Most brands think growth problems live inside the ad account.

So they tweak campaigns.
Increase budgets.
Launch promos.

But what if the real constraint sits somewhere else?

In this week’s newsletter, I’m breaking down a recent case from a 7-figure jewelry brand we work with, where declining order volume had nothing to do with media buying…and everything to do with strategy.

Let’s get into it.

Topics we'll cover today:

💠 Why Most Brands Diagnose Growth Wrong
💠 The Biggest Meta Mistake I’m Seeing in 2026
💠 Lessons From $50M+ Brands Navigating Ecommerce Chaos
💠 Latest news in the DTC space

Through this story, my goal is simple:

To share a real, and very recent case from a client of my agency, in case it helps you navigate something similar.

The other day, I had one of those really productive client calls.

Here’s the context:

So the assumption was straightforward:

“We priced out a segment of our audience.”

Fair.

Now let me ask you:

What would you do?

There are two common approaches here:

Most advertisers default to the first, but we always choose the second.

Because not every business problem is an ad problem.

Can it eventually impact ads? Of course. But these issues start at the strategic layer, and only then cascade down into ads, emails, offers, landing pages, and every other customer touchpoint.

Back to the story.

If we had taken the ad-account-first route, we might have:

All tactics.
None solving the root issue.
And likely pushing the brand into a less profitable position.

But during our last weekly call, the client shared something interesting.

They had run a deeper analysis.
And found something none of us had noticed before.

Those higher-AOV orders?

They were mostly coming from foreign markets.

Meanwhile, customers in their home country were purchasing at the same AOV as always. 🤯

Here’s the twist:

Historically, foreign markets represented only 5-10% of revenue.

Until this January.

Suddenly, they jumped to 30% of total online sales.

Which means:

Home-country customers (70–90% of sales) had never really adopted the higher price points.

They kept spending at the same level as before.

That realization changed everything!

So what do we do from here?

We developed hypotheses:

Now we test.

I’ll likely share the results soon (Stay tuned!).

But this is what growth requires in 2026:

Strategic diagnosis.

Not just faster optimizations.
Not just better creatives.
Not just scaling budgets.

The brands that win are the ones that understand where the real constraint lives.

Everyone else stays trapped in the ad-account maze.

Are you thinking strategy-first?

--
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing content in the e-commerce space.

In 2025, we audited over 90 brands, and we found that many of them have been stuck in a revenue plateau for 2, and even 3 years.

So, the question is: will you stay in the same place for yet another year, or will you draw a line in the sand and start a new chapter for your brand?

At BSR, my agency, we’re offering just 1 spot for brands that want to unlock the next level of growth.

Will you be one of them?

The other day I interviewed Jon Loomer for the fourth time on The DTC Insider podcast (episode dropping soon).

And one theme kept coming up:

Advertisers are fighting the system instead of understanding it.

The biggest mistake right now?

Overreaction.

Two bad days → panic.
Three bad days → restructuring.
One ad not spending → turned off.
One age bucket spiking → excluded.

This is 2018 thinking.

Meta doesn’t optimize in 24-hour cycles.
Especially if you’re optimizing for purchases.

Real buyers don’t behave like robots.

They:

See.
Scroll.
Click (with AI, people click way less than before).
Leave.
Compare.
Think.
Come back.
Buy.

When you launch new creatives or increase budget, you’re not just “scaling”…you’re restarting a consideration cycle.

Which means volatility is normal.

What most brands interpret as:

“The campaign is broken”.

Is often just:

If you judge performance in 48-hour windows, you will constantly sabotage yourself.

Minimum 7-day windows.

And here’s the uncomfortable part:

We obsess over daily numbers because it makes us feel in control.
But control is not the same as performance.

In 2026, discipline beats optimization speed.

And patience is now a competitive advantage.

--
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing content in the e-commerce space.

Consumer behavior doesn’t shift often.
But when it does…everything changes.

COVID permanently rewired how people shop online.
Now we’re going through another shift. 

It’s happening in real time.
We’re only at the beginning.
And no one fully knows where it ends. 

That’s why Season 6 of The DTC Insider kicks off with Neal Goyal (SVP at PostPilot). 

Why Neal?

He has a front-row seat to the biggest household names in DTC.

He sees what’s working.
What’s breaking.
And what’s about to shift next. 

When someone like him speaks, you listen.

The episode is live.

Go listen. 👇

🎧  Tune in

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

📰 Meta launches Manus AI integration in Ads Manager [read more]
📰 New ways to discover businesses on TikTok [read more]
📰 Facebook adds new AI features [read more]

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.

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.

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