Good morning,
DHL’s latest global report surveyed 12,000 shoppers on their preferred online marketplace and the results are interesting. 👀
51% of customers said Amazon, but other marketplaces are quickly gaining traction. Shein came in second (24%), and Temu was third (18%).
With all this increased competition, Amazon recently announced it will create a discount section on its site with direct shipping from China to compete with Shein and Temu.
Read the full story in our News section. 📰
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:
💰 We share three winning creatives for Q4 and why you need to publish them earlier than usual this year to save on costs.
🎧 How DTC brands are scaling word of mouth marketing and manufacturing virality with Social Snowball's Noah Tucker.
⭐ ICYMI Google just announced these four new updates are coming to GA4 to help improve cross-channel campaign visibility and optimize ad spend.
💡 And…how to set the tone for an awesome and productive day!
You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Savannah Pet Food, Overstood Clothing, and Deezy. 👋
💸 This Influencer Mistake Might Be Draining Your Budget
If you’re tired of seeing the same faces selling EVERYTHING, your customers are too… 😕
Smart brands like Obvi, Tabs Chocolate, and Legends are building teams of smaller, niche influencers who align with their brand. These micro-voices are way more effective, but finding them isn’t easy.
That’s where SARAL steps in. It's not just another influencer marketplace with a limited reach. It’s a search engine for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to find profiles that fit your needs.
With AI-powered lookalike suggestions, your pool of potential partners will NEVER run dry.
Ready to try it out? Start your free SARAL trial today and see how niche influencers can work for your brand.
Want to learn more? Find some time with their team.
*Sponsored
👄 How DTC Brands are Scaling Word of Mouth Marketing and Manufacturing Virality with Social Snowball's Noah Tucker
This week on the DTC Podcast we went all in on affiliates. Not the old affiliate tactics you may know from your marketing come-up, the new wave. The wave that involves your customers, influencers, and focuses on the secret giant in purchasing decisions — word of mouth.
We’re joined by Social Snowball Founder Noah Tucker to chat through the how and why of building affiliate programs for DTC brands.
📚 In this episode, you’ll learn:
Whether you’re pre-launch, building your very first tech stack, or years in, wondering if affiliate could have a place in your toolkit, this episode is a great place to start. Book a demo with Social Snowball or you can: 👇
OR
📝 Why You Need To Think About Q4 Creatives Right Now
The biggest thing to understand is that in Q4, the costs of ads will significantly increase with the influx of competitors, increasing spending and purchasing intent.
With this year being an election year in the United States, presidential campaigns will also be spending in the space. This means it's even more crucial to introduce Q4 creatives into the account during the lower-cost window of Q3.
The Pilothouse Meta team shares that by doing this, you can rev up the learnings behind the creatives, and increase social proof at a cheaper cost.
✅ Add higher budgets behind the pre-running creatives in Q4 and scale at a lower cost and great return.
The top 3 Creatives to introduce into the ad account during Q3 (to achieve greater scale in Q4)
1️⃣ The Box Shot: a simple image of a ton of products in a box. Emulating the experience of an organic unboxing. The more product in the shot, the better.
2️⃣ The Hand Holding Shot: Another simple image of holding the product against a plain background. It doesn’t need to be perfect; in fact, in most cases, dim lighting wins.
3️⃣ Broad Sale Messaging: Take a top-performing image and/or warehouse shot and add a big, urgent sale message in bold font that doesn't mention a specific discount.
Most of the time, these creatives yielded the greatest return during Q4, overtaking specific BFCM creatives because we got them into the account early.
⭐ Four New GA4 Updates You Need to Know
Google announced four major updates are coming to Google Analytics.
From integrating more third-party data sources to tracking ad budgets, there will be some interesting new features to test.
ICYMI Here’s what’s new: 👇
1️⃣ More third-party data points to work with: Users will now be able to import ad data from Pinterest, Reddit, and Snap directly into GA4 properties.
For brands that use those platforms, this can give them more visibility into their cross-channel campaigns across the entire marketing funnel.
2️⃣ Cross-channel budgeting feature: Google plans to release a budgeting feature in the coming months.
This update will include a projections report to track media pacing and projected performance against a target objective like revenue across channels.
💡 This can help optimize spend and allocate budgets more effectively across different channels.
3️⃣ AI-Powered Insights: Google is finally incorporating AI into GA4 to enhance data insights.
Please think of this as your analytical AI assistant which can crawl through your data and explain data trends and summarize findings so it’s easier to outline next steps for your team.
4️⃣ Cookieless measurement: Google plans to end third-party cookies in 2025 and will start supporting some Chrome Privacy Sandbox APIs later this year so advertisers can continue to reach audiences and measure campaign performance.
These GA4 updates are expected to arrive in the upcoming months.
🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE
Good vibes only. Starting off the day with a healthy dose of positivity can do wonders.
⚡ QUICK HITS
🐳 If you like the feeling of FOMO, you can skip this. DTC’s C-Suite Mastermind is fast approaching. Join 50 of your DTC peers in beautiful Victoria BC, September 18th-19th. Get your ticket now!
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
