It’s just incomplete.

It’s worth obsessing over. But it ignores the fact that nearly every meaningful improvement in creative can be amplified by improving what happens after the click.

And this is where most brands go wrong.

Let’s start with the problem.

A founder starts a brand around a product they believe in.

Then they spend months (or years) sending every ad to the exact same website.

This works to a degree, or at a certain level of scale, but objectively means you’re optimizing the click, not the buying journey.

If this is you, that’s okay. By the end of this article, you’ll have a game plan to break the cycle.

On to the solution.

In prehistoric times (a few decades ago), you would probably have to buy or lease a building in order to create a new experience for your customers.

The beauty of ecommerce is that everything you’re doing is digital.

If you want to launch an entirely new shopping experience, you can do that in a couple of hours or days.

But it seems like the majority of brands have either forgotten, or have never thought about the fact that they can do this.

Examples

Let’s dig into different ways to think about this based on your brand. There are four examples that should cover most (if not all) niches/industries where products are sold on the innanet.

1) Hollow Socks (Link-To)

Hollow Socks runs a very simple 2-Step Funnel, that can be iterated on quickly.

1. When you click an ad, you land on a “10 Reasons Why” Presell Page that is tailored to be congruent with the ad angle/persona you clicked.

2. At the bottom of that page, they have a button that takes you to the PDP to close the deal once you’ve read through all the reasons why you should buy.

Now, whenever Hollow wants to go after a new audience, or learns something new from ad creatives, they can quickly duplicate, rewrite, and ship a net new experience for a different type of customer.

Founder Zach Stuck on a podcast episode:

"We are not going to launch an ad… if we do not have a landing page that also talks about that.” in reference to the pain point, persona, or angle addressed in the ad. He was discussing another brand where he uses the exact same playbook.

Source: The Scalability School Podcast

2) IM8 (Link-To)

IM8 runs a listicle system like Hollow, but they also run Creator-Specific Landing Pages.

1. The hero is tailored around experts/reputable creators with a ton of copy positioning IM8 as something they love.

2. The same messaging carries through to the CTA, which is a subscription-focused offer.

Now, when they run ads from new creators or authorities, they have a system for building a net new experience that resonates more with customers who are sold by the ad they got from that specific creator.

3) dbrand (Link-To)

If you run an aesthetic brand, dbrand is the benchmark.

They go to an insanely high level of custom PDP/Collection Pages for their large activations, that truly feel (from a consumer POV) like an entirely different website.

The screenshots don’t do the pages justice, here are a few favorites to check out:

1. Touch Grass

2. Area 51

3. Sketch 2D

4. Circuit Board

5. White Damascus

4) 100 Thieves (Link-To)

100 Thieves is a great example for any brand that has drops as a core part of their sales calendar.

They simply showcase:

1. What is this drop?

2. Why should I care about it?

3. What are the main SKUs I should check out?

All before you can even click into a PDP of an individual product.

For Beauty Brands, check out this Ilia Beauty Collection Page, an even simpler edition of this concept.

All of these brands build more relevant experiences for the customer after the click.

Shoutout to WWWs everywhere for this opportunity.

So how do you start?

First of all, pat yourself on the back, you probably have a cool business if you’ve even cared to read this far.

Second, there are two main “Landing Page Builders” that most folks use: Replo and Pagedeck. Both are super easy to learn.

Lastly, decide how any of the examples apply to your business.

1. If you have a SKU, Collection, or Ad(s) that are doing well right now, can you build an experience tailored for them? (See Hollow and IM8 examples)

2. If you have a new release coming, how can you be intentional about making it feel like a “big thing” to customers who land on that PDP or Collection Page? (See dbrand and 100 Thieves examples)

3. If you’re having an existential crisis figuring out how to systemize this, I’ve been there, but I wrote a whole article about how the top marketers think about it. (click here)

More generally, ask yourself: “What can I build a better buying experience around?” If you’ve read this far, I guarantee you can figure out the rest.

Over time, you start to notice patterns: sequences of thought and execution that reliably produce the outcomes people talk about after the fact.

This piece illustrates how I think about the three levers that actually drive scale, and why the order you focus on them matters.

It’s not a playbook. It’s the sequencing of “auditing” brands that has held up over time.

1. Creative

Today, you can craft a message, put ad dollars behind it, and learn faster than ever before.

Creative is valuable. It’s hard. And when it’s right, it’s synonymous with rocket fuel.

There’s no comparative rush to doubling budgets every day on a winning creative for a brand that’s starting to scale.

When working through creative, ask:

1. Who is this for? (The ICP and their level of awareness.)

2. What message am I pushing? (Offer, angle, etc.)

3. What format carries that best? (Video, static, etc.)

The work is answering those questions.

Because creative is the cheapest and fastest way to learn how a product actually sells, it’s the place to start when a brand hits a plateau.

The bigger mistake is the inability to decide when creative isn’t the issue.

Creative is (most of the time) not a magic trick for scaling an unsellable product, especially at real scale.

2. Funnels

A decent volume of relatively good creative usually reveals one of two things:

1. Great front-end metrics, weak conversion

2. Or a clear “scale me” signal (high ROAS/low CPA)

Assume it’s the first.

Creative doesn’t convert in isolation. It’s the entry point of a funnel.

“Funnels” can be simplified to three questions:

1. What does someone give?

2. What do they get back?

3. It it clear why purchasing this is worth it?

The first two define the offer. Everything that earns belief in it is the funnel.

The “funnel” is where category matters.

Aesthetic brands can get away with simpler flows, think apparel.

Functional brands, think supplements, can’t. They need education, proof, and context before checkout.

Common funnel patterns worth testing:
→ Pre-landers (advertorials, quizzes, listicles)
→ More DR-oriented PDPs with real detail
→ Bundles and incentives (BOGO, Buy 2 Get 1, etc.)

Even when a funnel is working, it’s a mistake to treat it as done.

Many teams test endless creative and only revisit the funnel once in a while, instead of trying to improve it, or beat it with a new funnel.

3. Website Structure

At this point, if your creative and funnel are dialed, a few things should be true:

1. You know which ICPs convert at scale

2. You know the messages that resonate

3. You know which products or offers they’re happiest to buy

Those learnings shouldn’t only live in acquisition.

They should flow downstream into the main site. (and realistically, retention too.)

If a specific bundle converts cold traffic best, it should be reflected in your hero and/or navigation.

If certain messaging and imagery work when acquiring customers, they should show up elsewhere, not stay locked in ads-world.

There are nuances here around margins and how aggressively you’re playing the LTV game. But directionally, the job is the same:

Take what you’ve paid to learn and use it to make the site convert better.

Especially because at some point, you’ll invest in channels with less control: TV, influencers, events, and partnerships.

When that happens, the highest ROI usually comes from a site that’s already been engineered around the learnings you earned earlier.

When I take over an ad account, it often begins with account structure (a separate discussion entirely). After that, the sequence is almost always the same.

Creative → Funnel → Main Site

P.S. If you’re a startup reading this, reverse the order:

Website → Funnel → Creative

You have the luxury right now of setting the tone for a higher conviction website and funnel before you start slinging $ at creative.

This is a perspective crafted across in-house, hold co-ish, and agency environments, with little-to-no evidence the sequencing will change much.

Likely, just the execution. (Everyone, wave to the AI & Software Devs listening!)

If you’ve read this far, you should have a clearer sense, or at least another POV, of where scale is breaking for you.

And if something’s missing from your perspective, share it!

Leave a comment

Peace and Love,
Travis