Welcome back! 👋
I turned 39 last Saturday. 🎉
And honestly, I’m at a point in life where I feel really happy with where I am.
My wife, our twins, and me.
I get to spend time with the people I love.
I get to work on things I genuinely enjoy.
I get to meet and learn from incredible founders, operators, and marketers every week.
And I get to write this newsletter for an amazing DTC community that keeps growing, replying, sharing ideas, and making this way more fun than just “sending an email every Wednesday.”
So before we get into today’s edition, I just wanted to say thank you.
I’m very grateful for all of it.
Now, let’s get into today’s newsletter.
Topics we'll cover today:
💠 OpenAI Keeps Adding Ecommerce Tools To ChatGPT Ads
💠 Meta Launches Exclusion-Only Custom Audiences
💠 Latest news in the DTC space
Haven't Joined Our Community Yet?
When I started The DTC Insider in 2023, my goal was simple:
Share everything I learn through my agency, podcast, and conversations with some of the fastest-growing brands.
The problem is that newsletters are mostly a one-way conversation.
You read.
I write.
Starting today, that changes.
I've just launched The DTC Insider Community, a place where founders, operators, and marketers can continue the conversation, ask questions, share what's working, and learn from each other between newsletter editions.
If you've been enjoying this newsletter, I'd love to have you there.
Click here to join the community and introduce yourself. I'd love to hear what you're building and meet the people behind this newsletter.
OpenAI Keeps Adding Ecommerce Tools To ChatGPT Ads
OpenAI rolled out a batch of ChatGPT Ads updates this week, and most of them are aimed at conversion tracking and product feed performance.
Product feed campaigns now support oCPC (in beta)
What does this really mean?
Remember that traffic campaign you might have created because there wasn't any other option?
Well, now you can turn it into a Conversions campaign.
Advertisers can clone existing CPC campaigns into oCPC or create them in bulk, which makes the migration less painful.
Dynamic URL Parameters
Finally! It automatically appends campaign, ad group, and ad IDs to your landing page URLs, so attribution gets easier without manual UTM work.
3rd Party Attribution
On measurement, Triple Whale now connects to ChatGPT Ads so you can compare performance against your other channels.
Sonar Optimize can send stronger conversion signals back to OpenAI, and Hightouch now supports pushing conversion events directly into the platform.
Automatic Advanced Matching
The one that needs your attention: Automatic Advanced Matching (AAM) is now the default for all new web pixels. If you already have a pixel running, AAM turns on automatically on August 17 unless you opt out before then.
New Ad Formats
OpenAI is also testing a multi-product carousel for feed campaigns, letting multiple products show up in one ad unit.
Want to get started with ChatGPT Ads?
I've put together a full guide on how to set them up, based on our own experience.
Have any questions?
Just reply to this email and I'll get back to you.
--
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing content in the e-commerce space.
Meta Launches Exclusion-Only Custom Audiences
Meta just launched exclusion-only custom audiences, a new audience type built for one purpose: keeping specific people out of your ad audience, permanently.
A regular custom audience can be used for inclusion and exclusion. This new type only works one way. You upload a list, mark it exclusion-only, and Meta will never let you convert it back to a regular custom audience later. That's intentional.
A few real use cases for this:
People who opted out or self-excluded from your services
People you have a legal or regulatory obligation not to target
A permanent guardrail against someone on that list accidentally ending up in a campaign
That last one is probably the most useful for most brands. It removes the risk of a teammate reusing a suppression list the wrong way six months from now.
A couple of limits worth knowing. Exclusion-only audiences can't be turned into lookalikes, and you can't apply value rules to them, even with a label added. They're also not available for Special Ad Category campaigns (housing, employment, credit and financial products).
To set one up:
Go to Meta Ads Manager.
Click All tools and select Audiences.
Click Create audience and select Custom audience.
Choose Customer list as your source.
Select the Exclusion-only option when prompted for the audience purpose.
Upload your customer list file or paste your data.
Map your identifiers (email address, phone number, device ID).
Name your audience and click Create.
Your exclusion-only audience will show up in the Audience tab, ready to apply as an exclusion on any eligible ad set.
--
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing content in the e-commerce space.
Latest News in the DTC Space
📰 Google adds AI agent capabilities across Ads and Analytics [read more]
📰 YouTube Testing a New Ad Type [read more]
📰 Shopify Q2 2026 earnings [read more]
What did you think of today's newsletter?
If you found this interesting, please leave us a review. It’d mean the world to me.
About The Writer
Brian Roisentul is the founder & CEO of BSR, a growth marketing agency he started in 2013 to help e-commerce brands unlock hidden revenue by identifying misalignments between their marketing and customer behavior. He is also the host of The DTC Insider podcast, where he interviews thought leaders, founders, and directors in the e-commerce space.
Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:
Want to talk shop?
If your brand is doing at least 7 figures, apply here to get featured (for free) on The DTC Insider podcast and my team will get in touch.
Need help to grow your online sales?
Book a call with me and let’s explore how my team and I at BSR can help you.
Want to discuss growth with other brands?
Join The DTC Insider Community, a place where founders, operators, and marketers can continue the conversation, ask questions, share what's working, and learn from each other between newsletter editions.
Promote your Business to 11,000+ People in the DTC Space
The DTC Insider (newsletter + podcast) reaches a highly qualified audience of DTC founders, directors, and marketers. Learn more about the sponsorship opportunities we offer for your business. If you’d like to become a sponsor, apply here.