Drew

The "Forever Ads" Guy.

I scale DTC companies horizontally to 8+ fig in revenue.

Entrepreneur, OG copywriter, marketer, music, sleep, psychology.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

I created a video breakdown of the ad strategy Ryze Superfoods is using to scale in "unaware" blue ocean markets.

This has been the primary messaging strategy I have used to scale DTC businesses over the past 11 years.

When you understand how this works, you don't fight for traffic anymore. Simple as that.

I'm going to have someone create shorts out of this video soon. But I'm super busy right now. If you watch the whole thing, I'll give you a cookie.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@celestialbe1ng Same it's energizing to me.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@ModernxDad Yeah but there’s nothing like sitting in first class watching all the plebs walk by you into the back of the plane.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@Jimburgess Even vague surface-level authenticity worked in content 10 years ago because nobody was authentic. Now it's way less novel. It really can't be your only "thing."

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@adamtaylorl The fastest way to reveal you don't understand why an ad works is to brag about ripping it.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

Creative diversity without proper guardrails can fragment meta algo learning and collapse scale. The problem is "creative strategists" get too obsessed with throwing shit against the wall using tactics and don't have a real strategy.

The meta algo wants to learn. But some peoples' ad accounts make it impossible for it to do that.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

Most people who think they're hiring creative strategists are actually just hiring creative tacticians.

And that's why they're burning through adspend like crazy.

Don't confuse tactics - hooks, angles, formats, etc... with real strategy.

Real strategy is the invisible thread that runs through every ad. That makes the beliefs blocking a purchase irrelevant. That positions you against your enemies in a way that outsmarts them. And makes you the obvious choice.

Tacticians make ads. Each one in a silo. Then throw them against the wall like poo.

Strategists change the buying context every ad lives inside. To create powerful leverage, while others are relying on force.

Most DTC businesses think they have a creative strategy problem because Meta changed the algorithm last fall.

But that's not the case.

They have a creative strategy problem because nobody who's making ads has defined the war.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@vrexec It's been happening for a long time. Gives a wild advantage to those of us who know how to work when the shit eventually hits the fan.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@IAmAlenSultanic I do both but lead with creative strategy. Then the upsell is: "How's your AOV?"

Because a lot of businesses think they need creative strategy when CRO would move the needle more.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@Codie_Sanchez SMB

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@SallyMayweather Arrest is too light

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@Favwontmiss Wow I thought I was the only one. I had no idea this was an ADHD thing.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

We're at the phase now where people are forgetting computers could do stuff before AI existed.

[Big Brain AI @realBigBrainAI]

Architects used to draw every parking space by hand, this TestFit AI does the whole lot in seconds.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@realBigBrainAI Bro this is not even something you need AI for. People could make a software to do this in 2019 easily.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@Lammie_Art01 100%

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

The biggest hidden advantage of the AI era?

The entrepreneur who’s steeped in proven fundamentals while everyone else is chasing shiny new tactics - wins.

That’s what Jeff Bezos did during the dot-com craze:

When he first started Amazon, one of his biggest visions came from asking:

"What DOESN'T change? What's going to be the same 20, 50, 200 years from now?"

His answers:

He recognized people are still going to want selection, convenience, good prices, and instant gratification.

Bezos made sure that Wal Mart founder Sam Walton's book Made in America was essentially required cultural reading across Amazon.

Especially in their early days.

And while the media and the public at large were calling Amazon the "dot-com poster child" and "the curse of brick-and-mortar bookstores"...

...Bezos was obsessed with delivering the same fundamentals Walton built Wal Mart around decades earlier.

Those were NOT new things.

But you can bet your little fanny there were all kinds of new gimmicks coming out every week in the dot com bubble era too.

Bezos only allowed himself to focus on those shiny objects to the extent that they allowed him to achieve his deeper fundamental goals. The goals he’d based on many of Sam Walton’s principles from the 1970s and 80s.

And guess what?

It’s the same now as it was back then:

The unchanging fundamentals will remain the same no matter what happens with AI.

I’ve used the Hero’s Journey structure - or the monomyth - in dozens of ads and campaigns over the past couple years. Using the same formula Joseph Campbell laid out in 1949.

Those ads have been responsible for millions of dollars in revenue for my clients.

And the same structure will continue to work in the 2030s and 40s.

The campaigns that scaled the most for me recently stacked proof using Victor Schwab’s guidelines for finding proof elements.

He published those back in 1942. And they're still wildly overlooked.

Schwab listed 17 different forms of proof you can use in an ad. Testimonials and demonstrations are only two of them.

Most businesses only know how to use those two…

And that’s probably why their ads are mediocre.

But what do they do when they don’t see those ads scaling?

They think they need to change the format using AI. They try the fake UGC version, the Pixar 3d style, the claymation formats and hooks with cRaAaZy AI visuals.

Still with the same two tired forms of proof.

Sure, a new AI format could get you a lift.

But these are shiny tactics that will stop working in 6-12 months as every business starts using them. And then you’ll be back to square one.

My rather straightforward “boring” ad that stacks 7 or 8 different proof elements will outperform the shiny claymation AI ad that only has two.

Especially if you’re using fake AI-generated testimonials.

In fact, AI ads will soon flood newsfeeds everywhere and people will grow banner-blind as all hell to them.

My prediction as we're drenched in AI mania from all angles is:

The people who come out of this era the biggest winners will be the ones obsessed with the unchanging principles … who are only worried about how tech is changing to the extent that it will help them achieve those core principles faster and more efficiently.

And the rest… is noise.

What’s the one fundamental you keep coming back to that everyone else seems to have forgotten lately?

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

The fastest way to lose money is to copy ads from companies 100x your size.

You see a headline and an ad format.

They see:
> Years of customer data
> A household brand
> A massive email list
> PR coverage
> Repeat purchase behavior
> Favorable CAC payback

You copied their ad creative thinking it would copy over their entire business to yours.

But it didn't, did it?

Because the ad is the last 5%.
The market is the first 95%.

It seems that some businesses are finding this out the hard way in 2026.

You can get SO far ahead of most people running ads today by focusing on the fundamentals.

Because everyone else is ignoring them while obsessing over the next shiny tactic.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

Yes, hooks still need to hook.

By all means, test those.

But to scale past $100k/day, the core buying belief your hooks lead to needs to be NEW.

Few people understand this.

And that’s why few people scale past 8+ figures.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

Scaling on meta is not about finding formats or angles that convert. It’s deeper.

Since Andromeda, the name of the game is core buying beliefs.

When you identify a core buying belief that can scale, your ad angles & formats become secondary.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@adamtaylorl They are a public company and they are spending investor money playing a different game than most people. Nobody who has yet to reach $100k/day in adspend should be copying these guys’ ads without first working hard on the buying beliefs behind their message & economics.

[Drew @DrewCerullo]

@BasedBiohacker Hell yeah