Kevin Thompson

Interesting YouTube test result... I wanted to test 2 things together and see the effect. View-through optimization and bid higher for new customers. On the same budget, this account is bringing in 24% more new customers a day from YouTube, and our Northbeam nCAC is lower than the previous period. Note: There have been no other changes to the spend mix during the test and no offer, pricing, or creative changes. 1) View-through Optimizing on clicks alone means Google is bidding on a small slice of the people the ad actually reached. For me, YT needs the signal, and view-through lets bidding see the rest. This has technically been available for a few months but I was finishing other tests and didn't want to disrupt our legacy campaigns. Keep in mind, for any new Demand Gen campaigns, this setting is on by default. I will say, you need to watch the inventory. If CPM drops and view rate falls off a cliff after you turn it on, you’re chasing cheap reach instead of customers. You can combat this by running dedicated campaigns for Shorts and In-Stream / In-Feed, or by using channel controls at the ad group level to keep it on the placements you want. Don't let YouTube spend into Display. 2) Bid higher for new customers Lately, I’ve seen Google chase the cheapest conversion it can find. That’s nothing new, but a lot of the time that’s an existing customer who was buying anyway. Regardless of your exclusions, etc. It just finds them. So I’ve moved off New Customer Only. I’ve found that bidding higher for new customers keeps your volume while still pushing Google toward new buyers. From what I’m hearing, it’s where Google is putting a lot of time and resources, and the setup is pretty robust in terms of the values and audiences you can assign. The old hack of bidding $0.01 higher for new customers doesn’t seem to work anymore. Put a realistic value on a new customer. For brands where 12-month LTV is what matters, it’s a powerful lever. And it’s working better when it's set per campaign than across the whole account (set this in campaign settings). Why? I love the flexibility. I can bid higher or lower depending on performance and the % of new customers each campaign brings in. I can even tailor it to a warmer audience in retargeting.

Brand, agency, or operator in this space, I support you. There's always been this idea in DTC that one side has to win and the others lose. That's something I'll never subscribe to. At the end of the day, we should all be cheering for each other's success, especially the ones who give without taking. It's easy to drop blanket statements or root against someone... but cheering someone on is easier imo, and I've seen the good that it brings with it.

Over a decade in DTC and advertising, and I still decided to start a putter company with my best friend on the side... Not a CPG, supplement or apparel brand. Just head first into the hardest thing I could possibly do haha Sounds crazy but we’ve had this idea for years. Now it’s getting real. The good news? The category is growing. Putter sales were up +23% YoY last year and the game added 1M new golfers! That’s about 80k new golfers a month. The bad news? The space is TOUGH and crowded. There are 190 putter companies in the US, and the top 5 own 65% of the market. That leaves 185 brands fighting over the last 35%. So, we knew we had to bring something new if we wanted to earn our place in your bag. We’re doing just that, in two ways: #1 - With the tech. Once it’s in your hands, the putter does all the selling. I’ve had our first proto on local greens, in league play and in a few custom shops here in town. It clicks with golfers instantly! Yes, I have cried on the greens when people use it... #2 - With the design. We went mid-mallet, selfishly, because it’s what my best friend and I game. Strategically, we see golfers moving from blades to mid-mallets as the fastest growing shift in putters, with no signs of slowing. I spent over a year on the design to get the mix just right. Most mid-mallets lean heavy into the mallet side. Ours sits closer to the blade (I believe that most mallet golfers secretly miss their blades). We’re also milling right here in the USA with our own shop (skin in the game and owning manufacturing end to end). Now... some have called milled putters dead. Walk into a pro shop and you’ll see why. The milled heads people want start around $500. Almost everything else on the wall is cast with an insert, or 3D printed now, and sells under $400. For most golfers, milled turned into the putter you admire but never buy. But for me, that’s all just a pricing problem. I’m confident US milling at an affordable price, paired with our tech and design, can change that narrative. Confident enough in all of it to call this the first of its kind (truly), with utility and design patents to back it all up. I firmly believe that we have a foundational moat as we become the next brand to enter the space. All that said... we’re so close to our 1st limited batch going live, and I can’t wait to get this in your hands!