DTC1034: Media Buying AI, and Kurt Elster on AI Discovery

Good morning,

Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:

1️⃣ Top media buying skills you need in the age of AI
2️⃣ Tactical ways to optimize your Shopify storefront for AI discovery

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Rare Beauty, Wuffes, and BobaVida. 👋

‍📊 AI Hype Is Everywhere. But The Real Data Is Here.

❓ Klaviyo’s latest global survey asked 8,000+ global consumers about their shopping behavior, brand perceptions, and trust in AI tools.

Their top takeaway?

👉 Customers aren’t all on the same page.

Some use AI for everyday shopping. Others are more skeptical.

All together, the data reveals 4 different consumer personas for modern brands to keep in mind:

• 👏 The AI Enthusiast: “AI makes life easier. I rarely second-guess it.”
• 🤔 The AI Evaluator: “AI has potential, but I mostly use it for a few specific things.”
• 🤨 The AI Skeptic: “AI can be helpful, but it’s just a starting point.”
• 😬 The AI Holdout: “AI feels risky. I’m not into it.”

Ready to find out which tactics are the best bet for your business?

‍🤖 What Skills Media Buyers Need In The Age of AI

Automation and broad targeting have fundamentally changed media buying.

With AI now handling budget adjustments and ad builds, what does a great media buyer actually bring to the table?

The Pilothouse Meta team shares four top media buying skills AI simply can’t replicate.

1️⃣ Creative Analysis

AI optimizes delivery. It can't explain why something is working.

Spotting emotional resonance requires reading between the data.

For one brand at Pilothouse, the team identified that a sentimental creative angle was driving outsized results with mom audiences.

AI could tell you which video performed best, but it couldn't tell you it was the one that made someone tear up on their lunch break.

Media buyers also have something AI tools typically don't: visibility across multiple accounts at once.

AI tends to analyze one account or campaign at a time.

That's why the Pilothouse team was able to spot that unedited CGC statics are converting across several accounts and apply those learnings broadly.

2️⃣ Strategic Thinking

Campaign structure can be straightforward. Strategy is harder.

Media buyers need to answer two critical questions:

• What should we test next? Pull from platform performance, Meta comment sentiment, competitor ad libraries, and prior year data.
• When do we scale vs. pull back? Map spend against strong and weak days, seasonal signals, sale moments, and product launches.

AI can surface this data, but it doesn't interpret it the way a human with business context does.

3️⃣ Cross-Platform Data Interpretation

Attribution can be complicated, and it’s critical to look at blended spend across channels combined with Shopify orders and net sales, not just platform data.

It’s critical for media buyers to understand how to:

• Read overall business metrics and determine next steps
• Balance platform data with business outcomes
• Make decisions under uncertainty

4️⃣ Stakeholder Communication

As AI handles more execution, communication becomes one of the most important skills a buyer can have.

Great media buyers translate between algorithms, creative teams, and clients.

Explaining why performance changed is just as important as changing it.

The takeaway?

AI didn't eliminate media buying. It filtered out the mechanical work and put a premium on judgment, pattern recognition, and strategic thinking that humans do best.

‍🛑 Stop Googling Things Other Agency Owners Already Figured Out.

You've spent hours researching pricing structures, team models, and AI workflows that another agency owner could answer in five minutes.

The information exists. You’re just not in the room.

Agency is a curated peer group built exclusively for agency owners doing $1M+. You're matched into a small Forum group by revenue stage and specialty.

No generalist founder communities. No surface-level networking. We reject more applicants than we accept.

Monthly roundtables on scaling, AI ops, pipeline, pricing, and team structure. Led by operators, not influencers.

Apply at joinagency.co

‍3 Shopify Hot-Fixes for AI Shopping: Kurt Elster on UCP, ChatGPT Referrals, and TikTok Shop

Kurt Elster is back on the DTC podcast and shares real challenges Shopify brands are facing like rising CAC, messy catalog data, and gaining visibility in AI product discovery.

He breaks down why Shopify’s category fields suddenly matter, how AI tools are starting to drive real referral traffic, and why the merchants who clean up their product data now will likely have an edge on ChatGPT, and Shopify Product Network.

In this episode, we get into:

• Why Shopify’s category fields and category metafields may become a real advantage in AI shopping
• What Kurt is actually seeing from ChatGPT referrals on stores and apps
• How structured data is becoming the new layer of SEO for answer engines
• Why TikTok Shop, live selling, and affiliate-driven creative are getting harder to ignore
• What AI is really doing to the Shopify app ecosystem, coding workflows, and lean ecommerce teams

▶️ Watch on YouTube | 🎧 Listen on Spotify

OpenAI pulls the plug on Sora. Just months after a landmark partnership with Disney, OpenAI is shutting down its AI video platform, signaling a bigger shift in AI priorities. Read more →

TikTok’s new disruptive ad formats. The app releases new options like ‘Logo Takeover’ and ‘Prime Time’ to capture user attention. Read more →

Brands celebrate Hannah Montana’s 20th anniversary. Adidas, Funko, and Hollister put out Y2K-inspired merch. Read more →

Amazon’s ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ouchy’ campaign. The retailer reasserts its fast delivery positioning by spoofing a Western showdown. Read more →

‍📥 Got a B2B Biz?

Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 150k brand leaders and founders this year. Talk to our team to learn more.

Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.

Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.