now works across all browsers.
Run the flow yourself from mobile to desktop, then check whether Shopâs reminders are piling on top of your existing email and SMS flows. Nobody needs four reminders about the same pair of pants.
đ Nano Banana gets a creative upgrade
Googleâs Nano Banana 2.1 improves image generation and editing, with better text rendering, stronger visual quality, and more consistent subjects.
For creative teams, the useful part is being able to make more variations from the same product image without losing the product itself.
Try new backgrounds, layouts, or seasonal treatments from one source image. Before anything goes live, check the packaging, logos, colors, and product details.
đ Could a âchance to winâ lift add-to-cart?
@stepanecom shared a gifting test where one standard gift was replaced with a chance to win a higher-value prize.
The reported result: a 14% lift in add-to-cart.
He points to prizes like an Oura Ring, trips, merch, or $1,000 giveaways as ways to make the offer feel bigger without giving every shopper the full-value gift.
If you test it, make the difference between a guaranteed gift and a prize draw obvious, with eligibility and terms easy to find.
Then track purchases and margin alongside add-to-cart to see whether the extra interest actually pays off.
đŻ Reddit gives lead campaigns more tools
Reddit is expanding its lead-generation tools, with Max campaigns now available for lead gen, new audience integrations, and HubSpot testing in open beta.
Advertisers can send people to their own landing pages or forms, then route lead data into their CRM for follow-up.
If your sales process starts with a consultation or quote, this gives you another lead-gen channel to test. Judge it on qualified leads and eventual sales, not just form fills.
đ° The expensive answer usually comes after BFCM
An offer thatâs too weak leaves sales behind. One that goes deeper than shoppers needed gives away margin. Your performance data confirms which one happened after the busiest shopping days of the year have already passed.
Beyond the Discount compares responses from 575+ DTC operators and 700+ consumers to show where brand plans line up with shopper expectations.
The report also follows what happens after the discount does its job. Smile.io found that first-time BFCM buyers who joined a loyalty program had a 60% higher 90-day repeat rate.
Check your strategy now, before the answer shows up as missed sales or margin you didnât need to give away.
đĄ 7 weeks left to Black Friday: Reframe your subscription
Each week leading up to Black Friday, weâre sharing one simple CRO test to run before Q4 traffic peaks.
This week: the words you use for your subscription offer.
Pilothouse recommends testing the standard âSubscribe & Saveâ label against something that feels more specific to the brand.
A brand like Every Man Jack could test âJoin the Club & Save.â
âSubscribe & Saveâ tells shoppers exactly what theyâre getting. The test is whether a more ownable label gets more people to choose the subscription without changing the discount, delivery frequency, or page design.
How to run this CRO test:
The wording should match what customers are actually joining. A coffee brand could test âJoin the Coffee Club & Save,â while a pet brand might try âJoin the Pack & Save.â
Run the test before your holiday promotion so you know which version to use when first-time traffic picks up.
What would you test against âSubscribe & Saveâ? Hit reply and let us know!
đ§ What if your email worked like a homepage?
Most subscribers arenât opening every email you send, which means a lot of good campaign content gets seen once and disappears.
On the latest TWBERP, Jordan Gordon from Pilothouse suggests treating each campaign a little more like a homepage.
Keep the top section fresh for whatever youâre featuring that day, then reuse a few strong sections underneath it across multiple sends.
Those could be:
Jordan points to Anthropologie as an example. Its emails often keep going after the main message, with sections that feel more like browsing a homepage.
âśď¸ Watch here | đ§ Listen on Spotify
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