DTC Creative Strategist

Job description Hey, I'm Alexis, founder of Auro Brands. Here's what we're hiring for and how this works. We are looking for a DTC Creative Strategist to help us break through our current creative bottleneck. You'll work directly with me, the founder, on Facebook ad concepts, hook development, angle research, and creative briefing for AuroNote and AuroNote Pro — our AI voice recording devices. We're flexible on years of experience. What we actually care about is whether you understand direct response, think in psychological frameworks, and can ship work that performs. Who are we? Auro Brands is a DTC e-commerce company that has crossed $1M+ in sales selling AuroNote and AuroNote Pro. Based in Quebec, shipping primarily to the US, UK, and France. Running up to $2K/day in ad spend at peak on Facebook. We're scaling toward $200-300K/month. Building a proprietary app by end of 2026 to replace our current supplier dependency. Headed to Canton Fair to establish direct manufacturer relationships and decouple hardware from software. There's real runway here — this is a brand with momentum, an actual roadmap, and a founder who's heads-down executing every day. What is our culture like & who is a good fit? I'm not here to micromanage. I'm not checking your hours. I don't care if you work at 3am or 3pm or from a beach or from your kitchen. What I care about: Did you deliver what you said you'd deliver? Is the work performing? Can you communicate clearly when something's off? That's it. I value speed, ownership, and people who take the work seriously without taking themselves too seriously. If you want a stress-free 9-5 where someone tells you what to do every hour, this isn't it. If you want to play a real role in scaling a brand from $1M to $10M+ with full visibility into the playbook, you'll fit. I'm not here to waste your time. I expect the same. Key Objectives Develop Facebook ad concepts (hooks, angles, scripts) that drive measurable performance improvements Conduct deep avatar and competitor research to inform creative direction (current primary focus: ADHD professional sub-avatar) Deconstruct winning ads — ours and competitors' — to build a creative pattern library by component (hook type, awareness level, sophistication level, psychological trigger, objection handling) Drive measurable improvements in core advertising metrics: hook rate, thumbstop, CTR, CVR, CPA, ROAS Brief and project-manage our internal video editor through to launch Eventually, own the creative pipeline end-to-end and report on performance weekly Examples of What You'll Be Doing Writing scripts and briefs for Facebook ads — AI voiceover, UGC, and VSL formats Researching sub-avatars and translating that research into specific angles, hooks, and mechanisms Deconstructing winning competitor ads using a structured framework Working with our internal video editor on execution and revisions Identifying new creative concepts to test and explaining the hypothesis behind each one Reviewing creative performance data and reporting learnings monthly Requirements Fluent in English Fully remote Real DTC/eCommerce performance creative experience — not brand, not content, not SEO Deep understanding of awareness levels (Schwartz) and sophistication levels — these are required vocabulary, not nice-to-haves Understanding of hook mechanics: what a hook actually does, why it works, how to write one Familiar with the metrics that matter: hook rate, thumbstop, CTR, CVR, CPA, ROAS A clear, easy-to-review portfolio of winning ads, with your own breakdown of why each one won Willing to do a discovery call before starting. Non-negotiable. If you want to skip the call and just look at my ad account, hard pass — I've worked with commission-based strategists who pulled that move and shipped random ads. Not doing it again. Basic psychology-based copywriting skills Don't apply if: You don't know the difference between a DTC ad and generic copy You confuse "creative strategist" with "content marketer" or "brand copywriter" You're not in DTC and have never written for performance You think a "hook" is just the first line of an ad You can't articulate why your own winning ads worked How Our Hiring Works & How We Operate We follow Zakarya's law: freelance before full-time. Every real DTC operator's team is built this way. Interviews are theater. People perform. The trial is the truth. Here's the actual path: You apply on Upwork with your portfolio and your analysis. If both are real and sharp, we book a discovery call. On the call, I give you brand context, avatar work, what we've tested, what's working, what's not. You ask whatever you need. We agree on the first paid project and scope. You deliver. I review. If the work is sharp and we communicate well, we run another. If not, we end on good terms — no drama. After consistent delivery on projects, we move to a part-time monthly retainer with more volume and more ownership. If you become the person who breaks the creative bottleneck for this brand, we make it official — full-time salary, performance bonus, skin in the growth. No five-round interview circus. You get paid to prove you're worth it. What you get access to This isn't just a paycheck. Working with us, you get: Direct access to Zakarya's full training library — Evolve creative strategy, Career Advertorial and VSL training. These are frameworks I'm actively executing daily. If you want to grow your skill as a creative strategist, this is the right place. Indirect exposure to internal frameworks from a $40M+ DTC brand and a $30M+ DTC brand I'm personally mentored by. Their playbooks flow into how we operate. A real seat at a brand with momentum and clear next moves — proprietary app build, direct manufacturing pivot, multi-geo expansion. Not a startup with vibes. I'm a founder who's heads-down doing the same trainings, deconstructing ads daily, and obsessed with creative. I just need someone with more reps than me to compress the timeline alongside me. To apply Reply on Upwork with: A clear, easy-to-review portfolio of winning ads you've worked on For each ad: why it won. The angle, the hook, the awareness level, the sophistication level, the mechanism. Don't send fluff — show me how you actually think. Your availability for a 30-minute discovery call this week or next The Upwork rate range is wide on purpose. The right strategist might quote per project; the right scope might involve me providing avatar research to bring it down. Let's talk and figure out the right fit — I'd rather have that conversation than gatekeep on a price tag.