Using AI in DTC advertising: Apply the fundamentals

In 1966, at the height of Madison Avenue’s golden era, copywriter Eugene Schwartz published Breakthrough Advertising — a book that would become one of the most influential works in marketing history.

He wasn’t just writing another manual of tips for would-be Don Drapers. Instead, Schwartz dug to the core of human psychology, showing how advertisers could harness — rather than conjure – deep-seated consumer desires.

And while his book may have aged, his thinking hasn’t.

Nowhere are Schwartz’s principles more relevant than in DTC, where advertisers who understand emotional resonance stand to win out over those focused exclusively on growth hacking and one-click conversion.

Welcome to advertising history 101. Class is in session.👇

AI powered advertising: The fundamentals 👉 Desires drives action. Not algorithms.

Marketers obsess over the mechanics of ads: Targeting, bidding, CPMs.

But Schwartz reminds us that if an ad doesn’t tap into real human desire — hopes, fears, cravings — it won’t work, no matter how many iterations you make.

People don’t buy solutions to abstract problems. They buy answers to felt needs. Razors to feel confident. Meal kits to reclaim time. Shoes to walk without pain.

This is why 95% of new products fail — not because of bad advertisers, but because brands never identified the core problem they wanted their product to solve.

Or because the market for that product was too limited to lead to scale. If you can’t tap into a deep preexisting desire, no growth hack will save you.

⚖️ Not all prospects are made equal

Schwartz also reminds us that not all audiences are at the same place in their buying journey.

An ad that works for a ready-to-buy customer will flop with someone who doesn’t even know they have a problem that needs solving. Yet many brands still run one-size-fits-all creative.

Think about today’s DTC landscape — rising CPMs, shrinking ROAS. Often, that’s not just the algorithm’s fault. It’s because the message doesn’t match the mindset of the person seeing the ad.

Schwartz has mapped out the stages of awareness:

If your creative doesn’t meet customers where they are — if you’re pushing a “buy now” CTA to someone who’s barely aware of the problem your product solves — you’re burning money.

AI agent to analyze Meta ad spend

Schwartz taught us that ads work when they speak to the right need at the right time. But most brands don’t know how their ad spend is distributed across the customer journey.

Jess Bachman, founder of FireTeam (trusted by Foxwell Digital, Talent Pop, The Earthling Co.), has built an AI agent that analyzes your existing ad spend inside Motion, breaking it down by awareness stages so you can see:

• Where you’re overspending or missing opportunities
• Which stage of the funnel needs more focus
• Where your biggest growth unlock is hiding

You’ll get a clear, actionable report to rebalance spend — without guesswork or agency fees.

Check out Jess Bachman’s Agent below...

Eugene Schwartz — early AI optimist? 🤔

Schwartz knew his power wasn’t just clever phrasing — it was understanding the deep desires that shape markets. Instead of manufacturing demand, he attached his ads to real human motivators — the kind most copywriters were too lazy or distracted to notice.

Back then, Schwartz only had a few tools to understand mass markets. He'd read newspapers and popular magazines. He'd talk to cab drivers and waiters. He'd look into his own past — his childhood in Butte, Montana, a time where he was very much like the average consumer before writing ads alone at his desk in his Park Avenue penthouse.

If Schwartz were alive today, he probably would have hated the idea of copywriters twisting a few prompts into Claude, churning out “good enough” headlines, and calling it a day.

But he would have loved AI’s ability to surface real customer language, analyze reviews in minutes, and pull emotional insights from organic social content — the kind of raw material he used to spend weeks gathering.

What made Schwartz great wasn’t just data — it was taste. He was part scientist, part artist. Marketing practitioners today might even call him a creative strategist.

He knew how to find the right insight and give it shape — something AI can’t do on its own.

The best AI tools for DTC advertising rely on the best advertisers

Schwartz’s core belief — that ads don’t create desire, they channel it — might just be the antidote to the kind of transactional advertising that’s becoming more prevalent in contemporary marketing.

In 2025, the top advertisers will be the ones that:

1. Understand what customers truly want
2. Match creative to where customers are in their journey
3. Use AI as a tool, but never as a replacement for real human insight

So if you’re struggling to break through, go back to Schwartz. Because fundamental human desires? Those haven’t changed.