D2C Diaries

How to Scale DTC Brands with Third-Party AdsStruggling to scale Meta ads without killing your CPA? In this episode of D2C Diaries, Olly breaks down the exact whitelisting and partnership ad strategies we’re using across 8 figure ad accounts to unlock First-Time Impression Ratio (FTI) and drive incremental reach.This internal training reveals why Meta’s Andromeda algorithm update makes creative and third-party identity the new targeting, how to build high-performing whitelisting ad funnels, and what most DTC brands get wrong when trying to scale on Facebook and Instagram. You’ll learn how to use creator-led content, publisher positioning, and partnership ads to lower CPMs, improve engagement, and grow your customer base profitably.Whether you’re running ads for a DTC brand or managing a performance team, this is a plug-and-play strategy for scaling Meta spend without burning efficiency.Watch the full Meta ad strategy training now to see how we do it.00:00 What this session covers02:17 How Meta has changed03:18 What Meta Andromeda is06:07 What FTI is and how to track it11:30 The FTI funnel12:30 Why now is the time to adopt third-party ads13:48 The 3 types of third-party delivery on Meta23:45 What best-in-class looks like: 3 funnel examples29:10 Brands doing this well (and why to study them)30:05 Tactical ways to execute for your brand34:05 Results you'll see when done right35:13 How to measure success (FTI, CPM, visitor % etc)37:30 5 action points to takeaway

D2C Diaries is proudly sponsored by WayflyerRunning an ecom brand and struggling with cash flow? Whether you're scaling ad spend or restocking bestsellers ahead of peak season, Wayflyer provides fast, non-dilutive funding tailored to e-commerce businesses. No equity. No months of waiting. Just the capital and insights you need to grow, on your terms.Check them out: https://tinyurl.com/4jfc8yejMost founders obsess over CAC, ad spend and creative testing, but almost no one talks about the thing that actually drives LTV: Product.In this episode, we sit down with Holly Beadle, CEO of Hera, who took over a legacy fashion brand right before Black Friday and had to rebuild it from the ground up. Just product, operations, and a brutal growth ceiling to solve.You won’t hear any fluff here. Just the raw truth about:- What happens when you scale before you’re ready- How product scaled the brand- The real role of CX, refunds, and fulfilment in retention- How Holly thinks about launches, core categories, and loyalty- What most operators get wrong when they inherit a brandThis isn’t a growth-hack playbook. It’s a look behind the curtain of what rebuilding a real DTC brand actually looks like, especially when product is the lever that works.🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your free audit here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0nv7p900:00 Hera’s origins & acquisition story4:14 Early days at Gymshark + MyProtein 6:02 Taking over Hera: product vs. CEO role8:43 Talent development at The Hut Group10:30 Hera acquisition: first steps & early struggles16:19 Product development & trend forecasting19:47 80/20 rule in product21:24 Acquisition vs. retention through product23:57 3 key product tips for founders29:04 The friction between product & marketing32:23 Entering new markets & territory growth36:33 Marketing mix post-acquisition: paid vs. organic42:12 Influencer collabs + Partnerships47:08 Growth strategy + Black Friday52:56 Building the team & hiring for scrappiness57:06 AI in the business59:04 A day in the life as CEO & being a parent1:04:53 Vision for Hera over the next 3–5 yearsFollow Holly and Herahttps://www.instagram.com/holly.beadlex/https://www.linkedin.com/in/holly-beadle-4308b037/https://heraclothing.com/Follow Loukas on socials:LinkedIn: https://shorturl.at/TRI8BTwitter: https://x.com/LoukasHambiFollow Olly on socials:LinkedIn: https://shorturl.at/kPrqOTwitter: https://x.com/oliverwhudson

Before pet food was “DTC sexy,” Pure Pet Food was scaling with zero ad spend.In this episode, Matt and Joe unpack how they built early traction through scrappy tactics like event pitching, awards, and PR - not Meta. With just a £300 council grant and no industry experience, they grew the brand to £1M+ in revenue without touching paid media.They share how that foundation led to VC backing and how they leveraged Meta spend, a custom subscription stack, and retention-first thinking to push past 8 figures.If you’re early-stage and trying to scale without burning cash, or already spending and want to scale smarter, this one’s for you.🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your free audit here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0nkf8h000:00 Meet Pure Pet Food04:35 Early failures + finding purpose12:09 Early adoption into the pet food category14:30 The rise of subscription pet food16:50 How they were scouted for Dragons Den 19:20 Pitch experience 23:45 The impact post-air date25:40 Inflection point for the business28:03 Scrappy techniques29:30 Hiring proactive team members32:20 Raising investment36:50 Understanding the game of venture39:55 Overraising = pressure to 10x42:10 How they unlocked Meta49:15 In-house growth restructure 50:40 Scaling and testing 54:35 Retention & subscription flywheel56:55 Post-purchase flows & feedback1:02:20 Future vision for Pure Pet Food1:04:50 Will they exit?Follow Pure Pet Foodhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mathew-cockroft-78bb2489/https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemitchellcreative/https://www.purepetfood.comFollow Loukas on socials:LinkedIn: https://shorturl.at/TRI8BTwitter: https://x.com/LoukasHambiFollow Olly on socials:LinkedIn: https://shorturl.at/kPrqOTwitter: https://x.com/oliverwhudsonFollow D2C Diaries on socialsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diariesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

D2C Diaries is proudly sponsored by WayflyerRunning an ecom brand and struggling with cash flow? Whether you're scaling ad spend or restocking bestsellers ahead of peak season, Wayflyer provides fast, non-dilutive funding tailored to e-commerce businesses. No equity. No months of waiting. Just the capital and insights you need to grow, on your terms.Check them out: https://tinyurl.com/4jfc8yejThis mission-first ecom brand has fortified 250 million meals without compromising scale.In this episode, Olly and Loukas sit down with Martyn Cook, founder of Noobru, the mission-first ecom brand that’s already fortified 250 million meals for malnourished children and is on track for 1 billion.But this isn’t charity for charity’s sake. It’s mission-led growth done right.They break down:- Mission-first growth (with real impact)- The unit of good concept and how to apply it- How mission affects AOV, retention, and partnerships- The downside of “fake” charity positioning- Tactical stuff: upsells, advertorials, and affiliate scaleIf you're a founder who wants to scale with purpose (and still keep control) this one's unmissable.0:00 Meet Martyn Cook: Founder of Noobru03:15 The brand background05:20 The whiteboard method06:50 Identifying malnutrition as the problem to solve09:10 What can you build that keeps your interest?10:45 Addressing the hot take14:10 The 'unit of good' framework20:05 Optimising everything by 1%26:40 Advertorials as a method for acquisition38:50 Dipping into founder style creatives40:05 Upsells and cross-sells unlocking 30–50% more AOV47:50 How super affiliates help you scale57:40 What's next for Noobru & the future of ecom in the AI eraFollow Martyn on socials:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martyn-cook/Podcast: https://smarterdestiny.com/series/podcast/https://noobru.com/Follow Loukas on socials:LinkedIn: https://shorturl.at/TRI8BTwitter: https://x.com/LoukasHambiFollow Olly on socials:LinkedIn: https://shorturl.at/kPrqOTwitter: https://x.com/oliverwhudsonFollow D2C Diaries on socialsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diariesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

Discover how to break through the limits of Meta advertising with insights on incremental reach, a key performance metric. Learn innovative strategies for measuring and improving reach, while exploring fresh customer personas and creative tactics. Dive into the importance of deep customer research and seasonal insights to tailor marketing efforts. Uncover effective media buying strategies that drive growth and the benefits of collaboration between creative teams and growth managers for successful campaigns.

D2C Diaries is proudly sponsored by WayflyerRunning an ecom brand and struggling with cash flow? Whether you're scaling ad spend or restocking bestsellers ahead of peak season, Wayflyer provides fast, non-dilutive funding tailored to e-commerce businesses. No equity. No months of waiting. Just the capital and insights you need to grow, on your terms.Check them out: partners.wayflyer.com/soarIn this episode, Olly sits down with Soar COO Sam to unpack the hard lessons from their early experiments with AI.After spending over £30K on tools, workflows, and automation frameworks that quickly became obsolete, the team realised they were solving the wrong problem.This episode dives into the strategic shift that followed, from prompt engineering to context engineering, from static workflows to scalable infrastructure.You’ll learn: – What context engineering actually looks like inside a creative team – The difference between business-level vs process-level context – How to build agentic systems that don’t collapse under real-world complexity – How Soar’s internal AI Committee drives bottom-up adoption across departmentsIf you're building with AI inside a fast-moving team, this is the blueprint we wish we had six months ago.Watch Andrej Karpathy’s LLM Breakdown Video: https://youtu.be/EWvNQjAaOHwComment on our Youtube "AI" to receive Sam's run-through on how to 10x creative strategy by using AI-powered context engineering00:00 Introducing Sam and his role with AI 07:10 Where our AI systems broke (and why)11:10 Business-level vs process-level context14:15 Codifying human judgment into systems15:30 Flashy tools vs infrastructure that scales17:45 Our internal AI committee28:50 Slope vs intercept thinking in AI builds32:30 Data warehousing39:35 Creating UGC briefs with MCP52:20 Setting brands up for the next 6 months1:00:00 The S-tier tools we're actually using

Black Friday isn’t just another sales weekend,  for some DTC brands, it makes up 90% of yearly revenue.In this episode of D2C Diaries, Olly and Loukas break down the exact playbook that drove £45M in sales from £11.5M in Meta ad spend during Black Friday 2024 and reveal how they’ve evolved the strategy for 2025.You’ll learn:- The proven goal-setting framework to anchor your BFCM strategy- Offer strategies that actually convert without overcomplicating- Why creative iteration beats “net new” assets every time- Lead generation tactics to fill your funnel before Q4- How gifting angles and TikTok Shop are reshaping 2025 BFCM🔥 Exclusive Giveaways:Comment “peak” to get Week 1 of our Ultimate BFCM Series, including the Black Friday Master Sheet to set your goals and targets.Comment “offer designs” to unlock 30 Canva templates for static ad creatives you can plug straight into your campaigns.This is your 2025 Black Friday playbook. Don’t leave 90% of your revenue to chance.0:00 Sharing our learnings from £45M in BFCM revenue03:30 Unit economics with our master sheet9:30 Crafting a great Black Friday offer14:20 Forecasting, pacing, and daily revenue tracking16:00 Lead generation in Q4 success19:30 How to execute top-of-funnel lead gen campaigns21:30 Lead gen case studies22:30 Urgency, exclusivity & scarcity as lead gen drivers25:00 Gamification & referral mechanics that work27:30 Looking at past data30:30 Funnel splits for creative and reusing top performers34:00 Static vs video performance in BFCM36:30 Obscure hooks 37:50 Q4 consumer psychology42:00 Middle and bottom of funnel48:10 Hook frameworks54:25 How to scale creative volume without burning out57:20 TikTok Shop predictions for Q4 202559:30 Reactive CRM plays 1:00:30 Wrap-up + future deep divesFollow Loukas on socials:LinkedIn: https://shorturl.at/TRI8BTwitter: https://x.com/LoukasHambiFollow Olly on socials:LinkedIn: https://shorturl.at/kPrqOTwitter: https://x.com/oliverwhudsonFollow D2C Diaries on socialsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diariesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

CRO is the growth lever 99% of DTC brands are ignoring.In this episode, Olly is joined by Dylan Ander, ex-agency owner, 2x eCom founder, and now the creator of Heatmap.com, the CRO tool quietly powering some of the highest-performing brands online.They break down the post-click strategies the top 1% are using to scale profitably and why your landing page might matter more than your creative.You’ll learn:- Why CRO is the real 80/20 of DTC growth- What metrics actually matter (hint: not conversion rate)- Why you should stop sending traffic to over-engineered PDPs- How Dylan helped brands unlock 7 figures from simple CRO tweaks- Tactical wins around landing pages, AOV, revenue per session & moreThis is a must-listen for founders, creative strategists, and media buyers looking to scale beyond the click.0:00 - Why we’re talking CRO, not ads3:00 - Top 1% brands are doing these 3 things13:25 - Listicles, bundles, ugly pages that scale15:10 - Review mining + customer data19:18 - Quickest wins in CRO28:10 - Why conversion rate is a vanity metric31:45 - Offer testing = huge CRO lever37:29 - Dylan’s journey into SaaS41:20 - Why Dylan built Heatmap43:00 - Operating principles of SaaS 46:55 - How top users get value from Heatmap49:20 - Where AI + CRO are heading53:10 - Pricing

Most brands creatives live at the bottom of the funnel, battling over the same small pool of ready-to-buy customers.But 80% of our best-performing ads? They start much higher up.In this episode of D2C Diaries, Loukas shares the exact internal training we run with our creative strategists on the hardest skill in paid social: storytelling.You’ll see how we script for unaware and problem aware audiences (the stages most brands ignore) and why they’re the biggest unlock for scaling cold traffic.From building 15–40 second setups to weaving human desires into scripts, this is the framework we use to turn good ads into top performers.This session was too valuable to keep behind closed doors, so Loukas re-filmed the whole thing for our channel.Watch the training now and learn how to tell stories that sell.00:00 Storytelling as the hardest paid social skill02:53 Evolution of the funnel04:40 Funnel stages & messaging09:58 Hooking cold audiences without the product12:50 Pitfalls that kill storytelling18:55 Cutting fluff in scripts24:00 Ditching jargon28:12 Using human desires39:10 Messaging by market sophistication51:00 Curiosity loop techniques56: 45 Best-in-class examples1:01:30 Recap & key takeaways

In this engaging discussion, Alex Cooper, who runs the performance creative agency Ad Crate, dives deep into the fusion of AI and creative strategy. He reveals how AI is reshaping advertising, making performance-first storytelling crucial. Topics include the evolving role of creative strategists by 2025, the need for agencies to develop internal IP, and the potential of video ads. Alex emphasizes that 'briefing' will be key in the near future and discusses how agencies must adapt to stay competitive in a rapidly changing landscape.