DTC Podcast Ep 567: Ecom CMOs—How Pilothouse Used Meta’s Update to Drive 30% Higher CTR with Fewer Campaigns

Date: December 12, 2025
Host: Eric Dick (DTC Newsletter and Podcast)
Guest: Taylor (Pilothouse)

Episode Overview

This episode offers a deep dive into how Pilothouse leveraged Meta’s significant 2025 updates—especially the Andromeda system and partnership ads—to achieve up to 30% higher click-through rates (CTR) during Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM), all while running fewer, more consolidated campaigns. The conversation blends tactical paid social strategies, omni-channel learnings, creative development insights, and lessons for DTC brands heading into 2026.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Meta's Andromeda Update—What Changed and Why It Matters

• Personalized Ad Delivery: Meta’s Andromeda system uses “gem lattice” matching to dynamically pair creative with user personas, optimizing for each individual.
• Real Impact on Performance:
  • Pilothouse observed a “30% improvement in CTR year on year for a lot of brands” (Taylor, 03:25), offsetting increases in CPMs and improving traffic quality.
• Shift to Campaign Consolidation:
  • Moved away from highly segmented testing ad sets, instead “feeding high confidence concepts into existing campaigns organized by persona or topic” (Taylor, 00:00).
  • Creative spend was distributed more broadly within consolidated campaigns (“ads underneath would kind of go up and down in the spend and ranking order” – 05:41).
• Testing Approach Evolved:
  • Still use standalone testing when rolling out bigger risks or brand-new creatives, but overall, “there has been this shift away from testing in separate ad sets” (06:51).
  • Caution: Don’t move first-time test ads into top-performing campaigns—test in secondary ones first.

2. Event-Based Features (EBFs) and Funnel Sequencing

• Meta’s Smarter Funnel Handling: Event-based features (EBFs) now handle more of the classic funnel logic, choosing creatives based on user actions and funnel stage.
• Marketer Control Still Matters:
  • Taylor emphasizes not going “all in” on EBFs—still uses tight exclusions and manual checks for top-of-funnel/new visitor delivery, to ensure proper audience expansion (09:23).

3. Partnership Ads—Meta’s Whitelisted 2.0

• Dynamic Partnership Ad Options:
  • Meta now allows flexible partnership ads—brands can dynamically display “in partnership with” creators or show only one handle, optimizing based on expected performance (Taylor, 11:15).
• Results for Pilothouse Clients:
  • “Really, really good results with partnership ads. …It really paid off for a lot of our big brands, both from a retargeting perspective and also to reach new audiences” (11:15).
  • These ads drove “incremental reach,” warming up new prospects before conversion (13:05).
• Future:
  • Look for catalog-supported partnership ads, where creators can showcase specific product catalogs like a “personal store”—similar to TikTok Shop (13:51).

4. Creative Strategy for BFCM: Planned vs. Pivot

• Mix of Prepared and Agile Creative (15:24):
  • About 75% of BFCM creatives were planned based on personas, with a real range (memes, product-focused, UGC, lo-fi, etc.).
  • 25% were in-the-moment pivots—rapid iterations in response to live performance data.
  • Standout example: Meme-style, attention-grabbing stick-figure creatives were especially effective with millennials, particularly when backed by a strong “buy one, get one” offer (17:51).
• Quote:
  • “If it's like a stick figure type ad…you need to back that out with either a really good offer or…all the info someone needs on the landing page.” (Taylor, 15:24)
• Conversion Context:
  • Creative must align perfectly with both persona and offer for peak conversion rates.

5. Omni-Channel Trends and Rising Platforms

• Channel Performance Recap (18:56):
  • AppLovin: Remains strong year-over-year.
  • Meta: Marked improvement vs. 2024, especially with Andromeda.
  • Google: Remained robust—some brands shifted spend from Meta.
  • Email: Notable growth in performance-linked revenue (see “Critical Lessons”—23:44).
  • Emerging Channels: Pinterest & Snap (“looked better than they have in the past”), TikTok (“starting to settle in nicely,” showing strong signs).
  • Snap’s TCPA+ click optimization, AppLovin’s “new customer only” campaigns, Pinterest’s surge.
• Key Takeaway:
  • “It just diversifies and continues to hold innovation to a very high standard” among platforms (19:46).
  • Watch for Pinterest and Snap in 2026.

6. Attribution & Analytics: Triple Whale in Action

• Unified, Real-Time Data Critical for BFCM:
  • Triple Whale’s real-time multi-touch attribution was a “lifesaver” (especially when Shopify briefly went down on Cyber Monday).
  • Taylor elaborates: “Having access to understanding what everything did in the build up so that you’re not just looking at last click data … that has been incredibly powerful for us” (21:04).
• AI Tools and Natural Language Insights:
  • Triple Whale’s Moby feature (AI chat modal) was used for instant strategic breakdowns and ad hoc analytics prompts (“It would tell me, here’s the breakdown of what’s happening there. And I would get it way faster…” – 22:45).

7. Most Impactful Tactics for 2026

• Top Lessons for CMOs:
  • Email + Paid Connection: Build strong pop-ups and flows; actively collect and segment emails from paid to drive performance—crucial in BFCM-heavy periods (23:44).
  • Innovative Offers: Move beyond rote “% off” deals—high-value, unique offers (like BOGO on premium AOV products) drive excitement and urgency (17:51).
  • Early Planning & Debrief: Conduct postmortems right after BFCM while fresh, then revisit those insights mid-year for Q4 prep (25:39).
  • Embrace Omni-Channel: Don’t fear diversifying spend if you’re tracking halo and incrementality through solid attribution systems (25:39).
  • Creative Volume—But Make It Count:
    • “Shots on net”—volume matters, but only if matched to genuine personas; avoid too many “copycat” riffs (27:56).
    • “If you have a goal and your goal is like your Persona and…what connects with them, you’re more likely to find those winners...” (Taylor, 27:56).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On CTR Improvements (03:25):

  • “A really big incline in outbound CTR that translated to high quality traffic for a lot of brands on the Meta side this year…potentially as much as a 30% improvement in CTR year on year…” – Taylor

• Meta Partnership Ad Support (11:15):

  • “When I go into Meta to build a partnership ad … now they’ve got a dynamic system … you can either choose to show one profile, dynamically show both … allow the system to optimize to whoever it should show first based on what Meta thinks will perform better.” – Taylor

• Creative Agility (15:24):

  • “Probably something like 75/25 planned versus kind of in the moment … we did really well this year … every brand had a really clear creative range based on their core audience and persona.” – Taylor

• Channel Diversification (19:46):

  • “It just diversifies and continues to hold innovation to a very high standard.” – Taylor

• Attribution Tools in Action (21:04):

  • “Having access to real-time data was super, super helpful… That has been incredibly powerful for us because even in real time we could see where that investment was paying dividends for brands and we were able to lean into iterations.” – Taylor

• Volume of Creative Needed (27:56):

  • “My perspective is like, shots on goal. If you take 100 shots and they’re all off target, it’s not going to be helpful. But if you have a goal, and your goal is your persona … you’re more likely to find those winners by getting the shots on the net.” – Taylor

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |----------------------------------------------------|------------| | Why Meta’s Andromeda/Paid Social Evolved | 00:00-06:51| | Impact of EBFs & Funnel Consolidation | 08:35-10:51| | Partnership Ads: Upgrades & Results | 10:51-14:20| | Creative Planning vs. Real-Time Pivots | 14:37-18:18| | Omni-Channel Performance Overview | 18:27-20:44| | Attribution Strategy—Triple Whale | 20:44-22:45| | Critical Lessons for 2026 Preparation | 23:18-25:39| | Creative Volume Debate & Final Takeaways | 27:15-28:52| | Episode Wrap-up | 29:00 |

Tone & Language

Conversational, tactical, and candid—directly quoting key speaker remarks, the episode shares war stories from the trenches while pulling out actionable advice for other DTC brands and marketing leaders.

Summary Takeaway

Meta’s platform changes have rewarded efficient, intelligent campaign structures and creators who blend strategic planning with agile responses. Pilothouse’s granular data approach, creative innovation, and readiness to activate across emerging and established channels are key trends for profitable scale into 2026. The fusion of strong offer strategy with sophisticated attribution and real-time response remains the foundation for DTC leaders looking to replicate Pilothouse’s 30%+ gains.