The Fastest Way To Better Audiences
đŻ Build lookalikes from real purchases, not broken targeting tools, Media buyer index of the week, and more!
Howdy Readers đ„°Â
In this newsletter, youâll find:
đŻ The Fastest Way To Better Audiences
đ Ad Costs Rise as YouTube and TikTok Steal Share
đ Ad of the Day
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đŻ The Fastest Way To Better Audiences
You donât need more audiences this Black Friday. You need better ones.
And the fastest, most scalable way to build them is hiding in plain sight: your customersâ receipts.
In a world where Meta targeting feels like throwing darts in fog and auction prices double overnight, zero-party data is no longer a privacy checkbox, itâs a performance edge. A Receipts Wallet turns every verified receipt into a consented signal that feeds your BFCM lookalikes, loyalty offers, and retention flows with real SKU-level context.
And the best part? You can build the whole system in under two weeks, and the upside compounds for months.
đ What Changes When You Do This
Forget generic âearly accessâ lists or broad discount blasts.
A Receipts Wallet isnât just a smarter opt-in form, itâs a dynamic identity engine.
By exchanging credits for verified receipts, you stop guessing who your customers might be and start targeting based on what theyâve actually bought.
The payoff: cleaner data, faster consent, and creative that hits where it matters, recency, category, and intent.
At scale, this creates a living segmentation model that self-updates with every upload. Youâre not just improving targeting; youâre building your own first-party DSP inside your Shopify ecosystem.
đ§ How It Works
Week 1: Setup the System
Launch a simple landing page: âTurn your receipts into store credit.â
Let users upload or forward their receipts via photo or email.
Parse only what matters, date, merchant, SKUs, total. Auto-delete the rest.
Week 2: Incentivize + Activate
Credit 1â2% on verified receipts (capped at $10/mo).
Trigger dynamic offers like âBecause you bought X, save on Y.â
Build lookalikes and retargeting lists from wallet users with 7-day recency.
The beauty? Youâre gathering actionable intelligence at near-zero incremental cost.
đ Why It Scales Effortlessly
Each receipt = a self-declared signal. Each upload = cheaper media efficiency.
Unlike survey-based zero-party tools, thereâs no friction just a seamless exchange of value. Add rate limits, fraud filters, and auto-hash consent logs, and youâve got a system that scales cleanly to tens of thousands of users without privacy headaches.
đ The Bottom Line
Every brand is fighting for the same audience this BFCM.
The only ones whoâll win are those who own their data while everyone else rents it. You have two weeks. Build the wallet.
Turn receipts into revenue. And walk into 2026 with a cleaner, smarter audience engine that compounds.
đ Ad Costs Rise as YouTube and TikTok Steal Share
Ad spend dynamics shifted sharply this week, with YouTube and TikTok outperforming on ROAS while Meta and Google saw rising costs. For performance marketers, efficiency gaps are widening across channels, forcing sharper optimization and faster budget pivots.
The Breakdown:
1ïžâŁ CPC Trends - YouTubeâs +13.24% CPC jump signals growing competition for video inventory, while Snapchatâs -10.31% drop reveals underpriced reach. Rising CPCs on Meta and Google mean marketers must refine creative hooks and bidding precision to sustain profitability. Efficiency now depends on data-led creative testing, not just spend scaling.
2ïžâŁ CAC Movement - Google (+7.24%) and TikTok (+5.59%) saw the steepest CAC spikes. Metaâs +0.77% remains stable, but YouTubeâs +4.94% highlights rising acquisition costs in content-heavy funnels. Shifting portions of spend to lower-CAC ecosystems like Microsoft (-4.04%) or Snapchat (-6.51%) can offset short-term volatility.
3ïžâŁ ROAS Shifts - YouTube (+10.11%), TikTok (+6.46%), and Snapchat (+5.37%) led platform efficiency, driven by creative engagement and native storytelling. Meta (-1.29%) and Gemini Ads (-4.41%) struggled despite higher CTRs, a sign of performance plateauing. The trend favors short-form, entertainment-driven ecosystems over static placements.
Meta (63.11%) and Google (26.04%) still dominate budgets, but YouTubeâs +11.93% share surge shows a decisive reallocation toward video-first platforms. As attention shifts, brands that diversify spend into high-ROAS, low-CAC channels will capture compounding returns. The next growth curve belongs to advertisers who follow user behavior, not legacy media share.
đ Ad of the Day
What Works:
1. Emotional Hook Through Eye Contact - The dogâs big, curious eyes create instant empathy and trigger a nurturing response that feels personal. Itâs less âadâ and more âaww.â Build emotion-first visuals that make the viewer feel responsible for the productâs subject.
2. Soft Urgency That Feels Trustworthy - The orange â15% Off + Free Shippingâ pops without breaking the calm tone, urgency with warmth. It invites, not pressures. In emotional categories, let urgency feel like care, not a countdown.
3. Cohesive Color Psychology - Every element, logo, chews, and background, shares the same warm orange hue, creating harmony and recall. When your product color becomes your brand cue, you win instant recognition.
This ad wins by blending empathy, warmth, and design precision, it doesnât sell a supplement, it sells care. Every element, from the dogâs gaze to the soft orange palette, turns health into an act of love, proving that emotional trust outperforms product talk in pet wellness.
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