Retention starts at Acquisition

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In this newsletter, you’ll find:

⭐️ Retention starts at Acquisition 

🚀 Google Pushes AI-Led Ad Playbook with New Ad Strength Guide

🏆 Ad of the Day

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⭐️ Retention starts at Acquisition 

Let’s kill the nice little story we tell ourselves in DTC.

“Acquisition brings ‘em in. Retention keeps ‘em loyal.”

Cute. But wrong.

The truth? If you’re bleeding customers post-purchase, it’s not your retention flow’s fault. It’s your acquisition filter. You didn’t attract the wrong customer — you invited them with open arms.

And you did it with the laziest bait: discounts, clickbait ads, and fake urgency.

You Don’t Have a Retention Problem. You Have a Gut Check Problem.

Let’s say you’re acquiring thousands of customers, but 80% ghost you after the first order.

You’ll probably tweak your email flows. Add SMS. Maybe build a loyalty program with points nobody asked for. But here’s the uncomfortable question:

Why did they bounce in the first place?

Because the ad they saw and the brand they landed on were two different universes. You hooked a budget hunter and sold them a “premium mission-led brand.” That dissonance? It’s not a churn bug. It’s the system working exactly as designed.

Use Acquisition to Repel the Wrong People

What if your ads weren’t just fishing lines, but filters?

The fastest-growing DTC brands right now? They’re not obsessing over CTRs or CPA. They’re obsessed with alignment. With repelling.

Their strategy:

• Build creatives that alienate low-value buyers.

• Craft offers that only make sense if you’re the right kind of customer.

• Use onboarding to reinforce that identity, or let the wrong people self-select out.

Want people to stay? Stop optimizing for the ones who were never gonna stick.

The Retention-Starts-at-the-Top Framework

Here’s a punchy 3-step approach you can actually use:

1. The “Hell No” Hook: Instead of “For everyone,” try: “Not for deal hunters. Not for dabblers. This is for people who do this every damn day.” That one line will save you 10,000 bad leads.
2. An Offer That Requires Belief: Don’t dangle 50% off. Make people commit — bundles, trials that require effort, subscriptions with a clear purpose. If they hesitate, they were never yours.
3. An Onboarding That Polarizes: Early emails or quizzes should make your POV loud and clear. Use them to reinforce why your product matters — and if someone checks out? Good. One less customer to “save” later.

Retention doesn’t start with a clever win-back flow. It starts with the first thing your prospect feels when they meet you. And if that first touch is just “Here’s 20% off,” don’t be surprised when they never remember your name.

Want this kind of clarity baked into your next campaign? Build your retention filter before you build your ad set.

🚀 Google Pushes AI-Led Ad Playbook with New Ad Strength Guide

Google has launched a comprehensive Ad Strength Guide and is sending “Personalized Growth Plans” to advertisers, aiming to standardize ad creation via AI-powered recommendations. The guide covers everything from text and video assets to logo and URL strategies.

The Breakdown:

1. Real-Time Feedback with Ad Strength - Google’s Ad Strength tool offers live setup guidance within the Edit Assets panel to improve campaign quality. It rates asset groups for optimization across text, image, video, logo, and URL categories. 

2. Asset-Specific Best Practices Included - The official guide outlines step-by-step tips like uploading 3 videos in various formats and 2 logos in 1:1 and 4:1 ratios. It also covers URL expansion with Page Feeds to improve destination relevance. 

3. Personalized 3-Month Growth Plans by Email - Advertisers receive structured weekly tasks with progress tracking and prompts to improve ad strength. Google claims a 12% average lift in conversions when moving from “Poor” to “Excellent.” The email also includes clear CTAs tailored to your campaign setup.

4. Pushed Toward Google’s AI Ecosystem - These plans promote enabling AI recommendations, broad match keywords, and launching Performance Max campaigns. While positioned as helpful, the approach nudges advertisers into Google’s preferred structure. Those not aligned may face reduced algorithmic favor.

Google’s tools help streamline and scale campaign quality—but also shift advertiser control toward AI-guided setups. Following these “best practices” may soon become essential for staying competitive in an increasingly automated ad environment.

🎥 Ad of the Day

What Works:

The woman and her dog wear coordinated prints—a clever use of emotional mirroring that builds instant likability and perceived personalization.

The heart-shaped pendant with engraved children’s names hits the emotional center of gift-giving—nostalgia, love, and family.

This visual storytelling taps into the pet parent psychology—people project identity and care onto their pets, so matching outfits feels fun and emotionally resonant.

The dining room setup instantly signals home, comfort, and routine—tapping into the emotional security consumers seek from lifestyle brands.

The “x” between the brand names signifies collaboration, making it feel more exclusive and trendy (a subtle nod to high-fashion partnerships).

Broader Insights:

This taps into the buyer’s desire to express their lifestyle and pet love with stylish coordination. It's aspirational without being out-of-reach—consumers can see themselves in this moment.

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