The Hidden CPM Goldmine

Howdy readers 🥰

In this newsletter, you’ll find:

🎯The Hidden CPM Goldmine 

📈 TikTok Search Ads Surge While Pinterest Adds Direct Buying Links

🏆 Ad of the Day

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Together with Levanta

Only a Select Few Brands Will Be Featured This Holiday

Every holiday season, millions of shoppers rely on trusted publishers, gift guides, newsletters, listicles, and reviews to decide what to buy. 

This year, those publishers are already choosing which brands they’ll feature, and the list is short.

Here’s why this matters:

• Marketplace placements are converting at 5:1 compared to DTC
• Publishers drive millions of high-intent holiday sales each year
• Brands that qualify get predictable CAC and directly measurable growth

This isn’t a mass affiliate program. It’s a direct line into premium placements most brands spend months trying and failing to secure. 

If you qualify, your products could land in front of shoppers at the exact moment they’re ready to buy.

🎯The Hidden CPM Goldmine 

Most marketers still dismiss Video-View (VV) campaigns as vanity metrics. That blind spot leaves the cheapest, most scalable paid-social inventory on the table.

🧠 Core Reframe: Buy Brainspace, Not Clicks

VV CPMs run 70–80% cheaper than purchase-optimized ads, but the real insight is why. Meta and TikTok can predict engagement, not purchases, so you’re paying wholesale prices to enter attention streams that performance buyers ignore.

You’re not buying traffic, you’re pre-loading memory that triggers high-intent search and direct visits 12–72 hours later.

🧩 The Adaptive Recall Stack

1️⃣ Isolate View Campaigns

• Run stand-alone VV lanes in CBO or ABO to protect the signal.
• Broad targeting (or wide LALs) works—your goal is scale and reach, not tight intent.
• Creative: <20 seconds, emotionally sticky, brand-forward.
• Optimize for resonance metrics (ThruPlays, 3-second hold), never clicks.

2️⃣ Engineer Branded Recall Triggers

• Brand name in the first 3 seconds—spoken and shown.
• Use strong contrast, repetition, and sonic markers.
• Anchor the brand in the narrative arc to create a pre-conscious retrieval hook (a proven media-psychology effect).

3️⃣ Harvest with Search + Retargeting

• Expect delayed intent: lift shows up in branded search, direct URL, and catalog retargeting.
• PPS (post-purchase surveys) confirm TikTok or Meta as first-touch awareness even when ROAS dashboards show zero TOF conversions.
• You’re arbitraging Meta’s cost model by separating acquisition media from conversion attribution.

📊 Operator Proof & Metrics

• Beauty DTC brand ran VV lanes at $2.10 CPM, seeing 42% blended CAC drop in 6 weeks.
• CPG snack startup paired VV with Google-branded search, cutting CPC 28% and doubling assisted conversions.
• Expect a 20–40% lift in branded search CTR when executed for 90 days with consistent creative refresh.

🧪 Measurement Blueprint

• Track lift with geo holdouts or clean-room MMM for accurate incrementality.
• Monitor branded search spend and direct traffic in GA4 weekly.
• Audit creative recall every 30 days, rotate hooks and colors to avoid fatigue.

Why It Matters

Click-obsessed buyers are losing the recall war. VV campaigns let you buy attention low and convert high, splitting the funnel between subconscious imprinting and high-intent harvesting. With disciplined testing and attribution guardrails, your cheapest campaigns can become your most profitable.

Together with Scaleup Pro

Your Next 6 Months of Ad Spend Could Disappear in 6 Weeks

CAC is up 60% this year, and 70% of first-time buyers never return. Keep leaning on ads, and the budget you’re planning for the next half year could be gone before spring.

Rewriting the DTC Rulebook is the shortcut top operators are using to escape the trap, a 24-page report distilled from 200+ hours of real brand research and field tests.

Inside, you’ll learn how to:

🔥 Build emotional campaigns that double repeat-purchase rates in 90 days.
💰 Raise prices without losing volume using the Brand Value Canvas.
🧠 Cut 30% of paid-ad dependency with the Owned Media Checklist.

Download today and get 2,000+ viral video hooks already tested to grab attention in under 3 seconds, ready to plug into your next launch.

Stop feeding the ad machine. 

Grab the free report now and lock in sustainable growth before your next dollar disappears!

📈 TikTok Search Ads Surge While Pinterest Adds Direct Buying Links

TikTok’s search activity is exploding, giving advertisers a powerful discovery channel, while Pinterest introduces flexible purchase options to convert interest into action. Together, these updates create fresh opportunities to reach high-intent audiences and drive measurable sales.

The Breakdown:

1. TikTok Search Ads Show Strong Growth - TikTok searches are up 40% year-over-year, now rivaling Google for younger users and even outpacing AI search tools. Campaigns using TikTok Search Ads see up to 2.2x higher purchase lift and stronger ROAS, making it a prime channel for product discovery.

2. High Purchase Lift with Dedicated Campaigns - WARC research shows that dedicated TikTok search campaigns deliver 2.0x higher purchase lift versus non-search initiatives. Enterprise advertisers see even larger gains, proving TikTok’s ability to turn search activity into real conversions.

3. Pinterest Adds “Where-to-Buy” Links - Pinterest now lets users tap a “Find retailers” button on Pins to view multiple buying options, helping brands maintain data insights, with early tests showing stronger engagement than campaigns using external landing pages.

4. Retailer Integrations Expand Reach - New partnerships with Pear Commerce and MikMak connect Pinterest shoppers to thousands of retailers while giving brands richer analytics at no extra cost. 

These updates show how social discovery and seamless purchase options are converging to capture high-intent audiences. TikTok’s fast-growing search referrals and Pinterest’s in-app buying choices give brands direct pathways from inspiration to checkout, reducing friction and amplifying return on ad spend.

🏆 Ad of the Day

What Works and Insights

1. Bold Contrast Hook – The bright green-to-blue gradient background and oversized “16G PROTEIN” callout grab attention fast, while the playful “Shocking Sour, Surprisingly Sweet” line sells the flavor twist. Brands can double down on this dual-flavor tension by pairing sensory words with visible product action, like a quick-cut video of the first sour bite turning into a smile.

2. Lifestyle Energy Shot – The ad shows real people mid-bite with fun expressions, making the product feel social and impulsive. Brand builders can push this further by capturing micro-moments of friends sharing or swapping bars to spark a contagious, peer-driven craving.

3. Protein as Permission – Highlighting “16G PROTEIN” gives health-conscious buyers a reason to indulge without guilt. Weaving functional stats into a playful design keeps the nutrition message clear while maintaining the candy-like vibe, key for expanding from fitness aisles to mainstream snacking.

Pairing a bold sensory hook with social energy and a functional health stat turns a niche protein snack into a mass-market treat, showing that indulgence and wellness can live in the same frame.

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