The AI Ad Strategy Every DTC Brand Needs in 2025

Apoorva Govind is the founder and CEO of Bestever, a platform that helps brands analyze and generate ad creatives using AI. With a deep technical background from her previous roles at Uber, Apple, and Nvidia, Apoorva brings a data-driven approach to creative strategy and performance marketing.

In this episode of DTC Pod, Apoorva discusses how AI is reshaping the creative process for e-commerce brands. She explains the importance of strategy and data in generating ads that convert, offers advice for early-stage brands on scaling creative, and shares her vision for the future of AI-powered content and workflow automation in marketing.

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What you’ll learn:

• Why Apoorva believes the real competitive advantage with AI ad creative isn’t just volume, but strategic alignment with proven drivers of conversion.

• The journey from building a TikTok-for-reviews consumer platform to transitioning Bestever into a data-driven AI creative platform for brands.

• The operational pain of user-generated content and how AI is poised to disrupt the entire UGC ad ecosystem.

• A pragmatic view on the future of AI-generated video for ads and why workflow and abstraction layers matter more than chasing individual tools.

• How Bestever AI analyzes your Facebook ad library data, breaks down what works at a granular level (hooks, actors, scripts), and enables instant, strategy-led creative generation.

• The realities (and limits) of AI “creative tools” vs. human-driven strategy—why the tools won’t replace your thinking, but will radically expand your capacity to execute.

• Apoorva’s advice for new DTC founders: Why most should start by running their own ads (and feeling the pain themselves) before hiring agencies or outsourcing strategy.

• What Facebook’s (Meta’s) move toward fully automated creative generation means for scrappy upstarts and established brands alike.

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Some takeaways:

• Strategy trumps volume. Simply generating a high number of ads with AI won’t guarantee results—brands need to back creative generation with insights about what messaging, visuals, and hooks are proven to convert.

• Creative is cheap now. With AI tools, it’s easier than ever to make images and videos for ads, lowering the barrier for brands of all sizes. However, just having more creative assets doesn’t mean your ads will perform better without a thoughtful approach.

• Start with the basics. For new brands, running the first rounds of ads yourself builds a deep, first-hand understanding of your audience, what works, and what doesn’t—essential knowledge before hiring agencies or scaling budgets.

• Competitor analysis works. One of the fastest ways to learn and succeed is to observe what kinds of ads are performing well for competitors in your space, copy key elements, and adapt them for your own brand before experimenting further.

• Data reveals winners. By analyzing your historical ad campaign data (for example, from Facebook), you can identify which creative elements—such as particular opening lines, types of actors, or video formats—actually drive sales or signups.

• Automate insights. Tools like Bestever use AI to break down and summarize why your top-performing ads work, enabling you to quickly generate new creative in line with what’s proven to succeed.

• Don’t rely on just one tool. The AI landscape is rapidly changing, so it’s important to use creative platforms that let you access and switch between multiple AI models, rather than getting locked into a single content generator.

• Meta is democratizing creative. Facebook and Instagram’s automated ad creative features make it possible for small businesses with limited budgets to compete, though larger brands will still need to go beyond plug-and-play solutions by focusing on strategy and multi-channel workflows.

• Stay hands-on. The best founders and marketers remain closely involved with their creative strategy, monitoring campaign results and making adjustments as needed instead of simply relying on agencies or technology alone.

• Workflow wins. With so many new AI content tools emerging, marketers should prioritize platforms that improve their team’s creative processes and experimentation, rather than investing too heavily in a single, potentially fleeting tool.

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Where to find Apoorva Govind:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apoorvagovind/

Twitter: https://x.com/Appyg99/

In this episode, we cover:

00:00 Intro and Apoorva's technical background

01:19 Apoorva’s early career at Apple, Nvidia, and Uber

03:04 Apoorva’s take on Apple’s iOS 26 glassmorphic UI and focus on AI

06:09 Security, future, and mass adoption of self-driving cars

13:30 Transition into ad creative, Bestever AI’s founding, and early pivots

18:31 How Bestever AI analyzes ad data to inform new creative

20:49 Current state and skepticism around fully AI-generated ad content

23:44 Meta’s push toward creative automation

26:56 Ad creative strategy for early and scaling brands

35:24 How Bestever AI helps brands diagnose and double down on winning ads

43:07 The reality of AI video: what’s possible now and what’s coming next

46:18 Investing in workflows and abstraction layers for future-proof creative ops

50:14 Where to connect with Apoorva and learn more about Bestever AI

Referenced:

Bestever AI: https://www.bestever.ai/

WSJ article: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-aims-to-fully-automate-ad-creation-using-ai-7d82e249

Important Notes:

• AI is the enabler, not the strategy. Generative tools can multiply your output, but sustainable growth still comes from clear differentiation, deep customer knowledge, and real creative strategy—not just more assets.

• Hands-on learning pays dividends. Apoorva’s advice to run your own ads early is about more than “saving money”—it’s how founders internalize their customer’s voice, surface friction points, and make smarter decisions when they do bring on partners.

• Competitive research is a shortcut—if you use it right. Don’t just copy what competitors do; use their tested playbooks as launch pads, then rapidly iterate to carve out your own unique positioning.

• Keep creative and performance connected. The strongest brands build tight feedback loops, using data not only to prove what works but to shape their next experiments and scale winners intelligently.

• Workflow resilience is your real moat. As AI models evolve and new tools emerge, it’s your creative workflow—the process by which you test, learn, and deploy, not the specific tech you use—that will protect you from obsolescence.

Ultimately, it’s the application of AI—not just the access—that will set brands apart. The future belongs to operators who combine data-driven insights and agile workflows with authentic storytelling and strategic intent. By staying engaged, questioning what works, and using technology to amplify—not replace—your creative instincts, you’ll be equipped to build brands that don’t just keep up with change, but set the pace in a crowded digital landscape.