Lead Magnet Library

Interactive scroll deck on the 8 types of DTC attribution, the 3 Curtis actually uses, and the triangulation stack.

Best for

Anyone. Freely shareable, no email required, so this is the safest first send.

Send when

Any measurement question: 'how do you think about attribution,' 'our numbers don't match across platforms,' or if they bring up specific vendors (Northbeam, Triple Whale, GA4).

Three live sheets: a valuation model that builds the multiple from metrics the brand already manages, a bridge from headline price down to cash actually received after escrow, rollover and earnout, and an APR normalizer that reprices any financing offer on one scale. Every benchmark is sourced on its own tab.

Best for

Founders thinking about an exit in the next few years, and anyone weighing a revenue-based financing or inventory offer. Pairs with The First Customer P&L without overlapping it: that one prices a customer, this one prices the company.

Send when

They mention selling, raising, a valuation they were quoted, or a Wayflyer/Clearco style offer. The earnout line (21 cents on the dollar, 79% never paid) and the flat-fee APR reversal are the two facts that reliably start a real conversation.

Fully-loaded DTC P&L exposing true nCAC vs the flattering platform CPA. Anchors the Two-Cap operating system (MER ceiling + nCAC target).

Best for

DTC founders and CFOs, especially $2M-$50M brands.

Send when

Founder is confused why platform CPA looks fine but cash feels tight, is deciding whether to scale spend, or comparing agencies.

Field study of 67,852 active Meta ads across 106 brands. Statics are 55.6% of all ads and 64.8% among DTC. Covers the 12 static formats with funnel placement, the five axes of creative diversity, teardowns of Dr. Squatch, Ridge Wallet, Glossier, Obvi and Huel, and the weekly production sprint with a kill/iterate/scale tree.

Best for

Brands under-producing static because they assume video is the only thing that works, and teams that ship high volume off one idea and cannot understand why performance decays.

Send when

They ask what a winning static looks like, how much creative to ship, or why their output is high but results are flat. Also the natural send when someone wants proof Curtis works from data. Note: this also runs as one essay inside The Curtis Howland Collection, so send this one when the topic is specifically creative, and the Collection when they want everything.

18-page field study of every landing page behind the paid social of 20 DTC brands: 11,999 live ads, 266 destinations, six axes of classification. Ships with the full 266-row dataset as a CSV. Headline finding is that 46% of paid social volume lands on a collection page and only 17% on a PDP.

Best for

Brands arguing about where paid traffic should land, and anyone who wants category benchmarks rather than opinion. The CSV makes it the strongest send for a technical or analytical prospect.

Send when

They ask where to send ad traffic, whether they need dedicated landing pages, or what other brands in their category do. Also good when someone doubts Curtis works from real data.

Free MIT-licensed Claude skill that animates a static image into a 9:16 Veo 3.1 MP4. The lander reveals install commands after the gate.

Best for

Marketers, creators, DTC teams curious about AI creative tools. Requires GEMINI_API_KEY. Simplest of the three.

Send when

Someone asks about Veo 3.1 workflows or wants to animate a static product photo.

Architecture blueprint for a multi-tenant Postgres/RLS dashboard that turns Meta / Northbeam / Triple Whale exports into creative-performance insight.

Best for

Technical operators, data leads, small agencies. Not for founders who don't touch data.

Send when

In-house team asks 'how do we build our own dashboard,' or is outgrowing Triple Whale / Northbeam.

Full schema, ingestion paths, methodology, and AI-agent surface of Curtis's production ad-analysis system (17 tables, 6 agent tools, 9 rules).

Best for

Technical operators and prospect-side engineers. Do NOT send to non-technical founders. It's a spec doc.

Send when

Technical prospect asks about the data infrastructure, or how the agency uses AI + Meta data.

Four-stage Meta account maturity map ($10-50K/mo through $500K-5M+/mo) scored across 26 dimensions, with an explicit exit test per stage. 2026 rewrite: six dimensions are new post-Andromeda (concept diversity, approval throughput, signal quality, account structure, AI in pipeline, creator allowlisting).

Best for

Any DTC brand running Meta at real spend. Strongest with founders and growth leads who want to know what 'good' looks like one stage above where they are.

Send when

They ask what mature looks like, why scaling stalled, or what to fix next. Also the natural follow-up to the maturity post on LinkedIn, and a clean diagnostic to send before a consulting call.

Playbook co-authored with Opascope on scaling DTC brands on TikTok Shop: creative volume, creator seeding, 90-day launch.

Best for

DTC brands considering TikTok Shop as a new channel.

Send when

Brand asks about TikTok Shop, creator programs, or in-house vs agency for TikTok. Note: co-authored, partner-branded.

The 18 essays from Curtis's Substack on Meta ads, attribution, creative, and DTC unit economics, formatted as one book.

Best for

DTC founders, growth leads, media buyers. General enough for almost anyone.

Send when

First-time contact wants to catch up on Curtis's thinking, or asks 'where should I start.'

Short PDF of the DTC tools, vendors, and resources Curtis actually recommends to brands he works with.

Best for

Anyone. Low-friction, warm intro to the personality of the brand.

Send when

Someone asks 'what tools do you recommend' or 'who should I hire for X.'

Sponsor / press-facing page with audience stats, channel details, tiers ($1.5K-$2.5K/mo), and an inquiry form.

Best for

Sponsor and press outreach only. Not for lead prospects.

Send when

Brand approaches about sponsoring the podcast or newsletter, or a press contact asks about the audience.

Extracted content (his page is password-gated)

His page is password-gated, so the full rate card is reproduced here. There is no downloadable “kit” file — this is the media kit.

Substack subscriber growth: 290 on January 26 to 3,133 on July 24, 2026, a 10.8x increase in six months

Within 1 business day. I open every inquiry myself.

. Either a yes with next steps, a no with a reason, or a question.

The $2,500 bundle includes 60 days of whitelisting so you can boost the post. Book another post and the window extends, and you can keep boosting the earlier one alongside it.

What you'd want the placement to say, timing, anything else useful.

My audience does not just scroll. They argue, ask, and share.

saves $1,000 vs the tiers separately

A full post in my voice, with your product woven into real tactical content. Not a tacked-on ad unit.

Full feature at the top of the week's send. That's the only email I ship that week, so your placement carries it.

I put paid boost behind the LinkedIn post for 60 days after it publishes. Any additional boost extends that window.

Single dedicated LinkedIn post in my voice. Best for product launches and category-defining moments.

Lead feature, top of the week's send. Best for products where the buyer needs context, not just a headline.

High-quality companies only. Approval required.

I've spent $100M+ on Meta ads in the DTC space. Here's what's actually working in 2026.

Google and Meta don't optimize on what they can't see.

Server-side tracking used to mean a developer, GTM, and two weeks of back and forth.

The DTC static ad system: what 67,852 ads across 106 brands actually look like

Apply via the form below. Tell me the product and what you'd want the placement to say.

I check fit against my editorial bar. Not every inquiry gets approved.

I write the LinkedIn post and Substack feature so they read like every other piece I publish.

You get one round of edits on each placement before it ships.

Live on LinkedIn and Substack on agreed dates. Impressions, engagement, and open rate within a week.

DTC founders and ecommerce operators

In-house growth and performance marketing leads

Media buyers managing real Meta and paid-social budgets

People who make software, tooling, and vendor decisions for ad accounts

Near-daily posts in the operator voice. Trailing 90 days, the average post reaches ~15,000 impressions. Top posts go past 160,000.

1 full dedicated post in my voice

Tactical content with your product woven in, not bolted on

Posts live indefinitely on my profile

Weekly newsletter to 3,133 DTC operators, opened at roughly 40%. Your sponsorship is the lead feature, or the only feature, top of the send.

1 dedicated sponsorship, the lead feature

The only email I ship that week

Sponsor the content DTC operators actually

Read by operators at Google, P&G, Target, ByteDance, Ritual, Dr. Squatch, Lovevery, MUD\WTR, Koala, HiSmile, Tinuiti, Zynga, and a few hundred other brands and agencies.

Companies where at least one subscriber's employer is visible from their signup domain. Readers, not endorsements.

May cross-post to X or Substack Notes if it fits. Not promised.

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Top LinkedIn posts. Use the left and right arrow keys to scroll.

Live placements with real performance, on both channels.

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Sponsor placement inside the content of Curtis Howland. $150M+ in DTC ad spend managed. LinkedIn and Substack to 3,000+ senior DTC operators.

Top posts (his selection):

Oct 2025 · 161,388 impr · 1,001 rx · 102 cm
I’ve never seen a DTC brand do Meta ads this way (Scaled to $40m in 18 months too): John Hefter bought Angry Orange (Hear the whole story on Episode 134 of the Operators Podcast) ...
post ↗

Aug 2026 · 123,276 impr · 244 rx · 34 cm
touchland sold hand sanitizer for $880M There's a formula to do this for any product Touchland's history: → 2018: Kickstarter that raised $67K from 1,300 backers...
post ↗

Aug 2026 · 115,237 impr · 365 rx · 65 cm
Did the customer come from Google or Meta? Better way to check: - Pull your post purchase survey responses - Look at answer: "Where did you first hear about us?" - Match each answer to the UTM on that same order.
post ↗

Jan 2026 · 96,375 impr · 839 rx · 68 cm
I’ve spent $100M in ad spend My best Meta ads always fail on AppLovin. It’s frustrating, but it kind of makes sense. Facebook & Instagram → You are interrupting the scroll → The 3s hook is everything ...
post ↗

Claude skill that turns one product into 27 tested creative concepts (3 personas x 3 angles x 3 formats: UGC / Static / Founder) plus an ad-set structure that maps onto them 1:1. Built-in pressure-test pass kills lazy briefs.

Best for

DTC brands, media buyers, and creative strategists building a testing plan from scratch or sharpening a weak brief.

Send when

They need to plan what to test but haven't run structured tests yet. Asks like 'give me ad angles,' 'write me some hooks,' or 'help me build a brief.'

Claude skill that clusters customer reviews into angles, mines competitor 1-2 star reviews for validated weaknesses, tags every ad by angle, and outputs one heatmap showing white space, conquest gaps, and kill cells. Includes a validation gate so it won't hand you an ad attacking a flaw your brand shares.

Best for

DTC brands with 100+ ads run AND a customer-reviews CSV. Doesn't work without both. Competitor reviews are optional: it can source them itself, but supplying a CSV gives better results.

Send when

They're already spending and ask what angles they're missing, want to compare customer voice to what they've run, or ask how to position against a specific competitor. The conquest-angle output is the strongest hook in a competitive category.

Claude skill that turns a Meta ads export into a copy performance readout (blended CPA, CTR, CPC, LPV-to-buy, hit rate) and drafts fresh challenger copy.

Best for

Media buyers, small agencies, DTC brands that already run structured copy tests (same creatives across multiple text variants).

Send when

Someone asks 'which copy is winning,' is struggling to make new primary text work, or wants a systematic copy loop.

Claude skill that turns a Meta Ads Manager CSV export into a scale-decision chart: cost per 1,000 people reached (Y) vs ThruPlay rate (X), bubbles sized by spend, colored by prospecting vs retargeting. Four quadrants: SCALE, FIX THE HOOK, NICHE, CUT.

Best for

Brands running Meta video ads at any real spend level, especially when prospecting video is a big part of the mix.

Send when

They ask which video ads to scale, which to cut, or 'how do I know if my Meta video creative is working.' Also good when they know CTR is misleading them.

Claude skill that turns a VO script into a finished Vox-style hand-cut paper-collage 9:16 ad via Gemini + Veo 3.1 + ffmpeg.

Best for

Creative teams, DTC brands with a script but no motion designer. Editorial / explainer feel.

Send when

Someone asks about paper-collage explainer video, or wants an editorial feel for a scripted ad.

Claude skill that turns a brand + script into a miniature tilt-shift diorama 9:16 ad. Signature move: one giant photoreal element intruding on the toy world.

Best for

Brands whose promise is 'handle the small stuff': delivery, logistics, fintech, insurance, home, travel. Also creative teams looking for a premium editorial look.

Send when

Someone asks about miniature / tilt-shift / diorama-style ads, or wants a different look than the Vox paper-collage.

Models spend scaling scenarios and shows why a dropping MER can mean the ads are working, not failing.

Best for

Founders and CFOs who read a falling MER as a problem.

Send when

Someone panics about MER sliding while they scale, or asks what MER they should target.

Finds the optimal spend level by showing where every additional dollar stops being profitable.

Best for

Brands deciding how hard to push spend, especially heading into a peak period.

Send when

They ask how much they should be spending, or whether they are leaving room on the table.

Models cohort payback and the cash impact of growth, so scaling reads as a cash decision rather than a marketing one.

Best for

Founders funding growth out of cash flow. Pairs directly with The First Customer P&L.

Send when

Platform CPA looks fine but cash feels tight, or they are weighing how fast they can afford to scale.

Upload a customer CSV and get LTV cohorts, retention curves, and revenue projections.

Best for

Brands with real order history that need to prove LTV rather than model it.

Send when

They claim LTV justifies a high CAC but cannot show the curve, or ask how to measure retention properly.

Plots every ad in the account to show what is still scaling and what has quietly stalled.

Best for

Accounts with enough ad volume for the pattern to mean something.

Send when

They ask which ads to scale or cut, or want a read on the whole account at once.

Drop a Meta ads CSV and see whether creative output keeps up with spend, against Curtis's $10K-per-concept rule.

Best for

Brands scaling spend without scaling production. Very strong opener because the answer is usually no.

Send when

Performance is decaying as spend climbs, or they ask how much creative they should be shipping.

Guided builder that turns product, target customer, USP, and the current winning ad into a structured creative brief.

Best for

Teams briefing creators or agencies with nothing written down today.

Send when

They ask for a brief template, or their creative is inconsistent because every brief is improvised.

Short quiz that routes someone to the right offer. Unlike the other gates it asks ad spend and role directly, so it produces the most qualified row of anything on the site.

Best for

Warm inbound where you do not yet know their size or what they actually need.

Send when

Someone vague says they want help and you need to qualify before booking time. The highest-value send when you know nothing about them.

Thesis piece on building a creator roster as the one creative advantage AI cannot replicate.

Best for

Brands weighing in-house creators against agency production, or worried AI commoditizes their creative.

Send when

They ask about UGC strategy, creator sourcing, or whether AI makes creative teams redundant.

Recap of Curtis's podcast with Hugo Pires (CMO Sassy Saints) on personas, in-house creators, and the Comfrt-inspired creator program.

Best for

DTC brands in growth stage curious about creator programs and rapid scale.

Send when

Someone asks about in-house creators, $2M-$20M scaling, or persona-driven creative. Case-study send.

Recap of Curtis's podcast with Christian Limon (ex-Wish growth exec) on the Lakers sponsorship, Mayweather deal, and API-first ad ops.

Best for

Founders, growth execs, anyone who likes operator stories at scale.

Send when

Interest in DTC scaling stories, ad ops at scale, or 'here's some entertaining reading' warm-touch.