The Engagement Illusion Exposed
🧩 Your most viral TikTok might be costing you sales, Reddit and Meta double down on AI-powered ad automation, and more!
Howdy Readers 🥰
In this newsletter, you’ll find:
🧩 The Engagement Illusion Exposed
🚀AI Targeting Gains Across Reddit and Meta
🏆 Ad of the Day
If you’re new to ScaleUP then a hearty welcome to you, you’ve reached the right place along with 50k+ CEOs, CMOS, and marketers. Let’s get into it, shall we? Oh! Before you forget, if someone forwarded this newsletter to you, don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss out!
Together with Stack Influence
How Lenny & Larry’s 11X’d Amazon Sales Without Spending More on Ads
You know that sinking feeling when a new product just doesn’t move? Ads burning cash, clicks dying out, and the Amazon algorithm ignoring you completely. That’s exactly where Lenny & Larry’s was when their Protein Pretzels tanked until they flipped the script.
They stopped buying attention and started earning it. Through Stack Influence, they turned 1,560 real customers into micro-influencers.
Buyers who actually posted, reviewed, and drove organic visibility. Within weeks, momentum snowballed.
🚀 Sales exploded 11X from 1K to 11K units per month
💬 500+ verified reviews boosted trust and rankings
💰 $2M+ in revenue with zero increase in ad spend
Stack Influence helped brands like Unilever, P&G, and Magic Spoon quietly scale the same way by turning customers into content creators and paying them only with products.
The faster you start, the faster your next launch compounds.
🧩 The Engagement Illusion Exposed
The TikTok you’re most proud of might be the one that costs you sales.
We’re seeing it more often: a brand video goes viral. It’s funny, clever, wildly relatable. People send it to friends. It gets stitched, memed, and commented on with “so true.” But somehow… it doesn’t convert. Why?
Because shareability ≠ buyability. And brands stuck chasing engagement-first content are building momentum without monetization.
What’s actually happening under the hood?
There’s a growing gap between content that gets shared and content that drives action. TikTok has shifted toward “entertainment UGC”, videos that are punchy, aesthetic, emotionally resonant… but structurally hollow. Viewers laugh, relate, even identify with it. But they don’t buy from it.
The issue? Relatability builds social currency, but not necessarily trust or urgency. When you optimize for shareability, you often remove friction points, selling cues, or CTAs that interrupt the vibe. That’s how you end up with content that spreads fast, but stalls at the cart.
This is where performance marketers are getting smarter
The best teams aren’t just testing what goes viral. They’re testing which language drives buying behavior, even if the video doesn’t “crush” on views.
That’s where Syncly Social becomes quietly invaluable. It tracks every spoken brand mention on TikTok, tagged or untagged, so you can extract real buyer-intent language like:
“I didn’t think this would work but now I’m hooked.”
“Where do I get this?”
“I actually added this to cart after seeing this one.”
These aren’t engagement lines. They’re conversion signals hiding in plain sight.
You can book a demo with Syncly Social and claim your free, in-depth TikTok analysis.
Here’s the new framework: Relatable ≠ Convertible
Here’s how to tell the difference:
You don’t have to kill virality. But you do need to filter for language that moves people forward, not just makes them nod.
You can’t deposit relatability.
And you can’t scale a funnel where the only action is “send to a friend.” In a platform built for reaction, your edge is conversion-layer listening. Build for shareability, but measure for intent.
🚀AI Targeting Gains Across Reddit and Meta
Reddit and Meta are doubling down on AI-powered ad automation. Both platforms are proving that smart targeting, driven by real-time data signals, can outperform manual segmentation across every major objective.
The Breakdown:
1. Reddit Simplifies Audience Targeting with AI - Reddit’s new Ads Manager splits targeting into Suggestions and Controls, blending automation with advertiser intent. Automated targeting can now pair with custom audiences under an OR logic, widening potential reach.
2. Automation Boosts Reddit Ad Performance - Internal benchmarks show automated targeting driving +11% conversion volume and -10% CPA, alongside -9.1% lower CPI and +4.1% cheaper CPC. The visual update also allows seamless switching to manual control for advertisers preferring fixed parameters.
3. Meta’s AI Model Raises Campaign Efficiency - Meta’s app promotion model now achieves +29% higher ROAS through value-based optimization. By analyzing behavioral signals across billions of datapoints, Meta can now find high-value users while reducing irrelevant reach by 20%.
4. Smarter Attribution and Control - Meta synced its targeting windows with partners like AppsFlyer and Adjust, introducing flexible 0–180 day reattribution, ensuring accurate user classification and minimizing overlap between new and re-engaged audiences.
Reddit’s and Meta’s updates mark a decisive shift toward AI-led targeting ecosystems. Both platforms show measurable gains, Reddit’s automation cuts CPI by 9.1%, while Meta lifts ROAS by 29%. Together, they highlight a future where campaign performance depends less on manual setup and more on adaptive, machine-led optimization.
🏆 Ad of the Day
What Works:
1. Luxury through visual density - The stacked glass bottles create a sculptural form, transforming cosmetics into architecture. This layering of reflection and shadow triggers the brain’s scarcity bias, when beauty feels heavy, it feels rare. Every inch screams tactile indulgence.
2. Text hierarchy as social signaling - “PATRICK TA” in all caps dominates the frame like a monogram, not an introduction, but a proclamation. The small text below (“Black Friday Early Access”) reframes the sale as privilege, not promotion. You’re not buying, you’re being granted entry.
3. Reflectivity as emotional amplifier - The mirrored surfaces mimic vanity mirrors, linking product with ritual self-admiration. Reflection here isn’t aesthetic; it’s identity confirmation. The viewer sees themselves in the product before they even own it.
This ad doesn’t persuade, it seduces through order and reflection. It makes beauty feel like entry into an elite architecture of self, where purchase becomes belonging.
Advertise with Us
Wanna put out your message in front of over 50,000 best marketers and decision makers?
We are concerned about everything DTC and its winning strategies. If you liked what you read, why not join the 50k+ marketers from 13k+ DTC brands who have already subscribed? Just follow this.
At ScaleUP, we care about our readers and want to provide the best possible experience. That's why we always look for ways to improve our content and connect with our audience. If you'd like to stay in touch, be sure to follow us EVERYWHERE🥰
Thanks for your support :) We'll be back again with more such content 🥳