Latest / The DTC Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Direct-to-Consumer Brands, Shopify, and E-Commerce Growth / How DTC Brands Use Creative Testing to Cut Ad Costs
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's a number that's been bouncing around my head all week, and it's two hundred. That's how many ad variations some DTC brands are now testing every single month, and the ones doing it well are seeing their customer acquisition costs drop by as much as thirty percent within a quarter. Luna: Two hundred a month feels like a full-time job just for creative. Is that really the norm, or is that the outlier? Lucas: It's definitely the aggressive end, but it's becoming more common. The shift I'm seeing is from 'launch a campaign and pray' to a structured testing cadence. Brands that used to run maybe ten ads a quarter are now treating creative like a science experiment. Luna: And what's driving that? Is it just that the algorithms need fresh creative to keep costs down? Lucas: Partly, yeah. The platforms reward novelty, but it's also about finding those rare ads that just resonate. I was looking at a skincare startup that cut its cost per purchase from forty-five dollars to twenty-eight dollars in about six weeks. They didn't change their product or their landing page. They just tested a ton of different hooks and let the cheapest winning ad eat most of the budget. Luna: Forty-five to twenty-eight is a massive jump. Were they testing totally different creative, or just tweaking the same ad? Lucas: Mostly tweaks at first, but then they got braver. They tested three distinct angles: problem-focused, lifestyle, and ingredient-led. The problem-focused one, which was a ten-second ugc style video, outperformed everything else by a wide margin. So they paused the others and pushed more spend behind it. Luna: So it's not just about volume, it's about having a clear hypothesis for each variation. That makes sense. Lucas: Exactly. If you're testing two hundred ads that are all slight variations of the same message, you're just spinning your wheels. The best teams I've seen define three to five distinct angles per product, then test a handful of executions within each angle. Luna: And how long do you need to run a test before you can trust the data? I feel like a lot of brands pull the trigger too early. Lucas: I'd say two weeks is a good minimum, unless you're spending enough to get statistically significant results in a few days. The skincare brand I mentioned used a two-week window and a clear kill criterion: if an ad didn't hit a target cost per purchase within that time, they paused it. Luna: A kill criterion is so important, because otherwise you end up with ad account full of zombies that just bleed cash. Lucas: Right, and that's where a lot of brands get stuck. They're afraid to kill an ad because they think it might pick up later. But the data is usually clear after two weeks. If it hasn't worked by then, it's not going to. Luna: But there's also a risk of over-optimizing. I was reading about a fashion brand that found one killer ad, put eighty percent of their budget behind it, and then watched their return on ad spend crater over the next month because frequency went through the roof. Lucas: That's a classic trap. The same ad that works great at five hundred impressions can be dead weight at fifty thousand. That's why you have to keep testing even when you have a winner. The goal is to have a pipeline of potential winners, not just one hero ad. Luna: So how do you balance scaling a winner with continuing to test new stuff? Seems like a constant tension. Lucas: A lot of the brands I talk to use a rule of thumb: keep seventy percent of your budget on proven winners, but reserve thirty percent for testing new creative. That way you're not putting all your eggs in one basket, and you're always feeding the pipeline. Luna: And that thirty percent test budget, do you split it evenly across the different angles, or do you weight it based on what's working? Lucas: I'd say start even, but after a couple of rounds you'll see patterns. Maybe the lifestyle angle is consistently stronger for you, so you give it a bit more of the test budget. But you still keep testing the others, because what worked last month might not work next month. Luna: Makes sense. And what about the creative itself? Are we talking mostly video now, or are static images still pulling their weight? Lucas: Video is still king for most DTC brands, especially on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels. But static images can be surprisingly effective for retargeting or for brands with a very visual product like furniture or jewelry. The key is to match the format to the intent. Luna: And what about user-generated content? Everyone talks about UGC being the gold standard, but is it really that much better than polished studio ads? Lucas: In my experience, UGC tends to outperform polished ads for engagement and trust, especially for brands in the beauty and wellness space. But it's not a silver bullet. I've seen UGC flop for more technical products where customers need detailed features explained. It really depends on the product and the stage of the funnel. Luna: So it's back to testing, then. Lucas: Always. And that's the core of the episode, really. If you're a DTC brand and you're not testing your creative, you're leaving money on the table. The brands that are winning in 2026 are the ones treating their ad library like a lab. Luna: It's funny you say that, because I feel like this whole conversation is a perfect example of why we love what we do. We get to dig into these practical tactics that people can actually use. Lucas: And if today was actually useful to you, the way these episodes stay ad-free is listener support. If you've got a coffee budget, you can head to buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo and that helps us keep digging into these topics. Luna: Yeah, honestly, every little bit helps us keep the lights on and the research budget going. Lucas: So back to that lab metaphor. One thing I want to stress is that creative testing isn't just for the big players with huge budgets. I've seen small brands with a couple thousand dollars a month in ad spend make a huge difference just by being disciplined about testing. Luna: What does a disciplined testing process look like for a smaller budget? Maybe they can't test two hundred ads a month. Lucas: You're right, they can't. But they can test three to five ads a month, and that's enough to see a pattern. The key is to be consistent. Don't skip a month just because you're busy. Treat it like a habit. Luna: And what about a brand that's just starting out, with no data at all? Where do they even begin? Lucas: Start with your customer interviews. What are the top three reasons people buy from you? Turn those into your three test angles. Then, for each angle, make a simple video or image that speaks directly to that reason. You don't need a production crew, just your phone and a clear message. Luna: That feels doable. And then after two weeks, you look at the cost per purchase and decide what to keep and what to kill. Lucas: Exactly. And don't forget to look at the broader metrics, too. Sometimes a high-cost-per-purchase ad is actually great at building brand awareness, so you might want to keep it for a retargeting audience. But for direct response, the cost per purchase is your north star. Luna: I also think it's worth mentioning that creative testing isn't just about the ads themselves. You can apply the same principle to your landing page, your email subject lines, even your product photos. Lucas: Absolutely. The whole funnel is a testing ground. But ads are where most people start because that's where the money goes. If you can get your cost per acquisition down, everything else gets easier. Luna: So what's the one takeaway you want listeners to remember from this episode? Lucas: That creative testing is a discipline, not a one-time fix. The brands that win are the ones that never stop testing, never stop learning, and never get too attached to a single ad. It's a continuous cycle of creating, measuring, and iterating. Luna: And that's a cycle worth getting into, because the payoff is real. I'm curious to see how this evolves over the next year, especially with AI generating more creative variations. Lucas: Yeah, AI is going to change the game, but the core principle stays the same: test, learn, optimize. If you can embrace that, you'll be ahead of most brands out there. Luna: Well said. That's a wrap for today's episode. Thanks for hanging out with us, and we'll catch you next time.