Madelyn Byers has managed over $100 million in media spend, had individual videos spend tens of millions, and says she still sometimes has no idea what will work. After a decade in D2C, that is not a confession. It is a philosophy.
She built the in-house performance creative programme at HelloFresh Group, working across HelloFresh, EveryPlate, Factor and Green Chef. She was an early member of Aura Ads' growth team. She now works on growth at Black Girl Vitamins, one of the fastest-growing supplement brands in DTC.
In this episode, Madelyn and Ryan cover her two-lane creative system: running optimisation and experimentation in parallel rather than in opposition. They get into why the body and CTA of a video ad are more important than most people give them credit for, how she structures creative testing with real spend thresholds rather than gut feel, and what Andromeda has genuinely changed about the way performance creative works. They also cover why statics kept winning at HelloFresh through the video era, how working across four brands inside the same group shapes your view of personas and brand role, and why the worst-performing ads in her career taught her more than the ones that scaled.
For DTC operators and growth marketers who live in ad accounts.
(00:00) Introduction
(00:43) Madelyn's background and joining Black Girl Vitamins
(02:46) How creative became the targeting on Meta
(04:04) Why knowing media buying and creative both matter
(05:19) The two-lane creative system: optimisation vs. experimentation
(08:20) Hook, body and CTA: what drives performance
(10:10) HelloFresh creative: statics, subscription and beyond discounting
(14:22) Working cross-brand: Factor, EveryPlate and Green Chef
(17:24) Being customer-first and building around personas
(18:57) Authentic content and making someone feel seen
(22:35) Learning from failures and when organic and paid started to merge
(27:01) Staying inspired and prioritising ideas
(31:06) Ugly ads, niche personas and addressing elephants in the room
(34:18) Andromeda: what automation means for creative strategy
(38:29) Creative testing: spend thresholds, winner criteria and account structure
(42:15) Final advice: go learn the technical side
Follow DTC Unboxed: https://linktr.ee/dtcunboxed
Follow Madelyn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madelynbyers/
Follow Ryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aurary/
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