Source: Digiday
Ruggable's pivot from performance marketing to ShopMy creator partnerships reflects weakening unit economics in paid social at scale. Rather than compete on rising CPMs, the brand is outsourcing customer acquisition to influencers with engaged audiences—trading predictable but expensive performance marketing for lower-margin, higher-touch sales. Mid-market DTC brands are shifting validation of growth away from "spray and pray" ad spend toward micro-influencer dependencies that demand ongoing relationship management and deeper creator profit-sharing.