First, thank you to everyone who joined last week’s Black Friday webinar. I really appreciated the questions and the energy.

If you couldn’t make it, the replay is here. It’s worth a watch before you increase your Meta spend for Black Friday.

Now, on to this week’s edition.

Topics we'll cover today:
💠 Does Your Meta Account Look Like This?
💠 Google and Shopify Are Making AI Shopping a Lot Easier
💠 Latest news in the DTC space

Last week I ran a live webinar for The DTC Insider subscribers: The Business-First Meta Playbook for Black Friday.

Early on, I showed an account structure we see in most of the accounts we audit:

👉 An "August - Conversions" campaign still running in October.
👉 A couple of tests that never ended.
👉 Two retargeting campaigns at 7x-9x ROAS.
👉 Interests, a lookalike, a copy of an old sale, a catalog campaign from July.

Account ROAS looks fine. Spend is steady. Sales are flat.

If that looks familiar, you're not alone.

Here's the thing, though. Cleaning up the structure alone usually doesn't fix it.

In most accounts we audit, the real problem is that Meta is pushing the wrong products. Most of the budget goes to products that aren't the ones customers actually buy. Meanwhile, the real best-sellers get almost nothing.

Inside Ads Manager, everything looks fine. Next to Shopify, it's obvious.

So I put everything from the webinar into a mini-guide:

How to Build a Business-First Meta Ad Account

Inside:

👉 How to run the Product Efficiency Analysis we do first on every account (Meta spend vs. Shopify revenue, product by product), including how to pull spend for catalog ads.
👉 The ad campaign structure I'd use in 2026, and how to adapt it to your budget.
👉 Why your creative is your targeting, and how to build real message diversity
👉 The four metrics I'd read next to ROAS.

It's free, no opt-in.

Get the mini-guide here →

If you only do one thing this week, run the analysis. Even a rough version in a spreadsheet will tell you something.

Two big updates in agentic commerce this week, one from Google and another from Shopify.

And both are moving us closer to a world where consumers can discover and buy products without ever visiting a brand's website.

Let's start with Google.

Google launched Universal Cart in the US, allowing shoppers to add products from multiple retailers to a single cart while using AI Mode in Search or Gemini.

Imagine shopping for sneakers from Nike, skincare from Sephora, and something for your home from Wayfair.

All in one cart.

And depending on the retailer, you can either check out directly through Google Pay or get redirected to the merchant's website to complete your purchase.

A few other interesting features:

👉 The cart syncs between Google AI Mode and Gemini, with YouTube and Gmail integrations planned.

👉 It tracks prices and inventory, notifying shoppers about price drops or restocks.

👉 It can find and display promo codes automatically.

👉 Merchants remain the sellers of record, handling orders and customer support.

Now, Shopify is taking a different approach.

It launched a new skill that allows virtually any AI agent to search its catalog and help shoppers complete purchases using Shop Pay.

And we're talking about access to more than 1 billion products.

Once shoppers connect their Shop accounts, AI agents can:

Here's something I found particularly interesting.

Shop Pay can now facilitate purchases from stores that don't even use Shopify.

It does this by generating a single-use payment card, subject to the shopper's approval and spending limits.

In other words, Shopify wants Shop Pay to become a payment method for AI shopping across the entire web.

What does all of this mean for DTC brands?

I think there are two important implications.

1. Product data is becoming even more important.

If AI agents are going to recommend products based on price, availability, size, delivery times, and customer preferences, your product catalog needs to provide accurate, structured information.

Otherwise, you risk missing out on purchases before shoppers even discover your brand.

2. The traditional customer journey could change significantly.

Think about everything we currently optimize on an e-commerce website.

Product pages. Upsells. Email capture pop-ups. Cart abandonment flows.

What happens when more shoppers discover products, compare options, find discounts, and complete purchases through AI interfaces?

Some of those touchpoints may become less relevant for purchases that happen entirely outside your website.

And that's something brands should start thinking about now.

Of course, we're still early, and it remains to be seen how widely consumers adopt these experiences.

But Google and Shopify are clearly investing in making AI-powered shopping easier.

My question for you:

If your next customer never visits your website, how prepared is your brand to win that sale?

—
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing content.

📰 Meta Enables In-Ad Product Browsing On October 28 Unless You Opt Out [read more]
📰 Google Ads Adds Channel And Budget Controls Ahead Of 2027 Migration [read more]
📰 ChatGPT Traffic Drop Appears To Be A Tracking Problem [read more]

📖 How to Build a Business-First Meta Ad Account
📖 How To Set Up ChatGPT Ads
📖 Where 7–8 Figure Brands Get Stuck (And How To Fix It)
📖 What Do Successful Brands Have In Common?

If you found this interesting, please leave us a review. It’d mean the world to me.

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.

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