Hijack the Demand and Rewrite the Funnel

Howdy readers 🥰

In this newsletter, you’ll find:

🧠 Hijack the Demand, Rewrite the Funnel: The Brand Search Flip Strategy

📞 Google AI Now Calls Businesses, Plus Major Ads + PMax Overhauls

 🏆 Ad of the Day

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Together with Insense

🧠 The Most Trusted Ad Format in 2025 Doesn’t Come From Your Brand

In 2025, every ad competes with real people in the feed, so why are you still running them from your brand handle?

Meta’s Partnership Ads let you promote from your creator’s profile instead, combining authenticity and paid scale.

And with Insense, 2,000+ DTC brands like Solawave, LARQ, Babbel, and Obvi have already made the switch.

Here’s why they’re outperforming every other ad format:

📈 53% higher CTR and 19% lower CPA than traditional branded ads

🎯 Easy 1-click integration with Meta Ads Manager—no messy handle permissions

🌍 Access to 68,500+ fully briefed creators across 35+ countries

These ads don’t just feel native, they are. And with Insense handling rights, briefs, and creator coordination, your team never gets stuck chasing files or approvals.

👉 It’s the easiest high-ROI upgrade you’ll make this quarter.

Book your free demo before July 25 to unlock $200 off your first MPA campaign!

🧠 Hijack the Demand, Rewrite the Funnel: The Brand Search Flip Strategy

Every day, shoppers Google your competitors by name, “X Brand reviews,” “X Brand vs,” “Is X Brand worth it?” And every one of those queries is a live conversion opportunity you’re letting bleed into someone else’s cart. But the best DTC brands aren’t just running conquest ads, they’re rewriting the buyer’s decision loop before checkout even begins.

This isn’t SEO for rankings. It’s search-driven revenue engineering.

1. Why Brand-Search SEO Beats TOF in ROI

Shoppers who Google brand names are in buy mode, not awareness, not education. They’re just one unresolved objection away from pulling the trigger. If your product is better positioned on value, ingredients, UX, or community, this is your shot to intercept.

Example: A DTC hydration brand can outrank a legacy player by writing “Why [Legacy Brand] Doesn’t Work for Runners, and What We Built Instead.”

More than clicks: this lands high-intent traffic that converts at 2–4× your average TOF rate.

2. Reframe, Don’t Compare, Then Upsell the Outcome

Don’t build those bland “Us vs Them” charts. Instead, expose the limitation in your competitor’s promise, and anchor your solution to a higher-quality outcome.

• If they sell budget razors, frame the hidden cost of skin damage (then upsell a $30 deluxe kit).
• If they focus on speed, reframe that as short-term thinking (and position your LTV-saving bundle).

The result? Brand-switcher traffic that spends more and returns less, because you rewired the buyer’s logic, not just stole the click.

3. Build Dedicated Switch Funnels That Convert Like Landing Traps

These aren’t generic blog posts. You need CRO-optimized flows designed for brand-aware, doubt-filled shoppers.

Here’s what works:

• Switcher offers (e.g., “Tried X? We’ll give you 25% off to experience the upgrade.”)
• Testimonial narratives (“I dumped [Competitor] and here’s what happened in 14 days.”)
• Comparative outcomes (“Why X causes bloating, and how we fixed it with [core ingredient].”)

DTC brands that do this right don’t just win new users, they boost AOV with bundles, reduce CAC by hijacking traffic, and increase conversion rate with landing flows that feel personal.

You don’t need to guess which competitor keywords bring in high-intent shoppers.

The SEMrush SEO Toolkit’s Organic Research Tool shows exactly which branded queries send traffic to your rivals, plus how much, from where, and with what trends.

Run your top 3 competitor brand names through the tool and unlock the exact keywords that are waiting to be flipped into your next 7-figure CRO funnel. You can try your free 14-day trial here.

This isn’t traditional SEO. It’s buybox SEO for DTC brands, a system to siphon wallet-open shoppers, flip them into loyalists, and maximize checkout value before the funnel even begins.

Your competitors built the brand awareness. Now you build the revenue.

📞 Google AI Now Calls Businesses — Plus Major Ads + PMax Overhauls

Google is rolling out practical AI tools that go beyond chat and search, now capable of making real-world phone calls to local businesses. At the same time, Google Ads is refining how advertisers view performance data and manage brand control inside Performance Max. 

The Breakdown:

1. AI can now call businesses to answer your local queries - Google Search users in the U.S. can now ask AI to check prices and availability from nearby businesses via automated phone calls. This new “agentic” feature is built to handle common queries like dry cleaning or pet grooming and present a consolidated summary of responses.

2. Gemini 2.5 Pro is now available in AI Mode for advanced queries - Subscribers to Google AI Pro can now select Gemini 2.5 Pro, built to handle complex reasoning, coding, and math tasks more efficiently. 

3. Google Ads adds expandable rows for easier performance insights - A new beta in the Channel Performance Report lets advertisers expand summary rows. It helps compare feed-based vs. asset-based metrics in one click.  The small UI tweak provides faster visibility into what creative types are working best, especially in Performance Max campaigns.

4. PMax campaigns now require new brand asset workflows - Google now stores logos and names at the campaign level, not in asset groups. API users must update their implementations to support this change, or risk broken workflows and brand inconsistencies. 

Google is turning AI from a gimmick into a utility, whether it’s making real-world calls or refining how brands manage ads. These updates demonstrate a clear strategy: increased automation, reduced friction, and smarter integration across Search and Ads. 

🎥 Ad of the Day

What Works:

Bold Pain-Point Headline: “Dull Knives Slow You Down” - The copy opens with a frustration every home cook understands: slowness, not just dullness. By linking performance drag to the tool (not the person), it externalizes blame, making the buyer feel competent but under-equipped.

Tool-Based Friction = Upgrade Opportunity - Rather than promoting a desire, this ad amplifies existing friction in a daily task, and then inserts the product as the effortless solution. That’s a masterclass in tension-based marketing.

Trust Triad: “Award-winning,” “Clean Ingredients,” “Hermana-approved” - This triple-layered social proof mixes authority, safety, and emotional resonance. “Hermana-approved” is genius, it blends cultural language with sisterly trust, an intimacy traditional reviews can’t match.

Ulu Knife = Status Signal for the Informed Cook - Unlike generic chef knives, the Ulu format is visually distinct and culturally rich (traditionally used by Indigenous Arctic communities). This appeals to those who want function with a story, it says, “I know my tools.”

Broader Insights:

This ad doesn’t sell a knife, it sells the feeling of flow and power in the kitchen. It taps into frustration, elevates the solution through feel-rich language and imagery, and delivers a product that looks artisan-level without feeling inaccessible

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