advertorials aren't just for acquisition
how to increase LTV before purchase
It’s been a while: I went deep into advertorial funnels for DTC brands running cold traffic on Meta. Building presell pages, testing post-click experiences, mapping what actually converts strangers into buyers. Post-andromeda this started making a lot more sense.
Today I wanted to talk about retention in a way I haven’t seen anyone discuss.
post-purchase education impacts retention. We all know this.
Email flows that set expectations. Inserts that explain proper usage. Onboarding sequences that prevent the “this isn’t working” churn at day 14.
But here’s what almost nobody talks about: you can move that education before the purchase.
A well-built presell page does the same job as your post-purchase onboarding - it just does it earlier.
When someone reads 1,200 words explaining the mechanism behind your product, the realistic timeframe for results, why consistency matters - they’re already onboarded before they buy.
They’re not expecting miracles in a week - they understand why the product works. They know what success actually looks like.
That’s better for conversion AND retention / LTV.
three reasons this creates higher-quality customers:
Self-selection. Price-sensitive impulse buyers bounce off long-form content. They won’t read 1,200 words. Good. The people who do convert are information-seekers - they want to understand before they commit. Those customers stick around.
Expectation alignment. Most DTC ads overpromise. “Results in 7 days!” Then reality hits at day 14 and they’re gone. A presell that explains realistic timelines closes that gap before purchase, not after. The difference is simple: someone who buys because they understand why something works has reasons to stay. Someone who buys because of a flashy ad has hopes that it works. Reasons create patience. Hopes create refund requests.
Value framing. Educated buyers don’t see your product as a commodity. They’re not comparing you on price alone. They bought because of something specific about your approach - and that’s harder to replace than a discount.
there’s data behind this.
ProfitWell analysed millions of subscriptions and found that customers acquired through heavy discounting churn 50% more than full-price buyers. The acquisition method shapes customer quality.
Whenever I’ve looked at LTV of customers acquired via presells vs via PDP, I’ve seen a clear difference. When you build detailed mechanism explanations and more realistic timeline guidance into your pre-purchase experience LTV improves.
The perfect timing for this sort of education happens BEFORE someone buys, while their expectations are still forming.
Same principle applies to creative. The ad and the landing experience that brought someone in predicts how they’ll behave afterward.
Acquire someone through “70% OFF TODAY ONLY” and visible results in 7 days guaranteed, and you’ll likely get a high-churn risk customer.
Acquire someone through content that educates them on why your mechanism works, the 90-day benefits timeline, etc and you get someone with much better reasons to stay.
patience
Unfortunately, as with all things-retention - you won’t see the impact in the next weekly report. It’s a long-term signal and a patience test.
You’d need to set up cohort tracking by acquisition path - presell traffic vs. direct-to-PDP. Compare 60-day and 90-day repurchase rates.
But I’d bet real money you’ll see meaningful differences.
I’ve been writing about this stuff weekly - funnel breakdowns, post-click psychology, what’s actually working in cold traffic - in a newsletter called The Advertorial Letter.
If any of this was interesting, that’s where it lives:
https://letters.goodadvertorials.com
— Marcin