Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy

Creative Strategist for Ecom and SaaS. Worked with Spotminders, Icecartel, Earthing Harmony, Uproas, and Engain.

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@realboyuanzhao Youtube has an auto-translate feature...

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

This website is a goldmine for pet brands looking for native image ad inspiration.

Each image is captivating and unique, and in my experience it's much faster to find something of value compared to scrolling organic or reddit, although reddit can hit hard as well.

People literally submit their own stories and real-life photos to them.

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@justsibaja My favorite is when they have "all glory to god" or some bs in their bio

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@noctadn stick me and delete the footage

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@maxxmalist Lego is coming for your ass if you scale this

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@advertising_jan I think it's built on claude. Initially, their moat was the multi-agent approach but then claude cowork came out. But as I said, sometimes it just seems better.

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@jforjacob @conortrains Did you have an idea for a product before or did you go looking for one when you made the decision to switch to ecom?

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@advertising_jan Do you know of any Shopify brands for native inspo that are not in the health niche?

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@CarlWeische Are you using Aftersell? How are you split-testing?

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

So deep in the trenches that I keep saying Shopify instead of Spotify when having a conversation.

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@2brokefora249 Now try climbing over a body in each corridor for the added psychological terror.

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@ShaneJ_DTC How long does it take for you to go from idea to a fully produced asset? Takes a lot of back and forth in my exp

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

Perfect depiction. It would've literally saved me $15-20k USD if somebody told me this 2 years ago when I started ecom.

[ET @ecomtalent]

This is what happens when you follow advice from someone whose entire business model depends on you buying their course.

"Just start. Take action. Launch the store. Run the ads."

Sounds good. It gets likes. Sells courses.

But nobody shows you what happens after you follow that advice.

The $5K gone in two weeks on ads that converted nobody. The product that looked perfect on Kalodata that 50 other stores were already running. The moment you realize you have no idea why anything is or isn't working.

That's the first year of ecom for most people.

Not because they didn't work hard enough. Because they were handed a map that leads nowhere by someone who made their money selling the map.

Sure, there are people who launched blind and figured it out. Got lucky on a product, scaled it, made real money. Those people exist.

But for every one of them there are hundreds who burned through their savings, learned nothing transferable, and quit before anything clicked.

You just don't see those stories because they don't make good content.

The gurus pushing "just start" aren't lying because they're evil. They're lying because the truth doesn't sell courses.

The truth is that launching a store before you understand how to make ads that convert is just a very expensive way to learn what doesn't work.

The people actually building sustainable income in ecom almost always have the same foundation underneath them.

They understand why ads work. They know what makes people buy. They can look at a failing campaign and diagnose exactly what's wrong.

That's not something you get from launching a store and hoping for the best.

That's a skill.

And it's the one skill that actually determines whether any of this works.

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@kamal_razzak @binghott @iamshackelford @DenneyDara @sourfraser @MatthewGattozzi @pkennedy93 @thedennis @harrydelmege_ @heyitsalexP STRAT

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@mikefutia Statics

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

Create your own scratch card pop-up: https://t.co/bTOOhLxFhL

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

This pop-up is printing right now.

Here are the 3 psychological principles it leverages:

1. Anticipatory dopamine
Dopamine doesn't spike when you receive a reward. It spikes in the anticipation of a reward.

The moment before you discover the outcome is neurologically the most satisfying part of the whole sequence.

And because everyone is familiar with the scratch-card mechanic, it makes the visitor's dopamine shoot up immediately once they see the pop-up.

This creates curiosity and significantly reduces pop-up close rate.

2. Variable outcome
BF Skinner figured this out with rats in the 1950s.

A fixed reward is boring. A variable one is addictive.

Your brain releases more dopamine when the outcome is unknown.

Why do you think gambling is so popular?

Lottery companies already cracked this back in the 70s, and uncertainty is the underlying mechanism that makes it addictive.

Now of course to us marketers, it's just another well-designed email capture, but for the general public it seems completely random and spontaneous.

They have no idea that it's the same reward no matter who visits.

A simple "Claim 20% off" CTA can never evoke the same feeling.

3. Participation
It's interactive. The physical act makes it feel personal.

That tactile sensation creates a sense of agency and makes the visitor feel like they are responsible for receiving this exclusive offer.

By the time the offer appears, it doesn't feel like a commoditized offer.

It feels personal. Like they got lucky.

Three psychological levers pulled at once.

Here's an illustrative example:

I was analyzing Smooche's funnel yesterday when my girl walked over right as the scratch card popped up on my screen.

She immediately got excited and told me to reveal what's underneath.

She told me I have to get this offer before I lose it and send it to her.

No data analysis could've proven the pop-ups' effectiveness better than that moment.

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@johnmeyerscale Chargeblast or chargeflow

[Aleksander Saks | Creative Strategy @AdsAndAbs]

@mikefutia A