The 80/20 of a Scroll-Stopping Hook: (bookmark this)

Once you learn consumer psychology, Meta ads become very simple. Because behind every winning ad, there are 4 key drivers that determine whether or not someone buys from your brand. Over the last 5 years, I've used these 4 drivers to generate over $1 billion in revenue for more than 250 eCom brands like IM8, Loop Earplugs, Honeylove and Mood. I just released a full video on what they are, and how you can use them. Look up Evan Carroll on YouTube to watch the full video.

If you want to be more productive, make your work as enjoyable as possible. For me, that starts with my environment. I spend most of my day at my desk. So I made it the place I most want to be: - The best view - The best gear - The best monitor - The best chair - The best table It's not cheap. But I'm genuinely excited to get out of bed and start work every morning. If you ever feel lethargic or lazy, start by upgrading your environment

I’ve tested every morning routine you’ve read about online. The one that’s stuck with me consists of 3 things - and it only takes 20 minutes - Hydration - Cold shower - Sunlight No affirmations, no meditation, no journaling. Don’t get me wrong, those things can be helpful for some people But when I wake up - My first objective is to to get to my first work block as fast as I possibly can Anything that doesn’t help me achieve that goal gets left out. I drink half a liter when I wake up, jump into the cold shower for 5 minutes, and get some direct sun exposure for 15 Half a liter of water replenishes any water I lost overnight, a cold shower gets me fully awake, and bright light early in the day triggers my morning cortisol pulse - which is the signal that tells your body it's time to be awake and focused. 20 minutes with no other distractions and I lock in straight to my first 90 minute work block. I’ve been doing this for over a year now, and it’s had an immense impact on the quality of my day.

I recently moved into a new apartment in Dubai. And the rent is almost twice as much as I was making as a Chemical Engineer in my first job just 5 years ago. Sometimes I forget how much has changed in that time. When you're building a business, you only ever get a chance to look at what's in front of you. You rarely stop to look back. Signing that lease really made me think about what a journey the last 5 years has been. From quitting a safe job in big pharma to go all in on my creative agency To being invited to speak on stage on what I love doing every single day And all the ups and downs that come with growing a business There was no single moment where it all changed. It was 5 years of showing up, taking risks, getting a bit better at the work, and staying in it long enough for everything to add up. It’s crazy how fast life can change in just a few years.

If there's 1 principle that dominates DTC eCommerce, it's the 80/20 rule: → 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your SKUs → 80% of your revenue will come from 20% of your ad angles → 80% of your ad spend will go to 20% of your ads The same goes for how you should run your creative. 80% of everything you make should be iterations on angles that have already won. The other 20% is for bigger creative swings. Here's what that looks like in practice: 80% on iterations means taking an angle that's already working and changing one variable: → A new hook on the same body → A new creator reading the same script → The same message in a new format (static, UGC, founder video) You already know the angle works, so these keep your CPA steady while you scale. 20% on creative swings means betting on fresh ideas that could fail, but would that could fail, but have far more upside than any iteration if they work. Your next winning angle will come from this 20%. When you approach your paid media like this, and you get steady performance from your proven angles now, with new winners ready for when they fatigue.

If I could only use 3 copywriting frameworks to scale a DTC brand from 0 to $100k / month It would be these: 1. Problem → Agitate → Solution 2. Attention → Interest → Desire → Action 3. Before → After → Bridge TLDR; - Press a pain point - Create a desire for change - Sell a better future Anything you'll ever do in advertising will contain one of those three things.

4 DTC ad creative facts nobody wants to admit... 1. The best performing ad you'll ever make will look like it took 15 minutes to produce. 2. CGC (customer generated content) is 10x more valuable than paid UGC 3. Your creative brief is more important than your creative budget. 4. Only 2-3 our of every 10 ads will hit your target CPA.

How to make an ad creative system that scales your revenue while maintaining target CPA: 1. Prioritize creative diversity Keep it simple - there are only 3 ways to make your ads different: → Angle: the reason to buy. → Audience: the same angle for different people. → Visual: the format of the ad - e.g. video, static or GIF 2. Scale creative volume with your spend The more you spend, the more winning ads you need to carry it. Even with a strong hit rate, only around 1 in 5 ads will win. → 10 ads a month = 2 winners, or 24 / year → 30 ads a month = 6 winners, or 72 / year Just make sure to keep quality high as you produce more ads. 3. Optimize with creative feedback loops Let ever ad spend 2-3x CAC, then: → Find your winners (the ads that beat your target CPA) → Work out why each ad won or lost (Hook rate, hold rate, CTR) → Put your winners side by side and look for what they have in common → Build the next round of creative around common pattern Sounds simple, but you need to be disciplined. Most brands are either very stale on diversity, very loose on volume, or just don't have the right frameworks to make the right decisions to compound results mont over month

My team & I have audited +75 Meta ad accounts so far in 2026. These are the 10 most common mistakes we saw: 1. Not using third-party attribution tools 2. Incorrect CAPI setup 3. Killing winning ads too early 4. Not leveraging whitelisting 5. No congruency across the funnel 6. Not committing enough resources to creative production 7. Not split testing offers and funnels 8. Overcomplicated ad account structure 9. Not iterating on winning creative 10. Putting too much focus on audience testing You'd think most brands would be fully optimized for these in 2026 But you'd be surprised as to how many multi 8-figure brands are losing thousands of dollars behind the curtains because of these.

Most brands are sitting on a goldmine of UGC. They just have no clue how to extract it. In 2026 - people’s BS radars are stronger than ever. That’s why nothing beats a testimonial form an actual buyers who already loves what you sell. The problem is getting content from them feels impossible: They're not creators. They don't know what to film. And a 10% discount isn't enough to get them off the couch. Here's how we fix that: → Lead with a compelling offer → Email your top customers directly → Give them specific questions to answer → Have them upload to a shared folder When you ask the right questions, you can mix and match clips to create testimonial ads that feel truly authentic.

Human vs AI UGC data across +40 accounts: → Human UGC: 48% hook rate → AI UGC: 32% hook rate → Human UGC: 21% hold rate → AI UGC: 13% hold rate → Human UGC: $36.20 CPA → AI UGC: $49.60 CPA → Human UGC fatigues in 3 weeks on average → AI UGC fatigues in 2 weeks on average Human UGC outpaces AI UGC on all tests right now. But, here's where AI is crushing for us: AI statics. → Human statics used to average 1.89% CTR → AI statics average a 1.83% CTR right now → Human statics averaged $32.15 CPA → AI statics average a $28.75 CPA If you're new to using AI in DTC - you should invest 80% of your time mastering statics. It's currently the fastest and least expensive way to produce and test new creative angles.

Magic Spoon became a 9-figure DTC brand for 1 reason: Instead of advertising the product as just another healthy cereal alternative - they tap into the first breakfast their target customer ever loved: The bowl of sugary cereal they ate as a kid, long before anyone told them it was bad for them. There are hundreds of healthy cereal alternatives in the market - but none of them understand consumer psychology as well as Magic Spoon does. They know that the purpose of their product is to connect their customer with a moment they cherished as a kid. So all they do is allow them to have that same experience - without feeling guilty afterwards. Just goes to show how important positioning is in DTC advertising, and how understanding your consumer can give you such a massive edge over your competitors.

Outsourcing your copywriting to AI is the worst mistake you can make It's literally handing over your highest leverage customer acquisition task to a machine that is designed to always revert to the mean. I'm not saying don't use AI - I use it every day to write copy. But use it as a tool that is there to help you think, rather than think for you. There are deep nuances that go into copywriting and it takes many years to master it.

If your CPMs are much higher than they should be right now. Dedicate your next round of ad creative to looking as native to the platform as possible. Ads people stop and watch get cheaper delivery, and in 2026 people will scroll straight past anything that obviously looks like an ad. Some formats that are working very well right now: → IG Stories → iMessage → Facetime → WhatsApp Messages → Google search

Congruency in your DTC funnel: Content in your ad = Content in the landing page If your viewers watch an ad for leak-proof underwear and click through to a landing page thats about about seamless bras, your conversion rate will tank. Treat the landing page as an extension of the ad itself. Pre-click CRO is the fastest way to boost your CVR on the ad level.

4 questions to ask before you write your next ad: Take a look at your ICP and ask yourself: - What they truly desire / love in their life - What they fear / keeps them up at night - What they hate / can't stand - Who they're striving to become Brands that win Meta ads in 2026 are the brands that go deep into their ICPs psychology. Production isn't the bottleneck anymore - connection is.

The best creative strategists I know don't have a crazy creative hit rate. Most of them average 25-30% The difference is they have a system that takes 1 winning concept and turn it into months of compounding growth. Here's the 3 things that helps them do that: 1. Volume Most ads aren't good enough to scale. Test 40+ creatives a month and you build a bank of 80-100 winning concepts a year - plus every iteration you can spin off that proven data. 2. Diversity You can't ride 1-2 angles anymore. Meta's Andromeda update pre-screens millions of ads and filters out anything that looks too similar. It rewards diverse formats, angles, and messaging - so you diversify across all three. 3. Analysis Volume and diversity mean nothing without benchmarks. Hard metrics (CPA, ROAS) tell you what's profitable. Soft metrics (hook rate, hold rate, CTR) tell you why - and what to fix next. → Volume gives you winners. → Diversity gives you range. → Analysis tells you how to scale. These 3 pillars separate elite strategists from average ones.

This year we gave a speech in Affiliate World Budapest on the 3 things that separate 7 & 9 figure DTC brands when it comes to advertising on Meta. We went in depth on growth economics, P&L mastery, and how to build a creative engine that compounds month over month. I just uploaded the full presentation on my YouTube channel. look up “Evan Carroll” on YouTube to watch it - you don't want to miss this one.

What no one warns you about DTC marketing: Your CAC will almost always grow with your revenue. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when, and by how much. There are only 2 durable fixes once you're scaling: 1. Increasing your lifetime gross profit per customer 2. Building a brand with organic content and word of mouth Better creative & new offers still work, but they both eventually fatigue. If you want to stay profitable at scale - start investing in retention and organic today

Once you learn psychology, advertising becomes embarrassingly single. Most creative strategists and media buyers spend too much time worrying about algorithm updates and the latest creative trends instead of just focusing on how their target customer thinks. Always put yourself in their shoe - what do they need to: - Fully resonate with you and your brand? - Feel certain your product was made for them? - Take action on buying your product today? Go deeper into your ICPs psychology - it's the only way to guarantee results from paid ads month over month.