Growing Profitably

Social Paradigm Group - Social Nucleus x Paradigm
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Most eCommerce brands don't know what's driving their growth. So they don't know what to do next.We work with DTC brands doing £2M to £20M+ in revenue who want to scale profitably and know exactly what's working and why.This channel shows you how to diagnose what's working, benchmark it against reality, and build a system where inputs produce predictable outputs. Creative strategy, Meta ads, unit economics, CAC, ROAS, site conversion, retention. Every lever that matters for scaling a DTC brand profitably.Social Paradigm Group is the merger of Social Nucleus and Paradigm Media. Two of the UK's sharpest DTC performance agencies, now one. We manage £60M+ in ad spend and drive £300M+ in revenue across our partners.We built the Reality Operating System. Plus our own tech: AdSynth for creative volume and velocity, eCompass for performance benchmarking.This channel is how we actually think, unfiltered. Growth isn't a mystery. It's a system.

  1. 2d ago

    Scaling Cadence to 100m in 2027

    This episode breaks down how Cadence is scaling a hydration brand across DTC, Amazon, retail, and TikTok Shop while staying disciplined on new customer quality and blended economics. Matty shares how the team is testing new audiences beyond runners, why creative congruence matters, and how retention levers like free gifts and onboarding guides have pushed subscription uptake from roughly 30 percent to 82 percent. We also get into the realities of building with a scrappy team, the role of agency partners, and why Cadence is leaning into a creator and Discord-powered content engine to fuel paid media and retail activation. What we cover: ➤ Cadence’s hydration products, why cans are challenging to scale in DTC, and how bundles can help.   ➤ Matty’s career path from SEO at Myprotein to building growth capabilities at Represent.   ➤ Why ongoing content consumption helps DTC operators stay sharp. ➤ Differences between the UK, US, and UAE business cultures.   ➤ Expanding Cadence’s audience beyond runners, including strong results with women aged 45 and older.   ➤ Testing new markets through statics, UGC, landing pages, and short test cycles.   ➤ Evaluating concepts using CPA and new-customer percentage, not efficiency metrics alone.   ➤ Balancing DTC and Amazon performance to understand the full business.   ➤ Using founder personal brands, third-party pages, and whitelisted creator content.   ➤ Building a creator engine through Discord, competitions, Tribe, and TikTok Shop.   ➤ Improving subscription uptake from roughly 30 percent to 82 percent through gifts, discounts, better offers, and onboarding.   ➤ Reducing early churn with education, habit formation, and relevant customer journeys.   ➤ Cadence’s approach to hiring, agency partners, and scaling toward its growth goals. Timestamps: 00:00 - Cadence intro and why cans are hard to scale in DTC   05:31 - Why content consumption keeps operators sharp   10:56 - UK vs US growth dynamics and audience focus   16:18 - Testing new markets with statics, UGC, and landers   19:44 - How Cadence judges new concepts   21:23 - Why Amazon and DTC must be measured together   28:27 - Building the creator engine   36:34 - TikTok Shop, Tribe, and the content flywheel   41:04 - Testing older female audiences   43:16 - Growing subscriptions from 30% to 82%   50:04 - Bundles, cans, sachets, and AOV strategy   57:48 - Retention, churn, and onboarding   01:05:28 - Target CAC and payback strategy   01:17:06 - Forecasting toward the £100M goal   01:25:34 - Hiring philosophy and zero-to-one hunger   01:28:42 - US office visits and market immersion Links: 🔗  Secure your spot at our event: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/event 🔗 Get a free 60-page growth roadmap for your brand: https://app.iclosed.io/e/paradigmmedia/social-paradigm-group-discovery-call 🔗 Social Nucleus: https://socialnucleus.co/ 🔗 Paradigm Media: https://www.paradigmmedia.uk/ 🔗 Social Paradigm Group: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/ 🔗 Get 100+ Free creative templates: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/creative-templates 🔗 Smart Fulfilment: If fulfilment is the bottleneck slowing your growth — SPG referrals get a £1,000 credit on their first invoice. → https://offer.smart-fulfilment.co.uk/ 🔗 Dan Major CFO: If your revenue is growing but the cash isn't keeping up — this free 8-day course was built for that. → The DTC CFO Playbook: http://cfoplaybook.danmajor.co/

    Scaling Cadence to 100m in 2027

  2. 4d ago

    How to Win this Black Friday

    This episode breaks down how to approach Black Friday Cyber Monday without wrecking Q1. The hosts argue that the goal is not to chase top-line revenue at all costs, but to use the period strategically to liquidate slow stock, protect margin, and come out with more cash in the bank. They focus on how Black Friday really lands across multiple peaks, why your objective should drive every offer decision, and why discounting your best sellers or running a long promo window usually creates more problems than it solves. What We Cover: ➤ Black Friday should be treated as a cash event, not a revenue event, to protect margins and avoid a Q1 cash hangover. ➤ Q4 is a series of peaks, including Singles Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas. ➤ Use email and SMS first to move discounted or excess stock before paying for acquisition. ➤ Protect best sellers from unnecessary discounts. If needed, bundle them with slow-moving products instead. ➤ Base inventory decisions on stock cover, inbound deliveries, and returns, not just Christmas sell-through. ➤ Keep the offer and creative simple, use proven winners, and have a backup offer ready. ➤ Avoid running the sale too long. It can exhaust demand, hurt margins, and frustrate existing customers. ➤ The main lesson: focus on the business objective, not vanity revenue or competitor screenshots. Timestamps: 00:00 - Setting up the Black Friday thesis   00:51 - Why Q4 should be multiple peaks   02:09 - The problem with chasing revenue   06:58 - Early bird, Singles Day, Black Friday, and Christmas   08:54 - Why best sellers should stay out of sale   10:34 - Choosing the right SKUs for the offer   15:23 - Stock levels, deliveries, and sell-through   19:40 - Liquidating dead stock   26:35 - Practical offer design   28:27 - Why “up to X off” can work better   29:42 - Having a backup offer ready   32:27 - Why revenue should not be the north star   39:09 - Creative and scaling proven winners   45:39 - Why shorter sale windows can perform better   49:30 - The risk of deeper discounts   51:06 - Aligning everything with the objective   52:06 - Final advice and wrap-up Links: 🔗  Secure your spot at our event: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/event 🔗 Get a free 60-page growth roadmap for your brand: https://app.iclosed.io/e/paradigmmedia/social-paradigm-group-discovery-call 🔗 Social Nucleus: https://socialnucleus.co/ 🔗 Paradigm Media: https://www.paradigmmedia.uk/ 🔗 Social Paradigm Group: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/ 🔗 Get 100+ Free creative templates: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/creative-templates 🔗 Smart Fulfilment: If fulfilment is the bottleneck slowing your growth — SPG referrals get a £1,000 credit on their first invoice. → https://offer.smart-fulfilment.co.uk/ 🔗 Dan Major CFO: If your revenue is growing but the cash isn't keeping up — this free 8-day course was built for that. → The DTC CFO Playbook: http://cfoplaybook.danmajor.co/

    How to Win this Black Friday

  3. 6d ago

    Scaling a Subscription Brand to £10M

    This episode is a practical breakdown of what moves the needle for health and wellness subscription brands—from offer design and free gifts to paid media structure and retention. Will and Charlie Williams draw on their experience with their own subscription brand, sharing lessons from real numbers and ongoing tests. They focus on a common problem: the “leaky bucket,” where a brand invests in acquisition while losing customers through high churn. The conversation explores how to strengthen the offer, improve retention, and build the economics needed to scale sustainably. What we cover: ➤ Why subscription brands need a different growth strategy ➤ Fixing retention before scaling acquisition ➤ Using pricing, gifts, and bundles to increase subscription value and AOV ➤ Testing offers, creative, and customer personas with data ➤ Matching ads and landing pages to the right customers ➤ Reducing churn by improving delivery frequency and addressing cancellation reasons ➤ Using loyalty incentives to support renewals ➤ Why retention and offer improvements should come before scaling paid media Timestamps: 00:00 Q4 pressure and why subscriptions matter   00:59 Why subscription brands need a different strategy   04:33 The leaky bucket problem   05:56 Why the front-end offer matters   08:49 When subscription-only offers make sense   11:18 Using free gifts to drive subscriptions   14:21 Sample packs for conversion and retention   17:38 The AOV challenge   18:06 Multi-month bundles and cash flow   22:28 Paid media structure for subscriptions   24:53 Educating customers on subscriptions   25:15 Testing offers and understanding customers   27:29 Matching creative and landing pages to customers   32:16 Fixing retention before scaling acquisition   33:29 Common cancellation reasons and churn   35:00 Aligning subscription cadence with usage   36:52 Retention incentives and renewal drop-offs   39:19 Lessons from subscription cohorts   42:32 LTV to CAC and the 3:1 benchmark   43:47 Fix the offer, fix the backend, then scale Links: 🔗  Secure your spot at our event: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/event 🔗 Get a free 60-page growth roadmap for your brand: https://app.iclosed.io/e/paradigmmedia/social-paradigm-group-discovery-call 🔗 Social Nucleus: https://socialnucleus.co/ 🔗 Paradigm Media: https://www.paradigmmedia.uk/ 🔗 Social Paradigm Group: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/ 🔗 Get 100+ Free creative templates: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/creative-templates 🔗 Smart Fulfilment: If fulfilment is the bottleneck slowing your growth — SPG referrals get a £1,000 credit on their first invoice. → https://offer.smart-fulfilment.co.uk/ 🔗 Dan Major CFO: If your revenue is growing but the cash isn't keeping up — this free 8-day course was built for that. → The DTC CFO Playbook: http://cfoplaybook.danmajor.co/

    Scaling a Subscription Brand to £10M

  4. Oct 7

    Shopify Platinum Partner on What Actually Makes a Site Make Money

    This episode is a practical conversation about making more money from the traffic you already have. The discussion covers conversion rate optimization, subscription retention, and how brands should think about Q4 without damaging margin or brand equity. Tom, a founder at SuperCo, shares how the agency helps brands improve on-site monetization, build custom subscription experiences, and use AI to speed up testing and iteration. The conversation also digs into the operational issues that often matter more than marketing when brands start scaling. What We Cover: ➤ Tom explains that SuperCo focuses on helping brands monetize site visitors after acquisition, rather than doing top-of-funnel paid media. ➤ We discuss why operational issues like freight, payroll, and fixed costs often matter more than landing page tweaks, especially when brands can't pull back spend as performance dips.  ➤ Tom shares why Shopify is often the right move for simpler ecommerce brands, as other platforms can create hidden dev and maintenance costs.  ➤ We discuss how SuperCo builds custom subscription account experiences that improve retention and reduce churn for brands with complex product logic.  ➤ Tom explains how GLP-1 and online pharmacy brands need retention built on trust, habit-building, and value-add services rather than price alone.  ➤ We discuss how AI helps agencies prototype hyper-personalized landing pages and customizers much faster than before.  ➤ Tom shares his Q4 strategy, including building email lists, making offers obvious, and avoiding brand decisions that slow down purchasing. Links: 🔗  Secure your spot at our event: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/event 🔗 Get a free 60-page growth roadmap for your brand: https://app.iclosed.io/e/paradigmmedia/social-paradigm-group-discovery-call 🔗 Social Nucleus: https://socialnucleus.co/ 🔗 Paradigm Media: https://www.paradigmmedia.uk/ 🔗 Social Paradigm Group: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/ 🔗 Get 100+ Free creative templates: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/creative-templates 🔗 Smart Fulfilment: If fulfilment is the bottleneck slowing your growth — SPG referrals get a £1,000 credit on their first invoice. → https://offer.smart-fulfilment.co.uk/ 🔗 Dan Major CFO: If your revenue is growing but the cash isn't keeping up — this free 8-day course was built for that. → The DTC CFO Playbook: http://cfoplaybook.danmajor.co/ 🔗 Tom Mucklow-Norell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommucklow/ 🔗 Superco - Shopify Platinum Partner: https://superco.io/ Timestamp: 00:00 - Why this episode focuses on monetization, not acquisition  01:01 - Tom introduces SuperCo and its conversion-focused services  03:32 - Why macro conditions hit some brands harder than others  06:15 - The margin battle as brands scale  07:43 - Which brand categories are thriving right now  09:08 - Pharmacy retention and building habits beyond month two  13:49 - The brands struggling most this year  16:03 - Cutting fixed costs, fees, and overlooked expenses  18:23 - Why in-house dev teams and non-Shopify setups slow growth  21:29 - Hiring mistakes and learning people management fast  22:34 - Customizers and AOV growth for jewelry brands  23:23 - How AI speeds up ideation and prototyping  26:08 - The rise of AI-driven, hyper-personalized landing pages  28:14 - Why human QA still matters in AI workflows  31:53 - Building a better subscription account beyond Shopify  33:56 - How one extra month of retention changes subscription economics  37:36 - When bundles outperform subscriptions  39:24 - CRO fundamentals to fix before testing  41:42 - Setting realistic CRO goals in context  44:40 - Post-purchase upsells and avoiding gimmicky CRO  46:21 - How AI reduces bias in test analysis  47:47 - Q4 prep and Black Friday planning  50:22 - Why Black Friday buyers rarely return  53:20 - Wrapping up and where to reach Tom Links: 🔗  Secure your spot at our event: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/event 🔗 Get a free 60-page growth roadmap for your brand: https://app.iclosed.io/e/paradigmmedia/social-paradigm-group-discovery-call 🔗 Social Nucleus: https://socialnucleus.co/ 🔗 Paradigm Media: https://www.paradigmmedia.uk/ 🔗 Social Paradigm Group: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/ 🔗 Get 100+ Free creative templates: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/creative-templates 🔗 Smart Fulfilment: If fulfilment is the bottleneck slowing your growth — SPG referrals get a £1,000 credit on their first invoice. → https://offer.smart-fulfilment.co.uk/ 🔗 Dan Major CFO: If your revenue is growing but the cash isn't keeping up — this free 8-day course was built for that. → The DTC CFO Playbook: http://cfoplaybook.danmajor.co/

    Shopify Platinum Partner on What Actually Makes a Site Make Money

  5. Oct 5

    Turning a Near-Death Story Into a Challenger DTC Subscription Brand

    Fifth Ray co-founders Manny and Gurj share how Manny’s experience with Crohn’s disease helped inspire the brand, and how they grew a botanical blend business from an early idea into a scaling company. The conversation covers the founders’ origin story, product development, bootstrapping and cash flow, brand positioning, hiring, creative production, subscription economics, and their ambition to bring Fifth Ray to the US. What We Cover:  ➤ How Manny's Crohn's journey and recovery inspired the idea for Fifth Ray  ➤ Why Manny left the corporate world to build the brand  ➤ Negotiating the first minimum order from 5,000 units down to 2,500  ➤ How a founder-led ad helped validate product-market fit after launch  ➤ Why Fifth Ray now describes itself as a nervous system brand  ➤ Who the founders see as their core customer: people living in survival mode  ➤ The challenges of Q4 stock planning, Black Friday, and subscriber retention  ➤ Their focus on NCPA and customer acquisition cost to lifetime value  ➤ Creative production at scale: 15 videos and around 40 static ads per week  ➤ The long-term vision for Cosmic Hue and expansion into the US Timestamps: 00:00 — Introducing Fifth Ray's co-founders 01:05 — Manny's health crisis and the idea that "food is medicine" 02:33 — Recovery, Los Angeles, and the Muscle Beach rope moment 04:19 — Leaving the corporate world and going all in on the idea 09:22 — Developing the product and finding the right blend 11:17 — Reducing the first order quantity from 5,000 to 2,500 units 12:26 — Launching in March 2024 and testing product-market fit 16:59 — Manny's story reaching Big Brother, BBC, and ITV 26:54 — Defining the audience and positioning around the nervous system 33:01 — Black Friday, stock pressure, and lessons from Q4 43:05 — Comfort, ambition, and the "golden handcuffs" 58:56 — Hiring for technical, cultural, and mission fit 1:00:32 — NCPA, CAC, and lifetime value 1:09:02 — Producing 15 videos and around 40 static ads each week 1:19:41 — The long-term vision for Cosmic Hue and Fifth Ray 1:24:07 — Closing thoughts and future plans Links: 🔗  Secure your spot at our event: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/event 🔗 Get a free 60-page growth roadmap for your brand: https://app.iclosed.io/e/paradigmmedia/social-paradigm-group-discovery-call 🔗 Social Nucleus: https://socialnucleus.co/ 🔗 Paradigm Media: https://www.paradigmmedia.uk/ 🔗 Social Paradigm Group: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/ 🔗 Get 100+ Free creative templates: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/creative-templates 🔗 Smart Fulfilment: If fulfilment is the bottleneck slowing your growth — SPG referrals get a £1,000 credit on their first invoice. → https://offer.smart-fulfilment.co.uk/ 🔗 Dan Major CFO: If your revenue is growing but the cash isn't keeping up — this free 8-day course was built for that. → The DTC CFO Playbook: http://cfoplaybook.danmajor.co/

    Turning a Near-Death Story Into a Challenger DTC Subscription Brand

  6. Oct 2

    Competition Is Outrunning UK Ecommerce

    UK ecommerce is getting more crowded while the overall market has barely moved, and this episode breaks down why that matters for brands in 2026. We discuss how rising competition, higher media costs, and weaker differentiation are squeezing margins across fashion, supplements, and DTC more broadly.A covers the market data and strategic response, while B adds operator-level examples from brands, pricing changes, and what is actually working in practice. What We Cover: ➤ The UK online retail share has stayed roughly flat at 28% since 2023, while the number of sellers and brands has surged. ➤ Amazon takes about 30% of online retail, leaving independents fighting for a smaller slice of the market. ➤ Brands compete not only with direct rivals, but with every other category claiming a share of consumers’ disposable income. ➤ New entrants like TikTok Shop, Shein, and Temu have intensified competition and disrupted traditional retail models. ➤ Products with weak differentiation—like basic linen or commodity supplements—are vulnerable to price competition. ➤ Product quality, new SKUs, and new markets can help brands grow when the overall market is flat. ➤ In supplements, staying ahead may mean finding the next trend before a product becomes commoditized. ➤ Strong unit economics matter: negotiate with suppliers, manage payment terms, and protect margins. ➤ Pricing changes can improve contribution even if order volume falls. ➤ Offer testing and bundles can help raise average order value as customer acquisition costs rise. ➤ Creative volume and variety are important testing levers. ➤ Lean operations and low fixed costs give brands more flexibility when market conditions shift. ➤ Measure the whole commercial ecosystem rather than relying on platform-level ROAS alone. Timestamp: 00:00 - Producer shout-out and market discussion 00:45 - UK ecommerce competition is increasing 02:48 - Shein, Temu, and rising DTC competition 03:16 - Rising competition and advertising costs 08:28 - How to win in a flat market 08:57 - Product and offer as growth levers 12:22 - Unit economics and margin discipline 15:20 - Offer-market fit and scaling 16:57 - Creative volume as a growth lever 18:15 - Balancing creative volume and quality 19:14 - Staying lean and controlling costs 20:54 - Measuring the full ecosystem 21:35 - Closing advice for brands in 2026 Links: 🔗  Secure your spot at our event: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/event 🔗 Get a free 60-page growth roadmap for your brand: https://app.iclosed.io/e/paradigmmedia/social-paradigm-group-discovery-call 🔗 Social Nucleus: https://socialnucleus.co/ 🔗 Paradigm Media: https://www.paradigmmedia.uk/ 🔗 Social Paradigm Group: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/ 🔗 Get 100+ Free creative templates: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/creative-templates 🔗 Smart Fulfilment: If fulfilment is the bottleneck slowing your growth — SPG referrals get a £1,000 credit on their first invoice. → https://offer.smart-fulfilment.co.uk/ 🔗 Dan Major CFO: If your revenue is growing but the cash isn't keeping up — this free 8-day course was built for that. → The DTC CFO Playbook: http://cfoplaybook.danmajor.co/

    Competition Is Outrunning UK Ecommerce

  7. Sep 29

    The #1 Mistake You're Making With Meta Ads

    This episode breaks down why relevance is the single biggest lever in Meta ads—more important than targeting, bidding, or algorithm changes. The speakers explain how creative, landing pages, product pages, and model selection need to feel congruent to the same audience to improve performance. They discuss how brands lose money when the audience, messaging, and destination page don’t match—and why the fix may require rebuilding the customer journey, not just tweaking an ad. What We Cover: ➤ Why relevance is central to Meta ad performance and how it relates to estimated action rates. ➤ How age, gender, tone, language, visuals, and model selection affect whether an ad feels right for its audience. ➤ Why the ad, landing page, product page, and checkout should work as one connected journey. ➤ How brands can overlook their best-performing demographics in their creative. ➤ How to match the audience, pain point, messaging, visuals, and offers from ad to landing page. ➤ Examples from health and wellness, including campaigns organized around specific needs such as GLP-1 and gut health. ➤ Why fashion brands should show models who reflect the range of people buying their products. ➤ Why relevance becomes harder as a brand scales—and why reaching new audiences can be more effective than overworking one segment. ➤ How to build and test persona-specific creative and landing pages, then use spend as a signal of what’s resonating. Links: 🔗  Secure your spot at our event: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/event 🔗 Get a free 60-page growth roadmap for your brand: https://app.iclosed.io/e/paradigmmedia/social-paradigm-group-discovery-call 🔗 Social Nucleus: https://socialnucleus.co/ 🔗 Paradigm Media: https://www.paradigmmedia.uk/ 🔗 Social Paradigm Group: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/ 🔗 Get 100+ Free creative templates: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/creative-templates 🔗 Smart Fulfilment: If fulfilment is the bottleneck slowing your growth — SPG referrals get a £1,000 credit on their first invoice. → https://offer.smart-fulfilment.co.uk/ 🔗 Dan Major CFO: If your revenue is growing but the cash isn't keeping up — this free 8-day course was built for that. → The DTC CFO Playbook: http://cfoplaybook.danmajor.co/ Timestamp: 00:00 — The Meta ads mistake: overlooking relevance 01:02 — How Meta's auction prices ads 01:54 — Why the landing page must match the ad 02:40 — Relevance across targeting, bidding, budget, and journey 03:28 — Congruency lessons from high-performing brands 05:43 — Audit finding: top demographics are underrepresented 07:34 — The relevance chain from click to landing page 08:25 — Case study: a brand missing an entire demographic 10:49 — Organizing campaigns around product pain points 12:50 — Showing different customers in fashion imagery 16:00 — Why relevance gets harder as brands scale 18:27 — Relevance in a changing ad environment 20:49 — Final checklist for the full customer journey 22:39 — Closing advice and free audit offer Links: 🔗  Secure your spot at our event: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/event 🔗 Get a free 60-page growth roadmap for your brand: https://app.iclosed.io/e/paradigmmedia/social-paradigm-group-discovery-call 🔗 Social Nucleus: https://socialnucleus.co/ 🔗 Paradigm Media: https://www.paradigmmedia.uk/ 🔗 Social Paradigm Group: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/ 🔗 Get 100+ Free creative templates: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/creative-templates 🔗 Smart Fulfilment: If fulfilment is the bottleneck slowing your growth — SPG referrals get a £1,000 credit on their first invoice. → https://offer.smart-fulfilment.co.uk/ 🔗 Dan Major CFO: If your revenue is growing but the cash isn't keeping up — this free 8-day course was built for that. → The DTC CFO Playbook: http://cfoplaybook.danmajor.co/

    The #1 Mistake You're Making With Meta Ads

  8. Sep 26

    How Luke Scaled a Fragrance Brand to £30M a Year

    Luke Bream, Founder & CEO, Valentte, breaks down how a small home fragrance business went from county shows and an old dairy farm to a much larger, ad-driven operation with 140 staff. This episode is especially useful if you want a grounded look at what actually changed in Meta advertising, why creative volume matters, and why product, offer, and unit economics beat vanity metrics every time. We discuss the real operating system behind a scaled DTC brand, including cost caps, creative matrices, TikTok Shop, Amazon, pricing, and the mistakes that trap brands between 5 and 10 million. What We Cover ➤ Luke shares how Valentte started in 2011 as a tiny home fragrance business, selling candles and reed diffusers at consumer shows before COVID forced a pivot. ➤ We discuss the COVID-era shift into Facebook ads, starting from roughly £10,000 a year online and scaling to nearly £1 million in annual ad spend within a year. ➤ Luke shares his experience with agencies, expensive retainers, and why he eventually decided to bring more of the marketing operation in-house. ➤ Luke breaks down Valentte's current Meta strategy, including 200 to 300 new ads a day, UGC volume, static creative, and a framework built around angles, ad types, and stages of awareness. ➤ We discuss the shift from growth-at-all-costs to first-transaction profitability, with contribution margin and day-zero payback becoming key targets. ➤ Luke explains why the £5 million to £10 million revenue stage is so difficult, including operational strain, cash flow pressure, hiring specialists, and the challenges of stepping back as a founder. ➤ We also discuss TikTok Shop, its halo effect on Amazon and Meta, and why judging a channel purely on its own profitability can lead to the wrong conclusions. Timestamps: 00:00 Luke Bream introduces Valentte 01:57 COVID, the bounce back loan, and the Facebook ads leap 04:18 Agency relationships and expensive mistakes 08:12 Why 200 to 300 ads a day matter 10:52 Spend as the leading indicator, not ROAS 11:21 The static and UGC creative matrix 16:11 Cost caps: the scaling unlock 20:44 Shifting to first-transaction profitability 26:07 Traffic, landing page, offer: why offer wins 29:06 Why brands stall at £5M to £10M 39:29 The 40% price increase that fixed LTV 56:38 TikTok Shop: halo, not pure profit 58:55 The Amazon and TikTok halo effect 1:08:49 Why modern DTC needs strong unit economics 1:14:47 Quickfire round 1:21:31 Where to find Luke Links: 🔗  Secure your spot at our event: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/event 🔗 Get a free 60-page growth roadmap for your brand: https://app.iclosed.io/e/paradigmmedia/social-paradigm-group-discovery-call 🔗 Social Nucleus: https://socialnucleus.co/ 🔗 Paradigm Media: https://www.paradigmmedia.uk/ 🔗 Social Paradigm Group: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/ 🔗 Get 100+ Free creative templates: https://socialparadigmgroup.com/creative-templates 🔗 Smart Fulfilment: If fulfilment is the bottleneck slowing your growth — SPG referrals get a £1,000 credit on their first invoice. → https://offer.smart-fulfilment.co.uk/ 🔗 Dan Major CFO: If your revenue is growing but the cash isn't keeping up — this free 8-day course was built for that. → The DTC CFO Playbook: http://cfoplaybook.danmajor.co/

    How Luke Scaled a Fragrance Brand to £30M a Year
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About

Most eCommerce brands don't know what's driving their growth. So they don't know what to do next.We work with DTC brands doing £2M to £20M+ in revenue who want to scale profitably and know exactly what's working and why.This channel shows you how to diagnose what's working, benchmark it against reality, and build a system where inputs produce predictable outputs. Creative strategy, Meta ads, unit economics, CAC, ROAS, site conversion, retention. Every lever that matters for scaling a DTC brand profitably.Social Paradigm Group is the merger of Social Nucleus and Paradigm Media. Two of the UK's sharpest DTC performance agencies, now one. We manage £60M+ in ad spend and drive £300M+ in revenue across our partners.We built the Reality Operating System. Plus our own tech: AdSynth for creative volume and velocity, eCompass for performance benchmarking.This channel is how we actually think, unfiltered. Growth isn't a mystery. It's a system.

Information

  • Creator
    Social Paradigm Group - Social Nucleus x Paradigm
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Growing Profitably
  • Show Website
    Growing Profitably