Paid media for ambitious DTC
Paid media that scales the top line — and protects the bottom line.
We run Meta, Google, TikTok, and CTV for beauty, fashion, and lifestyle brands at $5M–$25M ARR. And we measure for contribution margin, not just ROAS.
Who we work with
Brands at the stage where good media buying is the difference between flat and growing.
Brands hitting their first plateau
You hit $5M on Meta and the playbook stopped working. CPMs are rising, creative is fatiguing, and the spreadsheet doesn't tell you why. Time for a system, not more spend.
Brands diversifying beyond Meta
Meta did its job. Now you need Google for intent, TikTok for discovery, and CTV for the awareness ceiling. Three platforms, one team, one P&L view.
Practice-to-brand transitions
Aestheticians, dermatologists, and founders launching the product line their patients keep asking for. We run paid media for both halves of the journey. See our medspa playbook →
Client wins
What our paid media work actually delivers.
"Pennock took our new customer acquisition to a whole new level. The team really knows what they are doing, the latest platform trends and tactics, and it is clear they have a lot of data at their disposal around what's working in the beauty industry."
Mia Jenner, CMO · Vitality Institute, VI Peel
Vitality Institute observed
"Nikki and her team are lovely as ever to work with. They go into the right level of detail that I need to know as the CEO and keep everything related to new customer growth running smoothly so I can focus on product formulation and operations."
Chichi Eburu, CEO · Juvia's Place
Juvia's Place observed
Brands we've worked with
A true strategic and execution arm of our clients' marketing teams.
Managing an annual media budget upwards of $7M, we've introduced new customers and lifted new-customer LTV at rates that wildly exceed expectations.
The Pennock methodology
Paid media as a digital concierge — not a megaphone.
High-consideration brands don't convert from urgency. They convert from trust. So we run paid media as a 3-stage sequence — built on the architecture of desire, not the impatience of the click.
Notoriety
The introduction
We target taste communities and aesthetic affinities — not broad demographics. The goal here is engagement and video completion. We use immersive formats to establish brand ethos and visual authority before we ever ask for the click.
Education
The details
We retarget engaged users with the "why" — ingredients, materials, origin, efficacy. This is where we justify the price point. Long-form ad formats (carousels, instant experiences) let users learn without leaving the platform.
Validation
The invitation
Only after education do we invite the transaction. We layer in press, reviews, and social proof to remove risk and validate the decision. By the time a user converts, they've been welcomed three times — not chased once.
Case studies
Our work.
Our beauty, wellness, and lifestyle clients come to us looking for immediate growth. And that's what we aim to deliver. We'll get straight to the point, giving you the insights worth actioning. No BS storytelling or fluff.
Juvia's Place
We scaled Juvia's Place to +1,000% ROAS across Meta and Google, with +200% search impressions and +610% Meta engagement growth.
Learn moreKinship
Through strategic A/B testing on TikTok, we lowered Kinship's costs 52% and drove +89% engagement growth.
Learn more
DedCool
We expanded DedCool's reach and awareness on TikTok cost-efficiently — breaking the fragrance brand out to a wider millennial and Gen Z audience.
Learn moreThe Pennock difference
Contribution margin > ROAS.
Most agencies optimize for ROAS — return on ad spend. The problem: ROAS doesn't account for COGS, fulfillment, returns, or the blended cost of marketing. A campaign hitting 4X ROAS can still be losing money on every order.
We optimize for contribution margin. We work backwards from your unit economics — COGS, fulfillment, returns, creative production — and reverse-engineer the ROAS targets that actually grow your business. Same campaign, same dashboard, different math. The CFO calls it discipline. We call it our day job.
This is the CFO × CMO model — and it's why our clients can scale without that quarterly "wait, are we actually making money on this?" panic.
What we report on
- Contribution margin per order
- New customer ROAS (NC ROAS)
- LTV by acquisition cohort
- Creative resonance by message
- Time-to-convert by channel
- Search lift from top-funnel spend
Common questions
Frequently asked.
What's the minimum monthly ad spend you work with?
Our sweet spot is brands at $5M–$25M ARR running $50K+ in monthly paid media. We're a fit when there's enough budget for real testing and channel diversification — not when paid media is a $5K/month side experiment.
Do you handle creative production for ads?
Yes. Our media buyers write creative briefs based on data, and our creative team produces what's tested. One ecosystem, not two departments. This is what makes the feedback loop tight enough to scale spend without scaling creative fatigue.
How do you measure success — ROAS, contribution margin, or LTV?
All three, in the right order. ROAS is the platform metric, contribution margin is the P&L metric, LTV is the strategy metric. We set targets at the contribution margin level and reverse-engineer ROAS targets that hit them. We also track new-customer ROAS (NC ROAS) separately so the picture isn't muddied by retention spend.
Which platforms do you specialize in?
Meta (Instagram + Facebook), Google (Search, Performance Max, YouTube), TikTok, programmatic display, Connected TV (CTV), and audio. The mix depends on your stage, your category, and where attention currently is — not on what we want to bill more of.
How quickly can you launch a new account?
Two to four weeks from kickoff to first live campaign. Week one is audit and roadmap. Weeks two through four are creative build, pixel/conversions verification, and account structure. We don't launch on day one because we'd rather launch right than launch fast.
Let's talk
Ready to scale — without losing the margin?
If you're at $5M–$25M and paid media is either plateauing or eating your contribution margin, we should talk.
Or listen to The Pennock Knockdown podcast for what's working in DTC paid media right now.