Quantity beats quality (at first)

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Nick Theriot has run Facebook ads since 2015 and driven $50M+ in revenue for ecommerce clients.

His latest video answers the question every brand gets wrong: should you test more creatives or better creatives?

His answer: quantity first, quality second — but not for the reason most people think.

Most brands try to perfect ads before knowing what their audience responds to. They spend $5,000 on production for concepts that look good on paper but flop in the feed. The issue is not production quality. It is optimizing before there is a real signal.

Nick's framework: run more variations at low cost to find the signal, then invest in quality once you know what works.

Stage 1 — Find the hook (cheap and fast)

Test 8-10 different opening frames or angles on simple, low-production creatives.

Static images, phone-shot video, text overlays.

$50/day per ad set, 4 days.

You're not looking for a winner. You're looking for which angle makes people stop.

Stage 2 — Invest in the angle that works

Once one concept clearly gets more clicks than the rest, that’s your signal.

Now spend money on it. Better production, more variations of that specific concept, longer video version.

Most brands skip Stage 1 and go straight to Stage 2.

They invest in polished versions of concepts they haven't validated which is why their creative spend doesn't return.

Action Summary:

• For your next creative test, launch 8 variations at low budget — different hooks, same product, no expensive production
• Run for 4 days at $50/day and sort by CTR (Click-Through Rate)— the top 1-2 hooks are your signal
• Only invest in production for the winning angle

Credit - Nick Theriot

You spent $15,000 on a studio shoot.

Pro lighting, perfect model, heavy post-production.

You launched it on Meta and your CPA (cost per acquisition) rose above the simple iPhone UGC your intern filmed.

Barry Hott has built his entire consulting practice around this pattern.

He's worked with Misen (the $50M+ cookware brand), Lumin, Nuts.com, and dozens of other DTC brands.

He found that ‘ugly’, low-budget ads usually get customers for 30 to 40 percent less money than expensive, professionally made ads, even when both are running in the same campaign.

This isn't about being lazy. It's about understanding what Meta's feed actually is. People scroll through photos from friends, memes, and stories. A polished ad screams "skip me." A native-looking post earns a pause.

Barry's framework comes down to 3 rules.

Rule 1: Native-looking beats polished.

Shoot on a phone. Use natural lighting. If your ad could pass as something a friend posted, it's closer to right than your studio version.

The Misen team tested a $200 iPhone video of someone cooking eggs against a $12,000 studio spot. The simple iPhone video performed better on CPA, return on ad spend (ROAS), and click-through rate (CTR).

Rule 2: Text overlays beat voiceovers.

85% of Meta video is watched without sound. A voiceover nobody hears is wasted production cost. Bold text overlays that tell the story visually work on mute and with sound. They also force you to simplify your message, which almost always makes it stronger.

Rule 3: The first frame is the only frame that matters.

You have about 1.5 seconds before someone scrolls past. Barry's approach: design the first frame as if it were a static ad. If it doesn't stop the scroll on its own, the rest of your video doesn't exist. He recommends testing 5-10 different opening frames on the same video before changing anything else.

This doesn't mean you never invest in production. It means you stop defaulting to production as the answer.

Action Summary:

• Shoot 3 ads this week on a phone with natural lighting and no script
• Replace voiceovers with bold text overlays on your next round of video creative
• Test 5 different first frames on your best-performing video before creating new videos

Ron Shah, founder of Obvi, runs one of the most data-obsessed supplement brands in DTC. His take on the most underused lever in ecommerce: the moment right after checkout, before the Thank You page.

Most brands treat it like a receipt. Obvi treats it like the highest-trust moment in the entire customer journey.

Here's why it works:

The customer already said yes. Their card is entered. There's no friction left to overcome. They're not browsing anymore — they just bought. That intent window is still open, and most brands let it close without doing anything with it.

Post-purchase upsells done right don't feel like an upsell. They feel like a logical next step.

One click to accept, using the card already on file.

Ron says Obvi consistently sees 12% additional revenue per month from this single flow.

Three things that make it work or kill it:

1. Relevance over margin.

The temptation is to upsell your highest-margin product. Don't. Upsell the most logical next product for what they just bought. Irrelevant offers train customers to dismiss the entire flow.

2. One offer, not three.

The moment you show multiple options, you've created a decision. The post-purchase moment is not for decisions, it's for confirmations. One product, one price, one click.

3. Test the timing.

Some brands see better conversion with the upsell immediately post-purchase. Others see it after the confirmation email. Run both and let the data tell you.

With customer acquisition costs (CAC) still rising, this is one of the few levers that can scale results without increasing acquisition spend.

Action Summary:

• Check if your checkout flow has any post-purchase offer — if not, that's the first thing to build this week
• Audit your current upsell offer: is it the most logical next product for the buyer, or the highest-margin product you want to push?
• Set up a basic A/B test — one offer vs no offer — to establish your baseline AOV lift before optimising further

Credit - Ron Shah

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