AI's Role in the Future of Media Buying

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Hello and welcome to the DTC Podcast. Today’s guest is Brenden  Delarua, co‑founder of Stella, the measurement SaaS helping DTC brands convert media spend into real business growth through incrementality testing and media‑mix modelling (at a much lower price than a lot of other platforms).

https://stellaheystella.com

Follow Brenden on TikTok

Why this matters for DTC marketers & media buyers:

• You’re under pressure to justify ad spend with profit, but your on‑platform ROAS doesn’t tell the full story.
• Brenden walks us through how to build and run incremental testing (hold‑out studies) + media‑mix models so you allocate budget to channels that drive real growth.
• We also dig into his view on channel incrementality: why CTV/YouTube often win, why branded search and retargeting may be traps, and how creative diversity and scaling methodology matter.

Key moments in this episode:

• Why Brenden built Stella (the anxiety of hitting ROAS goals but not seeing P&L growth.)
• How to set up hold‑out incrementality studies: picking regions, measuring revenue lift, ignoring on‑platform vanity metrics.
• The “Always On Incrementality” concept: daily causal analysis across campaigns.
• Creative diversity review: three‑word heuristic to test if your ads are too similar.
• Campaign structure advice for Meta: testing vs scaling in two campaigns.
• Hot take on measurement: many brands over‑complicate it (and overpay) without actionable clarity.
• Future of media buying & AI: creative + measurement convergence.

If you’re a DTC brand owner, media buyer or marketing leader trying to squeeze more profit from your ad dollars, this conversation will give you a grounded, tactical framework to start measuring and scaling smarter.

Timestamps

00:00 – Why ROAS doesn’t mean ROI and the rise of incrementality

02:00 – How Stella helps DTC brands test true ad impact

06:00 – The myth of high ROAS campaigns and what’s really incremental

10:00 – Always-on incrementality and Stella’s AI dashboard

14:00 – Media mix modeling and improving accuracy for marketers

18:00 – Pricing transparency and making incrementality affordable

22:00 – Which ad platforms are actually incremental

26:00 – Why most marketers overcomplicate incrementality

27:00 – Brenden’s TikTok growth and its impact on Stella

30:00 – Meta’s Andromeda update and how creative drives results

36:00 – The future of AI and media buying

Hashtags

#dtcpodcast #incrementality #mediabuying #marketingstrategy #adspend #stella #digitalmarketing #ecommercegrowth #brandstrategy #advertisinganalytics #d2cbrands #metaads #googleads #tiktokmarketing #marketingmeasurement #roas #growthmarketing

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