For the last decade, performance marketing has been the engine behind some of the fastest-growing DTC brands in the world.
Meta ads. Google search. Affiliate partnerships. Paid social.
For many brands, it works brilliantly – until it doesn’t.
Customer acquisition costs rise. Incremental returns decline. Growth slows. Suddenly, the channels that once printed money become harder and harder to scale profitably.
That was the focus of my recent conversation with Christian Dapp – former marketing leader at AG1, Harry’s, Gousto, and now CMO at Frive – where we unpacked one of the biggest questions facing modern DTC brands:
What happens when performance marketing stops working?
And more importantly:
What should brands do next?
One of the biggest misconceptions in DTC is that performance marketing suddenly “breaks.”
In reality, most brands simply hit a saturation point.
As Christian explained, there’s usually a trigger:
The issue isn’t necessarily that Meta or Google stop performing.
It’s that every additional pound spent becomes less incremental than the last.
And that distinction matters.
Because many brands still optimise around blended performance metrics rather than true incrementality.
Christian made the point that the best operators monitor this constantly:
The warning signs are often visible long before growth stalls completely.
When performance starts slowing down, many brands react the same way:
And while layering additional channels can create incremental growth, Christian argued that many brands mistake activity for strategy.
One of the key lessons he referenced from AG1 was:
“Relentless focus.”
Instead of endlessly adding channels, the strongest brands identify a small number of meaningful strategic bets and commit properly.
That might mean:
But it requires patience.
And patience is uncomfortable in DTC.
One of the most interesting parts of the conversation was Christian’s challenge to a common myth in DTC:
“Performance = paid” and “Brand = organic.”
According to him, that framing is completely wrong.
Brand building costs money.
And many DTC businesses still underestimate that reality.
There’s often an expectation that:
…will somehow build a meaningful long-term brand without sustained investment.
But the brands that successfully transition beyond pure performance marketing usually treat brand as infrastructure – not campaigns.
That means:
Not one-off activations.
As Christian put it:
“If you do one campaign and then decide brand marketing doesn’t work, you’ve missed the point.”
According to Christian, the biggest mistake brands make is:
Starting and stopping.
A brand runs a campaign. It doesn’t instantly transform revenue. Budgets get pulled. Leadership decides “brand doesn’t work.”
But unlike performance marketing, brand effects compound over time.
And that’s where many founders and leadership teams struggle.
With paid search, results are immediate. With brand investment, the impact often emerges months later.
Christian shared an example from AG1 UK, where the business launched one of its first fully integrated brand campaigns.
The budget wasn’t enormous by enterprise standards – roughly £1m – but the goal was clear:
The result?
Improved brand awareness helped unlock a significantly stronger January performance shortly afterwards.
Not overnight. Not instantly. But commercially measurable.
Another major takeaway from the conversation was around measurement.
Many marketers still try to justify brand investment using:
But Christian’s view was simple:
“CFOs care about commercial outcomes.”
And they should.
The strongest marketing teams connect brand investment directly back to:
At businesses like Gousto, Christian described how econometric modelling allowed them to measure the commercial impact of channels many brands would traditionally class as “unmeasurable” – including PR.
That changes the conversation completely.
Instead of:
“Trust us, brand matters.”
The conversation becomes:
“Here’s the measurable impact this investment is having on future growth efficiency.”
One of the most fascinating sections of the conversation was Christian’s perspective on the differences between scaling DTC brands in the US versus the UK.
His point was blunt:
The UK is a much smaller market than many brands realise.
And that creates very different growth dynamics.
In the US:
In the UK:
That means UK brands often hit performance ceilings earlier – forcing them to think about:
Sooner.
It also means many US brands underestimate how different the UK market really is.
As Christian explained:
“You almost have to start from scratch rather than just translating your strategy over.”
One of the most refreshing parts of the conversation was the lack of simplistic answers.
Christian repeatedly pushed back against the idea that there’s a universal DTC growth playbook.
Because the right next move depends entirely on:
For some brands, the next growth lever is:
For others:
For others:
But the key lesson was this:
“The sooner you start laying the foundations, the sooner growth compounds.”
The brands that scale sustainably think in 3-5 year horizons – not quarterly experiments.
And the earlier those foundations are built, the stronger the long-term compounding becomes.
Performance marketing is still one of the most powerful growth levers in DTC.
But eventually, almost every successful brand reaches a point where:
The brands that continue scaling are usually the ones willing to evolve:
Not abandoning performance marketing.
But building something bigger around it.
And in increasingly crowded DTC markets, that transition may become the difference between brands that plateau – and brands that endure.